The Irish Times

Third-generation Irish-American, Loretta Brennan Glucksman divides her time between Ireland and the US. A prominent supporter of Irish cultural studies, she is in Cork to celebrate the opening of the new €10 million art gallery, which bears her husband's name. I asked her why it is that, in Ireland, the visual arts have always lagged behind literature, music and theatre in terms of profile and international recognition. One of the reasons, she suggests, was purely practical. "It has to do with the ease of transmission, and economics; people could support themselves by playing an instrument or telling stories." Loretta is something of an expert when it comes to Irish culture and its economic basis. Chairwoman of the American Ireland Fund, she is also founding patron, with her husband Lewis, of Glucksman Ireland House, the centre for Irish Studies at New York University. Located at the bottom of Fifth Avenue, Glucksman Ireland House is a small Victorian mews house, sitting in incongruous defiance of the skyscrapers that rise up to define the avenues of Manhattan.