Parnell Summer School 2015

I was invited to speak at the 2015 Parnell Summer School. The theme for this year was 'The French Connection: Ireland and France'. Over five days (9-13 August 2015), speakers from Ireland, UK and the USA discussed the historical and cultural ties between Ireland and France.

The Summer School was officially opened by the French Ambassador to Ireland, HE Jean-Pierre Thébault, on Sunday 9th August. The ambassador spoke about the historic links between the two countries and was greeted by a pipe band who played the two national anthems.

My presentation, entitled "'French Letters' in Irish Newspapers and Periodicals: The Epistolary Form and the Franco-Irish Relationship", was based on newspaper articles written in Paris that appeared in several Irish newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries. The 'letter' writers that I spoke about included John Mitchel, Michael MacWhite, Stephen Gwynn and Simone Téry.

The Summer School was held in Avondale, Co. Wicklow (pictured above), the ancestral home of Charles Stewart Parnell.

I would like to thank the Parnell Society and the Academic Director of the Summer School, Felix Larkin, for their kind invitation to speak at the Summer School. Link to the 2015 Parnell Summer School programme.

An Irishman's Diary - Pioneering French Journalist Albert Londres

Albert Londres (1884-1932) is often held up as the prototype for the grand reporter journalist in France. He was born in Vichy in 1884 and came to prominence when he reported about the destruction of Reims Cathedral in Le Matin in 1914. 

Londres traveled all over the world uncovering wrongdoing on the part of the state and writing about it in the press. In memory of Londres, the Prix Albert Londres is awarded to the best reporter in the written press every year. Read my Irishman's Diary about Albert Londres in the Irish Times.

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albert_Londres_en_1923.jpg