american conference for irish studies 2009 
Second Galway Conference of Irish Studies 2009

Fáilte go Gaillimh/Welcome to Galway

The College of Arts, Social Science, and Celtic Studies, once again, welcomes the world of Irish Studies to Galway.   On behalf of all my colleagues within the College I hope our visitors enjoy the fascinating and rewarding series of events during this Conference.  The organizing committee has worked hard to bring you together at this time, and the University extends to all of you the generous resources of its campus.   The city of Galway and the western region are always eager to see old friends again, and to kick-start new friendships with those who have arrived for the first time in this Summer of 2009.

The dynamic of Irish Studies changes to meet the new complexities of Irish life and its historical interpretation.  The process of change has been so extraordinarily rapid during the past year that no conference could hope to keep up with the pace of present-day history.  Nevertheless, the format of this ACIS/GCIS conference is especially hospitable to changefulness.  The diversity of plenary formats, availing of interviews, performances, round-table discussions, and lectures, will ensure that the discontinuities of past and present receive thorough recognition and analysis.

There is a strong opportunity to offer comparative forms of knowledge within Irish Studies, not least when scholars visit from all parts of the world and bring to the discussion their familiarity with their own local place. The central idea of a conference on people and place carries within it, of necessity, the experience of displacement. The Irish experience of displacement (whether through rural-urban populations change, diaspora, or immigration) is strongly recorded in the transformations of art forms, in economic re-structuring, and in new challenges to social resilience.   

The papers presented at this conference, no less than the performative events included within the programme, bring together momentarily in one place the passion and attentiveness to displacement that marks Irish Studies. I look forward to this new and fabulously varied program and welcome its strong balance of criticism and celebration.   

We are grateful to those who have traveled from near and far to bring their scholarship to its home.   On behalf of all participants I would like to offer a word of thanks to all those who have worked so successfully to ensure that the dance continues.

Professor Kevin Barry
Dean of the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies

Keynote events

Wednesday 10 June 

TK Whitaker in conversation with John Quinn, 2.00pm, O’Flaherty Theatre

TK Whitaker was born in Rostrevor, Co Down in 1916. Having received his early education with the Christian Brothers in Drogheda, he proceeded to obtain a Masters degree in Economic Science from the University of London. In 1934, he became a clerical officer with the Civil Service, rising through the ranks with great distinction. By 1955, he held the position of Secretary of the Department of Finance. His vision as an economist culminated in the publication in 1958 of the Programme for Economic Development, a study upon which the first programme for economic expansion in Ireland was built. Acknowledging his immense contribution to the economic development of the country, the National University of Ireland awarded him an honorary DEconSc in 1962. Dr Whitaker retired from the Department of Finance in 1969 to become Governor General of the Central Bank. He was elected as Chancellor of the National University of Ireland in 1976, and retained this position until his resignation on December 31st 1996. He was nominated to Seanad Éireann in 1977 and 1981 and was a member of the Council of State from 1991 to 1998. As President of the Royal Irish Academy, he was an ex officio member of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1985 to 1987.

Roundtable discussion on immigration, 8.00pm O’Flaherty Theatre

The opening evening of the conference will feature a roundtable discussion on inward migration to Ireland over the past decade chaired by Donncha O’Connell, former director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and a member of the Law School at NUI Galway. Donncha will be joined by Des Geraghty, President of SIPTU from 1994 to 2002 and former member of the European Parliament, Denise Charlton, chief executive of the Immigration Council of Ireland, and Chinedu Onyejelem, editor of Metro Éireann , and playwright/musician Bisi Adigun, co-author with Roddy Doyle of a highly successful modern adaptation of Synge’s Playboy of the Western World .

Thursday 11 June

Bernadette MacAliskey in conversation with John Quinn, 2.00pm, O’Flaherty Theatre

Bernadette MacAliskey was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone in 1947. She received her early education at St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon, and entered Queen’s University Belfast in 1965 to study Psychology. While at Queen’s, she became a founding member of ’People's Democracy’, a student movement concerned with the civil rights cause. She was subsequently excluded from the University. She created political history by becoming the youngest woman to be elected to the British Parliament, following her victory in a Mid-Ulster by-election in 1969. She served as an MP until 1974. Devlin was a central figure in the formation of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, a revolutionary socialist breakaway from Official Sinn Féin. She served on the party’s national executive in 1975, but left soon after and joined the Independent Socialist Party in 1977. She and her husband Michael survived an assassination attempt by the Ulster Freedom Fighters in January 1981. She remains an active commentator and activist on and has expressed strong opposition to the Good Friday Agreement and Sinn Féin’s participation in a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland.

Siobhán McKenna Exhibition Launch, 6.30pm, James Hardiman Library

An exhibition celebrating the legacy of the actress Siobhán McKenna will be launched at the James Hardiman Library this June to mark the acquisition of the McKenna Archive by NUI Galway. The collection consists of programmes, scripts, photographs, books, audio-material, press cuttings and correspondence relating to the life and work of Siobhán McKenna. Also included is part of her translation of Mary Rose (1943), for a production in Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe as well as her lecture notes from her time as a student at University College Galway. Most of the material relates to her work in drama, film and television. The exhibition will be launched by Margaret McCurtain and Maureen Murphy. Additional information concerning the McKenna Archive and the exhibition will be posted here shortly.

’Unity and diversity? Considering the Irish diaspora’, 8.00pm, O’Flaherty Theatre

Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh’s plenary lecture  will explore aspects of Irish emigration from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Professor Ó Tuathaigh is one of the most eminent and distinguished historians of modern Ireland and co-editor of the recently published history of the NUI, The National University of Ireland Centenary Essays 1908-2008.

Friday 12 June

Dr Cahal B Daly in conversation with John Quinn, 2.00pm, O’Flaherty Theatre

Cathal Brendan Daly was born in Loughguile, County Antrim in 1917 and educated at St. Patrick's National School, Loughguile, and St. Malachy's College, Belfast. He studied Classics at Queen's University in Belfast and earned his BA with Honours as well as the Henry Medal in Latin Studies in 1937. Following the completion of his MA he entered St Patrick's College, Maynooth and was ordained to the priesthood in June 1941. He continued studies in theology and was conferred with a doctorate in divinity in 1944. In 1945 he was appointed lecturer in Scholastic Philosophy at Queen’s University. During sabbatical from there, he studied at the Catholic Institute of Paris, receiving a Licentiate in Philosophy in 1953. At the Second Vatican Council, he was a peritus to both Bishop William Philbin and Cardinal William Conway. He was appointed Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in 1967. In October 1982, he was appointed as Bishop of Down and Connor and Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland on the death of his predecessor Tomás Ó Fiaich. He was created a Cardinal Priest of S. Patrizio by Pope John Paul II in 1991 and retired as Archbishop of Armagh in 1996 at the age of 79. In 2001, Dr Daly donated his entire set of writings to the Political Collection of the Linen Hall Library.

Celebration of sean-nós singing and dancing, 8.00pm, O'Flaherty Theatre

Focusing on the conference theme of ’Into the Heartland of the Ordinary’, this evening’s performances and presentations will showcase the dual traditions of sean-nós singing and dancing from the Connemara Gaeltacht.  Since its inception, the Centre for Irish Studies has been committed to supporting traditional arts through its sean-nós artists-in- residence programme, and all recipients of this award will perform at the event: Bríd Ní Mhaoilchiaráin, Josie Sheáin Jeaic MacDonncha, Áine Ní Dhroighneáin, Máire Uí Dhroighneáin, Mícheál Ó Cuaig and the current sean-nós dancer in residence, Seosamh Ó Neachtain.  The evening will be introduced by Raidió na Gaeltachta/TG4 broadcaster Máirtín Tom Sheáinín and Dr Lillis Ó Laoire, Scoil na Gaeilge, NUI Galway will give a short presentation on “Sean-nós in the heartland of the ordinary”.

James Liddy Commemorative Evening, 6.30pm, Kenny’s Bookshop, Liosbaun Retail Park, Tuam Road.

In our Father’s house exist many cafes even
poetry readings: we hope for the resurrection
of the dead at the tables of one of them.
                                                James Liddy

Poet James Liddy, who died in Milwaukee on 5 November 2008, was described in the Irish Times as ’one of Ireland’s leading poets and the creator of a body of work unique in both contemporary Irish and American literature’. His life and work will be celebrated with readings and reminiscences by friends, colleagues, publishers, and students, including Jim Chapson, Brian Arkins, Eamonn Wall, Jeff Sheahan, Alan Hayes, Jessie Lendennie, Eric Adams, Drew Blanchard, Paul Vogel, and José Lanters. The evening will include a festive launch of four new books, including two new volumes of poetry by James Liddy: Wexford and Arcady and Askeaton Sequence, a new collection of poems by Jim Chapson Daphnis & Ratboy, and the second volume of James Liddy’s autobiography, The Full Shilling.

Saturday 13 June

Brendan Duddy Interview, 2.30pm, O’Flaherty Theatre

We are delighted to announce that the final session of the conference will feature an interview with Brendan Duddy, former secret intermediary between the British Government and the Provisional Republican movement. A business man from Derry with a desire for peace, Brendan Duddy spent more than 20 years at the centre of extraordinary events in Northern Ireland.  Sometimes using his own house as the venue for secret meetings, he acted as the contact between representatives of the IRA’s ruling army council and British intelligence officers from MI6 and MI5.  He was an intermediary in the negotiations aimed at resolving the hunger-strikes of 1980 and 1981, and also played a central role in the efforts to negotiate the IRA ceasefire in 1994. The interview with Mr Duddy will be conducted by Niall Ó Dochartaigh from the School of Political Science and Sociology at NUI Galway. 

Over the Edge Readings

A series of readings featuring resident and visiting writers coordinated by the well known Over the Edge literary organisation will take place at the Galway City Library and Sheridan’s Wine bar. The Over the Edge Writers’ blog may be viewed here - http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com/

Conference Programme

The Conference Programme is available here

Conference Registration

Online registration is now available by clicking http://www.conference.ie/Conferences/AddRegistration.asp?Conference=57
The full registration fee for Conference delegates is Euro 255, with a student registration fee of Euro 200 available for students registered with a third-level institution.  The registration fee covers access to all Conference events, Conference packs, teas/coffees, and a full lunch on each of the four days.

If you have any specific Audio-Visual requirements please include these in the Extra Comments/Requirements section of the registration form.

Conference Parking Permits

Permits for parking during the Conference can be downloaded here

Conference Travel and Accommodation

We strongly advise all delegates to book accommodation in Galway as early as possible. Please follow the links on this website for a wide range of accommodation options.

There is information about travel and tourism available on this website below and on the registration website.

We will continue to post Conference information online on a regular basis, so please ensure to check this website for further updates.

With many thanks,

The ACIS/GCIS Conference Organising Committees

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