Journal Shelf

Chronicon is a history journal on the Web edited by Damian Bracken at the Department of History, NUI/Cork. The current issue (Chronicon 2, 1998) contains an article by Gillian ní Ghabhann entitled "The Gaelic Revival in the United States in the Nineteenth Century", commended by Patrick O’Sullivan on his Irish Diaspora List (Bradford). There is a web page at http://www.ucc.ie/chronicon/nigh2fra.htm. The editor can be reached at <d.bracken@ucc.ie>. [ Return to top ]

Eire-Ireland (Vol. 34, No. 2) has now come forth with a special issue on "The 1798 Rebellion and the Irish Republican Tradition" containing essays by Tom Dunne ("Rebel Motives and Mentalities: The Battle for New Ross, 5 June 1798"), Peter Collins ( "The Contest of Memory: The Continuing Impact of 1798 Commemoration"), Sean Ryder ("Speaking of '98: Young Ireland and Republican Memory"), R.W. Kostal, "Rebels in the Dock: The Prosecution of the Dublin Fenians, 1865-66"), David T. Gleeson ("Parallel Struggles: Irish Republicanism in the American South, 1798-1876"), Lawrence W. McBride ("Nationalist Constructions of the 1798 Rebellion: The Political Illustrations of J. D. Reigh"), Eileen Reilly, "Rebel, Muse, and Spouse: The Female in ‘98 Fiction"), and the ubiquitous Patrick Maume ("Young Ireland, Arthur Griffith, and Republican Ideology: The Question of Continuity"). Éire-Ireland invites submissions on all aspects of Irish-American history and culture for a forthcoming special issue, with emphasis on Irish migration to North America and the themes of labour, race, religion, gender, politics, nationalism, social mobility, ethnicity, and assimilation including the impact of emigration and American culture on Irish society and trans-Atlantic influences in the areas of art, music, film and literature. Please send a one-page proposal to Kevin Kenny, Department of History, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3806; e-mail: <kennyka@bc.edu>. The deadline is by May 31, 2000. [ Return to top ]

The current issue of Irish Studies Review (Vol. 7, No. 3; December 1999) is not short on food for thought with features by Tara Brabazon and Paul Stock on Riverdance, Fergal Gaynor on The Reliques of Fr. Prout, Gerard Moran on The National Brotherhood of St Patrick, Máire ní Fhlathúin on the Irish Oscar Wilde, Jerry C. M. Nolan on Standish James O'Grady, and Gavin Murphy on the Northern Irish paintings of John Keane. Monitors of the advance of postcolonialism and its by-blows in Irish Studies will be particularly engaged by Gaynor’s deconstruction of Eagleton’s reconstruction of Sylvester Mahony’s construction of himself as Father Prout of Watergrasshill, while Máire ní Fhlathúin wields the two-edge sword of revisionist analysis with lethal grace in her account of wishful-thinking on the part of Richard Pine, Davis Coakley, and Jerusha McCormack. As usual, the journal pays its way by means the most comprehensive survey of current commentary available in its extensive reviewing pages. The publisher Carfax has a webpage at http://www.carfax.co..uk. [ Return to top ]

October 1999 saw the appearance of a two issues of the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies (Vols 24/1, July 1998; Vol 24/2 Dec. 1998) prepared under the outgoing editorship of Bernice Schrank with able assistance from Danine Farquharson in an admirable effort to bring the journal up to date. In the offing is a double issue planned to greet the new millenium in celebration of 25 years of publication, according to the Journal’s web page at http://www.usask.ca/english/cais/newsletter.html. [ Return to top ]

The Canadian Association for Irish Studies (CAIS) has recently appointed Michael Kenneally (Concordia, Montreal) to the editorship of the Journal. Prof. Kenneally, a former President, is editor of Studies in Contemporary Irish Literature, a four-volume series published by Colin Smythe Ltd. of which Cultural Contexts and Literary Idioms in Contemporary Irish Literature and Poetry in Contemporary Irish Literature appeared in 1988 and 1995. His own monograph Portraying the Self: Sean O'Casey and the Art of Autobiography (1988) was followed by an edited collecton, Irish Literature and Culture (1992) arising from the CAIS Conference which he hosted in Montreal. Michael also edits Studies in English and Comparative Literature with Wolfgang Zach - a collaboration that has put eleven titles on the Irish-studies shelf to date. Besides all of this, he is - of course - current Chairman of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures [that’s us, folks! - Ed.,], and as such has led the premier organisation in the field through six seasons of international conferencing at venues as varied in their attractions as Sardinia, Long Island, Goteborg, Limerick, Barcelona and Bath. Kenneally has been Canadian Editor of the Irish Literary Supplement since its inception and sits on the editorial board of several other prestigious journals. He currently holds the post of Executive Director of the Canadian Irish Studies Foundation, in which capacity he has shown exemplary skill in promoting the future of the subject as a cultural resource at and raising funds for its support the highest level. [ Return to top ]

Professor Kenneally has issued the following notice to all prospective readers and contributors: The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies aims to publish articles, reviews, viewpoints and creative expression which promote an understanding and appreciation of Irish history and culture in their broadest terms. It has a special focus on aspects of the Irish experience in Canada and in other countries of the Irish diaspora. It reflects a variety of critical and methodological perspectives and welcomes in particular multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches. All articles are submitted to two referees before publication. Articles should be original and represent a new contribution to scholarship in Irish and Canadian Irish Studies. Submissions are encouraged from CAIS members and non-members alike. Please send articles to: Michael Kenneally (Editor), Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Irish Studies at Concordia University, 2480 West Broadway, Montreal, QC. Canada H4B 1R6; tel..fax: 514 848-7389; or email: <kenneal@vax2.concordia.ca>. [ Return to top ]

The New Hibernia Review has appeared in Vol. 4, No. 1 (2000), with a starkly effective cover reflecting the subject-matter of a leading-article on Irish quilting and patchwork art, North and South by Karen Holland. Other articles include a meditation on Douglas Hyde's famous " De-Anglicising Ireland" lecture and its consequences by Bruce Stewart, a detailed examination of the 1932 Eucharistic Congress, its context and its reception by David Holmes, and an account of Alice Milligan's diaries and letters by Richard Harp. Thomas Jordan assesses the realities of Victorian Ireland and Nicole Pepinster Greene explores the dialects and idiolects of Somerville & Ross's classic study of Irish classes in The Real Charlotte while Jerry Nolan narrates the extraordinary history of Edward Martyn's plans for a Palestrina Choir in Dublin. It's back to Dracula with R. J. Clougherty reading of the novel as an reflection of Bram Stoker's sense of alienation as an Irishman in London. Some poems by Cork-born poet Gregory O'Donoghue map wit and sensitivity on to the very real if passing world of north-country steam trains. the books reviewed include Brian Fallon's Age of Innocence (Timothy P. Keane), Andrew Murphy's Ireland, Colonialism and Renaissance Literature (Thomas Martin), Gerry Smyth's Decolonisation and Criticism (Joseph Lennon), Chrystel Hug's Political of Sexual Moralityin Ireland(Anthony Collins), Andrea Eleb Boznya's Female Piety in Ulster Religious Literature 1850-1914 (Michelle O'Neill), and Loreto Todd's Green English: Ireland's Influence on the English Language (Donna Potts). The Editor is Thomas Dillon Redshaw, at <tdredshaw@stthomas.edu>. Contact James Rogers, Managing Editor at <jrogers@stthomas.edu>. The journal is associated with the newly established the Center for Irish Studies with a webpage at http://department.stthomas.edu/IrishStudies.

The Irish Literary Supplement, Vol. 19, No, 1 (Spring 2000), appeared like clockwork, with the usual widely-drawn panel of reviewers. We are indebted to Patrick O'Sullivan on the Diaspora List (Bradford) for this copy of the table of contents. Books reviewed are: James MacKillop, ed., Contemporary Irish Cinema: From The Quiet Man ..: to Dancing at Lughnasa (Michael Patrick Gillespie); Brian McIlroy, Shooting to Kill: Filmmaking and the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland (Terry Byrne); Tom Paulin, The Wind Dog (David Wheatley); T. P. Dolan Hiberno-English Dictionary [et al.]. (Coilin Owens); Richard English, Ernie O'Malley: IRA Intellectual (Ryan Dye); Brian Fallon, An Age of Innocence: Irish Culture 1930-1960 (Lawrence J. McCaffrey); Caledonia Kearns, ed., Motherland: Writings by Irish American Women about Mothers and DaughtersEllen Wolff (15-16); Janis and Richard Londraville, eds., Too Long a Sacrifice: The Letters of Maud Gonne and John Quinn; Michael B. Yeats, Cast a Cold Eye, Memories ofa Poet's Son and Politician (David Krause); Vivian Valvano Lynch, Portraits of Artists: Warriors in the Novels of William Kennedy (Robert Rhodes); Jonathan Hufstader, Tongue of Water, Teeth of Stones: Northern Irish Poetry and Social Violence, (Jacqueline McCurry) Breandan and Ruari O hEither, eds., An Aran Reader (Margaret Rose Jaster); Kevin Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires (Michael C. Connolly); Frank McCourt, 'Tis: A Memoir, and the film of Angela's Ashes (Vivian Valvano Lynch); Clair Wills, Reading Paul Muldoon (Guinn Batten); Denis Sampson, Brian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist (Eamonn Wall); Jacinta Prunty, Margaret Aylward 1810-1889: Lady of Charity, Sister of Faith (Sr. Marie Hubert Kea1y); Eamon Grennan, Relations: New and Selected Poems, and James Simmons, The Company of Children, (Bill Tinley). The issue contains such feature reviews as esmond Traynor, 'In Defense of Ulysses: We Are All Writers Now, or Don't You Know How to be Dumb?', Vivian Valvano Lynch, 'Singing "The Dead" Without Grace Notes" (24), as well as Denis Sampson interviewing the film-director Cathal Black and Thomas O'Grady on '(Re)Visiting Michael Hartnett'.

10th May, 2000 saw the launch of The Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies published under the auspices of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies (PA), the Scotch-Irish Society of the USA and the Scotch-Irish Foundation in Glenolden (PA). Articles in the first issue deal with the Ulster component of the Irish diaspora to the U.S and Canada, including questions of material culture, linguistics, literature, history and immigration patterns. The editors are Joyce Alexander and Richard MacMaster, quite possibly of Scottish extraction. Issues cost $20.00 for individuals with the usual additional postage charges. Contact the Center for Scotch-Irish Studies, P.O. Box 71, Glenolden, PA 19036-0071. No email is given but our informant Professor Jim Doan (IASIL Sec.-Treasurer, USA), at <doan@polaris.acast.nova.edu> will undoubtedly show the way. [Don't you just love that Scotch thayng? - Ed.]