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Centre for Irish Studies Newsletter

 Nuachtlitir Ionad an Léinn Éireannaigh                          Issue 6                Summer 2008

| Cover Stories | Summer Features | Back Issues |

COVER STORIES

• Focal ón Stiúrthóir
• 25th Summer School in Irish Studies
• Unfolding Ideas : The Roundstone Colloquium

Focal ón Stiúrthóir

 
Agus an t-eagrán seo den nuachtlitir á chur le chéile againn, fuaireamar an dea-scéal go bhfuil an Dr Seán Crosson ceaptha i bpost buan mar léachtóir sa Huston School of Film and Digital Media in OÉ, Gaillimh. Ar ndóigh, iarmhacléinn dár gcuid fhéin is ea Seán, an chéad duine riamh gur bronnadh céim dochtúireachta sa Léann Éireannach air san Ollscoil seo, is déanaimid comhghairgdeachas ó chroí leis ar a cheapachán. Beidh tráchtas Sheáin ar an dlúthcheangal cruthaitheach idir ceol traidisiúnta agus filíocht na hÉireann sa Ghaeilge agus sa Bhéarla sa dara leath den bhfichiú haois á fhoilsiú sa bhFómhar is beidh níos mó le rá againn faoi sin sa chéad nuachtlitir eile.

 Agus níl ansan ach tús an cheiliúrtha! Fuair triúr iarrthóir ó Ionad an Léinn Éireannaigh comhaltachtaí taighde ón IRCHSS i mbliana, Margaret Brehony, David Doyle, agus Sara Hanafin, is déanaimid comhghairdeachas leosan ar fad as an ngaisce atá déanta acu. Comhghairdeachas speisialta le Sara a fuair an dea-scéal roimpi nuair a tháinig sí abhaile ón ospidéal tar éis a céad leanbh a thabhairt ar an  saol.

Comhghairdeachas chomh maith le John Eastlake a chríochnaigh agus a chosain a thráchtas PhD ar dhírbheathaisnéisí na ndúchasach i Meiriceá agus in Éirinn an mhí seo caite agus le Samantha Williams a fuair ardú céime ina post mar riarthóir an Ionaid níos túisce i mbliana. (Is í Samantha, ar ndóigh, a chuireann an nuachtlitir le chéile dúinn is bheadh i bhfad níos mó le rá agam mar gheall ar a gradam nua ach go bhfuil a fhios agam go mbainfí amach arís é tar éis mo dhíchill!)

Bhí go leor leor cuairteoirí againn san Ionad le leathbhliain anuas is tá cur síos ar an obair spreagúil a dhein Charles Armstrong, Margot Backus, agus Dara Culhane anso thíos im dhiaidh. Chomh maith leosan, chaith Radvan Markus ó Phoblacht na Seice tamall linn agus é i mbun taighde ar úrscéalaíocht na Gaeilge. Tá L’Attaque le Eoghan Ó Tuairisc aistrithe cheana aige go Seicis agus rún aige a thuilleadh leabhar Gaeilge a aistriú amach anso. Comhartha ar idirnáisiúnú na teanga é, ní foláir, gur mó ná riamh cheana an Ghaeilge a bhí le cloisint i dTigh Martha Fox fad a bhí Radvan inár dteannta.

We should also mention Xuan Gong, from Nanjing University, who was awarded a China Council Scholarship to complete her research on the novels of Roddy Doyle at the Centre for Irish Studies. Her Marxist approach to the tension between traditional constructions of family, gender, class, and home, and Doyle’s interrogation of these constructions in his early work in particular, is full of unexpected insights into submerged patterns of domestic and social life in Ireland in the 1960s and subsequent decades. During her time here, Xuan Gong had the opportunity to interview Roddy Doyle and his considered responses to her questions provide valuable insights into his narrative technique. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Xuan Gong for her wonderful contribution to the academic life of the Centre and to send our best wishes to her and her family during a difficult time following the recent appalling earthquake.

Finally we welcome all of the students who are attending this year’s Summer School in Irish Studies. This is the twenty-fifth Summer School organised by the Adult Education Office and the largest ever attendance. Tá súil agam go mbainfidh sibh ar fad taitneamh agus tairfe as na cúig seachtainí a bheidh sibh inár dteannta.

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25th Anniversary of the first Summer School in Irish Studies

Tá an Scoil Shamhraidh sa Léann Éireannach 25  bliain d’aois i mbliana is déanaimid comhghairdeachas le Séamus O’Grady agus foireann na hOifige Aosoideachais as an obair go léir atá déanta acu chun Léann na hÉireann a chur chun cinn go hidirnáisiúnta i gcaitheamh an ama sin. Tá 200 duine nach mór ag freastal ar an Scoil Shamhraidh faoi láthair, an líon is mó macléinn dá raibh riamh ar an gcúrsa, is níl aon chuma ar an scéal go bhfuil an tobar  áirithe seo ag trá.

Mar bhronntanas beag uainne do Shéamus, Maedhbh, Carmel, Fiona, agus a gcomhleacaithe go léir, foilsímid anso, le caoinchead an údair, dán leis an bhfile Catherine Hunter as Ceanada a d’fhreastail ar an Scoil Shamhraidh in 2006.

Catherine Hunter’s is a widely published poet and essayist who teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Winnipeg. Her third collection of poems Latent Heat was awarded the Manitoba Book of the Year Award. She attended the Irish Studies Summer School in 2006 and wrote this poem below in response to her experience here in Galway.

We are delighted to reprint it here with Catherine’s explanatory note as part of the celebration of the 25 ^th anniversary of the first Summer School in Irish Studies at NUI Galway.

February 16, 2007
 
33 Cascade Bay
Winnipeg MB R2J 1W2,
Canada.

Dear Louis de Paor ,

Ever since returning to Canada last fall, I’ve been intending to write to say what a marvellous experience it was for me to attend NUIG’s Summer School for Irish Studies in 2006.  It’s impossible to say which parts are best, but probably it’s the tour of the Burren, or unforgettable Inis Mór, or gorgeous Dingle – not to mention the lively, talented lecturers in the program.  What a joy it was, after teaching for 15 years, to sit in the classroom and listen for a change!  You have a stellar faculty there.  I can’t tell you how much I learned – still processing it all.  And what a location you have – after leaving, I went on to Dublin, London, Amsterdam, New York and Boston, with many side trips along the way to great places like the Hogue Veluwe and Cape Cod, but of all the places I visited, I loved Galway the best.

I went to Ireland for many reasons, but mainly because the first couple of chapters of a novel I hope to write are set in and around Galway and Ballinasloe (my grandmother came from that area).  But so far the trip seems to have resulted mainly in poems rather than prose.  Some of these poems will soon be published, including one called “Irish Studies”.  A copy of that poem is tucked inside the enclosed Latent Heat, some of which you might remember from a reading in Galway at Sheridan’s Wine Bar (my book sold out that night, and sending you a copy when I got home was yet another thing I’ve been meaning to do).

Thanks and all best wishes,
Catherine Hunter

Irish Studies

James Joyce’s flat black wallet strapped into a glass case,
abandoned, as if he couldn’t take it with him.
And what do Brendan Behan’s eyeglasses
see at Night, when they’re all alone in the museum?

Yesterday on the train from Dublin to Galway,
saw from the window round bundles of hay in the fields
and a golf course, two white goats
grazing on the green beside the flag.

The first time I crossed the Corrib, a man was fly fishing there,
up to his thighs in the cold, rushing water,
while all along the rail of the Salmon Weir bridge,
the people leaned to watch him.

At the University, the professor advises:
“engage in as complicated a way as possible
with your studies”.  Outside on the tall stone walls
of the building, the hoarse voices of rustling leaves.

I asked the scholars, how complicated
does it have to be?  They answered in Irish,
consonants dissolving on their tongues,
leaving holes in the middles of words.

This morning in the River Corrib, two wild white swans asleep
with their necks curved back across their folded wings,
floating and rising and sinking on the waves.  Like two
clouds in the sky.

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Unfolding Ideas : The Roundstone Colloquium – Series 2, 2007-08.

Pictured at the Unfolding Ideas Colloquium are from left:  Leo Keohane, Tadhg Foley, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway and Tim Robinson

Unfolding Ideas is a Colloquium Series launched by NUI Galway to provide a forum for scholars, educators and artists to engage in a series of public talks, group discussion and workshops.The programme forms a part of the cultural life of the region and contributes to the social and scholarly activities of the village of Roundstone, Co Galway. Building on the long-established relationships between NUI Galway faculty and students with hosts, Tim and Máiréad Robinson, it offers a forum for the University to engage with the community and to share the knowledge of the institution’s many visitors including academics and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines. The programme activities take place in the Robinson home, Folding Landscapes, and the Roundstone Community Hall.

On 25 April this year, Dr Louis de Paor and Dr Nessa Cronin co-presented a paper examining the connections between cartography, a sense of place, and Irish poetry, entitled, ’Sin é do dhoras: Dún Chaoin faoi sholas an tráthnóna’: ag filleadh arís ar an áit dhúchais/ This is your door: Dún Chaoin in the light of the evening: (re)entering the Irish landscape’. Dr Cronin addressed the distinction between ’land’ as a natural phenomenon and ’landscape’ as a cultural construction which intersects with history, memory, and social identity, and of the complex ideologies that are implicated in the production of maps, while Dr de Paor spoke of the way in which an ambivalent sense of place and belonging is articulated in modern and contemporary poetry in Irish. The paper generated much discussion with relation to the connections and disconnections between Irish poetry and the material and cultural landscapes of twentieth-century and contemporary Ireland. Many of the respondents talked in particular as to the significance of the concept of place in relation to Irish poetry, and this extended into a discussion of the role of language in forging such a relationship in Ireland. Poetry from the Irish-language and English-language traditions was discussed with particular attention given to the work of Seán Ó Ríordáin, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Seamus Heaney. The talk was then followed by a public event where ’An Evening of Sean-nós Singing from Conamara’ was held at the Roundstone Community Hall. The NUI, Galway Sean-nós Singer-in-Residence, Micheál Ó Cuaig, hosted the evening of songs by the renowned singers Bríd Ní Mhaolchiaráin, Bairbre Uí Mhaolchiaráin, Seosamh Mac an Iomaire, and Lillis Ó Laoire.

 As part of the public event, Tim Robinson read an excerpt from his forthcoming book dealing with Captain George O’Malley of Ballynakill, and gave a bilingual recitation of one of the two songs attributed to  ’An Caiptín Máilleach’ which are still sung in Connemara today. Both events at the Robinson home and Roundstone Community Hall were extremely well-attended with staff and students of NUI Galway, residents of the local area and other visitors to Connemara. The Centre for Irish Studies would like to thank the Robinsons for their kind hospitality and look forward to continuing such conversations into the future.

For further information on the Seminar Series see: http://www.foldinglandscapes.com/ and http://www.roundstone-connemara.com/Unfolding_Ideas.pdf

Unfolding Ideas: Series 2, 2007-2008

Highlights include:

George Stoney, New York University. Documentary Filmmaker (in association with the Huston School of Film & Digital Media); ’Social Activism and the Media’.

Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinin, Department of History, NUI Galway: ’Medieval Irish Monuments: Digital Imaging in Recovering the Past’.

Professor Andrew Murphy, Department of General Practice, NUI Galway: ’The Landscapes of General Practice and Community’.

Philip Pettit, Princeton University, Lawrence S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and Human Values: ’Citizenship and the Republic’.

Dr Louis de Paor agus Dr Nessa Cronin, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway: ’“Sin é do dhoras: Dún Chaoin faoi sholas an tráthnóna”: ag filleadh arís ar an áit dhúchais. “This is your door: Dún Chaoin in the light of the evening”: (re)entering the Irish landscape’.

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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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