Maynooth University Department of English

Seminars for Spring 2018 will be announced shortly.
 
All seminars take place in the Iontas Building, North Campus, Maynooth University
 
 

Illuminations is delighted to host
Doireann Ní Ghríofa    |    Film-poems
 
Illuminations  - Maynooth University   10 April-15 May 2018
 
 
Doireann Ní Ghríofa is one of the most original, exciting and brilliant voice in contemporary irish poetry. Illuminations is delighted to showcase Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s work bringing together text, image and sound, including four film-poems made especially for this exhibition.
 
Combining the stillness of considered thought with an openness to the importance of the social and the quotidian, Ní Ghríofa’s poems use a tautly beautiful language. In these film-poems that crafted language is entwined carefully with moving and still images and soundscapes which emerge from and return to the words.
 
Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a bilingual writer whose books include Résheoid, Dúlasair and Oighear (all published by Coiscéim), the pamphlet A Hummingbird (Smithereens) and Clasp (Dedalus). Clasp was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize. She is a former holder of the Rooney Prize for Literature. She is currently a holder of a Fellowship at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in Queen’s University Belfast.

 

 

Visit the Illuminations web page here.

Women and the Decade of Commemorations: An All Island Perspective
Maynooth University
https://allislandcommemorationnetworkireland.wordpress.com
 
Three notable aspects of the ‘Decade of Commemorations’ thus far have been the lack of an all-island commemorative strategy; the underrepresentation or outright exclusion of women scholars/ artists/ writers/ activists / stakeholders from major events (the RIA’s ‘Global Perspectives on the Rising’ series and the Abbey Theatre’s ‘Waking the Rising’ programme are two high profile examples); and its domination by historical discourse and by historians. These public talks and roundtable events, taking place at Maynooth University, aim to diversify approaches to the ‘decade of commemoration’. They focus intentionally on ‘women and the decade of commemorations’ as a corrective to the current national conversation, seeking to showcase the scholarly and creative work of women working in an Irish cultural context, as well as to initiate discussion about women of the period of a century ago. Finally, they aim to consider the ways in which the ‘decade of commemoration’ has in fact limited discussion and debate about commemorations perceived to lie outside of its remit (such as the 20th anniversary of the closing of the last Magdalene laundry). 
 
Tuesday January 19th
Roundtable discussions with talks by:
Dr Mary McCauliffe, Women’s Studies, University College Dublin;
Dr Roísin Higgins, Department of History, Teeside University;
Dr Sinéad Kennedy, Department of English, Maynooth University;
Dr Emilie Pine, School of English and Drama, University College Dublin.

Listen to podcasts of this event by clicking on these links:

 
 
Friday February 19th
Dr Diane Urquhart, Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool,
‘Unity of unionism? Gender, covenant and commemoration'.
11am, An Foras Feasa Seminar Room, Iontas Building
Tea and coffee from 10.30
All welcome
 
Wednesday April 6th
Roundtable discussions with talks by:
Catriona Crowe, National Archives (TBC);
Martina Devlin, Writer, Journalist and Broadcaster;
Professor Gerardine Meaney, Director of Global Irish Studies, University College Dublin;
Professor Margaret Ward, Department of History, Queen’s University Belfast.
 
This event is open to the public and free of charge. Registration is required as places are limited. Please contact Dr Oona Frawley (oona.frawley@nuim.ie) for further information and to register to attend.
 
May Keynote (date to be confirmed)
Liz Gillis, Women of the Irish Revolution
 
September 8/ 9
After the Rising, After the Somme: Reflections on Commemoration in 2016
Invited Keynotes:Dr Marie Coleman, School of History, QUB
Professor Senia Paseta, Faculty of History, University of Oxford
Roundtables with contributions by (among others):Dr Dominic Bryan, Director, Institute of Irish Studies, QUB
Dr Lindsey Earner Byrne, Department of History, UCD
Dr Emily Mark-Fitzgerald, Department of Art History, UCD
 
This event is open to the public and free of charge. Registration is required as places are limited. Please contact Dr Oona Frawley (oona.frawley@nuim.ie) for further information and to register to attend.
 
October keynotes (dates to be confirmed):
Professor Lucy McDiarmid, Department of English, Montclair State University 
Professor Marianne Hirsch, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

↵The Great Famine of 1840s Ireland left a profound impact on Irish culture, as recent groundbreaking historical and literary research has revealed. Less well documented and explored, however, is the relationship of the Famine and its related experiences (migration, eviction, poverty, institutionalization and urbanization) to the visual and material cultures of Ireland. This conference, which was hosted by Maynooth University and organised as part of the NWO-funded International Network of Irish Famine Studies, aimed to consider broadly how the material and visual cultures of Ireland and its diaspora (including painting, sculpture, photography, drama, architecture, film, dance, ritual, musealisation, heritage, archaeology) intersect with the multiple impacts and experiences of the Famine.

Taking a broad approach to the impact of the Famine on visual and material cultures, the conference bought together scholars from various fields to promote new, cross-disciplinary dialogues to deepen our understanding of the Famine’s cultural history.

Plenary speakers:

Professor Fintan Cullen, University of Nottingham

Dr Jason King, NUI Galway
Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald, University College Dublin
Professor Chris Morash, Trinity College Dublin
Professor Niamh O’Sullivan, Curator, Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, Quinnipiac University

https://visualmaterialfamine.wordpress.com