Reports 2017

-Ireland

-Europe

-North America

-IASIL Japan

-Other countries

 

 

IASIL Report from Vice-Chair (Ireland) 2016-2017
Claire Connolly

 

Although by now means exhaustive, this report will give IASIL members an indication of the wealth of research events and public lectures that took place in Irish universities during the last academic year. IASIL was hosted in Ireland (UCC) in 2016 and its next Irish meeting will take place in Trinity College Dublin in 2019. A listing of taught masters programmes and related research opportunities at Irish universities may be found on the IASIL website.

Thanks to Dr Steffi Lerner, Dr Ian Walsh, Dr Colin Graham, Dr Tom Walker, Dr Lucy Collins and Dr Tina Morin for their help in preparing this report.

Queen’s University Belfast

The School of Arts, English and Langue welcomed Prof. Marilynn Richtarik as this year’s Irish Fulbright Scholar.

QUB’s Institute of Irish Studies showcased research in Irish topics from across the university through its weekly Seminar Series showcases.

  • The Seminar series opened in the autumn semester with Dominic Bryan (Anthropology) giving a paper on: ‘Flags, parades and carnivals: approaches to public space in Belfast’ on 3 October. The speakers that followed were:
  • 10 October: Peter Gray (History) ‘William Sharman Crawford and the dynamics of Ulster radicalism in the 1830s-50s’
  • 17 October: Erin Hinson (Irish Studies), ‘Compounding identities: the production of artefacts within the UVF/RHC prison experience’
  • 24 October: Liam Kennedy (History) ‘Writing Irish history in the shadow of the “Troubles”’
  • 7 November: Mark Phelan (Drama), ‘The politics and performance of commemoration in Ireland’
  • 14 November Conor Caldwell (English/Music), ‘Beyond the Irish Song Project: Sounding out
  • research in musicology’
  • 21 November Richard English (Politics) ‘Does terrorism work? The case of the Northern Ireland Troubles’
  • 28 November Andrew Holmes (History), ‘Union, Presbyterians, and Ulster Scots’?
  • 5 December Elena Bergia (Anthropology) ‘The trouble with women: gender and conflict in nationalist West Belfast’

In the Spring Semester, seminars included:

  • Cahal McLaughlin (Creative Arts) ‘The Prisons Memory Archive: ethics and aesthetics – a case study in addressing the legacy of the past’
  • Aglaia De Angeli (History) ‘A republic for China and Ireland: a new beginning, 1911-22’
  • Marilynn Richtarik (English, Georgia State University/QUB) ‘Forging a usable past: Brian Friel’s Making History’
  • Tony Gallagher (Education) ‘Shared education and school collaboration in Northern Ireland’
  • Lucy McDiarmid (English, Montclair State University) ‘The dreamer on the train in contemporary Irish poetry’
  • James Greer and Graham Walker (Politics) ‘Christian Socialism in Belfast and Lanarkshire: the 1924 general election’
  • Peter McLoughlin (Politics) ‘Before hope and history rhymed: Irish-America and the political foundations for Clinton’s Northern Ireland peace initiative’
  • Sean Connolly (History) ‘Do we need to think again about the Irish diaspora?’
  • Brice Dickson (Law) ‘Ireland’s Supreme Court: an assessment of its achievements’
  • Finbar McCormick (Archaeology) ‘From Meeting House to Chapel: The evolution of Presbyterian and Catholic churches’
  • David Heffernan (History) ‘The early history of the Ulster Plantation, c.1609-1641: Some problems and opportunities’
  • Sarah McCleave and Triona O’Hanlon (Music) ‘ERIN explored: resources from the Horizon 2020 project “Thomas Moore in Europe”’

 

NUI Galway

  • Eugene O’Neill: Ireland, the Constant Presence, The Tenth International Eugene O’Neill Conference, July 19-22, 2017
  • Irish-Austrian Exchanges on the Stage: Performing the Archive with Dr. Vicky Angelaki & Cia Ludens in Performance: From Memory to Documentary with Dr Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos, June 20, 2017
  • Migration and the Humanities: Critical Challenges, 16-17 June, 2017
  • Research in Real Time: Practice as Research Conference, 5-6 May, 2017
  • Finding Lady Gregory: Teaching, Research and Performance Practice in Global Contexts- A joint talk by Dr Emer O’Toole and Dr Anna Pilz, May 19, 2017.
  • ‘Journeys’, the 41st Annual Conference of the Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies, 4-6 May, 2017
  • Women’s History Association of Ireland (WHAI) Annual Conference, 21-22 April 2017
  • Ireland and the Wobbly World: Irish Labour radicals and the Industrial Workers of the World, NUI Galway, 11-12 November, 2016
  • Ireland 1916-2016: The Promise and Challenge of National Sovereignty, 10 -12 November, 2016.
  • 1916: Home: 2016 Conference, 7 – 8 October, 2016.
  • ‘Children and Childhood before and after the Revolution’ 16-17 September, 2016
  • ESSE (European Society for the Study of English) Conference, 22-26 August, 2016

 

NUI Maynooth

  • Symposium: After the Rising, After the Somme: Reflections on Commemoration in 2016. Organiser Dr Oona Frawley. Plenary speakers Professor Guy Beiner and Professor Dominic Bryan
  • Guest Lecture: Professor Lucy McDiarmid (Montclair State University). ‘The Muse on the Train: 21st-Century Irish Railway Poems’. October 3, 2016
  • Guest Lecture: Professor Kathleen Lynch (UCD), ‘Metrics and Markets in Higher Education: Creating Care-Less Citizens’. October 12, 2016
  • Symposium: Shakespeare 400 Ireland. Organiser Dr Stephen O’Neill. Invited speakers: Professor Mark Burnett, Professor Patrick Lonergan, Emer McHugh, Professor Jane Grogan, Professor Willy Maley.
  • Guest Lecture: Professor Marianne Hirsch (Columbia). ‘Small Acts: Mobilizing Memory Across Borders’. October 26, 2016
  • Symposium: Women and the Decade of Commemorations: Comparative Perspectives from Memory Studies, October 26 2016. Keynote: Professor Marianne Hirsch
  • Symposium: Commemoration After 2016. Organiser Dr Oona Frawley. Plenary speakers – Professor Steff Craps, Professor Graham Dawson
  • Guest Lecture: Dr. David Alderson (University of Manchester), ‘Queer Theory, Solidarity and Bodies Political’. November 16, 2016
  • ‘Transcendental Homelessness’: a century of James Joyce’s A Portrait and Georg Lukács’s Theory of the Novel. December 14, 2016. A symposium hosted by the Department of English at Maynooth University to reflect on the varied legacies of these two books a century after their publication. Speakers: Seamus Deane, Sharae Deckard, Sinéad Kennedy, Michael G Cronin. Chair: Colin Graham
  • Writer-in-Residence Talks: February 23rd Joanna Walsh with Nathan O’Donnell (Paper Visual Art) and Susan Tomaselli (gorse)
  • Writer-in-Residence Talks: 20 March 2017. Joanna Walsh with Sara Davis-Goff (Tramp Press)
  • Writer-in-Residence Talks: 27 March 2017-06-27 Joanna Walsh with Fernando Sdrigotti (Minor Literature[s])
  • Symposium: Revolution!: Ireland and Russia in the wake of 1917. April 28, 2017. A symposium hosted by the Department of English at Maynooth University addressing the effects of the Russian Revolution on revolutionary politics, literary culture, theatre and the visual arts in twentieth-century Ireland. Speakers: Maurice Casey (University of Oxford); Dr Barbara Dawson (Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane); Paul O’Brien (biographer of Sean O’Casey); Dr Eimear O’Connor (Trinity College Dublin); Dr Donal Ó Drisceoil (University College Cork); Barra Ó Séaghdha (Dublin City University); Dr Stephanie Schwerter (Université de Valenciennes); Professor Helena Sheehan (Dublin City University). Plenary: Dr Ben Levitas (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Trinity College Dublin 

  • Trinity College Dublin hosted a major international conference to mark the 350th Anniversary of Jonathan Swift’s birth. The Swift anniversary celebrations saw an exhibition of Swift-related materials mounted in the Library’s Long Room, which earlier in the year had also played host to an exhibition on Writing Art in Ireland, c.1890–1930. Other conferences and colloquia, included:
  • The Irish and the London Stage in the Long Eighteenth Century
  • Robert Lowell and Ireland
  • B. Yeats and visual culture
  • Literary Archives in the Digital Age
  • The future of Irish Studies
  • The Samuel Beckett Summer School continues to go from strength to strength and will in 2017 being running for its seventh consecutive year
  • Doireann Ní Ghríofa was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for 2016
  • Colette Bryce and Sean Borodale were this year visiting Writer Fellows at the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing
  • The School of English also hosted public readings and interviews with writers including Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Eileen Myles, Paul Muldoon, Joe Joyce and Henri Cole.

.

University College Cork

  • UCC Writer in Residence for 2016-17 was Conal Creedon, Cork novelist, playwright and documentary maker; while the Film Artist in Residence was award-winning screenwriter Hugh Travers. Both positions are co-sponsored by the Arts Council.
  • UCC hosted a day exploring Seamus Heaney’s indebtedness to the Virgilian tradition, on the occasion of the launch of his translation of Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid (Faber, 2016). The event included lectures by Professor Alex Davis and Bernard O’Donoghue, Adjunct Professor in the School of English, UCC.
  • In September 2016, Dr Anna Pilz hosted a two day workshop entitled Landscapes, Environment & Heritage in Irish Studies, funded by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Scheme.
  • Canadian writer Zsuszi Gartner was appointed as the inaugural Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow for the City of Cork. As part of her fellowship, she offered a course on short fiction on the UCC MA in Creative Writing.
  • In October 2016 UCC continued its events for the 50th anniversary of the death of Frank O’Connor with a lecture by Professor Nicholas Allen (University of Georgia) on ‘Frank O’Connor, Cork and the World of Literature’.
  • School of English research seminars included papers by XXX
  • The year saw public readings and interviews with writers including Lionel Shriver, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Eilís Ní Dhuibhne, hosted by UCC Lecturer in Fiction Mary Morrissy.
  • A series of readings by internatoinal women poets on the theme of translation was convened by UCC Lecturer in Poetry, Leanne O’Sullivan.
  • In collaboration with Drama and Theatre Studies, the School of English organised two research presentations by Beckett scholar, Professor David Pattie (University of Chester).
  • Among other publications this year, Prof. Lee Jenkins launched her co-edited collection Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass: Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture(Brill, 2017). This interdisciplinary collection brings together chapters contributed by graduate students from UCC and the University of Maryland in the disciplines of English and Archaeology. Additionally, Dr Eibhear Walshe, with Catherine Marshall and Fintan O’Toole, launched the collection Modern Ireland In 100 Artworks, published by the Royal Irish Academy.
  • Dr Maureen O’Connor, in collaboration with Dr Benjamin Gearey in UCC Archaeology, received an Irish Research Council New Foundations award for a project entitled  ‘Peatlands in the 21st Century: Trans-disciplinary Perspectives on Heritage, Sustainability, and “Wise Use” of Resources’.
  • The School of English hosts ACIS in June 2018 and issued a CFP in March 2017: available at http://acis2018.com
  • Two Masters programmes in the School of English have been granted dedicated Fulbright awards for the 2018/19 academic year.  One US student on the MA in Creative Writing and the MA in Irish Writing and Film will qualify for a tuition fee waiver plus a stipend of up to €15,000. See http://us.fulbrightonline.org/countries/selected country/ireland

 

Dublin City University

  • Professor Eugene McNulty with Róisín Ní Ghairbhí (eds.) published Patrick Pearse and the Theatre (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2016)
  • Dr Sharon Murphy published The British Soldier and his Libraries, c. 1822-1901 with Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Marina Carr won the prestigious international literary award: The Windham-Campbell prize. Her Oratorio, Mary Gordon was performed in the National Concert Hall in November 2016. The Abbey Theatre produced Marina Carr’s version of Anna Karenina, December 2016.
  • Dr Derek Hand gave a lecture entitled, “The Celtic Tiger Irish novel”, at the 4th International PhD seminar in Irish Studies Leuven, (August 2016).

 

University College Dublin

 

 

 

University of Limerick

  • Dr Aileen Dillane has been invited to spend Autumn Semester 2017 at the Keough-Naughton Institute of Irish Studies in Notre Dame where she will teach an undergraduate course, cross-listed between music and Irish Studies, entitled ‘Critical Encounters with Irish Music in North America’. Aileen will also be researching the O’Neill collection in the Hebsburg Library at Notre Dame as part of her book project on Irish Music in Chicago, as well as coordinating Irish music events on campus. Dillane was an invited speaker on the topic of music/ethnomusicology and historical and contemporary Irish music (traditional and popular) research on migration at the ‘Migration and the Humanities: Critical Challenges’ Conference, Moore Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway, (June 16-17th). She also presented ‘Structures of Feeling in Contemporary Irish Song: Old Themes, New Voices’ at the one-day special event,  ‘Music for Words, Perhaps: A Symposium on Irish Song’, at Princeton University, N.J., USA. (Mar 30th); a public lecture entitled ‘Irish Nostalgic Songs: Roots and Routes’ at  Bridgewater State University, Mass, USA. (Mar 16th).  Aileen also facilitated music workshops with students from Irish studies and music.
  • Julian Gough, UL writer in residence, 2017, published the latest in his acclaimed series of children’s books, Rabbit and Bear.
  • Michael Griffin’s edition of The Collected Poems of Laurence Whyte was published by Bucknell University Press/Rowman & Littlefield in 2016. Griffin also published the entry on ‘Oliver Goldsmith’ in Oxford Bibliographies Online (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
  • In the autumn term, Margaret Mills Harper served as Anacapa Scholar in Residence at the Thacher School, Ojai, California. She serves as President of the International Yeats Society. Harper published an article, “Words for Music? Perhaps,” International Yeats Studies 1 (2016): 1–12. She was one of the organisers of a conference, Connections in Motion: Dance in Irish and German Literature, Film and Culture, 16th International Conference in Irish-German Studies, University of Limerick, 30 October–1 November 2016. Prof Harper lectured on Yeats in Russia during 2016.
  • Drs Gisela Holfter and Horst Dickel published An Irish Sanctuary – German-speaking refugees in Ireland 1933-1945(Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2017).
  • Alena Kiel, a doctoral student in English, was awarded a full travel and accommodation bursary by the transnational Queering Ireland research network to attend their biennial conference in May 2017 at the University of South Carolina.
  • Dr Tina Morin was invited to deliver a public lecture and university seminar on Irish gothic literature at the Royal Castle, Warsaw and the University of Warsaw, respectively, as part of the Irish Embassy in Warsaw’s public diplomacy programme. Her presentations will be based on her forthcoming monograph, The gothic novel in Ireland, c. 1760-1829 (Manchester University Press, 2018) and will take place in late October, 2017. Morin published, with co-editor, Marguérite Corporaal, the collection Traveling Irishness in the Long Nineteenth Century (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, July 2017). Her essay is titled ‘Irish gothic goes abroad: cultural migration, materiality, and the Minerva Press’. Morin also contributed an essay to a forthcoming special issue of the European Romantic Review on Irish Romanticism (edited by Julia M. Wright): ‘“At a distance from [my] country”: Henrietta Rouvière Mosse, the Minerva Press, and the negotiation of Irishness in the Romantic literary marketplace’.
  • Joseph O’Connor’s novel Star of the Sea became the first Irish novel since Joyce’s Ulysses to be published in Cuba. In February 2017 he visited Havana, where the book was launched by President Higgins as part of his state visit to Cuba. While in Havana, Prof O’Connor also spoke at the conference of the Society for Irish Latin American Studies.
  • Prof Joseph O’Connor’s poem ‘Rescue 116’, a tribute to those who lost their lives in a coastguard helicopter accident, was published in The Sunday Independent. He read it live on The Late Show two weeks later. Other poems included ‘The Disappeared’ on the Tuam Baby Scandal and ‘The Inconvenient’, a poem for Easter 2017. A work-in-progress stage version of Prof O’Connor’s novel Redemption Falls was presented at the Abbey Theatre by Moonfish Theatre Company. The stage version of Star of the Sea will tour the USA in Autumn 2017. With the composer Brian Byrne he is working on a stage show entitled ‘Goldenhair’ based on Byrne’s settings of Joyce’s ‘Chamber Music’. In June 2017, Prof O’Connor led the second UL Frank McCourt Creative Writing Summer School New York, at Glucksman Ireland House, along with Donal Ryan, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Mary O’Malley, Kerry Neville and Darragh McKeon. There were guest performances from Iarla O’Lionaird and Lisa Dwan.

 

  • The interdisciplinary collection Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture: Reflections, Refractions, Reimaginings, eds., Cathy McGlynn, Maggie O’Neill & Michaela Schrage-Früh, with an afterword by Germaine Greer, is forthcoming with Palgrave in 2017.
  • Dr Maggie O’Neill published articles in two journal special issues: ‘Transformative Tales for Recessionary Times: Emma Donoghue’s Room and Marian Keyes’ The Brightest Star in the Sky’, appeared in LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, Special Issue on Recessionary Imaginings: Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and Contemporary Women’s Writing, eds. Claire Bracken and Tara Harney Mahajan, 28:1 (2016), pp. 55-74. ‘A Bionian Reading of the Mother in Anne Enright’s The Green Road,’ appeared in Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Special Issue on ‘Wilfred Bion: Here, There and in-Between,’ Lisa Baraitser and Stephen Hartman, 17:3 (2016), pp. 181-90.
  • Dr O’Toole was invited to give a keynote address at the Marginal Irish Modernisms conference at Liverpool John Moore’s University in October 2016; her paper was titled “Cosmopolitan Irishness in George Egerton’s Fiction”.
  • Women Writing War: Ireland 1880-1922, edited by Tina O’Toole, Gillian McIntosh & Muireann O’Cinnéide was launched at the University of Limerick on 25th November by Professor Patricia Coughlan (UCC).
  • In April, Dr O’Toole was invited to Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts, where she took part in a teaching exchange and delivered the Seamus Heaney Annual Literary Lecture on April 27th; her paper was on “Irish Revolutionary Women Writers, 1880-1930”. As part of the biennial Queering Ireland conference, Dr O’Toole was invited to the University of South Carolina in early May, where she participated as a respondent to papers delivered at the pre-conference workshop. Her paper at the main conference was on queer performance activism in 1980s Dublin; the cognate essay “Making a Scene: Queer Performance Activism and Irish National Culture” has just been published in the current issue of Études Irlandaises on “Embodying/Disembodying Ireland”, edited by Fiona McCann and Alexandra Poulain. Dr O’Toole was an invited participant in the recent IRC-funded symposium “Migration and the Humanities: Critical Challenges” held at NUI Galway 16th-17th June.
  • Donal Ryan, UL writer in residence 2015-16, published an acclaimed novel All We Shall Know that was translated into 15 languages and received glowing reviews. He appeared at many literary festivals in Ireland and internationally.
  • Michael Schrage-Früh published a monogragph, Philosophy, Dreaming and the Literary Imagination (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), containing two chapters on John Banville’s The Sea and Clare Boylan’s Black Baby, respectively.

 

 

IASIL Report from Vice-Chair (Europe) 2016-2017
Alexandra Poulain

 

In Belgium the Irish College in Leuven hosted the SSNCI (Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland) conference on “Figures of Authority in 19th-Century Ireland” in June 2017, and continues to host the LCIS (Leuven Centre for Irish Studies) Series Lectures.

 

In Germany, the most notable event this year was Glenn Patterson’s visit to Saarbrücken and Wuppertal in December 2016 on the Irish Itinerary organized by EFACIS. 4 PhD candidates are currently working on Irish Studies-related topics in Wuppertal University.

 

In France the annual conference of the SOFEIR (“Networks and connections”) took place in Caen University in March 2017. The Irish Studies Centre of University of Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 inaugurated the Irish Tuesdays, a series of monthly seminars given by guest speakers. Professor Adolphe Haberer generously donated his impressive collection of books on Irish poetry and criticism to the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris. The “Fonds Adolphe Haberer” has now been catalogued and is accessible to visitors at the CCI’s library.  Issues 41-2 (Ireland’s Republic: Past, Present and Future, ed. Karin Fischer and Clíona ní Ríordáin) and 42-1 (Embodying/Disembodying Ireland, ed. Fiona McCann and Alexandra Poulain) of Etudes Irlandaises are now accessible online.

In Italy The Notre Dame Irish Seminar and Rome Seminar came together for a joint seminar on “Ireland and Italy” in June 2017, at the Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway. The Trieste Joyce school, directed by John McCourtand Laura Pelaschiar was also held in June 2017. The 7th issue of Studi irlandesi, Resistance in Ireland (ed. Dieter Reinisch) is now available online.

 

In Spain, The Spanish Association for Irish Studies (AEDEI) hosted its 16th International conference in the University of La Rioja in May 2017, on “Fe/Male Challenges in Irish Studies from the 19th to the 21st centuries”, with support from the Irish Embassy in Madrid. The 17th International Conference will be held in the University of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia) in May 2018. Issue 12 of the AEDEI e-journal, Estudios Irlandeses was published in March 2017.

 

In the UK, the most high-profile – and regrettable – aspect of Irish Studies in the UK in 2016-17 was the closure of the Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. As there has been no word on the promised review of the decision it would appear that this ends the availability of the only degree course in Irish Studies available in London. More positively, however, the Centre for Irish Studies at London Metropolitan University celebrated its 30th anniversary in November 2016. Although the Centre no longer offers degree level programmes it has run its annual “Irish Writers in London Summer School” since 1996. Colm Tóibin was a speaker at the Liverpool Literary Festival in October 2016 and in 2017 was announced at the next Chancellor of the University of Liverpool. The Centre for Irish Studies at the university still maintains its programme of BA, MA and PhD awards and also hosts a series of prestigious events throughout the year, including, in May 2017, “Ireland After Brexit”, a panel discussion which included Daniel Muhall, the Irish Ambassador. Finally, this year’s winners of the BAIS annual essay prize and postgraduate bursaries went to students from the universities of Edinburgh, Teeside and Liverpool, which shows the enduring vitality of Irish studies across the UK. The awards were presented at the Irish Embassy, London, in May 2017.

 

Finally, the 4th International Postgraduate Conference in Irish Studies will be held in September 2017 in the Centre for Irish Studies, Charles University, Prague, in the Czech Republic.

 

IASIL Report from Vice Chair (North America) 2016-17
José Lanters

 

Many Irish Studies-related events happen in North America every year, on a local, regional, and national level. This is only a selection.

 

Conferences and Association Events

The annual national meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) was hosted by the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, March 30-April 3, 2016. Plenary speakers were Mary Daly, Thomas Bartlett, and David Dwan. Sinéad Morrissey gave a poetry reading, and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin presented a lecture and musical performance. The ND sponsored documentary 1916: The Irish Rebellion and the accompanying book were launched with a screening followed by a discussion with the film’s producers, professors Christopher Fox and Bríona Nic Dhiarmada.

 

Annual regional ACIS conferences were also held in 2016 at New York University, New York, NY (Oct. 28-29, Mid-Atlantic); University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (Oct. 22-24, Midwest); Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay, MA (Nov. 4-5, New England); Missoula, MT (Oct. 20-22, Western); and Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA (Feb.20-21, Southern).

 

ACIS awarded five book prizes and a dissertation prize. For all information about past and future ACIS events, see http://www.acisweb.com.

 

The 2016 annual conference of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies was held at the Banff Center, Banff, Alberta, May 25-28, 2016. Plenary speakers were Ray Basset (Irish Ambassador to Canada) and Susan Cahill. There were readings by Maeve Bancroft and John Menaghan. For all information about past and future CAIS events, see http://www.irishstudies.ca.

 

The annual meeting of the Celtic Studies Association of North America was held at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 5-8, 2016.

 

At the January 7-10, 2016 MLA conference in Austin, TX, sessions were sponsored by ACIS, the International James Joyce Foundation, the CLCS Celtic forum, and the LLC Irish forum.

Film Festivals

Irish Film Festivals were held in many places in 2016, including Boston, Chicago, Baton Rouge, San Francisco, Ottawa, and Toronto.

Journals

The main Irish Studies journals published in North America are Breac (breac.nd.edu), the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Eire-Ireland, the James Joyce Quarterly, the Field Day Review (annual), and New Hibernia Review.

 

IASIL JAPAN Report 2016-17
Naoko Toraiwa

 

IASIL JAPAN annually holds a conference and publishes an academic journal, the Journal of Irish Studies (JIS). The 33rd annual conference was held on the weekend of 15-16 October at International Christian University with the theme of “Transformations”. As special guest speakers, renowned scholar Patrick Lonergan, Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway, and Alan Gilsenan, an award-winning Irish film-maker, were invited.

Alan Gilsenan presented his film A Vision: A Life of WB Yeats, which was created for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of W.B. Yeats. Using only Yeats’ own words as its narration, the film takes the viewer on a cinematic journey into the poet’s extraordinary imagination as it traces his life — an unconventional biography. After this poem-film, an active Q and A session and comments followed; in appreciation, Glisenan commented that Yeats dreamt up his life and fashioned his own majestic screenplay and we are – endlessly – the beneficiaries.

On the second day of our conference, Professor Patrick Lonergan gave a special lecture entitled, “The Ends of Irish National Theatre? Transformations in Irish Drama since 1950.”  His inspiring lecture suggested the diversity of Irish theatre movement after independence. It also introduced the particular fascination of the digital archive and how to access and compare sources using digital methods. Prof. Lonergan is the academic leader of Abbey Theatre Archive Digitization Project.

There were two symposia at the conference: “Adaptation and Transformation: Cinematic Variations,” with Mr. Gilsenan as commentator, and “Autobiographies, Life Writings and Memoirs” with Prof. Lonergan as commentator. A number of papers on Irish studies were read by our members, including those from Taiwan and Korea; there were three papers from abroad out of nine.

The 31st issue of the Journal of Irish Studies was published in October 2016, and included a number of refereed articles, reviews, including a fine article by Patrick Crotty, a special guest at the 2015 IASIL Japan conference.

At the AGM, IASIL Japan Scholarship, which awards a postgraduate-student member a travel grant of 50,000 yen to attend IASIL Conference, was approved. Although we did not have an eligible applicant for this year, we hope that our young members can make most of this opportunity in the future.

The year 2017 is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relationships between Ireland and Japan and there have been a series of events in Japan to mark this history. Among the Winter-Spring 2017 activities, the ‘Celtic Noh’ adaptation of Yeats’ At the Hawks Well, featuring a star cast of Japanese Noh actors, and music by the acclaimed Anúna Celtic Choir (16th February), was very well-received. “A Lonely Impulse of Delight,” an exhibition of contemporary paintings and writings inspired by the writings of Yeats held with the cooperation with Tokyo University of the Arts and the Irish Embassy, drew more than 3000 visitors (11-28 May).

We are very happy to report that the study of Irish literature and the promotion of public awareness of Irish culture continue to be pursued with enthusiasm in a number of ways in Japan.

 

Other Countries (Vice-Chair, Youngmin Kim)

 

Brazil
Laura Izarra and Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos

 

Events:

  • I Jornada do Núcleo de Estudos Irlandeses da UFSC “Myth and Reality in Irish Literature, Theatre and Visual Arts”. 17th August 2016 at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
  • ABEI XI Symposium of Irish Studies in South America: “Ireland at the Crossroads of History”- 22, 23 and 24 August 2016 – University of São Paulo, Brazil. Guest speakers: Jane Ohlmeyer (TCD), Pilar Villar Argaiz (U.Granada), Susan Wilkinson (Canada) & Éilis Ní Dhuibhne.
  • Symposium Roger Casement and Human Rights in the Amazon. Belém do Pará on 29 Sep. 2017.
  • Opening activities of WB Yeats Chair of Irish Studies 17th March 2017 at University of São Paulo. Guest speakers: Minister of State for Training Skills and Innovation, John Halligan T.D & Alan Gilsenan. Munira Mutran & Luci Collin.
  • The 13th Annual Irish Theatrical Conference – “Irish Theatre and Latin America.” 27th-28th April 2017, at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
  • “Estudos Irlandeses no Brasil e na UFSC: Novas Perspectivas/Irish Studies in Brazil and at UFSC: New Perspectives” – Symposium for undergraduate and postgraduate research at the 11th Semana Acadêmica de Letras da UFSC. 7th June 2017, at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
  • ABEI VI Forum of Irish Studies: “Ireland ‘n Translations”. 23 and 24 June, 2017 at Federal University Fluminense – Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

Lectures:

  • Lecture “James Joyce’s ‘The Dead” by Frank McGuinness”. Luiz Fernando Ramos (ECA/USP). University of São Paulo on 11 October 2016.
  • “Living where motley is worn: Yeats and the Easter Rising”, given by Maria Rita Drumond Viana at the Department of Modern Languages at the Federal Technological University of Paraná (DALEM/UFTPR) on 02/12/2016
  • “Making room for women’s theatre on the Brazilian stage: Case studies involving Irish and Northern Irish playwrights”, given by Alinne Fernandes at The Moore Institute, The Hardiman Building, National University of Ireland, Galway,  on 23rd February 2017.
  • Lecture “Roger Casement: forging a hero of modernity” by Bartholomew Ryan (Universidade Nova de Lisboa). University of São Paulo on 15 May 2017.
  • “Cia Ludens in Performance: from Memory to Documentary”, given by Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos at the Moore Institute, The Hardiman Building, National University of Ireland, Galway, on 20th June 2017.

 

Theses:

  • Undergraduate honours thesis: Frandor Marc Machado. “’He is My Country’: Shame, Resistance, and the Search for the Nation of the Heart in At Swim, Two Boys.” Supervisor: Maria Rita Drumond Viana. Viva at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) on 15/12/2016.
  • Undergraduate honours thesis: Vinícius Horst. “A Study of the Translation of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa: The Issue of Culture-Specific Items”. Supervisor: Alinne Balduino Pires Fernandes. Viva at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) on 31/01/2017.

 

 

Theatre:

  • As duas mortes de Roger Casement /The Two Deaths of Roger Casement, written and directed by Domingos Nunez, produced by Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos. September-October 2016, at Teatro Aliança Francesa, São Paulo, and 27th April at the Federal University of Santa Catarina.
  • Eclipse/Eclipsed, by Patricia Burke Brogan, directed and translated by Alinne Fernandes. Rehearsed readings. 20th October and 11th November 2016; 28th April 2017 at the Federal University of Santa Catarina.

 

Cultural events:

  • Patrick’s Day and Bloomsday were celebrated in various cities: Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Florianópolis.

 

Publications:

ABEI Journal 18, November 2016

Lectures 2015. São Paulo: Humanitas, 2016.

 

Yearly Scholarships:

– Maria Helena Kopschitz: 1 MA scholarship for Brazilian student for University College Dublin

– ABEI/HADDAD Fellowship: 1 MA scholarship for Brazilian students for Trinity College Dublin.

– The Moore Institute Visiting Researcher Fellowship at NUIG granted to Alinne Fernandes and Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos (February & June 2017).

 

Latin America: Argentina & Cuba

It is important to mention that in Buenos Aires, Argentina, there was the First Symposium of Irish Studies on “The Irish in Latin America” hosted by the Universidad del Salvador, 7-9 September and its Chair of Irish History. The Society for Irish Latin American Studies had the Sixth biannual Conference, “Island Relations: Ireland, Cuba and the Latin World” in Havanna on 16-18 February 2017. The event was opened by President Michael D. Higgins who also visited Lima, Peru, where the exhibition “Roger Casement: Rubber, the Amazon and the Atlantic World” was launched.

 

Korea
Youngmin Kim

 

2016 International Conference on W. B. Yeats

At The 2016 International Conference on W. B. Yeats, which was held at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea on October 22-23, 2016, hosted by The Yeats Society of Korea, Hanyang University, and sponsored by The Embassy of Ireland to Seoul, and National Research Foundation of Korea. The keynote speakers include the followings and 30 presenters at the parallel sessions

-Chi-gyu Kim, Korea University, James Pethica, Williams College, USA, Charles Ivan Armstrong, University of Agder, Norway, Lianggong Luo, Central China Normal University, China, Alexandra Poulain, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Elizabeth Cullingford, University of Texas, Austin, Kyoo Lee, City University of New York, USA, Matthew DeForrest, Johnson C. Smith University, USA, Anne Margaret Daniel, The New School, USA, Jerry Weng, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, “Yeats and Secularization,” Bennett Fu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, Youngmin Kim, Dongguk University, Korea, Wang Baihua, Fudan University, China, Rajeev Patke, National University of Singapore, P.J. Mathews, University College Dublin, Rhee, Young Suck Hanyang University, Korea, Christina Han, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, Seongho Yoon, Hanyang University, Korea, Dan Zhou, Wuhan University of Technology, China.

 

St. Patrick’s Day Festival

St. Patrick’s Day Festival  was held by The Irish Association of Korea on March 19th, 2017, in D-Cube City, Sindorimm Seoul, Korea. The St. Patrick’s Day festivities began at 1:00 pm and continued until 6:00 pm, and te central theme of 2017 event was “Visions of Ireland.” The Irish Association of Korea shared with the people of Korea Ireland’s rich culture and Celtic history, including a feast of Irish dancing, Irish traditional music and audience participation. At the open air festival this year, thousands of Korean, Irish and the expats all heard a variety of instruments like the Irish tin whistle, the fiddle and the accordion, watching a fusion of traditional and modern Irish dance performed by award winning Korean dancers, while also listening to the sounds of old style Irish singing and Irish influenced rock music. The Irish Association of Korea was founded in 2000, the IAK has entertained thousands of Koreans and expats alike by sharing Irish culture and a flavor of Ireland. Irish music along with the events of GAA clubs are alive and Irish culture proves a transcultural movement in Korea.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe T.D. visited South Korea as part of the Government’s St Patrick’s Day Programme. the Minister addressed students at Yonsei University, and made opening remarks to 200 guests at the St Patrick’s Day Reception in Seoul. He also launched the Irish-Korean Cuisine and Cultural Exchange, a major food promotion event supported by Bord Bia, and the Korean Food Foundation. The first Irish Korean Cuisine and Cultural Exchange at the Korean Cuisine Cultural Centre was held as well.

 

Ambassador Aingeal O’Donoghue who became Ireland’s 6th and first woman Ambassador to the Republic of Korea in August 2013 gave a farewell public lecture on June 14, 2017. The topic of her lecture was “Island—The Global Ireland,” and Ambassador O’Donoghue articulates the issue of the Ireland-Korea connections in an insightful comparison and analysis, provoking tons of questions from the students mostly from law and English majors of Dongguk University.

 

Journal on Yeats and Joyce in Korea

Both Jame Joyce Journal of Korea and Yeats Journal of Korea published their 2016 issues as follows:

Jame Joyce Journal of Korea: 2016 Volume 1: 6 articles; Volume 2: 10 articles

Yeats Journal of Korea: 2016 Volume 50: 17 articles, Volume 51: 23 articles,

Volume 52: 17 articles