I’ve recently come across two opportunities to write about Ireland and Irish America:

• the Global Irish Media Fund, sponsored by the Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and
• the Tiny Plays for Ireland and America Playwriting Challenge, a collaboration between the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and Fishamble, The New Play Company in Dublin.

The Global Irish Media Fund will provide grants to news organizations and journalists to tell stories from, and about, the Irish abroad and the impact of emigration on those at home.

“The successes and the challenges of our emigrants, both recent and distant, are of interest to Irish people and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wishes to facilitate more reporting of these stories,” Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Jimmy Deenihan TD, said in a release.

The maximum amount of funding available to any applicant is €10,000. The deadline for applications is Jan. 15, 2016. Details and application.

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The Tiny Plays Challenge is part of the approaching 100th birthday celebration of President Kennedy, May 29, 2017, and IRELAND 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts and Culture, a series of 2016 events at the Kennedy Center tied to the Easter Rising centennial. Kennedy was America’s first Irish-Catholic president from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.

Plays must demonstrate how Kennedy’s legacy lives on in America today, and responding to the call, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”  Submissions must be 500 words or less, in English, with no more than three actors.

Selected plays will be performed in May 2016 at the Kennedy Center and at the Irish Arts Center in New York. Winning playwrights also receive a $500 honorarium.

The deadline to apply is Feb. 19, 2016. Details and application.