2012spring - The Canadian Association for Irish Studies (CAIS)
Transcription
2012spring - The Canadian Association for Irish Studies (CAIS)
Canadian Association for Irish Studies Association canadienne d’études irlandaises Newsletter Vol. 26, No. 1 Spring 2012 sessions and challenges in selecting how best to use one’s time. FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming conference and AGM at the University of Ottawa. I can guarantee you one thing. There won’t be thirteen parallel sessions on the go at any one time. Thankfully! No promises about singing though. Conference 2012 Cultures and Contexts in Ireland's Diasporas I have just returned to Halifax after attending the American Conference for Irish Studies International Meeting in New Orleans over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. It was a fascinating and enjoyable experience: my first participation in an ACIS conference and my first trip to NOLA. The conference was grand; the French Quarter partied and rocked; the company, including CAIS/ACEI members Simon Jolivet and Andrea Walisser, was very pleasant. Our long time CAIS/ACEI colleague — and current ACIS President — Sean Farrell added to the fun and the occasion by singing at the start of the ACIS business meeting and lunch. Overall, there were so many positives about the conference with one smallish reservation: the thirteen concurrent sessions at any given time. It was difficult not to feel overwhelmed by the number of This year Ottawa is hosting for the third time the CAIS/ACEI annual conference, to be held at the University of Ottawa from June 20 to 23. Centrally located, the University is near the Byward Market with its many restaurants and pubs, and close to such major tourist attractions as Parliament Hill and the UNESCO world heritage site Rideau Canal. Thanks to the hospitality of Ambassador Ray Bassett there will be a reception at the Irish Embassy on Wednesday evening. Music and readings by local authors of Irish origin will be held on Thursday and Friday evenings and the banquet will be held on Saturday evening at the Irish Cultural Centre in the former St. Brigid's Church. As per CAIS tradition the 1 banquet will conclude with entertainment provided by conference attendees so anyone who can play an instrument or carry a note is welcome to participate. For a campus map please go to: http://uottawa.ca/maps Kerby Miller is the Curator's Professor at the University of Missouri. He has written a number of major works on Irish immigration to North America. Ireland and Irish America: Culture, Class, and Transatlantic Migration is a collection of essays spanning the range of his career. Irish Immigrants in the land of Canaan: Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675-1815 won the James S. Donnelly Sr. prize, presented by the American Conference for Irish Studies for books on history and the social sciences. Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America won awards for the best book in American social history and the best book in American immigration and ethnic history; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. Conference Registration form is available at the CAIS website: www.irishstudies.ca Please submit the registration form for the conference as soon as possible. Registrations will be acknowledged in a timely manner. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS In keeping with the theme of the conference, we are very excited and pleased to announce that our three keynote speakers are all acknowledged leaders in the field of diaspora studies. Cecil Houston is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Windsor. Well known to CAIS members, he has agreed to deliver the second annual Mariana O'Gallagher lecture, named in honour of our late colleague and friend who was a passionate pioneer of the study of the Irish in Quebec. He is the co-author with William J. Smyth of two of the seminal books on the Irish in Canada, The Sash Canada Wore: a historical geography of the Orange Order in Canada and Irish Emigration and Canadian Settlement: patterns, links, and letters. Maria Eugenia Cruset is Chair of the Irish Lecture at the National University of La Plata in Argentina and Director of the Migration Network at Santiago de Chile University in Chile. She is an expert on the Irish diaspora in South America. She has recently edited a collection entitled Migration and New International Actors: An Old Phenomenon Seen With New Eyes, which includes two of her own papers on the Irish 2 Oral History: ‘The Afterlife of Ireland's Civil War: Memories & Silences at Home and in Exile’ diaspora. Her other publications include Diplomacia de las Naciones sin Estado y de los Estados sin Nacion: Argentina e Irlanda: Una Vision Comparativa. I am looking for people in Ireland and among the Irish Diaspora with family connections to the Irish Civil War (1922-23) to be interviewed for an oral history on how families, communities, and later generations remember this important conflict. If you had family (perhaps a grandparent) involved in the conflict on either side, I would be very interested in meeting you. What was the impact of the civil war on your family? How is it remembered? Have any stories been passed down? In Ireland, I am especially interested in civil war memories in and about Counties Kerry, Cork, Clare, and Limerick, among other places. Beyond Ireland, I am eager to interview Irish-Americans and IrishCanadians related to IRA veterans who emigrated in the aftermath of the conflict. ACCOMMODATION On campus – residence 90 University $115.00 including breakfast website: http://ottawaresidences.com/ email: [email protected] phone: 613 562-5885 There are a number of hotels within a 10-15 minute walk of the campus. Novotel - 33 Nicholas St. $150.00 website: http://novotel.com/ottawahotel phone: 613 230-3033 Les Suites – 130 Besserer St. from $174.00 website: http://les-suites.com/ phone: 613 232-2000 Quality Hotel Downtown - 290 Rideau St. $169.00 website: http://qualityinn.com/ phone: 613 789-7511 Interviews will be recorded to audio or video or written down, according to your wishes. You will be given a copy of the interview recording. The project has been approved by Concordia University’s Human Research Ethics Committee, and all interviewees will be informed in advance about conditions and options of participation. Swiss Hotel – 89 Daly Ave. from $128.00 website: http://swisshotel.ca/ phone: 1-888-663-0000 The 2012 CAIS/ACEI annual conference committee is chaired by Paul Birt, holder of the Chair of Celtic Studies at Ottawa U, with Fred McEvoy, treasurer, Sheila Scott and Rosemary O'Brien. For more information please contact: Professor Gavin Foster, School of Canadian Irish Studies, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve W., H1001, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8; tel. 514 848-2424 x 5117; email: [email protected] 3 Celtic Studies at St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto their language skills, and in March he is planning some events for a Seachtain Gaeilge. We also welcome Dan Brielmaier from the Centre for Medieval Studies who is teaching Celtic Spirituality, and Sarah O’Connor, this year’s Armstrong Visiting Scholar, has a large and enthusiastic class for Contemporary Celtic Cinema. We are happy to report that we have signed a five-year agreement with the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto, enabling us to invite a speaker from Scotland each year, and providing a summer scholarship for a student who wishes to study in Scotland. The Annual Day at the Races hosted by The Ireland Fund of Canada in support of the Celtic Studies Artist-in-Residence Program will be held on a Friday at the beginning of June, date to be confirmed. Jean Talman/David Wilson (with thanks to Irish Connections) The Home Rule Crisis of 1912 A one-day conference Speakers to include: Leigh-Ann Coffey, Simon Jolivet, Jane McGaughey, Edmund Rogers. Alumni hall, St. Michael’s College. Info: 416 926-7145. Saturday, May 26, 9:00–4:30 Our biggest news is the retirement of Ann Dooley, who has done so much to give the Program its distinctive character and its international reputation. She was sent off in style with a farewell party in December. However, she can still be found in her office most days, and students continue to come by to visit her, so to our delight we don’t really feel that she has left us. Sean Conway joins us this term to teach our fourth-year seminar on The Irish and Scots in Canada. The course has already broken all records for our fourth-year seminars, with thirty students enrolled. Sean took his M.A. in History at Queen’s University Kingston, served as M.P.P. for North Renfrew for twenty-eight years, and was Minister of Education, Minister of Colleges and Universities, and Minister of Mines and Government House Leader. Sean is an enthusiastic supporter of the Program, and with his deep roots in the Irish of the Ottawa Valley, his wide knowledge of the field, and his entertaining anecdotes, he will give his students an unforgettable learning experience. Other courses beginning this term are Intermediate Irish Language II taught by Daithí Ó Ceallacháin, our visiting instructor provided by the Ireland Canada University Foundation. Daithí also organizes conversation groups for students to practice Round the Block Rebecca Graff-McRae has just been offered a 2-year SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta, in the Department of Political Science, working with Siobhan Byrne under the auspices of the Peace and Conflict Studies program. Rebecca writes, “My research will be based on a comparative study of the 2006 and 2011 commemorations of the 1981 Hunger Strikes, with particular attention to the shifting language deployed by Sinn Fein in changing political contexts. I will also be working with Heather Zwicker in the Department of English, charting the intersection of Sinn Fein political rhetoric with recent films and novels 4 about the Hunger Strikes. My objective in this project is to analyze and theorize the relationship between commemorative events, political discourse, and processes of conflict transformation”. plays in preventing alienation and bullying, and promoting not merely tolerance, but celebration of difference. Her performance and visit showed in subtle ways how the Irish diaspora in Canada continues to enhance our culture in new ways relevant to many Canadian communities. Ivan’s visit was supported by funding from the Mount Royal University VP Academic Office and the Department of English. CAIS members interested in Ivan’s work can visit her website: www.ivanecoyote.com Rebecca will take up her fellowship on May 1, and CAIS members can contact her about the project via her new email <[email protected]> after that date. Ivan Coyote visits Mount Royal University Newsletter Editor’s Note An aide memoire. This newsletter aspires to become a useful means of communication among members of CAIS/ACEI. To this end, we encourage members to contribute to the newsletter, short pieces (150-300 words) under the following thematic sections: General Member News – personal, professional, major events. Graduate Students Corner – undergraduate students too! Reviews – books, theatre, film, community events: short notes or notices of things coming up. Scholarly Notes and Queries – short pieces of scholarly interest that are not long enough for CJIS Opinion Pieces French and Irish Language Contributions The English Department at Mount Royal University hosted the multi-talented writer and performer Ivan Coyote as part of its Writer in Residence Program, January 23-26. Ivan Coyote draws on her upbringing in Whitehorse, Yukon, growing up queer in a small community, and urban life in Vancouver. As she said in an interview in Mount Royal University’s Face Time newsletter, “Growing up in an Irish-Catholic working class family in Whitehorse, storytelling was in my blood.” Her performances feature both spoken word and music, and she is an accomplished fiddle and penny whistle player. Before coming to MRU this year, Ivan had a successful tour in Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland. Ivan spent her week in Calgary visiting a variety of English and writing classes, speaking about the writing process, life writing, her fiction and non-fiction, including her recent novel, Bow Grip, identity, and post-colonial issues. While her public performance on Jan 26 did not feature music, she held a packed auditorium spellbound with short stories drawn from kitchen table reminiscences of her parents, aunts and grandparents, and her own life. While her Irish roots are only one aspect of her work, her stories emphasized the importance of everyday life stories, the role that storytelling Notes from the Back Room Firstly, and most importantly, a hearty thanks to our members for continuing to support CAIS/ACÉI in its endeavours to cultivate and sustain a Canadian-based community of Irish Studies. Members of the executive have stated in the past that the great strength of our membership lies in its diversity. We pride ourselves in our accessibility to everyone interested in Irish Studies while maintaining a 5 valuable network for academics and other professionals. CAIS/ACÉI is both here for you and here because of you. Your membership keeps us going; your input keeps us vital. Online membership is simple. On our website, click “Join CAIS” on the top of the page. The confirmation page can be printed as a receipt. And be sure to let me know about any questions or concerns or ideas you might have regarding membership! Sandra Murdock, CAIS/ACÉI Secretary/Treasurer [email protected] Joe Lonergan, President, Irish Heritage Quebec makes the presentation. Simon’s book is one of four short-listed by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences for the Canada Prizes in the Humanities and the Canada Prizes in the Social Sciences. Awarded annually to one work in French and one in English in each category, the prizes are a benchmark for outstanding scholarly work in the humanities and social sciences. The prize, worth $2500, will be announced on March 30. Congratulations & Félicitations Hot on the heels, the Assemblée Nationale du Québec announced that Simon’s book is to be awarded the Prix de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec for the best book touching upon a political theme that had been published in 2011. Here's what they say about this award : "Les Prix de la Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale récompensent la qualité et l'originalité d'une œuvre portant sur la politique québécoise."The award will be presented at the National Assembly of Québec on April 4th. Simon signs his work Our colleague Simon Jolivet’s work, Le vert et le bleu, continues to pile up the plaudits. Simon Jolivet, Le vert et le bleu: Identité québécoise et identité irlandaise au tournant du XXIe siècle (Montreal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal) Immediately following their Annual General Meeting, last December, Irish Heritage Quebec presented a plaque to Dr. Simon Jolivet in recognition of his impressive contribution to the study of Irish nationalism in the province of Quebec during the period 1898 to 1921, and for his excellent book Le Vert et Le Bleu. 6 in Canada. If you wish to receive the Embassy of Ireland newsletter, please contact them at: Obituary: Brian John [email protected] Professor Brian John died early in the morning of January 23, 2012 after a thankfully brief battle with cancer. Always kind and loving with his close and extended family in Canada and Britain, he leaves behind, among others, his wife Margaret, daughter Andrea and son Paul, their respective spouses, Richard Braha and Ying Su, as well as grandchildren, Paul and Nicole. Born in 1935 in Pembroke Dock, Wales, Brian was a graduate of Bangor University, where he met his loving and much-loved wife of 54 years, Margaret. A former president of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies, he taught English at McMaster University for over 30 years, specializing in Anglo-Irish literature and modern British poetry, and publishing three books of criticism. But along with a literary sensibility, Brian John had a social conscience: as the longstanding Myanmar (Burma) coordinator for Amnesty International Canada, he worked determinedly to realize a better world where respect for human rights is foremost. His voice will be missed. Brian’s works included Supreme Fictions: Studies in the work of William Blake, Thomas Carlyle, WB Yeats and DH Lawrence; The World as Event: Poetry of Charles Tomlinson and Reading the Ground: The Poetry of Thomas Kinsella, which was described by Seamus Deane as “The most sustained careful and sympathetic reading of Kinsella’s poetry. Brian John has the necessary patience and scruple that Kinsella demands; he also has the gift of bringing to us the rich reward that Kinsella finally yields”. One of my enemies ended my life Sapped my world-strength, afterward soaked me Wetted in water Set me in sun, where soon I lost The hairs which I had. And then The hard knife-edge cut me. Fingers folded me, and feather of bird Traced all over my tawny surface With drops of delight. Then for trappings a man Bound me with board, bent hide over me, Glossed me with gold, and so I glistened Wondrous in smith-work, wire encircled. Say what I am called Useful to man. Mighty my name is A help to heroes and holy am I. It’s (always) that time If you have been dilatory, distracted, distraught or otherwise disengaged, please take a moment to renew your membership in CAIS/ACEI now. Two issues of the Journal and two issues of the Newsletter each year. one year three year membership membership Regular $75 $200 Family (two or more at the same address) $110 $300 Students $35 $90 Seniors $75 $200 It’s easy, go to the website and complete the form and send your cheque to: Sandra Murdock, CAIS/ACEI Secretary-Treasurer, Department of Anthropology Memorial University of Newfoundland St John's, NL, A1C 5S7 http://www.irishstudies.ca/join-cais/ IRISH EMBASSY NEWSLETTER As reported in a previous issue, the Irish Embassy is publishing an occasional pdf newsletter, to keep you up to date with Embassy activities and with important developments in Ireland and here 7 The archive consists of numerous eye witness accounts and first hand testimonials about the suffering of Irish emigrants in the fever sheds of Montreal in 1847, and of the harrowing experiences of the priests and nuns who went to their aid and sought to provide homes for stricken widows and orphans. Dr Jason King, University of Limerick is the lead researcher on the project. He explains the significance of the archive; ""The Typhus of 1847 / Le Typhus de 1847" virtual archive makes accessible the stories of individuals and members of religious communities who risked their own lives to care for and provide comfort for Famine Irish emigrants in Montreal in 1847. It provides a record not just of the hardships and suffering experienced by the Famine emigrants, but also a moving tribute to those who sought to help them." The Great Irish Famine of 1845-1850 was the greatest social calamity in terms of mortality and suffering that Ireland has ever experienced. During those years, over one million people perished from hunger or, more commonly, from hunger-related diseases. In the decade following 1846, when the floodgates of emigration opened, more than 1.8 million people emigrated, with more than half fleeing during the famine years. The main annal in the archive is that of the Grey Nuns of Montreal which has been published in French in La Revue Canadienne under the title "Le Typhus de 1847" in 1898; the UL virtual archive is making this material accessible as it is largely unknown in the English speaking world. The virtual archive can be accessed here: The Virtual Archive of the Annals of the Grey Nuns Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht launches Virtual Archive of Famine Stories - The Typhus of 1847 / Le Typhus de 1847 Jimmy Deenihan TD Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, recently launched a unique virtual archive of famine stories at the University of Limerick. The archive translates the French language annals and pays tribute to the French-Canadian Sisters of Charity, or Grey Nuns, who cared for the Irish Famine emigrants in the fever sheds of Montreal during the summer of 1847 and provided homes for Irish widows and orphans. These annals contain extensive and highly evocative eyewitness accounts of the suffering of famine migrants in 1847. Speaking at the event, Minister Deenihan said; "These annals contain extensive and very moving eyewitness accounts of the suffering of famine migrants in 1847. Written in French and mostly unpublished until now they were largely unknown to both scholars and the general public. As Chair of the Famine Commemoration Committee it is my role to ensure that the commemorations undertaken in Drogheda and Boston this year honour the victims of the Famine and also all those who selflessly assisted them at that time." www.history.ul.ie/historyoffamily/faminearchive/ The event was also attended by representatives of the Québec Government Office, London and the Embassy of Canada in Ireland. The project has been funded by the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Teaching and Research Boards, University of Limerick. 8 sociologiques, and Cercles - Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone. Jane's research interests include the Irish Diaspora in Canada, America, Newfoundland, and Britain, the Orange Order's construction of public masculinities, and Ireland's various portrayals in popular culture. Previously, she taught at Roehampton University, Birkbeck College, and the Royal Military College of Canada, and was the 2009-10 National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellow at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her current research focuses on the Irish in Canada and Newfoundland, in particular the gendered connections between Orangemen across the North Atlantic world; she is also exploring the impact of the Irish Diaspora on the creation of Canadian political identities, and the cultural geography of "Canadian Irishness" in the twenty-first century. School of Canadian Irish Studies 2011-2012 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT The School of Canadian Irish Studies is very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jane McGaughey to a new position in Irish Diaspora Studies, beginning in July 2012. The Principal, Faculty, Staff and Students of the School extend a warm welcome to Dr. McGaughey and look forward to her participation in the further development of Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia. In the fall 2012 semester, Dr. McGaughey will teach a course on Irish Diasporic Dispersal and Settlement. Below is a brief outline of Dr. McGaughey's career and scholarly interests. Originally from Kingston, Ontario, Jane McGaughey completed her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London in 2008. Her thesis examined the relationship between public masculinities and warfare in Ulster before, during, and after the First World War. Her first book, Ulster's Men: Protestant Unionist Masculinities and Militarization in the North of Ireland, 1912-1923 will be published by McGill-Queen's University Press on 1 April, 2012. Other publications include articles on Ulster masculinities during the Home Rule Crisis and along the Western Front, Irish veterans' bodies as sites of cultural construction, and transatlantic influences on Canadian masculinities since 1756. She has written reviews for the Journal of British Studies, Labor History, Recherches News from the School of Canadian Irish Studies In anticipation of the launch of the Major in Canadian Irish Studies in Fall 2012, the School is planning to offer a stimulating list of courses in the coming academic year. For further information contact Matina Skalkogiannis at 514 848-2424, ext. 8711 or email: [email protected][.] Courses in the 2012 winter semester Irish Language & Culture I (professor to be announced) Irish Language & Culture II (professor to be announced) Contemporary Irish Literature (Prof. Michael Kenneally) The Irish in Canada (Prof. Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin) Research Methods in Irish Studies (Prof. Gavin Foster) 9 The Troubles in Northern Ireland (Prof. Gavin Foster) Irish Literary Revival (Prof. Susan Cahill) Diasporic Transformation & Integration (professor to be announced) The Irish Home: Food, Space and Agency (Prof. Rhona Richman Kenneally) Contemporary Irish Women’s Writing (Prof. Susan Cahill) Dr. Michael Kenneally, Dr. Rhona Richman Kenneally and Dr Susan Cahill. The IASIL Conference will be held from July 30 to August 3, 2012, with the theme Weighing Words: Interdisciplinary Engagements With and Within Irish Literatures. Keynote speakers include Joep Leerssen, Gerardine Meaney, and David Lloyd. Participating Writers will include: Anne Enright, Claire Kilroy, Leontia Flynn, Kevin Barry, and distinguished Irish-Canadian novelist, Jane Urquhart. A post-conference excursion is being planned to Quebec City and Grosse Ile. More info: http://iasil2012.com Scholarships for Students in Canadian Irish Studies A series of scholarships worth $25,000 will be made available for incoming students who enroll in the programs offered by the School (Major, Minor, Certificate) as well as Graduate Studies. Check the School’s website for current information and the list of this year’s winners: cdnirish.concordia.ca CONFERENCES 2012 IASIL Conference Weighing Words: Interdisciplinary Engagements With and Within Irish Literatures O’Brien Visiting Scholar 2012 The School of Canadian Irish Studies will welcome Dr. Ruth Barton from Trinity College Dublin who will teach two courses for the School in Fall 2012: Gender and Irish Cinema and Cinema of the Celtic Tiger. Ruth Barton is the author of numerous books and articles on Irish cinema, including: Jim Sheridan, Framing the Nation, Dublin: Liffey Press, 2002; Keeping it Real, Irish Film and Television, London and New York: Wallflower Press 2004 (as co-editor); Irish National Cinema, New York and London: Routledge, 2004; Acting Irish in Hollywood, Dublin and Portland, Or: Irish Academic Press, 2006; Screening Irish-America, Dublin and Portland, Or: Irish Academic Press, 2009. (as editor). The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures Annual Conference will take place 30 July-3 August 2012. Hosted by the School of Canadian Irish Studies & Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University, Montreal. Participating writers will include Claire Kilroy, Leontia Flynn, Anne Enright, Kevin Barry as well as distinguished IrishCanadian novelist, Jane Urquhart. Keynote lectures will be given by Joep Leerssen, Gerardine Meaney and David Lloyd. A special concert of Irish and Quebecois music will take place, and a post-conference tour to Quebec City and Grosse Ile is being planned. International Conference in July 2012 The School of Canadian Irish Studies and Concordia’s Department of Design and Computation Art will be hosting the Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literature (IASIL) organized by For further information please contact the School of Canadian Irish Studies via email: [email protected]. Or see our website: http://iasil2012.com/ 10 THE NORTH: Exile, Diaspora, Troubled Performance, 8-9 June 2012 The 9th annual Irish Theatrical Diaspora Conference will take place in June 2012 in Derry/Londonderry, hosted by the School of Creative Arts at the University of Ulster, in the former Foyle Arts Centre and previous home of Field Day Theatre Company. The conference aims to build upon the scholarly work already done by the Irish Theatrical Diaspora project, and to extend it in an exploration of performances of ‘The North’. Tracing the trajectories of emigrants from the North of Ireland to Scotland, Newfoundland, New England and Canada, the conference aims to analyze and explore performative and theatrical representations of ‘The North’ and the northerly migration of peoples. This migration stretches back to the Flight of the Earls and the Famine, and also includes recent historical events such as the exiling of individuals and families by paramilitary groups during and after the ‘Troubles’; movements of population within Northern Ireland in response to violent sectarianism, and economic and cultural migration. It further aims to recognize Northern Ireland’s history of immigration, most famously of the Chinese community which established itself in Belfast in the early 1960s, and the recent establishment of Central and Eastern European communities, which are slowly reshaping Northern Ireland’s cultural landscape and conception of diversity. ‘Performance’ in this case includes theatre, dance, spectacle, and all aspects of the performing arts, as well as extra-theatrical activity – such as parades and community gatherings – that foreground ‘the North’ in some way. Keynote speakers TBA. Contact: Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, School of Creative Arts University of Ulster, Foyle Arts Building Northland Road, Derry BT48 7JL [email protected] Behind the Lines: Women, War and Letters 1880-1920 University of Limerick, 9-10 June 2012 PLENARY SPEAKERS Professor Lucy McDiarmid (Montclair State University) Professor Matthew Campbell (University of York) The aim of this conference is to interrogate the literary tropes and political constructions through which women’s writing conceptualises conflict. In Ireland, to engage with national politics and national conflicts in the period between the Land War and partition was to find oneself grappling with gendered norms and expectations, through which distinctive modes of patriotic action could be validated or naturalised, but also re-interpreted or condemned. At the same time, in an international context, imperial and colonial conflicts of the late nineteenth-century opened up new conceptions of space and national identity, while in the early twentieth century the First World War produced a sustained literary re-evaluation of cultures of militarisms and masculinity. These political events were, however, taking place alongside a series of other conflicts, conflicts centred around disruptions of norms of gendered behaviour and class alignments, as well as disruptions of literary norms with the rise of Modernism. What meanings accrue to these colliding agendas, needs, and practices? How can we discover them? Contact: [email protected] Conference organisers: Professor Margaret Mills Harper (UL), Dr. Tina O’Toole (UL), Dr. Muireann O Cinneide (NUIG). 11 Book Notices masculinities as far more than the monolithic stereotype of dour austerity and misplaced loyalty. Ulster's Men An exploration of the history of gender representation through the mirror of Northern Ireland's tortuous past, Ulster's Men weaves together images of Edwardian heroism, imperial patriotism, the fellowship of men in uniform, and the chaotic hostilities of war. Protestant Unionist Masculinities and Militarization in the North of Ireland, 1912-23 Jane G.V. McGaughey Heroism, propaganda, unionism, and violence in Ireland during the Great War. Genre and Cinema: Ireland and Transnationalism Edited by Brian Mcllroy (University of British Columbia) Re-issued in paperback. This volume takes a broad critical look at Irish and Irish-related cinema through the lens of genre theory and criticism. Secondary and related objectives of the book are to cover key genres and sub-genres and account for their popularity. The result offers new ways of looking at Irish Cinema. Reviewed by Heather Macdougall in the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 17.1, Spring 2008. Cloth CA $95.00 | US $95.00 From violence in the trenches, to the struggle for independence and the eventual partition of the country, Ireland's cultural history is indelibly marked by the shadow of the Great War. As the war raged on, the nine-county province of Ulster - refashioned in 1921 as the six counties of Northern Ireland - was flooded with images of masculine military heroism. Soldiers, veterans, and paramilitaries became the most visible and potent incarnation of manhood on the streets of Belfast and Derry. In Ulster's Men, Jane McGaughey provides an historical glimpse into the unionist ideals of manliness in Northern Ireland, delving into the power dynamics of political propaganda, military service, fraternal societies, and paramilitary violence. Drawing upon depictions of men found in war diaries, police reports, government documents, and the popular press, McGaughey presents unionist 12 report includes an introduction, a description of the grave(s), descriptions of objects, comment, a report on human remains and any other relevant specialist reports. Osteological reports commissioned for many of the sites provide extraordinary new information on diet, disease and causes of death over a period of almost 5,000 years. The monograph also includes some 113 specially commissioned radiocarbon dates from 74 sites and is illustrated with some 412 location maps and site plans, 239 charts/tables and 130 photographs. Volume 1 covers the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Volume 2 covers the Iron Age, early medieval, late medieval, post-medieval and later periods. It also includes an inventory of sites where human remains have been recorded. Mary Cahill is an Assistant Keeper in the Irish Antiquities Division of the National Museum of Ireland, specialising in the Bronze Age, particularly the archaeology of prehistoric goldwork and the history of collections. Maeve Sikora is an Assistant Keeper in the Irish Antiquities Division of the National Museum of Ireland, specialising in early medieval collections and the archaeology of burial in Ireland. Breaking ground, finding graves: reports on the excavations of burials by the National Museum of Ireland, 19272006 in 2 volumes Edited by Mary Cahill & Maeve Sikora (Dublin: Wordwell, 2012; €50). Breaking ground, finding graves is a twovolume monograph that gathers together over 400 reports on excavations of burials carried out by or on behalf of the National Museum of Ireland between 1927 and 2006. Although many burial sites excavated by the Museum’s staff have been published already, a significant number have remained unpublished until now. None of the sites reported here were selected for excavation. They were all found accidentally by people engaged in some form of earth-moving activity, from changing the position of a shrub in a garden at Lisnakill, Co. Waterford, to semi-industrial activity in quarries such as Martinstown, Co. Meath. The monograph is structured chronologically. The earliest burials date from the Neolithic, through the Bronze Age and Iron Age to the early medieval, late medieval and post-medieval periods. Those sites for which little or no detail is available or which were not inspected are collated in the form of an inventory. Brief introductions to each chapter are intended to place the reports within the wider context of the burial practices of the period in question. Each NEW ONLINE IRISH HISTORY MAGAZINE Vol. 2, No. 1 appeared online in January 2012: the lead article by Richard McElligot looks at the crisis in the GAA in the 1890s. www.scolairestaire.com Blog: http://scolairestaire.wordpress.com/ 13 Conquest and Land in Ireland: The Transplantation to Connacht, 1649-1680 Border States in the Work of Tom Mac Intyre: A Paleo-Postmodern Perspective by Catriona Ryan By John Cunningham This work analyses the prose and drama of Tom Mac Intyre and the concept of paleopostmodernism. It examines how Mac Intyre balances traditional themes with experimentation, which is unusual. This dissertation argues that Mac Intyre's position in the Irish literary canon is an idiosyncratic one in that he combines two contrary aspects of Irish literature: between what Beckett terms as the Yeatsian 'antiquarians' who valorize the 'Victorian Gael' and the 'others' whose aesthetic involves a European-influenced 'breakdown of the object' which is associated with Beckett. Mac Intyre's experimentation involves a breakdown of the object in order to uncover an unconscious Irish mythological and linguistic space in language. Thus the project considers how Mac Intyre incorporates Yeatsian revivalism with postmodern deconstruction in his drama and short stories. Mid-seventeenth century Ireland experienced a revolution in landholding. Coming in the aftermath of the devastating Cromwellian conquest, this seismic shift in the social and ethnic distribution of land and power from Irish Catholic to English Protestant hands would play a major role in shaping the history of the country. One of the most notorious elements of the Irish land settlement was the scheme of the transplantation to Connacht, which aimed to expel the Catholic population from three of the country's four provinces and replace them with a wave of Protestant settlers from England and further afield. Brought to the forefront of attention by nationalist scholars in the nineteenth century, the transplantation is one of the best-known but conversely least understood episodes in Irish history. Yet it has been relatively neglected by recent historians, a gap in the scholarship which this book remedies. It situates the origins of the transplantation in the heat of conquest, reconstructs its implementation in the turbulent 1650s and explores its far-reaching outcomes. It thus enables the significance of the transplantation, and its relevance to wider themes such as colonialism, state formation and ethnic cleansing, to be better understood. Dr Catriona Ryan is a post-doctoral research associate at Swansea University. She undertook her MPhil at the National University of Ireland, Cork and has recently completed her PhD at Swansea University. She has published an essay on the work of Tom Mac Intyre in Strays from the Ether: The Theatre of Tom Mac Intyre edited by Bernadette Sweeney and Marie Kelly (Carysfort Press: Dublin, 2010). 14 disillusionment followed. Not only was the United States rife with what he saw as anti-Irish discrimination, it was also a place where Irish Catholic immigrants were likely to lose their moral footing and their faith. And as Catholicism was the paramount thing in McGee’s life, this just wasn’t on. So he looked north for somewhere that might provide the social and political space to nourish Catholic values. Denominational schools were a big part of the attraction. In Wilson’s telling, this search for space had wider implications for subsequent Canadian history. McGee’s principle of maximum freedom of belief was to extend to all religious groups, thereby helping ‘to open the door for modern multiculturalism’. After entering politics, McGee became the main spokesman for ‘a new northern nationality’. Politically, it was to be expressed as a ‘federal arrangement that would encompass all the British colonies in North America and take over the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories in the West’. But security required a blend of maximum legislative autonomy with membership of the British Empire. The man who had been a vigorous Anglophobe had come to see things in a different light. In effect, British power was to be the guarantor of the new country’s independence from the United States. It was a startling journey for someone who had previously embraced the idea of American annexation of Canada. Irish readers will be particularly interested in the chapters dealing with McGee and Fenianism. It was to be the issue that cost him his life. At the end of the American Civil War, the Fenian Brotherhood looked to the thousands of IrishAmerican ex-Union army soldiers as a potential strike force. And the British colonies in Canada were perceived as a soft target. Invasion and conquest might impel Britain to do a deal on Ireland. Or it might trigger war between Britain and the United States, thereby curtailing the ability to suppress a Fenian uprising in Ireland. Three such invasion attempts were made in 1866; all fizzled out. But as a vociferous critic of the Fenians, McGee made bitter enemies in some segments of the Irish-Canadian Catholic community. While traditional Canadian historiography tends to see the Fenian threat as external, Wilson notes that they had the sympathy and support of a significant minority of John Cunningham is IRCHSS Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Mobility Fellow in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Trinity College Dublin/Albert-Ludswigs-Universität Freiburg. List Price: $90. The publishers are pleased to offer this title to the members of the Canadian Association of Irish Studies at a 25% discount. Please use the promotion code $12041 when ordering. www.boydellandbrewer.com/default.asp David A. Wilson, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Volume 2: The Extreme Moderate, 18571868 (McGillQueen’s University Press, 2011) If you enjoyed the first instalment of David Wilson’s Thomas D’Arcy McGee biography, you’ll want to take a look at this second and concluding volume. Picking-up the story from McGee’s 1857 arrival in Montreal, the author remains fundamentally sympathetic to his subject while avoiding the temptation to don blinkers. As the introduction puts it: ‘In the pages that follow, the reader will find numerous examples of McGee cutting moral corners to attain his political objectives’. With a trajectory that runs all the way from Irish republican revolutionary to ‘father of Canadian confederation’, McGee’s story has plenty of drama. And in a dramatic finale, he was assassinated while walking home from the Canadian House of Commons in the early hours of 7 April 1868. The following week, on what would have been his 43rd birthday, his funeral in Montreal was the largest British North America had ever seen. Psychologically, McGee was on the run when he arrived in Montreal in 1857. After escaping from Ireland in 1848, he became a prominent Irish-American Catholic advocate. But 15 Irish-Canadian Catholics, including Patrick Boyle’s Irish Canadian newspaper. Actual Fenian membership may have been no more than 3,500, but the number of fellow travellers extended substantially beyond that. Indeed, the Fenians in Montreal reckoned that they could draw on the support of a quarter of the city’s (mostly Catholic) Irish-born population. The rhetorical war started in earnest in the spring of 1864 when McGee described Fenian leader John O’Mahony as ‘incurably insane’ and the Irish Canadian struck back by characterising McGee as a ‘truckling traitor’. Then in May 1865, while back in Ireland in an official Canadian government capacity, McGee upped the ante by describing the Fenians as ‘Punch-and-Judy Jacobins’. And although he concurred with the decision to commute the capital sentences imposed on captured Fenians in the aftermath of the failed invasions, he also publicly declared that ‘those men deserve death’. By the time of his assassination, McGee’s political star was in decline. The intricate balancing effort required to construct the first post-confederation federal cabinet saw him left on the sidelines, and his personal re-election fight in Montreal was much closer than he had anticipated—the battle against Fenianism having cost him the support of the majority of IrishCanadian Catholics in his constituency. Inevitably, the aftermath of his murder created its own controversy. Patrick James Whelan, an Irish immigrant tailor, was convicted and hanged. But was he guilty? Reviewing the evidence, Wilson concludes that under ‘the criminal law criterion of reasonable doubt, he should have been acquitted’. By the same token, under ‘the civil law criterion of the balance of probabilities, he was involved in the murder of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, either as the assassin himself or as an accomplice of the assassin, and he should have been found guilty’. All in all, it’s a gripping story. "L'Irlande a élu un poète à la tête de l'Etat" par Alexandra Slaby, maître de conférences à l'université de Caen Basse-Normandie et l'auteur de L'Etat et la culture en Irlande préfacé par Michael D. Higgins (Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2010). Michael D. Higgins, né en 1941, ancien professeur de sociologie à l'université de Galway, a publié plusieurs recueils de poésie. C'est l'intellectuel de la classe politique irlandaise. Il fut aussi le premier ministre irlandais de la culture, ministère qu'il créa de toutes pièces dans les années 1990. Il a toujours été proche du monde de la culture qui le tient en affection ; il l'a bien servi en tant que ministre, et il en a reçu un soutien décisif lors de sa campagne présidentielle. Brillant, passionné, orateur exceptionnel, Michael D., comme on le surnomme familièrement, a une personnalité et un style uniques qui le démarquent dans la classe politique irlandaise. A l'heure où l'Irlande a perdu sa souveraineté économique, le choix de Michael D. pour ce poste certes honorifique mais à haute valeur symbolique est un geste fort. L'Irlande a choisi un homme de culture pour se représenter ; elle a élu son barde. En Irlande, Michael D. est connu pour ses talents oratoires et ses références philosophiques quelque peu en décalage avec le pragmatisme et l'opportunisme ambiants. Député et sénateur, le Parlement offre une tribune à ses discours passionnés non seulement sur la culture, mais aussi l'actualité internationale, l'éducation, et de manière générale les questions sociétales. Une chanson lui est même consacrée, "Michael D. rocking in the Dáil". Excentrique, fougueux, enflammé, il n'est pas toujours compris dans les années 1990. On est peu réceptif à ses références philosophiques, on critique son indépendance d'esprit, sa passion, et une A native of Dublin, Pat Murphy has lived in Toronto since 1965 and writes a regular column for Troy Media. Review reprinted, with permission, from History Ireland. 16 conception un peu trop… française de son rôle de ministre de la culture. Dans le monde anglophone en effet, l'idée d'un ministère de la culture a longtemps fait peur, et on y a préféré des structures de soutien moins directes. Mais de l'eau a coulé sous les ponts de la Liffey, ses idées ont fait leur chemin dans l'esprit des Irlandais, et surtout, il a été épargné des affaires de corruption qui ont entaché la vie politique irlandaise et précipité le pays dans la crise dont il essaie de sortir actuellement. Socialiste ? Travailliste ? Centriste ? "Traditionnaliste critique", selon l'écrivain et intellectuel Declan Kiberd? Il n'est pas aisé de le placer sur un échiquier politique irlandais unique en Europe, où les deux partis principaux ne se divisent pas sur des questions sociétales, mais opposent les défenseurs et les détracteurs du traité de partition de l'Irlande en 1921. Dans ce pays, la gauche s'est développée en proximité plus ou moins étroite avec le parti Fianna Fáil dont il partage l'idéologie républicaine et une partie de l'électorat. Dans sa propre vie, Michael D. Higgins grandit par ailleurs dans un milieu familial Fianna Fáil, et dirigea dans sa jeunesse des branches locales de ce parti. Il connut la pauvreté et la séparation au sein de sa famille. Un bienfaiteur le repéra et lui assura les moyens de faire des études à l'université de Galway et c'est là qu'il s'investit dans des activités politiques et littéraires et fut invité à rejoindre le parti travailliste dont il se sentait proche par sa propre expérience. Le parti travailliste irlandais est actuellement perçu comme étant un parti de centre gauche. Pour toutes ces raisons, et dans un pays où la politique est essentiellement locale et une affaire de personnes, il est écouté et estimé bien au-delà des limites de son parti. Aujourd'hui, il n'est plus le président du parti travailliste, mais le président de tous les Irlandais. Michael D. amène avec lui une vision de la société qui repose sur l'accès à une culture commune. Influencé par Raymond Williams, il œuvre à l'avènement de cette culture commune, seul passeport pour la citoyenneté, une culture non-utilitariste qui ne se réduit pas au divertissement, qui transcende clivages idéologiques et hiérarchies, une culture indigène vigoureuse et confiante, émancipée de la colonisation de l'imagination opérée par la culture de masse en provenance des grandes puissances voisines. Une culture qui transcende le clivage savantétranger/populaire-indigène dans un pays où le théâtre et la poésie sont un bagage culturel communément partagé, et où les arts traditionnels sont aussi savants. Les Irlandais doivent se réapproprier leur "espace culturel", redevenir les auteurs de leurs propres représentations. Ministre de la culture dans les années 1990, il met cette définition de la culture en application dans les médias et le cinéma. On a pour la première fois une politique qui s'intéresse au cinéma comme art et non comme industrie. Le rôle de service public des médias est renforcé par voie législative, la loi de censure est abrogée, et une chaîne de télévision gaélique est créée pour donner voix aux populations gaélophones de l'ouest de l'Irlande. Lors de la présidence irlandaise de l'Union européenne en 1996, Michael D. défend la notion d'exception culturelle et de service public. Fort de sa conviction que l'accès à la culture est un droit, il double le budget pour la culture entre 1993 et 1997 et est à l'initiative de projets d'envergure tels que la restauration et le développement des institutions culturelles nationales. Il met en place des mécanismes fiscaux pour encourager la production cinématographique. Dans son souci de faire accéder le plus grand nombre à la culture, il est aussi le premier à formuler une politique de protection du patrimoine. Il apporte un soutien significatif aux arts visuels, support artistique privilégié pour les Irlandais qui veulent renouveler leur image aux yeux de l'étranger. 17 S'ensuit une sorte de deuxième renaissance culturelle pour l'Irlande, dont le festival "L'Imaginaire irlandais" qui s'est tenu en France en 1996 avec grand succès en fut un témoignage retentissant qui chercha à représenter une culture nourrie par une synergie fructueuse de tradition et de modernité. La culture n'est pas soumise à l'économie ; au contraire, l'espace culturel est plus large que l'espace économique et l'englobe. Il faut investir dans la culture surtout en période de non-croissance. Tels sont les propos que Michael D. tenait lors des réunions des ministres de la culture en Europe dans les années 1990. Les orientations récentes de la politique économique irlandaise lui ont donné raison : les deux réunions en 2009 et 2011 du Global Irish Economic Forum ont confié à la culture la mission de sortir l'Irlande de la crise. C'est à la culture de régénérer l'économie et de redonner confiance aux investisseurs étrangers dans la "marque de fabrique" irlandaise; ainsi est né "Imagine Ireland", quinze ans après "L'Imaginaire irlandais", campagne ambitieuse de promotion de la culture irlandaise aux Etats-Unis, et qui pourrait venir prochainement en Europe. Alors que se clôt un chapitre de l'histoire de l'Irlande où clientélisme et recherche de profit primaient toute autre considération dans le discours politique, on peut se réjouir de l'élection à la magistrature suprême d'un des derniers grands orateurs de ce pays, et du retour dans le débat public des idées et d'une vision. CAIS/ACEI EXECUTIVE OFFICERS & CONTACTS President: Pádraig Ó Siadhail (until 2012), D’Arcy McGee Chair of Irish Studies, Saint Mary’s University [email protected] Secretary-Treasurer: Sandra Murdock (until 2012), Memorial University [email protected] Past-President: Danine Farquharson, Memorial University [email protected] Members at Large: Michele Holmgren, Mount Royal University [email protected] Jerry White, Dalhousie University, [email protected] Rebecca Graff-McRae, Queen’s University Belfast, [email protected] Heather Macdougall, Concordia University [email protected] CJIS Editor: Rhona Richman Kenneally, Concordia University [email protected] (Originally published in Le Monde, November 8, 2011) Communications Officer: Jean Talman [email protected] Newsletter Editor: Michael Quigley [email protected] 18