AFIS, Association of Franco Irish Studies, 2012 Annual Conference

I attended the 2012 AFIS, Annual Conference of the Association of Franco Irish Studies, which took place in Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick on the 25th & 26th of May 2012.

Photo of King John's Castle on the River Shannon in Limerick.

The conference theme was France and Ireland in the Public Imagination. Speakers from universities in Ireland, Italy, Poland, Macedonia, the United Kingdom and France presented papers on various aspects of how Ireland is and was presented in the French public imagination and vice versa. These included the media, literature, food & drink, politics, music and poetry.

I presented a paper on French newspaper cartoons that I came across while researching articles written by French journalists who visited Ireland during the 20th century. The cartoons, which cast a wry look on how Ireland was being treated by Britain during the early 1920s, are unbelievable in their honesty. I'm sure I'll be talking about them again here sometime soon.

Here's the conference website: http://afislimerick2012.com/

Franco-Irish Literary Festival 2012

The Franco-Irish Literary Festival (which usually takes place in Dublin in April each year) is a great occasion where French and Irish writers, poets and similarly creative people, get together to discuss how they incorporate a particular theme into their work. The theme changes every year. In 2012  the theme was pleasure / plaisir / pléisiúir.

 

I attended some of the panel discussions and enjoyed hearing how writers differed in their responses to the questions from the audience as regards their motivation to write. It's always refreshing to hear someone speak their mind and not just follow along with the consensus, because they think they have to.

 

 

Photo of the gardens at Dublin Castle in Dublin city centre, where the festival usually takes place. The Chester Beatty Library is to the left of this photo (out of shot). A lovely calm atmosphere pervades this art museum and library, which houses amazing examples of Islamic and Western art collected by the mining magnate Alfred Chester Beatty. Entry is free and it's well worth a visit if you are in Dublin.

This is the 2012 festival website: http://francoirishliteraryfestival.com/2012/

Research Trip, August 2011

In August 2011, during what could have been called a typical Irish summer, I hit the road to do some research. I visited the Armagh County Museum, which is in Armagh City in Northern Ireland (pictured below) and examined material related to George Russell (1867-1935). Russell, who was also known as AE, was a very interesting character who had many interests including the co-operative movement, poetry, journalism and painting. The staff were very helpful and I managed to get some invaluable quotations and references from the material they hold on AE.

I also visited the Model in Sligo Town. There was a great exhibition on at the time on paintings from the Celtic Revival period. Link to exhibition: http://themodel.ie/exhibitions/the-celtic-twilight

Photo of Sligo Town with Ben Bulben in the distance, covered in mist.

Irish Seminar 2011

I attended the 'Irish Seminar' in 2011. The 'Irish Seminar' is a three week long Summer school in Irish Studies run in Dublin, Ireland every year. It is presented by the Keough Naughton Notre Dame Centre. About 40 graduate students from the USA and Europe particpated in the seminar. It was a very informative, if not busy three weeks and I really enjoyed the mix of academic and social aspects to the Seminar. It was interesting to hear about the different approaches to PhD education in Europe and the US. For example, I wasn't aware that in the States it could take several years longer to complete your PhD, due to the fact that students normally have a year or two of coursework even before they start their PhD. The Seminar normally takes place in O'Connell House on Merrion Square, which was the Dublin home of Daniel O'Connell (the man known as 'The Liberator', because of his fight for Catholic Emancipation in Ireland in the first half of the 19th century).

The theme of the 2011 seminar was 'Irish Modernisms'. The Seminar consisted of
(i) lectures by academics involved in Irish Studies from universities in Ireland and the US and
(ii) cultural activities, including plays, book and poetry readings and field trips to sites of interest in Ireland.

We visited places associated with Irish writers and playwrights, such as Thoor Ballylee associated with WB Yeats, Hook Head lighthouse and Lady Gregory's home Coole Park - some photos attached.
This is Thoor Ballylee in Gort, County Galway, Ireland. WB Yeats lived here with his family for a time in the 1920s and it was the inspiration for several of his poems.

This is all that remains of Coole House today. Yeats' friend Lady Augusta Gregory lived here.

Hook Head Lighthouse is situated on the Hook Head peninsula in County Wexford, Ireland.

ADEFFI 2012 Postgraduate Study Day - 3 March 2012

The ADEFFI (Association des études françaises et francophones d’Irlande) 2012 Postgraduate Study Day was held in the University of Sheffield on Saturday, 3 March 2012. This year ADEFFI joined forces with two other organisations ASMCF (Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France) and SSFH (Society for the Study of French History) to present a programme of events for posgraduate students in the area of French and Francophone studies studying in the UK and Ireland.

'Futures' was the theme of the day and 43 people attended. We heard from established academics about their experiences and up and coming reserachers about their research. Well done to all who helped organise the day and those who took part. The 2013 study day will be held in Dublin, more information to follow soon.

The Boolean Journal article

I wrote an article explaining my research for the University College Cork (UCC) post graduate journal, known as The Boolean. This second volume of the journal was launched in October 2011 and is named after George Boole - the first Professor of Mathematics in UCC and the inventor of Boolean logic. As that venerable source of information, Wikipedia states: "Boolean logic is the basis of modern digital computer logic. Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science".

This is a link to the article -

http://publish.ucc.ie/boolean/2011/00/OHanlon/37/en

Please have a look and tell me what you think.

Newspaper & Periodical History Forum of Ireland 2011

I have just returned from the fourth annual conference of the Newspaper & Periodical History Forum of Ireland, which took place on 18 & 19 November 2011 in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin.

The conference title was 'Writing the Press into History' and speakers from Europe and North America presented papers on their own areas of research. Attendees included press historians, working journalists and editors as well as academics and researchers from many different disciplines. I really enjoyed the conference and benefited enormously from it by hearing of what others are doing in the world of newspapers and by discussing my own research with them.

Well done to the organisers for creating such a unique and successful conference. This is a link to the forum:

http://www.newspapersperiodicals.org/index.html