Centre for Irish Studies Newsletter

 Nuachtlitir Ionad an Léinn Éireannaigh 

Issue 1 Summer 2005

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COVER STORIES

• Message from the Director
• Interview with Sean-Nós Singer in Residence
• Máire Mhac an tSaoi appointed Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies

Message from the Director

Fáilte romhat go dtí an chéad eagrán de nuachtlitir Ionad an Léinn Éireannaigh. Tá an tIonad nach mór cúig bliana ar an saol anois agus shocraíomar gurbh é an tslí ab fhearr chun ár gcairde go léir, anseo in Éirinn agus ar fud na cruinne, a choimeád ar an eolas ná nuachtlitir a fhoilsiú uair sa ráithe le cur síos ar a bhfuil ar siúl againn faoi láthair. Sa chéad eagrán seo, tá tuairisc ar shaol agus ar shaothar Mháire Mhac an tSaoi, duine de mhórfhilí na hÉireann le céad bliain anuas, atá díreach ceaptha mar Ollamh Oinigh le Léann na hÉireann, agus agallamh le hÁine Ní Dhroighneáin atá ceaptha ina hAmhránaí Cónaitheach againn i mbliana. Táimid thar a bheith buíoch do Mháire Mhac an tSaoi a cheadaigh dúinn dán nua léi ’Mismíní’ a fhoilsiú anseo istigh.

Among the many highlights of recent activities at the Centre for Irish Studies, I would make particular mention of our students on the Diploma in Irish Studies in Ennis, and Galway, and on our online programme. These are the first ever students to graduate from these programmes and they received their diplomas from President Ó Muircheartaigh at graduation ceremonies on campus here in Galway and at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Comhghairdeachas leosan ar fad agus lena gcuid léachtóirí díograiseacha. 

I would also mention the award of a Government of Ireland Fellowship to Nessa Cronin, the first ever PhD candidate at the Centre for Irish Studies to achieve that distinction. Nessa is in the second year of her doctoral research on a thesis entitled ’Mapping the land: a cultural history of the cartography of Ireland’.

Finally, Four Courts Press has just published Heather Laird’s Subversive Law in Ireland 1879-1920: From Unwritten Law to the Dáil Courts, the most substantial publication to emerge thus far from the Centre for Irish Studies. Dr Laird has just completed her tenure as James and Mary Fox Post-Doctoral Fellow in Irish Studies and her work has been described by Luke Gibbons as a ’brilliant discussion of the fusion of memory and modernity in agrarian insurgency’.

Tá mórán imeachtaí beartaithe againn as seo go dtí deireadh na bliana chun an cúigiú breithlá a cheiliúradh. Le gach eolas a fháil faoi na himeachtaí sin, téir go dtí http://www.irishstudies.ie/

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

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Sean-Nós Singer in Residence at the Centre for Irish Studies

The Centre for Irish Studies is pleased to announce the appointment of Áine Ní Dhroighneáin as Sean-Nós Singer-in-Residence at the university for the forthcoming year. Áine is from Baile an tSléibhe in Spiddal, an area which has produced many fine singers over the years including Síle Tim Ní Fhlaithearta, Mairéad Ní Fhlaithearta, and Tomás Ó Neachtain. She attended her first Oireachtas and went on to win the Corn Faoi-18 at the tender age of fifteen. In 2002, she finished second in Corn Mháire Áine Mhic Dhonnchadha and was awarded second place again later that year in the sean-nós competition at Féile na Mí. Among the many singers who have helped her over the years and influenced her style of singing, Áine gives particular credit to Peaitsí Ó Ceannabháin, Máire Pheitir Uí Dhroighneáin, Pat Phádraig Tom Ó Conghaile, from whom she learned a great many of her songs. Despite the geographical rivalry between Spiddal and Carna, she also mentions Johnny Mháirtín Learaí as one of her favourite singers. Áine teaches English and French at Coláiste na Coiribe in Galway and also works as part-time tutor in the French Department at NUI, Galway, where she teaches French through the medium of Irish.

Et voila!

Interview

I met Áine at the Centre for Irish Studies where I was met with a young woman from Spiddal full of energy and love for the sean-nós tradition and (luckily for me!) a natural dispensation for chat and comhrá. Our discussion started with her own beginnings into the world of song, and soon we found ourselves laughing and talking about everything from Tommy Tiernan sketches, heavy metal, and sean-nós afficianados. She claims to be shy, but one feature that came across to me throughout the interview is her remarkable modesty about her own achievements to date and the joy she takes in continuing the singing tradition, ’ó ghlúin go glúin’, as she says herself. Áine stated early on that if she had been born into another life she would probably have lived in the swing era! I’m still working that one out, but am extremely glad that she is a singer in this one, and that I had the pleasure of interviewing her with regards to her position as Sean-Nós Singer in Residence at the Centre for Irish Studies, 2005.  Follow link for full interview with Nessa Cronin, Editor.

During the twelve months of her residency, Áine will participate in a series of performances and workshops at the Centre for Irish Studies and at Áras Shorcha Ní Ghuairim in Carna, and, in association with Pléaráca Chonamara and An Gaelacadamh, at other venues throughout the Connemara Gaeltacht. She will also make a recording of her work for the audio archive at the Centre for Irish Studies.

This project is funded by Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Údarás na Gaeltachta and An Chomhairle Ealaíon in association with the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI, Galway.

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Máire Mhac an tSaoi appointed Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies

Mísmíní

’Agus mé im’ greachaile,’ adúirt sí,’
’Chreidinn go raibh na Flaithis
Lán de chumhracht na meala
Agus na mísmín
Agus d’aer na farraige.
Anois gabhaim leor le grá Dé!

Máire Mhac an tSaoi

The Centre for Irish Studies at NUI, Galway has announced the appointment of the distinguished poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi to the position of Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies. Máire Mhac an tSaoi is one of a handful of major poets who transformed poetry in Irish in the period during and after the Second World War. Her work is particularly significant in that it anticipates the emergence of women’s voices at the forefront of Irish poetry in both Irish and English during the 1970s and 80s. A generation before the groundbreaking achievements of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Eavan Boland and others, and in more daunting circumstances, Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s poetry speaks to and from the intimate experience of women at a time when women’s voices were marginalized both in literature and in Irish society. Her most famous poem ’Ceathrúintí Mháire Ní Ógáin’, is a powerful challenge to the orthodox morality of  Ireland in the 1940s and subsequent decades:

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

I care little for people’s suspicions,
I care little for priests’ prohibitions,
For anything save to lie stretched
Between you and the wall-

The intellectual integrity and emotional independence that characterise her poetry is evident again in Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s public life. In reviewing her autobiography The Same Age as the State¸ Seamus Heaney says ’there is truth to experience here, a forthrightness about passion and transgression that is thrilling and exemplary’. Throughout the book, she speaks frankly of her own experience as a civil servant and career diplomat during a period of dramatic change and political turbulence in Ireland, Europe, and the developing world. During her time in the Department of External Affairs, she was, in her own words, the ’token woman’ on Ireland’s first delegation to the United Nations. As chargé d’affaires at the Irish Embassy in Madrid, she was invited to the Palacio del Oriente, where she met with General Franco, an experience she describes as ’both baroque and absurd’. She also spent time with her husband Conor Cruise O’Brien in the Congo, Ghana, and elsewhere in dramatic times and dangerous circumstances. One of the most powerful passages in The Same Age as the State recounts a violent incident in Katanga and an apparent attempt to assassinate Dr O’Brien.

Ms Mac an tSaoi’s appointment is a timely one, according to Louis de Paor, Director of the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI, Galway. ’While she is highly regarded by other poets and by critics, the full extent of Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s contribution to twentieth-century Irish literature and politics has yet to be fully appreciated and acknowledged. In recognition of her achievement, as a groundbreaking poet and as a public figure who participated significantly in some of the key moments of recent Irish, European, and world history, it is entirely appropriate that she be appointed to this honorary position.’

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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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