The Bulletin Board
Four Courts Press have launched an annual J. C. Beckett Prize to to be awarded to postgraduate students working in the field of medieval and modern Irish history for an essay of 12,000-15,000 words based on a PhD dissertation or major MA thesis with a submission date before or on 31st March. First place wins a medal and a sum of £3,500 together with a book-contract, while a selection of the essays submitted for the prize will be published separately. An Advisory Committee has been established with such luminaries as Brendan Bradshaw, Nicholas Canny, Aidan Clarke, Vincent Comerford, Louis Cullen, Marie-Therese Flanagan, James Kelly, Joe Lee, Gary Owens, Katharine Simms, and A. T. Q. Stewart. This year's competition will be adjudicated by Raymond Gillespie, Thomas Bartlett, S. J. Connolly, Nancy Curtin and Roy Foster. The submission deadline is 31st May, essays (preferably in the Irish Historical Studies style) to be accompanied by a disk-copy in MS Word. Contact Martin Fanning, Four Courts Press, Fumbally Lane, Dublin 8, Ireland [Where's that?-Off Blackpitts]; email, <martin.fanning@four-courts-press.ie>.
The University of Missouri-St. Louis has announced the endowment of a Jefferson Smurfit Corporation Professorship in Irish Studies and is now seeking to appoint a gifted teacher and researcher with a strongly interdisciplinary approach who combines intellectual rigour and the ability to work with the Irish-American and wider community. The post is part of a wider program highlighting the national diversity of St. Louis's heritage and a record of community work is counted as desirable in the successful candidate; arts, humanities, or history backgrounds preferred. Review of candidates for the Associate Professor level appointment will begin on April 1, 1999 but the post will remain open to until a suitable candidate is found. Send full letter of application with CV and the names of four referees to Dr. Joel Glassman (Committee Chair), Center for International Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. MO, or by email to <intl@umslvma.umsl.edu>.
Robert W. Woodruff Library Research Fellowships at Emory University Library is offering fellowships of $1,000 for U.S. researchers and $2,000 for those from overseas to be held for one month, with a view to visiting its Irish literary collections-particularly rich in relation to W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and others of that ilk. More recent acquisitions include papers of Ciaran Carson, Thomas Kinsella, Michael Longley, Medbh McGuckian, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, and James Simmons, as well as the archive of Peter Fallon's Gallery Press and an important Seamus Heaney Collection. Applicants should send a CV, an account of relevance of research to the Emory collections, and two references with proposed date of visit and details of any other funding sought. The annual deadline is May 1st, awards being announced in early June. Contact Stephen Enniss (Curator of Literary Collections), Special Collections Department, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 USA; tel. 404-727-4885; fax 404-727-0360; email: librsegemory.edu. There is a website at http://info.library.emory.edu/Special/research.htm.
The Irish Government has created three Scholarship Awards for British students who have obtained a First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree and have secured a place at an Irish institution. The annual submission date for applications is 1 March 1999. Contact the Secretary, Scholarships Exchange Scheme, Irish Embassy, 17 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HR. Irish Embassy, London; or ring Emer Deane, tel. 44 (0)171-201-2510.
The British Association for Irish Studies has established a scheme to support postgraduate research in Britain on topics of Irish interest. The Association will award four Bursaries of £1,000 each to postgraduate students, based in a university in Great Britain, conducting research on any aspect of Irish Studies. The aim of the awards is to further research in Great Britain in the subject area of Irish Studies. This will be done by providing assistance to enable students to take advantage of opportunities which would enhance the research project, or to alleviate financial hardship, which would otherwise hinder the pursuit of a student's studies. Students may use the bursary for travel expenses, payment of fees, subsistence expenses or other expenses related to the completion of a research project. For application details, please write to Sandy Trott, British Association for Irish Studies, 10 White Barns, Ford End, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 1LT
Queen's University, Belfast is offering the Mary McNeill Scholarship to a well-qualified American or Canadian student who is eager to join the prestigious MA Degree Course in Irish Studies at the University. The value of the award is £2,500. Contact Sophia Hillan King, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, 8 Fitzwilliam St., Belfast, BT9 6AW; 44 (0)1232 273386; fax 44 (0)1232 439238; <email irish.studies@qub.ac.uk> there is website at http://web.qub.ac.uk/iis/.
Duquesne University (Pittsburgh) is to offer two "Gerry Adams Scholarships" in conflict resolution and peace studies worth $20,000 to Irish graduates wishing to undertake MA studies. Duquesne has a web site at http://www.duq.edu/copy on-where 'Stations of the Cross', 'Gaelic Mass', 'Monster Eating Competition' and 'Finals Pizza Blowout' are prominently listed under "Special Events".
Close observers (and baffled e-mailers) will have noticed that the constituent colleges of the National University of Ireland have been quietly slipping away from the familiar UC-placename designation that served our ancestors in favour of a formula that fronts the corporate identity. Whether intentionally or otherwise, this has the paradoxical effect of stressing the apparent autonomy of the constituent colleges considered as the universities of their respective cities and counties-e.g., UCG becomes NUI Galway. In email terms this is written as nuigalway.ie-though the bodkin computer at that august establishment hadn't cottoned on to the change last time we sent mail. Meanwhile at Coláiste na Trínóide, with a proper sense of classical tradition, the donnish fraternity has been dragooned into email legions with names such as dux1, dux2, &c. Just now may future Irish leaders that University is going to produce depends on what Professor Lee has called the 'depth of talent'.
Mary Doran, the entirely admirable curator of the Modern Irish Collections at the British Library has been compiling a web page online giving a general overview of the material held along with relevant information on catalogues and access. The Collection's web site is at http://www.bl.uk/collections/mbc/mirish.html. Recent labour action affecting the delivery of books to the St. Pancreas Reading Room is now over and the scriboria are open to use again. Readers' Services can be reached at tel. (0)171-412-7676.