One of my problems is that I have too many areas of interest, but fewer in which I have both interest and formal education. After meeting with a lot of people, the concensus is that I probably will not be able to go straight into a Ph.d. program in linguistics without a considerable amount of additional classtime. Unfortunately my knowledge of linguistics is limited to the Hawaiian language. Second language acquisition is another area of interest, but despite my extensive real world experience (having designed and taught several online, college-level Hawaiian language classes), I lack the formal education in the field.

I had tried to contact the National University of Ireland, Galway regaring my interest in their programs, I was never able to get firm answers on pursuing a Ph.d. there. They have very highly regarded Celtic Studies and Irish language programs which seem very similar in nature to our own for Hawaiian. The lack of response was very disappointing.

Now I've set my sights on University College Cork. They have a Ph.d. program in ethnomusicology, which seems to dovetail nicely with the path I took for my MA thesis. Cork is a larger city than Galway, but still is better than living in Dublin or Belfast for us Hawai'i-raised country folk. Anyone out there have any first-hand knowledge of Cork or UCC? I've snail-mailed and emailed people their expressing my interested and am awaiting a reply.