Centre for Irish Studies Newsletter

 Nuachtlitir Ionad an Léinn Éireannaigh 

Issue 2 Autumn 2005

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COVER STORIES

• Message from the Director
• Interview with Felix Varona, Arts Faculty Research Fellow at the Centre
• Review of Subversive Law in Ireland 1879-1920: From Unwritten Law to the Dáil Courts
• Monsignor Pádraig De Brún Lecture 2005

Message from the Director Focal ón Stiúrthóir

Tá céad fáilte romhat go dtí eagrán an Fhómhair de nuachtlitir Ionad an Léinn Éireannaigh. Cuirimid fáilte ar leith an uair seo roimh mhic léinn ó Choláistí Union, Hobart agus William Smith, a bheidh ag freastal ar chúrsa speisialta linn as seo go dtí an Nollaig, agus guímid gach rath ar lucht an MA sa Léann Éireannach atá ag críochnú a gcuid tráchtas i láthair na huaire. Is fada an bóthar nach bhfuil aon chasadh ann! Cuirimid fáilte chomh maith roimh an Ollamh Félix Varona ó Chúba a bheidh anseo ar feadh an chéad sheimeastair le taighde a dhéanamh ar an gceangal idir Thomas Moore, príomhfhile na hÉireanna sa naoú haois déag, agus José Martí, príomhfile Chúba. Tá agallamh leis an Ollamh Varona anseo thíos.

As well as the interview with our Visiting Research Fellow, Professor Félix Varona, who is investigating the Irish contribution to the Cuban national project, this edition of the newsletter includes a report on the recent conference of Irish Studies convened in Tarragona by AEDEI, the Spanish Association for Irish Studies. As you can see from the report, Galway was well represented at the academic and social activities of the conference. There is also a review by David Lloyd of Heather Laird’s Subversive Law in Ireland 1879-1920: From Unwritten Law to the Dáil Courts (Four Courts Press 2005) . Having completed her tenure as James and Mary Fox Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Irish Studies, Dr Laird has recently been appointed to a lectureship in English at the National University of Ireland, Cork. Comhghairdeachas leat Heather is go maire tú do nuacht.

Beannachtaí agus comhghairdeachas chomh maith le Samantha Williams, Riarthóir an Ionaid, a bheidh ag imeacht ar saoire máithreachais i mí Mheán Fómhair. Cheana féin, is fada linn go bhfillfidh sí!

As mentioned in the previous newsletter, the Centre for Irish Studies will be celebrating its fifth birthday in November this year. On 21 September, John McGahern, who is Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies at NUI, Galway, will officially open the Centre’s refurbished premises at Martha Fox House. Professor McGahern’s eagerly awaited memoir, from which he read so impressively at this year’s Summer School, will also be launched in September.

For further details of all activities at the Centre for Irish Studies, you can visit our website at  http://www.irishstudies.ie/

Louis de Paor
Director, Centre for Irish Studies
National University of Ireland, Galway

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Interview with Felix Varona, Arts Faculty Research Fellow at the Centre

Félix Flores Varona is Associate Professor at the Pedagogical University of Ciego de Ávila, Cuba, and has conducted research in general and applied linguistics, literature and history. He is Vice President of the Scientific Board of the Culture Provincial Direction and a specialist in the life and works of José Martí. His current research project deals with Martí and the Irish element in the shaping of the Cuban nation.

Interview with Félix

Nessa: Félix, to begin with, could you tell us a little about your academic background?
Félix: My academic career started in 1981 at the Pedagogical University of Camagüey. I worked as a language lab technician at the Faculty of Humanities where I trained students from different language programs. It was not until the following year that I started teaching. For several years I was Visiting Professor at the José Antonio Echeverría Polytechnic University in Havana. I have participated in more than 70 national and international meetings as author, jury member, translator or special guest. In 1993 I started working at the Coastal Ecosystems Research Center on Cayo Coco, Ciego de Ávila, the province where I live at the moment. At present, I work as a writer for Surco Radio Station’s web page ( http://www.radiosurco.islagrande.cu/). I am the Vice President of the Scientific Board of the Culture Provincial Delegation, a member of the Advisory Board to the Book Provincial Centre and the President of the Cuban Association of Social Communicators in my province. I have been Adjunct Professor to Ciego de Ávila Pedagogical University since 1995 and Associate Professor since 1996.  Follow link for full interview

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Review of Subversive Law in Ireland 1879-1920: From Unwritten Law to the Dáil Courts

Subversive Law Subverted

Book Review by David Lloyd to appear in Irish Review

Heather Laird, Subversive Law in Ireland, 1879-1920: From ’Unwritten Law’ to the Dail Courts.  Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005.  ISBN: 1—85182—876—1.  Euros 45.00

I should from the outset declare an interest: I am in the peculiar and perhaps unenviable position of reviewing a book that contains an extended critique of my own work.  To be criticized is, for any postcolonial scholar, especially working in or on Ireland, commonplace; to be critiqued interestingly and tellingly is, sadly, all too rare.  But Heather Laird has written a book, Subversive Law in Ireland, which is throughout of compelling interest and as persuasive in its overall argument as it is in its detailed and original archival scholarship.  The thesis of the book is clearly stated from the outset.  Laird argues that "resistance to an official legal system.created a space for the establishment of alternative legal concepts and structures that monitored and regulated the behaviour of rural communities."  Her work shows that, against what has often been implied in official reports and in historical works, the resistance to British law in Ireland led not to "mere anarchy" but to the invocation and practice of a kind of "counter-legality".  As Laird goes on to argue: "Law in Ireland was not only a medium for the implementation of English rule; it was also a fundamental component of anti-colonial resistance, with the concept of an alternative system of control capable of supplanting a despised official law functioning as one of the most substantive threats to successive colonial administrations."  The elements of this "alternative system" are both culturally complex and effective: they not only "mimicked, paralleled, appropriated, parodied,  [and] subverted" official law, they succeeded at critical moments in displacing it.  Follow link for full review.

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  Monsignor Pádraig De Brún Lecture 2005

Pictured from Left:  Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh,                      President, NUI, Galway.

The following is the introductory speech given by the President, Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh at the Monsignor Pádraig De Brún Lecture, entitled Faisnéis Bhreise ar Phiaras Feiritéar, which was delivered by Professor Máire Mhac an tSaoi in June 2005.

Oscailte an Uachtaráin

 Dia dhaoibh go léir agus bhur gcéad fáilte go dtí ceann do mhórócáidí an tsaoil acadúil anseo in Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh, is é sin, Léacht Chuimhneacháin an Mhonsignor Pádraig de Brún. Mar is eol do chuid mhaith agaibh, bhí an Monsignor de Brún ar dhuine de scoláirí móra a linne i mórán réimsí léinn, agus go háirithe i ngort na matamaitice agus i gcúrsaí litríochta agus teanga. Ní hiontas, b’fhéidir, é a bheith go maith chun na sumaí agus Éamon de Valera mar mhúinteoir aige sa mheánscoil!

Bhí an Mgr de Brún ina Uachtarán ar Choláiste na hOllscoile, Gaillimh ó 1945 go dtí 1959 agus ba mhaisiú ar shaol intleachta agus cultúir na cathrach é ar feadh na tréimhse sin. ’Rector Magnificus’ a thug an file Thomas McGreevy air, nuair a cailleadh é ar an 5 Meitheamh 1960. I measc na mbuanna a luaigh McGreevy lena sheanchara, fear a raibh Homer, Sophocles, Dante, Corneille, agus Racine aistrithe go Gaeilge aige, bhí  ’an Olympian capacity to appreciate the most exalted works of art and literature, ancient and modern’. Agus í ar leaba a báis, d’iarr an Bhantiarna Gregory ar WB Yeats a rá leis an mBrúnach gur saothar a bhí scríofa aige sin i bpáirt leis an Mgr Boylan, Beatha Íosa Críost, is mó a thug sólás di in am a gátair.

Ócáid neamchoitianta go maith is ea an oíche anocht mar gur iníon deirféar don Mgr de Brún, an file Máire Mhac an tSaoi, a thabharfaidh an léacht dúinn i gcuimhne a huncail Pádraig. Sara dtéim níos faide, ba mhaith liom a gradam nua a thréaslú le Máire atá díreach ceaptha ina hOllamh Oinigh le Léann na hÉireann anseo in Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh. Onóir do chomhluadar na hOllscoile, is ea tú a bheith tagtha inár measc, a Mháire, is go maire tú do theideal is do ghradam nua.

Tá Máire Mhac an tSaoi ar dhuine de na filí is mó a d’fhág a rian ar fhilíocht na Gaeilge le linn agus i ndiaidh an dara cogadh domhanda. Tá tábhacht speisialta lena saothar sa mhéid is go mbraitear an guth baineann a fágadh ar imeall an tradisiúin Ghaelaigh leis na cianta á chur féin in iúl os ard agus od íseal ar fud na filíochta aici

Sa dán is cáiliúla dá cuid, ’Ceathrúintí Mháire Ní Ógáin’, tugtar dúshlán na heaglaise agus an phobail maidir lena dteagasc mórálta i gcúrsaí gnéis:

              Beagbheann ar amhras daoine
              Beagbheann ar chros na sagart,
              Ar gach ní ach a bheith sínte
              Idir tú agus falla-

Tá an téagar aigne agus an neamhspleáchas mothála atá le brath ina cuid dánta le haithint chomh maith ina saol poiblí. Ag cur síos dó ar a dírbheathaisnéis, The Same Age as the State¸ dúirt Seamus Heaney: ’there is truth to experience here, a forthrightness about passion and transgression that is thrilling and exemplary’. Sa leabhar sin, tá cur síos neamhbhalbh aici ar an bpáirt a ghlac sí i saol corrach a linne féin in Éirinn agus thar lear. Mar státseirbhíseach agus mar thaidhleoir leis an Roinn Gnóthaí Eachtracha, bhí sí ar dhuine den gcéad thoscaireacht a chuir Éire chuig na Náisiúin Aontaithe. Cé go bhfuil ionraiceas neamhchoitianta le brath sa leabhar tríd síos, is deacair a chreidiúint go bhfuil an fhírinne ghlan á hinsint aici nuair a deir sí gur ’token woman’ a bhí inti sa toscaireacht sin!

Chaith sí tamall ina chargé d’affaires  in Ambasáid na hÉireann i Madrid áit ar bhuail sí leis an nGinearál Franco sa Palacio del Oriente. Bhí an teacht le chéile sin ’both baroque and absurd’, adeir sí. Bhí sí sa Chongó aimsir na cinniúna sa tír sin agus tá cur síos fíorchorraitheach aici ar an dtréimhse chontúirteach a chaith sí in Katanga i dteannta a fir chéile, an Dr Conchubhar Crús Ó Briain.

Ní hamháin go bhfuil a hainm in airde mar sin, mar scoláire, agus mar fhile a d’fhág a rian láidir féin ar litríocht na Gaeilge lenár linn, ach bhí páirt lárnach aici i gcuid de na himeachtaí is mó a chlaochlaigh leagan amach polaitíochta na hEorpa agus an domhain mhóir le breis agus leithchéad bliain anuas.

Tá sé ráite go mion minic ag Máire féin i gcaitheamh na mblianta gur fhág na tréimhsí fada a chaith sí i dtigh a huncail Pádraig, Tigh na Cille i nDún Chaoin, a rian láidir ar a saothar filíochta agus ar a cuid tuairimí láidre i dtaobh thraidisiún litríochta na Gaeilge. Tá sé thar a bheith oiriúnach, más ea, gurb é ábhar a cuid cainte anocht, saothar duine de mhórfhilí Chorca Dhuibhne, Piaras Feiritéar. Leis sin, tá nasc beo á dhéanamh idir an taoiseach Gall-Ghaelach sa seachtú haois déag, an matamaiticeoir ildána Pádraig de Brún a d’fhéach le hoidhreacht na hEorpa a cheangal le traidisiún dúchais na Gaeilge agus a cuid filíochta féin atá age baile i gcónaí sa chultúr Gaelach Eorpach a tháinig anuas chuici le hoidhreacht.  

Is pléisiúr agus pribhléid in éineacht dom anois iarraidh ar an Ollamh Máire Mhac an tSaoi labhairt linn lena ’Faisnéis Bhreise ar Phiaras Feiritéar’.

From Left:  Prof. Tadhg Foley, Chairman, Centre for Irish Studies, Dr Louis de Paor, Director, Centre for Irish Studies, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, President, NUI, Galway

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This online newsletter is published by the Centre for Irish Studies.  Any views, comments, or suggestions are welcome and should be forwarded to Nessa Cronin, Editor at n.croninnuigalway.ie or Samantha Williams, Technical Editor at samantha.williamsnuigalway.ie

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