The new IASIL brochure, a copy of which has reached you with this Newsletter, was produced with the object of bringing the Association to wider attention wherever Irish studies in an academic context are a matter of interest and enthusiasm.
Through Michael Kenneally's contact with Tanaiste Dick Spring, the Department of Foreign Affairs's Cultural Relations Committee (Eire) provided funds for the printing of the brochure and for the purchase of the logo from the Irish artist Louis le Brocquy, whose work is so familiar to studies of literature from such places as the covers of Cahier Irlandaises (Lille) and the Crane Bag Journal of Irish Studies in the 1970s. Le Brocquy had an immensely successful Retrospective Exhibition at the IMMA (Kilmainham) in Dublin this Winter.
On this occasion we have selected a lighter-though no less resonant image-than the Táin series which graced so many publications since it first appeared in Thomas Kinsella's translation of the Irish epic in 1969. Our logo comes from the tapestry of 'Brendan the Navigator', woven to le Brocquy's design by Tabard Frères & Soeurs, Aubusson (Creuse), France 1963-1964. The tapestry was commissioned by P. J. Carroll and Co. Ltd., the beneficent tobacco factors who are also responsible for the Chair of Irish History occupied by Roy Foster at Hertford College, Oxford. Measuring eighteen feet by fourteen-and-a-half feet, it can be seen in the entry hall of the offices of the company on Grand Parade, Dublin.
A pamphlet publication of 12 pages was designed by George Daubly of Signa Design Consultants, Dublin and London, and printed by Browne and Nolan in the year when it first went on view. A text descriptive of the Saint's famous voyage was supplied by Sybil le Brocquy, to accompany the key to the 24 panels of the tapestry. The IASIL logo is the focal point of the design, appearing as C4 in the accompanying illustration, which is printed white-on-black in its entirety on the title-verso [as below]. Our version is therefore reversed for better display in its new context. The annotation to C4 reads: 'Brendan's ship. Probably half-decked, single mast or pine sapling (crann), steered by bi-conclave paddle similar to Eskimo umiak, and with woven sail. Visual reference: The Book of Ballymote, c.1400, &c.'
The IASIL Executive was struck by the suitability of the image as conveying the international character of the Association and its voyages into and out of Ireland. The artist has expressed himself very happy with the way that it appears on the Association letterhead and related documents such as the Web page at http://www.ulst.ac.uk/iasil/ . May IASIL voyage far, with the minimum of dissension among the crew. New worlds beckon and the old world calls.