ADEFFI Annual Conference 2013

The 2013 conference of ADEFFI (Association des Etudes Françaises et Francophones d'Irlande) took place in NUI Maynooth from 18 - 20 October 2013. The theme of the conference, Histoire(s), can be translated into English as both history and a story - giving participants plenty of scope to work with and creating a lively and diverse collection of topics.

The French writer and film director, Philippe Claudel, was the guest of honour at the conference. Unfortunately, I could not attend the conference as I fractured my arm a couple of days before it, but I believe that it was a great success. This a PDF of the conference programme.

This is the conference poster.

Irish Times Article - 14 October 2013

I have just written another Irish Times article. In it I speak about the strange and wonderful things that we come across when carrying out research in a library.

I recently found a lock of hair when going through the Art Ó Bríain papers in the National Library of Ireland. It belonged to Mrs Mac Swiney, the widow of the Lord Mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison. Ó Bríain was the spokesman for the First Dáil in London from 1919 to 1922. His job was to spread the word about Terence MacSwiney's hunger strike among newspaper people and news agencies in London. He received correspondence from people all over the world about MacSwiney.

The contents of the Art Ó Bríain papers are truly amazing. Have a look for yourself if you don't believe me: http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/150_OBriain.pdf