The Conference Table (III)

This year's Carleton Summer School is scheduled for 2nd-6th August at Corick Hse., a 17th century domesne which receives pleasant notice in Carleton's fiction. Past sessions in the Clogher Valley are remembered for their delicious mix of amateurs and professionals. This year's professionals include Thomas Flanagan, Declan Kiberd, John Kelly (St. John's Oxford), Norman Vance, John Montague, Edna Longley, Owen Dudley Edwards and Eileen A Sullivan, that great supporter and publicist of the event, along with others. Contact Killymaddy Tourist Centre, Ballygawley Rd., Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, N. Ireland, BT50 1TF, (0)18687-7767259; or email Eileen at eolas1@juno.com or mail to her address at 6412 NY 128th Street, Gainesville, FL, USA 32653.

Central New York Conference on Language and Literature - which originated as the Central New York MLA - held at Cortland College (SUNY) on 18th-20th October, 1998, featured sixty-four panels among which "Contemporary Irish Literature" (Chair, Kathryn Kleypas), "Modern Irish Poetry" (Chair, Joseph Lennon), "Modern Irish Fiction" (Chair, Michael Molino), "Modern Irish Drama", I & II (Chairs, Rick Jones, Joan Robbins), "The Irish Postmodern" (Chair, C. J. Lockett), and "Irish Women Writers" (Chair, Bronwyn Beistle), as well as panels on James Joyce and W. B. Yeats. Gothic was in the ascendent with three panels, one chaired by Kellie Donovan Wixson. Paula Meehan gave the keynote lecture and read her poetry at the Conference to warm applause. The 1999 Meeting of this Conference is scheduled for 3rd-5th October with no less sessions on Irish literature Contact Alexander Gonzalez (Conference Director), English Dept., Cortland College, State University of New York, P.O. Box 2000, Cortland, NY, 13045 USA; email <gonzalez@snycorva.cortland. edu>. There is a Paper Call off the Cortland's web page at http://orchard.cortland.edu/CNYCLLcall99.html.

New directions in Irish studies are manifested in the successful emergence of the MPhil programme in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin, under the direction of Gerald Dawe and Brendan Kennelly, and located auspiciously in Oscar Wilde House, 21 Westland Row, Dublin. The course caters to practising authors and those seriously committed to writing who 'wish to develop their writing within the framework of a university course.' A degree is awarded on the strength of a substantial portfolio written during the year (70%), a "Book Editing and Publishing" project (15%), and a specialist portfolio or 5,000 word essay (15%). The external examiner is Douglas Dunn, the Scottish poet and critic who lent such impetus to Irish criticism with the edited collection Two Decades of Irish Writing (1975) in which not alone Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, Tom Paulin, Seamus Deane, Michael Smith and Lorna Sage contributed essays, but also Michael Allen, Terence Brown, Edna Longley, and DES Maxwell - all household names in our business - as well as others such as Stan Smith, James Atlas, and Roger Garfitt.

This year's Synge Summer School, running from 4th-10th July - as ever under the genial direction of Nicky Grene (TCD) - will explore the theme "1899-1999 - a Hundred Years of Irish Theatre" under the tutelage of Terence Brown, Anthony Roche, Ann Saddlemyer, and Jennifer Johnston - whose familiar with theatre is significantly less a matter of distinguished parentage than personal experience these days, following her successful monologues, the beautiful play The Desert Lullaby (Lyric Belfast 1996), and the launch of two earlier plays, The Nightingale Not the Lark and The Invisible Man at the Irish Repertory Theatre (NY) in April 1997. John McGahern will read from his work. Contact Irene Parsons at Whaley Lodge, Ballinaclash, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, Ireland; tel: 353-404-46131, or e-mail <ngrene@tcd.ie>.

News is percolating round the e-net about a seminar in Irish Literature to be led by Declan Kiberd (UCD) at West Virginia University on 3rd-6th June. Susan Sailer is the co-ordinator and and Bonnie Anderson the contact person with an email at <banders@wvu.edu>.

In November 1998 Queen's University Belfast was the first campus to be honoured by the visitation of John Montague, inaugural Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Poetry, at the outset of his bardic itinerary [see under Membership News]. The English Society at Queens-Belfast - as now known in email parlance - continued its winter programme with readings by Michael Longley, Aidan Carl Mathews, Carol Rumens, and a visit from Harold Pinter, as well as elaborate and graceful celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the writing of Autumn Journal by Louis MacNeice. Ciaran Carson, Brendan Kennelly, Martin Lynch, Frank Ormsby and many others came together to read cantos of the poem and to describe what it meant to them.

On 9th-10th April, 1999, the Royal Irish Academy's Committee for the Study of Anglo-Irish Literature held a symposium commemorating the Centenary of the Irish Literary Theatre under the title "Theatre in a Postmodern World", with a keynote lecture by Patrick Mason (Abbey Artistic Director) on "Playing with Words" and responses by Declan Hughes (Rough Magic), Anna McMullan (TCD). Further sessions on "Theatre as Literature and Event" and "The Critics" were addressed by Cathy Lenney (UCD), Frank McGuinness (Maynooth), and Christopher Murray (UCD), Lynda Henderson (UUC), and Emer O'Kelly (Irish Times). Chairpersons are Tom Kilroy, Emily FitzGibbon, Nicholas Grene, and Denis Kennedy, with Anthony Roche acting as "rapporteur" for the final Open Forum. Registration was £8 for students and £15 for others. Morning and afternoon events at Peacock Theatre and Abbey Rehearsal Room following the first night at Academy House, 19 Dawson St., Dublin 2.

A small conference on Irish Art was held at McCormick Hall, Princeton University, under the auspices of the Index of Christian Art during 5th-6th March 1999. The subject-matter comprised by the title "From Ireland Coming" extended from the early Christian to the late Gothic periods and its European context [sorry, S. Brendan! - Ed.]. Information was posted via Rutgers at this website: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/engweb1.htm.

An Irish Studies Program has taken root in the Anthropology and Sociology Department at University of South Mississipi, under the auspices of James Flanagan, a native of Ballyvourney - a designated Gaeltacht area - who has conducted research in Papua New Guinea and among autobiographical writings of Dun Caoin. Dr. Flanagan leads a Summer Program to Ireland during the dates 16th June-7th July There is a website at http://www-dept.usm.edu/~antsoc/ irish.html.

As part of a campus-wide celebration of 150 years enrolment, University College, Galway - formerly Queen's College, Galway - invited Dr Patrick Murphy of Notre Dame University to lecture on "Business Ethics and the Celtic Tiger". Future speakers in the series will include Seamus Heaney and Senator George Mitchell, while Her Excellency Mrs Mary McAleese, President of Ireland, will attend the Banquet as Guest of Honour.

North American James Joyce Conference, inevitably entitled "Millennial Joyce", is to be held in the Lightsey Conference Center at Charleston, South Carolina, on 14th-18th June, 1999. The living is so high in that region that a 'beachtime' features as a definite fixture on the Conference Program for Saturday. [Well, it is the 19th - Ed.] As things stands at present, there will be 110-plus presentations over the four days, with plenary lectures by Derek Attridge, Margot Norris, Robert Spoo, and Jennifer Wick. Topics range from "Millennium as Memorial" and "Joyce and the Economic Question of Waste" to "Apocalyptic aWAKEnings" and "Macromanaging The Portrait", with postmodernism and postcolonialism holding their ground against all comers - except perhaps the 'Women's Caucus Luncheon at Cameron House '. For this and all other delights, contact Professor Tom Rice, Conference Convener at email <tomrice@sc.edu>. The website at http://www.cla.sc.edu/engl/joyce displays a terrifying degree of hyperactivity that emerges from the very natural marriage of Finnegans Wake with the electronic media.

Following the undergraduate-oriented Notre Dame Summer School conducted so successfully at the Keough-Notre Dame Centre in Newman House on St. Stephen's Green last summer, the Keough Institute of Irish Studies is now launching an International Graduate Program in Irish Studies to be held there on 29th June-23rd July, 1999. The Program is directed by Professors Seamus Deane, Thomas Bartlett, and Kevin Whelan. Seamus Heaney will commence proceedings with a reading on the first evening, while Terry Eagleton, Breandan Ó Buachalla, Carole Fabricant and others will sustain the academic standards of the programme. Tuition and accommodation come at $2,500. Cited as IRST 601: 'The Creation of Ireland 1500-2000' on the ND modules roster, the program has been 'cross-listed' with ENGL 601 under the same title - an apt illustration of the difficulty of regarding the status of Irish studies as an autonomous subject-area that Gerald Dawe has recently spoken of. There is a web site at http://www.nd.edu/~sumsess/ keough.html.

The James Joyce Summer School, which Augustine Martin reared on the 'cropse' (FW055.08) of an earlier Dublin JJ Institute of yore [I was that cropse. - Ed.], and by now itself a venerable institution, continues on its lively way this year with a full programme of distinguished Joyceans under the direction of Anne Fogarty. These include Fritz Senn (Zürich JJ Joyce Foundation), Jacques Aubert (Lyons 2), Rosa Maia Bosinelli (Bologna), Terry Eagleton (Oxford), James Fairhall (DePaul U.), Thomas Halpin (Drumcondra), Terence Killeen (Dublin), Derek Hand (UCD), Vicki Mahaffey (Pennsylvania), Timothy Martin (Rutgers), Margot Norris (Irvine UC), Christine O' Neill (Drumcondra), L. H. Platt (Goldsmith UL), Anthony Roche (UCD), Susan Rodstein (Rotterdam), Gerry Smyth (John Moores U.); Shigeo Shimizu (Waseda); Bruce Stewart (UUC), Peter Van de Kamp (Tralee), Jennifer Wicke (NYU), and Trevor Williams (Victoria U.). The organisers are warranted by report in advertising this venue as 'two unforgettable weeks of fun and learning'. The tuition fee is a very modest £325 for a well-staffed summer-school that goes cheek by jowl with the Notre Dame Program in Irish Studies noticed elsewhere in this Newsletter. Contact Helene Gallagher, Dept. of English, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; tel. (0)1-706848; fax (0)1-7061174; e-mail, gallagh@macollamh.ucd.ie. There is a website at http://www.artsworld.ie/joyce_school.

An interdisciplinary conference on "Celtic Cultures" will be held on 30th April-1st May (Beltaine 1999) in the Department of Music at Leeds University, where keynote lectures will be given by the Peter Berresford Ellis ('The Way of the White Cow'), and Miranda Aldhouse-Green ('Goddesses in Celtic Iconography'). Others are addressing topics such as 'Popular Culture and Celtic Identities' (Amy Hale), 'The Representation of the Scots in Film' (Alan Clayton), 'Cultural Activism' (Rhys Mwyn), and Celtic Christianity (Kenneth MacKinnon), and 'The Celtic Cross and the Sacred Space' (Kathleen Kinder), with further offerings under the such headings as artefacts, cosmology, literature, music, and Celtic revivals. Contact Steve Sweeney-Turner, Music Dept., University of Leeds, Leeds, W. Yorkshire (UK) LS2 9JT; tel.: (0)113-236-9098; e-mail: s.sweeney-turner@leeds.ac.uk. There is a website at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/ CMJ/Conf/celtics.html.

The Irish Studies Centre at the University of North London's 'Thursday' public lecture series is a glamorous affair this year. On 18th February 1999, Edna O'Brien gave giving her personal view of James Joyce, a writing with whose use of language she has increasingly acknowledged affinities. Bill Rolston (Univ. of Ulster) followed with his high-profile "Murals of Northern Ireland" thing on the 25th. On 25th March Fintan O'Toole took the stage with "Green, White and Black: Ireland and racial identity" The North London Centre covers itself with glory on the night of 15th April when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern addresses the topic "Ireland, Britain and Europe". All lectures are free; admission to the last by ticket only. Contact Tony Murray, Irish Studies Centre, University of North London, tel. 0171-753-7018; email <isc@unl.ac.uk>. Dr. Sarah Morgan is Deputy Director of the Centre.

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