“I love being in Dublin for the summer. It’s so great to have an internship and be in a foreign city,” said Patrick Butler ’15, an English and history major in the College of Arts and Letters.
As a rising senior, Butler interned in the press office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in Dublin, Ireland. His work focused on coordinating journalistic coverage of official state visits to Dublin by the president of Mozambique and Chinese officials.
Patrick Valencia ’15, a political science and history major, also interned at the DFAT. He worked in the Anglo-Irish division on the Reconciliation Fund, which promotes anti-sectarianism and reconciliation between divided communities.
“I want to work in the political field and I’m really interested in the Irish political peace process, so this internship hits my interests really well,” said Valencia.
Both internships were sponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Without that support, Valencia said, he wouldn’t have been able to go to Dublin “and have this wonderful experience living abroad.”
After earning their degrees, Butler will pursue a master’s degree in international relations at University College Dublin, and Valencia will attend George Washington University Law School.
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