29th Annual Celtic Colloquium

The Harvard Celtic Department presents the 29th Annual Celtic Colloquium October 9-11, 2009 at Harvard University. Attendance is free.

The Harvard Celtic Department invites proposals for papers on topics which relate directly to Celtic studies (Celtic languages and literatures in any phase; cultural, historical or social science topics; theoretical perspectives, etc.). Papers concerning interdisciplinary research with a Celtic focus are also invited. Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes. There will be a short discussion period after each paper. Papers given at the Colloquium may later be submitted for consideration by the editorial committee for publication in the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium.

Potential presenters should send a 200-250 word abstract, plus a brief biographical sketch by Friday, May 15, 2009. Online submissions are preferred, but submissions may also be sent by e-mail (hcc@fas.harvard.edu), faxed, or posted to the departmental address.

Irish Language Film Screening

Cré na Cille
Saturday, November 10
Harvard Film Archive, 5:00 pm

Cré na Cille, an irish-language film adaptation (w/ english subtitles) of the celebrated Irish language novel of the same title, will premiere at the 9th Magners Irish Film Festival in Boston.

The film has received both national and international recognition since its premiere in Galway in December 2006. Set in a cemetery, Cré na Cille is a darkly humorous tale of the intense jealousy and hatred between two sisters, which worsens with age, and continues into the afterlife.

Cré na Cille has impressed judges from all over the world. The full length Irish language feature was selected for competition at the prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2007. In Ireland, the Kerry Film Festival has described it as: “…the best Irish Language Film of this year.”

For any further information:

Loretta Ní Ghabháin

+353.87.799798

loretta@rosg.ie

Second Call for Papers: Children, Childhood, and Irish Society, 1700-2007

Éire-Ireland: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies welcomes submissions for a Spring/Summer 2009 special issue that will consider the theme of "Children, Childhood, and Irish Society, 1700-2007." Childhood figures insistently across a wide range of contemporary discussions and representations of Irish life, from constitutional referenda and tribunals of inquiry to blockbuster films, memoirs and award-winning novels, from the emergence of Gaelscoileanna to the citizenship debate. The guest editors seek essays that place these recent developments in a broader social, cultural, and historical context. We are especially interested in essays that offer interdisciplinary perspectives from history, literature, visual culture, social welfare and social policy. We also invite submissions informed by new sources of archival research. We encourage articles responding to the following areas:

Changing conceptions of childhood in Irish society in the period 1700 to the present.
The child and the state
The child and religion
Childhood and social class
Childhood and educational policy/practice
Childhood in the two Irelands: Anglo and native, North and the Republic
The marginalised and/or institutionalized child
Irish childhood and the Diaspora
Children and family: nuclear, single parent, adopted, foster
Idealised childhood and nostalgia
Childhood sexualities
Imaging children and childhood in film, documentary, and art.
Literary Childhoods: fiction, poetry, drama, and memoir

The deadline for the receipt of proposal (two pages) is November 1, 2007, and completed articles (6000-8000 words) will be due by April 15, 2008. Send proposals to Professor Maria Luddy at m.luddy@warwick.ac.uk and Professor James Smith at smithbt@bc.edu

ASSOCIATIONAL CULTURE IN IRELAND AND THE WIDER WORLD c. 1750 - c. 1940

International Conference 16 - 18 May 2008
A distinctive feature of modern non-totalitarian societies is the flourishing, within the context of a stable state, of voluntary formal associational life (clubs, societies, etc) as distinct from the more traditional forms of sociability such as religious feast days and popular fairs.

The Associational Culture in Ireland (ACI) project (principal investigator, Prof. R.V. Comerford) at NUI Maynooth is running a three-day international conference exploring the nature of associational culture in Ireland and the wider world throughout the period 1750-1940.

Proposals for papers are invited on any aspect of associational culture during this period.

The conference organisers welcome proposals for panels and individual papers. Proposals for roundtable discussions and poster sessions are equally welcome.

The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2007.

Proposals should include a short summary of the paper and a brief curriculum vitae as well as contact details, for each contributor.
Please send proposals to: Dr Jennifer Kelly, Department of History, NUI Maynooth, Maynooth, Co.Kildare.
Tel: (353) 1 7083200
Email: Jennifer.Kelly@nuim.ie

Call for Papers: Ireland in the World.

The School of Communications at DCU and Boston College-Ireland’s Centre for Irish Programmes invite papers for a one-day conference to be held at Boston College-Ireland, 42 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin on 9 May 2008.

The conference seeks to explore how Ireland was presented and represented through official and quasi-official cultural channels from the 1930s to the 1960s but with a particular focus on the period from 1945 to 1960. The immediate post-war period saw Ireland actively seeking to emerge from the isolation experienced during the Second World War. The need to portray Ireland as a competent manager of funds in a bid to secure Marshall Aid, and to attempt to bring Irish-Americans onside in a renewed bid to bring the “evil of partition” to the attention of the world created a new political context for cultural production. In that respect even the 1948 announcement by John A. Costello of the establishment of the Republic whilst on a trip to Canada can be read as performative, designed to demonstrate the re-emergence of a new Ireland at least as much to an international audience as to a domestic one.

The conference seeks to explore how this pre-Economic Development outward embrace was manifested in state-sponsored/related activities. We are seeking to define such activities in the broadest possible manner. Thus in addition to the establishment of bodies such as the Cultural Relations Committee within the Department of External Affairs, we would also be interested in papers related to:

• The planned Short Wave Radio Transmitter for Radio Eireann in 1948,
• The establishment of the Irish News Agency in 1948
• The establishment of the Arts Council in 1951
• Those touristic representations offered by the Irish Tourist Board and related institutions such as Aer Lingus and An Toastal,
• The establishment of a national soccer team representing the 26 counties
• President Kennedy’s visit to Ireland
• Images of Ireland projected through ‘official’ ephemera (stamps, coins etc.)


This is merely an indicative list and far from exhaustive. Abstracts of no more than 200 words, together with short personal descriptions should be mailed to Roddy Flynn and Mike Cronin at roderick.flynn@dcu.ie and mike.cronin@bc.edu by 31 December 2007.

Learn Irish Gaelic Now

Only a few places remain in our online Irish language classes which begin the end on August. Sign up now. Classes being offered for Fall 2007 include Elementary Irish 1, Elementary Irish 3, Intermediate Irish Grammar. Call 718-960-6722.
www.lehman.edu/cunyiias

Call for Papers: Ireland at War and Peace

Deadline for abstracts: July 30th, 2007
The University of Sunderland, in association with NEICN, is soliciting papers for Ireland: at War and Peace, an interdisciplinary conference which will run from 9-11 November 2007. The conference will begin with a plenary lecture on Friday 9^th November; there will be a book launch and wine reception in the evening and a ceilidh and conference banquet on Saturday 10^th November.
The conference organisers hope to represent a wide range of approaches to Irish culture from academics and non­-academics alike. Performances, roundtables, collaborative projects, and other non­-traditional presentations are encouraged in addition to conference papers. We particularly welcome proposals for panels. As with previous year’s conference, we welcome submissions for panels and papers under the thematic headings of: Ireland at War and Peace in the following areas: Literature, Performing Arts, History, Politics, Folklore and Mythology, Ireland in Theory, Gender and Ireland Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Tourism, Art and Art History, Music, Dance, Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies, and Studies of the Diaspora. Email alison.younger@sunderland.ac.uk for more information.

Call for papers: the Parish and the Universe

Deadline for abstracts: August 20^th, 2007

The 2007 meeting of the New England Region of the American Conference for Irish Studies will take place at the University of Massachusetts-Boston on Saturday, November 10^th, 2007.

Building on the 2006 conference hosted by the University of Connecticut—“Changing Ireland”—the 2007 meeting seeks to address post-national, global, international, and/or cosmopolitan dimensions within Irish Studies today, though we certainly welcome papers on any topic related to Irish Studies. The NEACIS is an interdisciplinary conference fostering the exchange of ideas between scholars working in fields of study ranging from history, literature, sociology, and linguistics to cultural studies, musicology, dance, film, anthropology, theater, and political science.

The conference this year aims to explore the diverse articulations and critical assessments of the pronounced “cosmopolitical bearing” in Irish Studies today, a contemporary topic very much under discussion in Patrick Kavanagh’s mid-century essay, “The Parish and the Universe.” Kavanagh’s distinction between “parochialism” and “provincialism” brings our attention to where our “eyes [will be] turned” at the conference, towards, for example, interactions between local culture and imagined global communities, the Irish region within the European Union, Northern Ireland and a devolving Great Britain. Following Kavanagh, and by bringing together a diverse range of scholars, researchers, writers, and students, the NEACIS will study a range of debates, discussions, critical frameworks, stories, etc. emerging from our simultaneous and critical gaze at these various sites.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please e-mail paper and/or panel proposals (300-400 words) to Matthew Brown Matthew.Brown@umb.edu by August 20^th, 2007. Please include your proposal in the body of the e-mail and not as a separate attachment.

Please note that all who attend the NEACIS must be members of the ACIS with dues paid through the end of the year.

If you have further questions about the conference, please contact Matthew Brown Matthew.Brown@umb.edu or Thomas O’Grady Thomas.OGrady@umb.edu in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

Learn Irish Gaelic Online

Elaine Ní Bhraonáin writes:

Registration is now taking place for Irish courses taught through Lehman College, CUNY. Courses are taught using the blackboard online teaching system which is extremely user friendly. New lectures are posted each week and contain classwork, handouts, sound files, photos, video clips, exercises and assignments. Log on whenever suits you. Read all the lectures, play the games, do the quizzes, submit homework and practice your pronunciation. I will correct all your work, give feedback and help you in any way I can. It's one of the fastest, easiest & most enjoyable ways to learn the Irish language. The course is combined with optional weekly conversation circles in Manhattan. You may take this course for credit or just for fun. You can call or email me for more information. 718-960-6722

irishlanguage@gmail.com

Call for Papers: American Conference for Irish Studies/West

Tacoma Washington
October 5-7, 2007

From Emain Macha to St. Andrews: Finding the Intersection of Reconciliation and Traditions

The 23rd meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies/West, will be hosted by Tacoma Community College. Proposals for 20 minute papers are invited on any topic of interest to Irish Studies. Papers addressing conflict, resolution and traditions within the Irish experience (from the perspective of history, art, economics, science, literature, sociology, political science or gender studies) are particularly welcome.

Presenters must be members of the American Conference for Irish Studies.

Send abstracts of no more than 300 words to

Kendall Reid
Wanamaker Library
Building 7
Tacoma Community College
6501 South 19th Street
Tacoma WA 98466-6100

Or by email to kreid@tacomacc.edu

Deadline: June 30, 2007

The conference hotel is the Silver Cloud Inn

Reservations before September 5 may be made at the ACIS/TCC conference rate $129.00 for either King or Queen Queen rooms.

All sessions will take place on the Tacoma Community College main campus. http://www.tacomacc.edu/campuslocations/maincampus.aspx

Call for Papers: The Irish Question

Deadline for Abstracts: March 15, 2008
The Radical History Review seeks submissions for an issue that will explore the intellectual, historical and political implications of the "Irish Question" over the past eight centuries.

We depart from the premise that the national question and its resolution (or not) in Ireland is not only a major topic in Irish and British Imperial history, but one with fundamental implications for the evolution of the modern world, and the histories of colonialism and postcolonialism. We envision contributions focused on Ireland, first as a colony and then partitioned into two states after 1922, and the attendant "Irish diaspora" in England, Canada, the United States, and beyond. However, the editors do not assume that the Irish Question is restricted to people of Irish descent or the countries they inhabit: we are equally interested in the relationship of Ireland's national struggle to Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The issue will seek to explore a series of interlocking questions, including but not limited to:

1. Is Ireland a founding site of European imperialism and anti-imperial resistance, as well as post-colonialism? What are the implications for European or world history of moving the Third back into the First World?
2. How has the rise of a Revisionist historiography challenging the nationalist narrative paralleled Ireland's move away from postcolonial dependency since the 1970s? What is its significance for historians outside of Ireland? What does it mean to deny the existence of a national revolution in Ireland?
3. What are the implications of the process beginning in the mid-nineteenth century whereby Ireland and Irishness was configured as exclusively Catholic? How has that identity played out on the world stage-is it equally relevant in all cases?
4. Why is "race" so rarely mentioned inside Irish history when the Irish as immigrants are so emphatically raced once they leave Ireland, whether as "becoming white" or not-quite-white? Does Ireland occupy a distinctive place in whiteness studies, or should it?
5. Is it useful or accurate to assert an "Irish Diaspora?" What are the implications of this particular form of diasporic studies?
6. How have the Irish, whether in Ireland or abroad, appropriated transnational forms of popular culture like soul and later hip-hop?
7. How influential has the Irish version of cultural nationalism been in the larger world? Can we link De Valera with Garvey and Ben Gurion, or is the Ireland sui generis, given the role of the Catholic Church?
8. How has Irish Republicanism been represented in popular and mass culture, in different parts of the world? Are these tropes and images similar to those assigned to other movements committed to armed struggle by any means necessary, or distinctively different?
9. What is the Irish Left, alongside or outside of Irish republicanism? Are its problems relevant to the problem of class politics in other national liberation struggles?
10. How has Irish women's history and Irish feminism recast the National Question?
11. Are there distinctive Irish and/or Irish American discourses of sexuality and queerness-are they similar or different, and what role does demography play in Ireland's distinctive history of sexual repression?

Though the RHR continues to publish monographic articles, we also invite Reflections, Interventions, roundtables, interviews, and reviews that go beyond books to look at popular historical representations, whether visual, cinematic, or textual. Potential contributors are encouraged to look at recent issues for examples of these non-traditional forms of scholarship.
Submissions are due by March 15, 2008 and should be submitted electronically, as an attachment, to rhr@igc.org with "Issue 104 submission" in the subject line. For artwork, please send images as high resolution digital files (each image as a separate file). For preliminary e-mail inquiries, please include "Issue 104" in the subject line. Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 104 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in Spring 2009.

Email: rhr@igc.org

Yahoo! group established for the study of the Ros Muc dialect

This is in from Éamon Jeffers:

"A group has been set up here to study Caint Ros Muc, the book and recordings of the Ros Muc dialect that were made back in the 60s. They contain really interesting stories, and we'll have the chance to practice our spoken Irish – both listening and speaking. There's a lovely natural rhythm to the Irish in the recordings, and every word is transcribed in the book.

"We'll be working as a team – more pleasing than working on your own, of course. The group would be suitable for anyone who has already read Learning Irish, or a similar course. But there's no need to be fluent. If our Irish is a bit clumsy, if we can't easily understand spoken Irish, if we speak Irish with some awful accent, then we hope to fix those problems by working together.

"If you're interested, or if you can help us, then you'll be welcome."

Associating Ireland: 2007 ACIS Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference

Deadline for Abstracts: June 15, 2007

Whether through religious, political, athletic, linguistic, or national venues, Ireland and Irish identity are consistently positioned within a network of assumptions and associations. We invite papers from historical, literary, religious, and other perspectives that engage with the concept of association and Ireland. For a complete list of topics or other information please email sullivkp@lemoyne.edu.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Alvin Jackson of the University of Edinburgh and Dr. Kathryn Conrad of the University of Kansas have agreed to serve as keynote speakers for the conference.

Abstracts can be sent to: Professor Kate Costello-Sullivan
Le Moyne College
1419 Salt Springs Road
Syracuse, NY 13214
sullivkp@lemoyne.edu

Louvain Summer School

As part of the Louvain 400 celebrations, a Summer School will be held in St Anthony’s College, now the Louvain Institute for Ireland in Europe from 21 to 25 May 2007.

The focus of the Summer School will be the contribution of the Irish in Europe during the seventeenth century. Topics for discussion will include Irish cultural identity, the foundation of St Anthony’s College, Louvain, the Irish Colleges in Europe, the writing of Irish history, the great Irish Franciscans project (including the compilation of the Annals of the Four Masters) and the state of Ireland in the 17th century.

Louvain 400 is part of the national celebration of Shared Histories which will also commemorate the Flight of the Earls in 1607 and the death in 1657 of the eminent Irish Franciscan Luke Wadding, founder of St Isidore’s College in Rome.
For further information see www.louvain400.eu.

Irish Studies at UMass Boston

The Irish Studies Program at UMass Boston is an interdisciplinary program of study designed to provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to study Irish and Irish-American culture, primarily through literature and history. Course offerings cover major aspects of Irish culture from ancient times to the present.

A two-course sequence, Early Irish Literature and Irish Literature, provides students with an overview of Irish literature and the society that produced it from the 6th century to the middle of the 20th century. Study of Irish history from the 17th century to the present links old Ireland and new. Study of the development of Ireland in the 20th century focuses on the social and political upheaval surrounding the uprising of 1916, partition, civil war, the gradual emergence of an independent Irish Republic and the ongoing political turbulence centered in Northern Ireland.

Courses on James Joyce and William Butler Yeats focus on the contributions to world literature of Ireland's two most noted writers. Courses on the Irish short story and the modern Irish novel explore the mastery of particular literary forms by Irish writers. Study of recent Irish writing examines the continuing literary achievement in Ireland, both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic. Study of the Irish presence in America explores the contribution of this major immigrant group to the literature, the politics, and the culture of the United States. Special topics courses offered occasionally -- on Irish drama, on Irish poetry, on Irish women writers -- provide additional opportunity for students to investigate evolving artistic, social, and cultural concerns of the Irish people.


Contact Irish Studies Director Thomas O'Grady at thomas.ogrady@umb.edu for more information.

Irish Colloquium

This Saturday sees the return of the Boston College Irish Studies Colloquium in Connolly House, with over thirty faculty from a dozen local colleges discussing literature, history, music and the visual arts. The colloquium has a broad focus with wide appeal: expect presentations on, for example, Yeats, Joyce, Bowen, Heaney, on recent historicism, the authenticity of modernism, and contemporary visual art. In addition, Vera Kreilkamp, editor of Éire-Ireland, will answer questions on publishing in Irish journals today, and John Paul Riquelme will bring along his second pass proofs of his forthcoming edition of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The main speaker is historian L. Perry Curtis Jr. More information from Joe Nugent, nugentjf@bc.edu, or by clicking on this link.

Irish Language Day at ACIS

Thursday, April 19, 2007
This year, special one-day registration is being offered for the Irish language portion of the 2007 American Conference for Irish Studies national meeting (location: CUNY Graduate Center on 34th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan, right across from the Empire State Building). Lectures in Irish and English will be given by Irish language scholars throughout the day, among them Boston College alum and former faculty member Brian O Conchubhair. Breakfast and tea breaks provided, along with admission to the evening program which includes a wine and cheese reception and concert. Visit www.lehman.edu/cunyiias or call 718-960-6722 for more info.

Symposium:Teaching and Learning the Irish Language in the United States: Practice, Prospects, Perspectives

This symposium will address several themes regarding the Irish language, including methods of instruction, the role and potential of technology, attitudes and responses to the language among varied student communities and regions in the United States, the relationship between Ireland and the United States in terms of Irish language organizations, public policy, and diverse media, and projection about potential future trends in Irish language learning.
Date: April 28th, 2007 · 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Location: Glucksman Ireland House, NYU
Symposium website

Irish language weekend

The weekend includes Irish language classes at 7 levels,céilís and workshops. Tuition is 160.00 USD and includes: meals from supper Friday evening to lunch on Sunday, and two nights accommodation at the Best Western Country Squire Resort in Kingston, ON. For more info, contact

Dr. Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh
kenny-h@rmc.ca
(613) 541-6000 ext 6042

I am interested in doing graduate work in Irish Studies. What programs do you offer?

Irish Studies has wide ranging graduate programs within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Students may obtain an MA with a concentration in Irish History, an English department MA in Irish Literature and Culture; a PhD with a major field in Irish History; and a PhD in English with a concentration in Irish Literature.

The Masters Degree in Irish Literature and Culture offers English Department candidates the opportunity to design an interdisciplinary course of study drawing from a wide range of fields, including literature, Irish language, history, women’s studies, American studies, fine arts, music and cultural studies. Boston College's PhD program in English also attracts top doctoral candidates in Irish literature who work closely with Irish Studies faculty.

For information about these programs (incl. admissions requirements, GREs, etc.) please email the English Department at english@bc.edu. Or visit the Graduate Programs in English website.

Students may also specialize in Irish History in a range of graduate programs offered by the History Department. For information about these programs (incl. admissions requirements, GREs, etc.) please contact the History Department: email history@bc.edu or visit the Graduate Programs in History website.

In either case, admissions is handled through the Graduate School of Arts & Science. Applications and program materials are available on the Grad School's website. If you would like to make arrangements to take graduate classes prior to being enrolled as a formal student, contact the Graduate School or visit their web site about applying as a Special Student (allows students to take up to 2 graduate courses in the specific department they are interested in applying to). For more information and admission questions, contact GSAS at gsasinfo@bc.edu.

Graduates of both our masters and doctoral programs typically pursue careers in public and higher education, teaching Irish Studies, English, history and art. Alumni of the Irish Studies doctoral program hold faculty positions at the National University of Ireland, Dublin, the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, the University of South Florida, Le Moyne College, and other four-year institutions. Information about the application process can be found on the Boston College Admissions homepage.

Graduate students are a vital part of Irish Studies at Boston College. Students contribute to the intellectual and social life of the program and add a genuine sense of community to Irish Studies at Boston College. Their contribution to events, lectures, courses and colloquia enhance the experience of all involved in the Irish Studies. Graduate students have made their presence known in the field by publishing articles in major journals in North America, Britain and Ireland. They have given papers at major conferences in North America, Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia. Graduate students have sponsored national conferences that have drawn students from all over North American and Ireland to discuss current research in Irish Studies.

Irish Studies courses are currently posted on our web site: www.bc.edu/irish.