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Publications

Anáil an Bhéil Bheo

Anáil an Bhéil Bheo: Orality and Modern Irish Culture
Edited by Nessa Cronin, Seán Crosson and John Eastlake
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009)

’This sparkling interdisciplinary collection is the result of the
first Galway Conference of Irish Studies, held in 2006 on the
theme 'Orality and Modern Irish Culture’. [...] This is a collection
of great importance. Written by a mixture of established and
emergent scholars, the essays succeed in their editors’ wish to
disrupt facile dichotomies in the study of orality and literacy in the
Irish context and they provide case studies that greatly enrich our
understanding of Irish culture’
Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, Béaloideas

’ Anáil an Bhéil Bheo provides an enlightening encounter with some of
the defining genres and authors of modern Irish culture. It guides the
reader through the discursive space between orality and textuality,
present and past, at the junction of many disciplines in a time-span
of the last two formative centuries underlying the interconnections and
prevailing concerns in the ongoing process of modern Irish cultural
production. It serves as a rich, well-documented source and a valuable
reference for all the students and scholars of Irish studies.’
Irena Grubica, Etudes Irlandaises (2009)

’It is always a source of satisfaction to come away from reading an
academic work that you could say was a pleasure to the mind and
the ear. This collection of essays, the result of a conference which
took place in Galway in 2006, has this very effect on the reader as its
subject matter and the style in which it is delivered are intricately
intertwined [...] I strongly recommend this collection of essays to
anyone passionate about their research and teaching on narrative,
modernity and Irish culture. It should be on everyone’s reading list.’
Marie-Annick Desplanques, Béascna (2010)

In June 2006, the Centre for Irish Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway held the first Galway Conference of Irish Studies focusing on the theme, Orality and Modern Irish Culture, which emerged from the ongoing research and teaching at the Centre at that time.

One of the central aims of the conference was to address and sensitively navigate the critical faultlines that permeate and shape our understanding of Irish literate and oral cultures. An additional concern was to foster an interdisciplinary critique of Irish oral and textual cultures that would draw on many disciplines to disrupt and complicate the too easy and dichotomising alignment of orality with the Irish language, the traditional and rurality, and print literacy with the English language, modernity and urbanity.

A key organising principle of the conference was to provide space to address texts in both of Ireland’s main languages, Irish and English. To this end, a simultaneous translation facility was provided so that Irish-language scholars could deliver their papers in that language, and that non-Irish-speaking members of the audience would be in a position to engage with them. As the relationship between the two languages is key to furthering our understanding of the Irish Studies project, we sought to place the question of language and the politics of translation at the foreground of how Irish culture is produced, read and interpreted today

Anáil an Bhéil Bheo: Orality and Modern Irish Culture (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009) is the result of the conversations, debates and dialogues held in Galway in June 2006. The essay collection brings together a stimulating range of interdisciplinary work considering the local, national and global connections between orality and modern Irish culture. It is dedicated to the memory of Martha Fox (1931-2000).

From literature to song, folklore to the visual arts, 17 critical essays examine not only the connections between oral and textual traditions in Ireland, but also the theoretical concept of “orality” itself and the corresponding significance of oral texts in Irish society. Featuring work by emerging scholars in the fields of history, literature, folklore, music, women’s studies, film and theatre studies the collection also includes contributions from scholars long engaged with issues of orality such as Gearóid Ó Crualaoich and Henry Glassie.

If you are interested in reading more about this title the Introduction, ’“The Sea of Orality”: An Introduction to Orality and Modern Irish Culture’, is available from the publisher’s website, along with Gearóid Ó Crualaoich’s ’Orality and Modern Irish Culture: A Personal Strand of the Weave’.

http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/978-1-4438-0152-2-sample.pdf

http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Anail-an-Bheil-Bheo--Orality-and-Modern-Irish-Culture1-4438-0152-6.htm

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Centre for Irish Studies
National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland.
Phone: +353 (0)91 492051, +353 (0)91 524411 2051, E-mail: samantha.williams

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This page was last updated Wednesday, March 09, 2011