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The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures |
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| IASIL Newsletter 2004 newsletter |
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General Announcements Headlines, MAY 2004 2003 Irish Play of the Year Published Graduate Studentship - "Cinema, Television and/or New Media in or about Ireland" Hiberno-English Poetry Competition Bloom - Joyce's Ulysses filmed New Conor McPherson play scheduled for Summer 2004
Headlines, March - April 2004 International Shaw Society Launches
February 2004 McDonagh wins Olivier Award for The Pillowman Lecturer in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama, University College Dublin Lecturer in Nineteenth Century Irish Literature in English - Vacancy at Queens Munster Women Writers Project - Update
Headlines, December 2003 - January 2004 Report lists Brian Friel among writers who turned down British honours Abbey Theatre launches Centenary Programme Colin Graham joins NUI Maynooth Four Irish Books named in New York Times "Books of the Year" list New Dublin statue of Brendan Behan
Headlines, July - November 2003 Jobs in Irish Studies - 3 Recent Vacancies Online Irish Studies Certificate Launched M.PHIL Studentship at NUI Cork Institute of English Studies - Irish Research Seminars Princeton University Fund for Irish Studies - Lectures, Fall 2003 New Canadian Association of Irish Studies Website NEH Keough Fellowship in Irish Studies 2004 New Centre for Irish Studies, Dalarna, Sweden New Canadian Irish Studies Chair
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2003 Irish Play of the Year Published Gerard Mannix Flynn's extraordinary JAMES X has been published by the Lilliput Press. The play centres on James O'Neill from Flynn's novel, Nothing to Say, and is a powerful, angry treatment of institutional abuse in Ireland. Named the 2003 Irish Play of the Year, James X was described by Fintan O'Toole as "a brilliantly original mix of theatre, performance art, documentary and human encounter." Further information is available on the Lilliput website, and the play itself is highly recommended. GRADUATE
RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP Proposals are invited for Ph.D study under the following topic: 'Cinema, Television and/or New Media in or about Ireland.' Director of Studies: Dr Lance Pettitt. The studentship carries a bursary of £9,000 plus fees equivalent to EU or home student rate, plus opportunity for some part-time teaching. Conference allowance also available. Studentships offered for up to three years subject to satisfactory progress. Applications are welcomed from US and international students. For further details and application, contact Debby Williams at d.j.williams@leedsmet.ac.uk
The
Hiberno-English Website Poetry Competition The competition will be judged by the broadcaster Myles Dungan, the novelist Éilis Ní Dhuibhne and the writer James McCabe. To find out about the competition and how to make submissions please click here.
DUBLIN
WRITERS FESTIVAL Preliminary details of the 6th Dublin Writers Festival (June 17-20, 2004) have just been released, with the complete programme to be published on May 12. Among the 60 writers from some 20 countries confirmed to take part in this year's featival are HAROLD PINTER, LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI, MICHAEL COLLINS, CHI ZIJIAN and GEARóID MAC LOCHLAINN, and themed events will include In and (out of Africa), featuring PEDRO ROSA MENDES, CHARLOTTE WILLIAMS, SONJA PORLE and ZOE WICOMB. In addition there will be a reading by the yet-to-be-announced winner of the 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Complete details of the 2004 programme will be available on the festival website from May 13.
JOYCE'S ULYSSES HITS THE BIG SCREEN Bloom, the film version of Ulysses, premiered in Dublin in April 2004. Starring Stephen Rea as Bloom, Angeline Ball (The Commitments) as Molly, and Hugh O'Connor as Stephen Dedalus, the film condenses Joyce's novel to less than two hours screen time. "I wanted to make this great work accessible to a lot more people," says Sean Walsh, the film's director. Raising the finance and making the movie has taken him ten years. "It was a mountain I had always wanted to climb," he says, "and I finally achieved it in a style that reveals its humanity and humour and echoes the literary tricks that Joyce originated." Bloom opens in cinemas in Dublin, Cork and Galway on Friday 16 April before continuing around Ireland. Further
information from: Stoney Road Films 01-677 6681 e-mail: stoneyroadfilms@iolfree.ie
Kavanagh Centenary Among the many literary anniversaries being celebrated this year is the centenary of the birth of Patrick Kavanagh. A series of events has been put together, with more to come in the months ahead. Full details are on Monaghan's Kavanagh Centre website - www.patrickkavanaghcountry.com
The International Shaw Society Launches A new society for the advancement of Shaw Studies internationally has been announced by Dr. Richard F. Dietrich, ISS President and Professor Emeritus of English at the University of South Florida. The International Shaw Society is a nonprofit organization that will bring together persons interested in the life, times, and works of Irish playwright, gadfly, and wit George Bernard Shaw and his circle. Currently there are Shaw societies in England, Ireland, India, Japan, and New York City, which serve local constituencies well. And there are major Shaw theater festivals in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and in Chicago with ShawChicago. Presses featuring Shaw Series are the University Press of Florida and the University of Toronto Press. The object of the ISS is to serve as an umbrella organization to coordinate academic, theater, and general interest in Shaw worldwide and to facilitate the exchanging of information and ideas, to organize activities and interests, and to promote the study of Shaw globally. Eventually the ISS will offer grants and prizes to further those goals. View the
International Shaw Society online on http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/iss.htm New McPherson play scheduled for Summer 2004 The Royal Court and Gate Theatre Dublin are co-producing SHINING CITY, the new play by Conor McPherson this summer. McPherson will also direct. The play runs from 04 June 2004 - 17 July 2004 in London and is then scheduled for a run at the 2004 Dublin Theatre Festival. The Royal Court publicity material describes the play as follows: In Dublin a man comes to a counsellor seeking help. He claims to have seen the ghost of his recently deceased wife. But what begins as just an unusual encounter becomes a desperate struggle between the living and the dead a struggle which will shape and define both men for the rest of their lives. Conor McPherson's previous plays for the Royal Court are THE WEIR and DUBLIN CAROL. His other work as writer/director includes PORT AUTHORITY (New Ambassador), ST NICHOLAS (Bush) and THIS LIME TREE BOWER(Bush). Links:
The Royal Court Theatre
and The Gate. The 2004 Irish Seminar - Boston or Berlin? This year's Notre Dame Irish Seminar takes place in June and July 2004, under the direction of Seamus Deane, Kevin Whelan, and Luke Gibbons. Participants include Homi Bhabha, Thomas Kilroy, and many more. You can download a brochure and application form for the Seminar from the IASIL website. Visit the Notre Dame Irish Seminar website.
Grant Deadline: 2004-06-14 The Irish Argentine Historical Society (IAHS) is pleased to announce the introduction of the "Irish Argentine Research Fund" for its first academic year (2004-2005). The objective of the Irish Argentine Research Fund is to support innovative and significant research in the different aspects of migrations between Ireland and South America. Grants of up to 1,000 Euros will be awarded to exceptionally promising students, faculty members or independent scholars to help support their research and writing leading to publication or other types of communication of their projects. Awards will be selected on the basis of a well-developed research plan that promises to make a significant contribution to a particular area of study about the Irish in South America. These grants are offered thanks to the generosity of IAHS members and friends. To apply, obtain an application form and follow the instructions included in the IAHS website. Applications must be received or postmarked by 14 June 2004. Awards will be announced on 2 August 2004. For more information, email: edmundo.murray@irishargentine.org Visit the website at http://www.irishargentine.org Martin McDonagh Wins Olivier Award Martin McDonagh, who first came to public prominence when he fought with Sean Connery at a 1996 Award Ceremony, has been awarded an Olivier for Best New Play of 2003 for The Pillowman. This "new" play - which was first staged by Galway's Druid Theatre as a reading in 1997 - opened at London's Royal National Theatre in November 2003, and was directed by John Crowley. The play is set in a police interrogation room, where a writer is being questioned about a series of gruesome murders that closely resemble some of the writer's own short stories. The difficulty faced by the writer is that his stories have never been published, and the only other person to have read them is his brother - who is, we learn, being held in the next room. The first McDonagh work not to be set in Ireland, The Pillowman is a fascinating consideration of the extent to which writers can be held responsible for the interpretation of their work. It's also a very powerful drama that should considerably deepen our understanding of McDonagh's drama. Whether it will convince skeptics of his value of McDonagh's work remains to be seen. Other nominees for the award included Terry Johnson, Michael Frayn and Kwame Kwei-Armah. The playscript is available from Faber and Faber.
UCC Research Team Awarded Funding under Cork City of Culture 2005 Programme A University College Cork research team working on a biographical dictionary of Munster Women Writers 1800-2000 have been awarded further funding under the Cork City of Culture 2005 programme. IASIL Members Patricia Coughlan, Tina O’Toole, and Éibhear Walshe at the Department of English have recently completed a three year interdisciplinary research project awarded a significant research grant in 1999 by the Irish government under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions 1. Funding from Cork 2005 will support publication of the dictionary project with Cork University Press, as well as facilitating maintenance of the project’s online searchable database which will be openly accessible later this year at www.ucc.ie/munsterwomen The Dictionary of Munster Women Writers 1800-2000, edited by Dr O’Toole, will also be published later this year in hard cover by Cork University Press. The dictionary is a substantial volume, containing biographical and bibliographical material relating to over 560 writers in both English and Irish. “It will make an important contribution to our knowledge of the history of writing in Munster in both Irish and English over the past 200 years. Its presence will greatly help to increase the visibility and reputation of Munster’s culture and creativity. In particular it will illuminate the role in that culture of women from many different communities in the province” said Dr O’Toole. The Irish language material was compiled and edited by Síle Ní Chochláin and Gearóidín Ní Charthaigh at the Department of Modern Irish, and postgraduate researchers who took part in the project included June O’Sullivan, Kalene Kenefick, Roz Cowman, and Gerard Dineen. In addition to this research, the Munster Women Writers Project supported scholarly seminars and research workshops during its lifespan, as well as hosting an international conference, The Munster Women Writers Conference, at UCC in 2001. The project was part of a wider project titled “Women in Irish Society: Understanding the Past and Present
Through Social Research and Archives”, and was based on collaborative
research in the Departments of English, Sociology, and Applied Social
Studies at UCC. The WISP project aims to examine the transformation
of women's lives in Irish society over time and place, through literary,
sociological and applied social research. An exhibition representing
some of the project findings was held last year at the Boole Library
UCC, which dealt with three integrated themes in Irish women’s lives:
women in paid employment in Munster 1936-1960; feminism and the Irish
women’s movement; and Munster women writers. Further information about
the project can be found at www.ucc.ie/wisp
Behan statue unveiled in Dublin A statue of Brendan Behan was unveiled in Dublin on 8 December 2003, beside the Royal Canal - not far from Mountjoy Prison, the setting of Behan's The Quare Fellow, which celebrates its 50th annivesary next year. Listen to an RTE News report on the statue in Real Player by following the link below: http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/1208/morningireland/morningireland3a.smil Report lists Brian Friel among writers who refused British honours IASIL Members may be interested in a 21 December 2003 Sunday Times (London) report, which reproduces a list of well known writers, actors and other public figures who have refused honours from the British government. According to the report, Brian Friel was offered an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) award under John Major's Conservative Government in 1993 (the year after his Tony Award for Dancing at Lughnasa), but refused it. The full report may be viewed on: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-939310,00.html Colin Graham Joins NUI Maynooth Colin Graham - author of Deconstructing Ireland (Edinburgh, 2001) - will be leaving Queens University Belfast to join the English Department at NUI Maynooth in January 2004. New York Times names four Irish books in "Books of the Year" 2003 Four Irish titles have been named among the best books published in 2003 by The New York Times. Follow the links to read the original reviews: Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea Nuala O'Faolain's Almost There Roy Foster's WB Yeats: A Life, Volume 2. Banville's Shroud is, in common with many of his previous novels, centred on a male protagonist's attempts to come to terms with past wrongdoings. Here Banville's character is based loosely on Paul de Man, the former Yale Professor whose anti-Semitic writings were uncovered after his death. O'Connor's Star of the Sea is a faux Victorian novel, set aboard a ship travelling from Ireland to America during the Irish Famine. It's a very well written and highly allusive novel that combines references to Wuthering Heights with great plotting - and with a thinly veiled commentary on contemporary attitudes to poverty and famine. Nuala O'Faolain's memoir Almost There takes up where Are You Somebody? left off -and discusses its author's response to the success of that first book, and her feelings about entering her 60s. Roy Foster's second volume of Yeats's biography will already be familiar to many IASIL members - and you can download a chapter of it by following the link on the IASIL "New Publications" page. Registration is required to view the New York Times articles, but the service is free. Regis University and National University of Ireland, Galway have partnered to offer an Irish Studies certificate program delivered entirely online and made available throughout the world. The purpose of the course is to provide a basic introduction to Irish life and culture through the disciplines of Archaeology, History, English, Irish, Political Science and Sociology. Information and a course demonstration is online at http://www.irishstudiesonline.org MPhil studentship: Department of Geography, University College Cork Applications are invited for a two-year funded MPhil studentship to pursue research as part of a wider collaborative all-island project entitled 'Narratives of migration and return in contemporary Ireland: an all-island research resource.' The project aims are to produce an oral archive of life narratives of recent return migrants to Ireland and to produce related teaching and research resources. It will build on the approach followed in a previous project Breaking the Silence: staying 'at home' in an emigrant society Applicants should have a good primary degree and/or MA in Geography, Anthropology, Sociology, Folklore, History or a commensurate discipline, and some of the following: - Interest
in the use of qualitative research methods, in particular life narrative
or oral history techniques The successful candidate will conduct one case-study as part of the larger research project documenting life narratives of Ireland's recent return migrants. The studentship includes payment of postgraduate fees and a bursary of EUR13,000 p.a. For informal enquiries, contact Caitríona Ní Laoire at (353)(0) 86-3592904. Applications
in the form of a CV (including names and contact details of two referees)
and covering letter to: Piaras Mac Éinrí, Department of
Geography, University College Cork, Cork, IRELAND Closing date for applications: 13th October 2003
Research seminars coming up this autumn at the Institute of English Studies in London, and, in particular, the Irish Studies Research Seminar, co-ordinated by Dr Ian McBride (KCL), Dr Siobhan Holland (LTSN English Subject Centre, Royal Holloway) and Dr Clare Hutton (IES), may be of interest. Information on the seminar is here. PRINCETON FUND FOR IRISH STUDIES Princeton’s Fund for Irish Studies Fall 2003 lecture program has been announced. Speakers include Edna O’Brien (19 September 2003), Denis Donoghue, Nicholas Grene, and Rita Duffy. Full details on their website. The University of New South Wales – location for the 2006 IASIL Conference – has launched a website for its Irish Studies program. The program, being run by Peter Kuch (an IASIL Representative) is being offered as a Major in the UNSW BA program. The Canadian Association Of Irish Studies recently launched a new website with the permanent address of www.irishstudies.ca It includes much useful material, including the Association’s current Call for Papers for their 2004 Conference. NEH KEOUGH FELLOWSHIP IN IRISH STUDIES The Keough Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame is accepting applications for its faculty fellowship program; it is open to scholars in all areas of Irish Studies. Closing date is early 2004. For further details, see www.nd.edu/~irishstu/neh_fellowship.shtml OPENING OF NEW CENTRE FOR IRISH STUDIES Irene Gilsenan-Nordin writes that DUCIS (Dalarna University Centre for Irish Studies, Falun, Sweden) will open on May22-23 . Special guest will be Nuala Ni Dhomnaill, concerts, dancing, lectures, symposia. More info on website – www.du.se/ducis Contact Catharine Enhorning, ducis@du.se Tel 004623778000 NEW CANADIAN IRISH STUDIES CHAIR Michael Kenneally has been chosen for the inaugural Chair in Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia University and appointed Director of the Centre for Canadian Irish Studies. Congratulations, Michael!
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Updated
28 May, 2005
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