Winter 2000
ACIS
NEWSLETTER
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
This issue of the Newsletter announces the winners of the year 2000 book prize winners, and please join me in congratulating these scholars who have done so much to define excellence as well as range and depth in Irish Studies. Note the announcement of the 2001 prize committees: if you or anyone you know has a book published the year 2000 in any area of Irish Studies, nominations are open from now until May 2001. Please note as well that we have a new prize, the Adele Dalsimer Dissertation prize, for the best dissertation in any field of Irish Studies completed in the year 2000. ACIS now confers five prizes and the Executive Committee decided it would be rather timely to review the categorization and processes by which scholarly works in the various fields of Irish Studies are so distinguished. David Miller is chairing a Book Prize Review Committee consisting of all the discipline representatives which will report at our next annual meeting. You can find the full committee and their contact information on the ACIS Web page. Our energies have keyed lately to two events that serve to define the ACIS – the election of a new executive committee and our annual meeting, to be hosted by Fordham University. The election is being conducted under new procedures with a machine-readable ballot that you will soon be receiving in the mail. You voted overwhelmingly to change the by-laws so that nominees for a graduate representative on the executive committee will be included in your ballot.
There will be no conference hotel at ACIS 2001. It is one of the peculiarities of New York that you can probably get a much better rate booking as an individual rather than as a group. There are a number of recommendations and booking services listed at the conference Web site (see www.acisweb.com). The Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus, the conference site, is located at Amsterdam and West 62nd Street on the Upper West side, about a block away from Columbus Circle. The nearest hotel is the Empire Hotel, a mid-price-range hotel which would run you over $200 a night. A number of smaller hotels (less than a hundred rooms or so) in the area range from about $85 to $125 a night for a single. Early June is regarded as off-season in New York City, so you shouldn’t have any problems finding a room, and you might even find some fabulous deals. This information and more will be available in the conference registration packet you will be receiving soon. I hope any inconvenience the lack of a central conference hotel may cause will be compensated for by a full and engaging program. Details and highlights of the program will be posted at the conference Web site as they are confirmed. I am grateful to the program committee and to all those who submitted proposals.
The Executive Committee has accepted the gracious invitations of Marquette University to host our annual meeting in 2002 and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota in 2003. But it is not too early to begin thinking of future sites for an ACIS national conference. If you are interested and would simply like to explore the possibility, contact our Vice-President., Michael Gillespie. Limerick will be a tough act to follow, and I’ve given up even thinking that New York can compete in terms of such lavish hospitality. It’s not really our style anyway. And our former hosts keep on giving to ACIS. To commemorate the holding of the 38th Annual Meeting of the ACIS in Limerick in June 2000, the University of Limerick has instituted an annual postgraduate scholarship in Irish Studies open to American-based students and tenable at the University of Limerick (see the announcement in this Newsletter). To the University of Limerick we must say thank you for this very generous expression of your regard and esteem for ACIS, and please know that it is returned many fold.
ACIS BOOK AWARDS FOR BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 1999
The Robert Rhodes Prize for a Book in Literary Studies - Christopher J. Wheatley, Beneath Ierne's Banners: Irish Protestant Drama of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999).
The Michael J. Durkan Prize for a Book on Language or Culture - Maria Tymoczko, Translation in a Postcolonial Context: Early Irish Literature in English Translation (Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 1999).
The James S. Donnelly, Sr. Prize for a Book in History or Social Sciences - Cormac Ó Grada, Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999)
The Donald Murphy Prize for a Distinguished First Book - Margot Gayle Backus, The Gothic Family Romance: Heterosexuality, Child Sacrifice, and the Anglo-Irish Colonial Order (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999)
ACIS BOOK AWARDS FOR BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 2000
ACIS will sponsor four prizes for scholarly books on Irish subjects published worldwide in 2000. The awards serve to promote and recognize excellence in Irish Studies Scholarship.
Guidelines
Books must be submitted for one prize only. All books submitted for the year 2000 awards must have a publication date of 2000. Copies of the books nominated must be sent to each of the members of the appropriate committee (listed below) by 1 May 2001. Fiction, poetry, and anthologies of literature are not eligible. The prize-winning books will be announced in November 2001. Please do not send copies of books to ACIS officers. For more information, contact ACIS Vice-President Michael Patrick Gillespie at michael.gillespie@marquette.edu
BOOK PRIZE COMMITTEES
The James S. Donnelly , Sr. Prize for a Book in History or Social Sciences
Timothy J. Meagher (Chair), 1954 Columbia Rd. NW #711, Washington, DC 20009
Eileen Reilly, 985 Metropolitan Avenue Apt. 2R, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Kevin O'Neill, Irish Studies Program, Boston College, Connolly House, 300 Hammond Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3929
The Michael J. Durkan Prize for a Book on Language or Culture
Stephen Watt (Chair), English Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
Lauren Onkey, English Department, Ball State University, Muncie IN 47306
Charlotte Headrick, Univ. Theatre, Withycombe, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331
The Robert Rhodes Prize for a Book in Literary Studies
Guinn Batten (Chair), English Department, Box 1122, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130
Helen Emmitt 2233 Chestnut Ave., Buena Vista, VA 24416
Margaret Kelleher, 12 Ravensdale Park, Kimmage, Dublin 12, Ireland
The Donald Murphy Prize for a Distinguished First Book
Cóilín Owens (Chair), English Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030
(The remaining committee members are still to be named. Please send all books to the committee chair.)
The Adele Dalsimer Prize for Best Dissertation of the Year
David Miller (Chair), Department of History, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Lucy McDiarmid, 1931 Panama St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
Kevin O’Neill, Irish Studies Program, Boston College, Connolly House, 300 Hammond Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3929
The Adele Dalsimer prize is to be awarded for an outstanding dissertation in Irish Studies (any discipline) for which a doctorate was conferred during the calendar year 2000. A letter of nomination from the dissertation supervisor, together with an abstract of the dissertation, must be received by 1 March 2001. No supervisor may nominate more than one dissertation. Please do not sent copies of the dissertation itself until requested to do so by the committee chair.
BY-LAW AMENDMENT APPROVED
On 1 July 2000 at the AGM, the membership unanimously called for an amendment to the by-laws to include a graduate representative on the Executive Committee. Amendments to the by-laws must be approved by two-thirds of those voting on a mailed ballot. The addition of clause c below was submitted for adoption to all members in a Fall mailing. The returns were 262 for and 13 against. The following by-law change has thus been approved.
IV. The Executive Committee
A. The Executive Committee is composed of
a) the President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer;
b) six elected members representing disciplines within Irish Studies, with one each from history, literature, the arts, social science, Celtic studies and the Irish language;
c) one elected member representing graduate students in any discipline within Irish Studies;
d) one representative each from regional branches with one hundred or more primary members;
e) the immediate past President.
REGIONAL MEETINGS
New England: This year's New England regional conference was held at the College of Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, 29-30 September, on the theme "20th-Century Ireland: A Retrospective." The keynote speaker was Prof. Jim Donnelly of the University of Wisconsin.
Midwest: The Fall Midwest regional meeting was held at Oakland University, Detroit, 13-14 October, with 48 presentations and 83 registered participants. At the AGM a discussion ensued on the need for a regional secretary/treasurer and extension of the regional president's term, which will require constitutional reforms that will be addressed at next year's meeting. Next year's regional meeting will be at Creighton University. The point person there will be David Gardiner.
Western: The annual meeting was held on 13-15 October in Tacoma and Gig Harbor, Washington. Hosted by President Audrey Eyler, the conference was split between Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Eyler's home university and Gig Harbor, the picturesque fishing village on Puget Sound. The theme of the conference was "Ireland’s Children" and featured noted scholar of Irish children’s literature, Robert Dunbar (Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin). Journalist Laurel Holliday spoke about making her book, Children of the Troubles: Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland (1997). There was also an excellent exhibit of photographs, "Children of Ulster," by Rachel Brown. Other participating guests included children’s literature specialists Celia Catlett Anderson of Eastern Connecticut State University and Carole Redford, Dublin. Jennifer Cornell read from her most recent work, Versus, whose protagonist is a child. Mid-Atlantic: The annual meeting took place 27-28 October at The College of Mount St. Vincent, Riverdale, New York City. The meeting was large, with sessions on both days covering a considerable variety of topics. Highlights included a keynote address by Prof. Nicholas Grene of Trinity College Dublin on "Yeats and Dates" and a lecture on Eugene O'Neill by Prof. John Patrick Diggins of the Graduate Center, CUNY (O'Neill had associations with the venue, having made his First Communion in the chapel now part of the College); a discussion of the Peace Process by representatives of the Irish and British Consulates in New York, of the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, with a response by Conor Cruise O'Brien; and a poetry reading by Máire Mhac an tSaoi. The 2001 gathering will be at the Penn State University campus at Abingdon, near Philadelphia; Dr. Tramble T. Turner will be the on-site organizer. Elections for regional officers will be held by postal ballot within the next few months: nominations should be made to Dr. Turner (ttt3@psu.edu).
Southern: The Southern regional meeting will be held February 22-24, 2001, at the oceanfront Sea Turtle Inn, Atlantic Beach (Jacksonville), FL, hosted by the University of North Florida, on the theme "Mother Ireland." Plenary speakers will include documentary film maker Anne Crilly, Bernard Cullen (Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Queens University, Belfast), scholar/critic Lucy McDiarmid, folklorist/folksinger Mick Moloney, and poet Mary O'Malley. For further information about the meeting, contact Richard Bizot: tel. (904) 620-2273; fax (904) 739-5143 or go to the Web site for the Sea Turtle Inn: www.seaturtle.com. Richard also requests that those wishing to nominate officers for the Southern region should contact him at rbizot@unf.edu.
ACIS AT MLA
The following ACIS panels will be held at this year’s MLA conference in Washington, D.C.:
Friday, December 29 - 1:45 - 3:00 p.m. - Park Tower Suite 8209, Marriott Wardman Park, "Irish Gothic and Modernity." Chair: Gordon Bigelow, Rhodes Coll.; "‘Will the Dead Rise?’: Gothic Historicity and Botched Rituals in ‘Carthaginians’ and ‘Halloween Night,’" Margot Gayle Backus; "‘The Female Collaborator’: Property and Authorship in Stoker’s Dracula and Yeats’s A Vision," John Paul Riqueline; "The Fugitive Gothic of Oscar Wilde and Harry Clarke," Maureen O’Connor; "What Stalked through Lady Gregory’s Wood?" David Rosen.
Saturday, December 30 - 1:45 - 3:00 p.m. - Thomas Paine, Marriott Wardman Park, "Material Histories and Modern Irish Poetry." "Paul Muldoon’s Transits," John Connors Kerrigan; "Rhyming Hope and History: Medbh McGuckian’s Recent Poetry," Helen Virginia Emmitt; "Paul Muldoon, Modernity, and the Elegiac Subject," William A. Wilson; Respondent: Dillon Johnston.
In addition there will be a party, hosted jointly by ACIS and the Joyce Society, in the room of Ellen Jones and Murray Beja in the Marriott Wardman Park, from 8-10 p.m. Guinn Batten also invites proposals for the two ACIS sessions at the 2001 MLA. Please forward suggested topics to mgbatten@artsci.wustl.edu.
ACIS AT AHA
The following sessions sponsored by ACIS will be held at the AHA meeting in Boston:
Friday, January 5 - 9:30-11:30 a.m. - Marriott, Grand Ballroom, Salon J, "No More Paddy, Biddy, or Ballyhoo: Protest and Negotiation in the Representation of Ireland and Irish America in American Popular Culture" (co-sponsored with AHA). Chair: Kevin Kenny, Boston College; "Irish-American Protests against the Stage Irishmen, 1880-1920," M. Alison Kibler; "Constructing the Image of Sean Lemass’s Ireland," Robert J. Savage, Jr.; "Irish Americans and Hollywood’s Publicity Machine in the 1920s," Marion R. Casey; Comment: William H. Williams II.
Friday, January 5 - 2:30-4:30 p.m. - Westin Hotel, Parliament Room, Session 2, "Philanthropic Rivalries: Competition Between Catholic and Protestant Charitable Organizations in Ireland and Irish America." Chair: Catherine Shannon, Westfield State College; "Local Relief during the Great Irish Famine, 1845-50: Some Conclusions," Michael O’Malley; "A Social Minded Gentry: Guardian Angel Mission, 1898-1913," Deborah Ann Skok; "‘Poor Slaves of Cruel Rome’: Proselytism, Philanthropy and the Destitute of Dublin’s Slums, 1850-1900," Margaret Preston; Comment: Mary J. Oates. In addition, there will be a reception, Friday January 5, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m., in the Westin Hotel, Nausett Room.
The Irish in Us: Irishness, Performativity, and Popular Culture
Submissions are invited for a new collection of interdisciplinary essays addressing the proliferation of Irishness across a broad spectrum of outlets within popular culture. Considering the ways that Irishness has become particularly performative and mobile in current culture, this volume will focus on the variety of discursive venues in which it is claimed, enacted and performed. One of the key organizing principles of the collection is the assumption that claiming Irishness allows us to locate and often celebrate whiteness in ways that are otherwise problematic. The Irish in Us will provide the first organized set of essays employing the premises and methodologies of Cultural Studies to closely scrutinize the ideological implications of the "Celtic Tiger" phenomenon in Irish, American, and transnational culture. Possible topics include film, tv, advertising, popular print fiction, music, theatre and dance, stardom, tourism, genealogy, and Irishness and queerness. Send a one-page abstract and short biographical statement by 1 February 2001 to: Professor Diane Negra, Department of Radio, TV and Film, University of North Texas, P.O. Box 310589, Denton, TX., 76203-0589; tel. (940) 565-2591; fax (940) 369-7838; Internet: negra@unt.edu
Irish Feminism and Postcolonialism
Essays are being solicited for a collection in the Ireland in Theory Irish Studies Series tentatively entitled A Woman's Place: Irish Feminism and Postcolonialism. This volume aims to investigate how women's experience in Ireland is directly implicated by post/coloniality and to explore how women have negotiated their status in regard to Ireland's sociopolitical climate. The editors are interested in essays exploring the experience of both lived and literary women, regardless of historical period. Welcome are essays that deal with issues of postcoloniality in women's fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and film, and how they reflect larger notions of identity and national identity. Direct essays, proposals, and inquiries to K. M. Nichols, 2916 Monterey Ave. S.E., Albuquerque, NM 87106 (kmn@ireland.com).
CONFERENCE NEWS
Irish Famine and Emigration Symposium and Concert
The South Florida Irish Studies Consortium, Inc., will hold a symposium on the Irish Famine and Emigration to America on Saturday, 2 December 2000, from 2 to 5 p.m., at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 370 SW Third St., Boca Raton, FL, to be followed by a Gaelic Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Palm Beach. Speakers include Marilyn Lambe (Orange Co. Comm. College), Mick Moloney (NYU) and Maureen Murphy (Hofstra Univ.). In addition, a concert, "The Irish Famine and Emigration to America in Song and Story," headlined by Moloney and fiddler Marie Reilly will be held that evening from 7:30 to 9:00. For further information, or to purchase tickets for the symposium or concert, contact doan@nova.edu or (954) 262-8207.
Tradition and Ireland: Revision, Performance, Representation
The third annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Irish Studies organized by GRIAN, an association of Irish Studies scholars, will be held at Glucksman Ireland House, New York University, 2-4 March 2001. This conference encourages graduate students as well as emerging and established scholars of Irish studies to approach the subject of tradition and performance in the context of Ireland and the Irish diaspora. All historical periods will be considered. Possible topics include the use of tropes; the Revivalists and the re-evaluation of their project; Irish orature as performance; Irish language as performance of tradition; imaging history, Irish and Irish diasporic popular culture, i.e. the consumption of Irish tradition as/of pop culture ("Riverdancification"); Irish performance abroad (including sport, music, visual arts, dance, theatre); Irish film; the performance of Nationalism and staging politics. The weekend conference in New York provides the perfect opportunity to attend a myriad of Irish performances going on in the city. Conference events will therefore include a film screening, a traditional seisiun, and more.
A limited number of travel stipends are available, as well as some accommodation from GRIAN members for graduate students on limited budgets: indicate in the application whether either is required. One-page abstracts for 20-minute papers should be submitted in rich text format (.rtf) by 4 December 2000 to the following: Jason Drake, 1006 Palisade Avenue Apt. #16, Union City, NJ 07087; E-mail: jrd202@is5.nyu.edu. Include name, affiliation, paper title, special requirements (audio, visual, electronic) and contact information (mailing address, phone number, e-mail address).
Ireland and America: Past. Present and Future
Sponsored by the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew University, this conference will take place 12-14 March 2001. Dealing with the complex relations between Ireland and the U.S., topics may include immigration, emigration, The Great Hunger, Irish Republican support in America, The War for Independence, The Irish Civil War, the Troubles, the Peace Process, the Celtic Tiger, popular music, culture, theatre, etc. All perspectives are welcome, including literary, historical and cultural. Abstracts of 500 words or less should be sent before 15 January 2001 to: Ireland and America Conference, Dean’s Office, Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University, Madison, NJ 07940. For further data call 973-408-3285; E-mail: gradsch@drew.edu
Victoria's Ireland? Irishness and Britishness 1837-1901
The conference, to be held at the University of Southampton, 20-22 April 2001, will take advantage of the centenary of the death of Queen Victoria to investigate the relationships between Ireland and Britain in the course of her long reign. Submissions are welcomed from all with an interest in the culture and history of Victorian Ireland. The conference will include a visit to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Speakers include: James H. Murphy, James Loughlin and Patrick Maume.
Suggested topics include: Victoria, Albert and Ireland; The Irish Fin de Siècle; "British" identities in 19th-Century Ireland; The legacy of the Great Famine; The Irish in Victorian art and illustration; Irish Victoriana; Women and power; Integrationism and its opponents; and Ireland and the Victorian world order.
Send abstracts (200 words maximum) by 31 December 2000 to: Dr Peter Gray, Department of History, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK; tel. +44 (0)23 8059 2242; fax +44 (0)23 8059 3458; E-mail: p.gray@soton.ac.uk
Women in Northern Ireland: After the Good Friday Agreement
This session of the 2001 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Sociolgy and Anthropology Association (CSAA) at Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 27-30 May 2001, examines the implications of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement for women in Northern Ireland. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement has been accompanied by a general sense of optimism. This optimism has accompanied the formation of the Northern Ireland legislative assembly, and has often been associated with renewed hopes for political and economic stability.
Papers might address the following questions: What impact will the Agreement have on various groups of women in Northern Ireland? What have the anticipated outcomes of the Agreement been for women in Northern Ireland to date? What have the unanticipated outcomes of the Agreement been for women in Northern Ireland to date? Papers are invited from a broad range of perspectives. Contributions that exmine women's peace-building activities and feminist organizing in Northern Ireland are particualrly welcome. The deadline for abstracts is 1 December 2000 and for papers is1 May 2001. For further information, contact Dr. Katherine Side, Department of Women's Studies, Mount Saint Vincent University. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3M 2J6; tel. (902) 457-6712; fax (902) 443-1352; E-Mail: Katherine.Side@MSVU.ca
WILDE EVENTS
Symposium at Trinity College Dublin
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Oscar Wilde on 30 November 1900, the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, School of English, Trinity College Dublin, hosted an international symposium as a tribute to the intellectual, cultural and creative legacy of the Wilde family (1-3 December 2000). Under the patronage of Merlin Holland as representative of the Wilde family, the symposium brought together scholars, writers and theatre professionals to celebrate and explore what the Wildes gave to Dublin, to Ireland, and to the world, kindly supported by The University of Dublin Fund. Plenary addresses were given by Alan Sinfield, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Lucy McDiarmid, and Davis Coakley. A special play was comissioned for the Symposium by Thomas Kilroy.
Exhibition at the British Library
Merlin Holland introduces the feature film, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (28 November 2000 18.15-21.00)
Anna Carteret and Paula Wilcox present Wilde Wilde Women - an anthology of Oscar Wilde's best writing for actresses, the female audience and the women in his life (3 December 2000 15.00-16.30)
Owen Dudley Edwards discusses The Irishness of Oscar Wilde (12 December 2000 18.15-19.15)
Patrick Marley reads The Canterville Ghost and The Selfish Giant: a pre-Christmas treat for children and adults (17 December 2000 15.00-16.00)
Simon Ward and Joseph Millson perform The Decay of Lying (9 January 2001 18.15-19.15)
Corin Redgrave performs De Profoundis, followed by the British cinema premiere of Two Loves - a Portrait of Lord Alfred Douglas (21 January 2001 15.00-16.10, 16.30-17.40)
Merlin Holland on Oscar Wilde Goes West (30 January 2001 18.15-19.30)
The British premiere of The Picture of Dorian Gray - Act One of a new musical by Rupert Holmes (4 February 2001 15.00-16.30)
Free Pearson Gallery Talks 12.00p.m., Alan Titchard in costume leads a witty commentary through the highlights of the exhibition on six Sundays: 3, 10 and 17 December 2000 and 7, 14 and 21 January 2001.
For further information or to purchase tickets, contact: The British Library Box Office, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB; Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7332; E-mail: boxoffice@bl.uk
SCHOLARSHIPS
ACIS Postgraduate Scholarship in Irish Studies
In commemoration of the holding of the 38th Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies in Limerick in June 2000, the University of Limerick, in association with ACIS, is instituting an annual postgraduate scholarship in Irish Studies open to American-based students and tenable at the University of Limerick.
Applications are invited under two categories: (i) graduates or graduating students who would wish to enrol for a postgraduate degree by research at the University of Limerick; and (ii) students already registered on graduate programmes in the United States wishing to undertake research in Ireland. Preference will be given to suitable applications in category (i), but graduate students in category (ii) are also encouraged to apply.
The scholarship will include fees and other charges at the University of Limerick, where applicable, and an annual award of IR£5,000 (EURO 6,348) for living expenses. In the case of a student in category (i), enrolling for graduate studies at the University of Limerick, the scholarship may be renewable for a further two years, subject to satisfactory progress in the relevant course of studies.
For the first award (academic year 2001-2002), research proposals are invited from students with interests in the following areas: Contemporary Irish language studies and Irish traditional culture (including traditional song). Potential research topics in these areas may be discussed respectively with Dr Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin (E-mail: tadhg.ohifearnain@ul.ie) or Dr Lillis Ó Laoire (E-mail: lillis.olaoire@ul.ie) of the Irish Language Section, Department of Languages & Cultural Studies, University of Limerick.
In future years this scholarship will be offered in other areas in Irish Studies (e.g. history, literature, social sciences, women’s studies, etc.). Applications for this scholarship should be accompanied by letters of recommendation from two faculty members in the applicant’s home college or university in the US; at least one of the faculty members concerned should be a member of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS).
Application materials are available from: Professor Dermot Walsh, Assistant Dean Research, College of Humanities, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland (E-mail: breda.tuohy@ul.ie). The closing date for the receipt of completed applications for academic year 2001/2002 is: 15 February 2001.
SUMMER SCHOOLS
Yeats International Summer School
The 42nd annual Yeats International Summer School will take place in Sligo from 28 July to 11 August 2001. Under the directorship of Bernard O’Donoghue of Wadham College Oxford and Geraldine Higgins of Emory University, the 42nd school offers a stellar cast of scholars, poets and lecturers. The school will be opened by Senator Michael Yeats and will include poetry readings by Seamus Heaney and Tom Paulin. Among the many eminent international scholars participating in the 2001 school are Helen Vendler, Harvard University; Declan Kiberd, University College Dublin; John Kelly, St John’s College, Oxford Univ., and George O’Brien, Georgetown University. For further data, tel. +353 71 42693; fax +353 71 42780; bernard.odonoghue@wadham.oxford.ac.uk, geraldinehiggins@ireland.com or info@yeats-sligo.com.
NEWS FROM ACIS MEMBERS
Michael Herbert writes that he is working on a popular history of the Irish in Manchester (1760-2000) to be published by the Irish in Britain Representation Group. He would be pleased to hear from anyone working on this period and can be contacted at: michael@mossleybrow.demon.co.uk
Bruce Stewart reports on an important new resource for Irish Studies, EIRData, produced at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco. The site includes an Author Dataset with comprehensive biographical and bibliographical information about Irish writers of all periods together with representative examples of their work and leading commentaries on it. The Journal Dataset supplies similar details about Irish Journals. Both are electronically searchable. The Bibliography holds annual listings of books on Irish literature and its background together with related subject bibliographies (e.g., Anthologies, Drama, Famine, etc.). The PGIL Gateway gives access to Irish studies centres and associations everywhere , as well as numerous related sites including journals and newspapers of Irish interest. It also links up with the OPACs (Open Access Public Catalogues) of major libraries and online Irish booksellers' catalogues. For further information or to access the site, contact http://www.pgil-eirdata.org
Stephen Watts (watt@indiana.edu) reports that the annual Midwest MLA meeting had performances of two short Beckett plays (followed by discussion) and a readers' theatre production of a new play by Marcia Cebulska. Both events were very highly attended and quite successful. One example of a performance closer to Irish studies roots would be the two-man original play based on a dialogue between W.B. Yeats and John Quinn that has been performed for several years by Paul Kerry and Neil Bradley. These actors have sent him promotional materials if any regional ACIS meeting or academic unit is interested.
Irish Film Watch by Jim MacKillop & Gerard Furey
(Editor’s Note: This is expected to become a regular feature in the ACIS Newsletter)
At this writing, only one Irish-themed feature film seems likely to secure widespread distribution in the Holiday season. Baltimore-based American director Barry Levinson (Diner, Liberty Heights, etc.) makes his foray into Hibernian material with the punny An Everlasting Piece, a comedy about two Belfast barbers making toupees in the highly troubled 1980s. Irish actors Barry McEvoy and Brian O’Byrne share the leads. A December 25th opening has been announced.
Frustration and disappointment are the keynotes elsewhere with the Irish film industry attempts to enter the American market this season. Many new titles have been knocking at the door, but few have found entry. Among the more successful entries is John MacKenzie’s When the Sky Falls, a treatment of the Veronica Guerin murder case of 1996, with American actress Joan Allen in the lead, supported by Irish thespian Patrick Bergin. A critical and box-office disappointment in Ireland, When the Sky Falls nonetheless was distributed by the cable service Cinemax in October, without making note of the film’s Irish associations. American director Joel Schumacher (Tiger Land, St. Elmo’s Fire) has reported an interest in another version of the same story.
Several Irish films attracted favorable notice at fall festivals, with no assurance yet that this will translate into wide distribution. Most striking is the projected filming all of Samuel Beckett’s stage works. Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s version of Krapp’s Last Tape with John Hurt attracted laudatory attention at Lincoln Center, but its commercial appeal may be limited by its less than feature-length running time. The Roddy Doyle project When Brendan Met Trudy and Dudi Appleton’s comedy The Most Fertile Man in Ireland attracted favorable notice in Toronto. Pat Murphy’s Nora also earned good notices but in Montreal. This filmed life of the Joyce family draws on Brenda Maddox’s 1988 biography, and stars Susan Lynch in the title role and Scottish actor Ewan McGregor as her husband James.
Two films gained limited release in major markets but did not generate sufficient attention for further distribution. Last September, directed by Deborah Warner with novelist John Banville’s screenplay adaptation of the Elizabeth Bowen novel, is set in the revolutionary Twenties. Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith portray Sir Richard and Lady Naylor, aging heads of an Anglo-Irish family who are truly in the September of their days. The film is visually splendid, Warner uses cinematographer Slavomir Idziak the who worked on Kristof Kieslowski’s "Tricolor" films. Sadly, as with many Irish films, passions involved may be uncompelling for American audiences who don’t believe that "Big House" stories are part of Ireland’s historical tradition. It has an "R" rating for some nudity. At the other end of the social scale was Titanic Town, directed by Roger Mitchell, with English actress Julie Walters (Educating Rita) and Ciarán Hinds, about family life in 1980s Belfast. Favorable notices for Titanic Town may yet open doors.
Three recent films yet to be released in Ireland generate higher expectations. They are Gerry Stembridge’s About Adam, with Stuart Townsend and Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn’s daughter), and Conamara, a German-Irish production by Eoin Moore. Conor McPherson has adapted his own stage play This Lime Tree Bower in Saltwater, with Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson and Gina Moxley. This is a short film (97 min.) about a seaside chipshop family that pits itself against the local hood named "Simple Simon" (Gleeson’s character). MacPherson wrote the very funny but seldom seen I Went Down. Acclaim for his play The Weir could translate to the silver screen.
The fate of two other projects likely to interest ACIS members is not known. First is Peter Sheridan’s Borstal Boy, an adaptation of the Brendan Behan memoir. Next, Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s Ordinary Decent Criminals, with American actor Kevin Spacey and Irish actress Helen Baxendale, is a second take on the Martin Cahill, the first being 1999s The General. Quite apart from Spacey’s accent, critics in Ireland, such as Queens University’s Patrick Maume, have objected to the film’s manipulation historical details.O'Sullivan and writer Gerry Stembridge discount such complaints. They protest that the film is meant as a rip-roaring old-time "Gangster Movie" with Cahill’s exploits the main but not only thread in the fabric of film fiction. They count on Spacey’s character being as intriguing as his Kaiser Sosa in The Usual Suspects. We’ll see if they protest too much: it premiers in January.
Films that did not make it to the cineplexes have a way of showing up in video rental. Look for Lance Hool’s One Man’s Hero, with Tom Berenger, Patrick Bergin and Prince Albert of Monaco. The film concerns the San Patricio soldiers in the U.S-Mexican War, 1848, and was given a totally unwarranted "R" rating for supposed violence. Press reports suggest the film failed to get widespread release because it was fecklessly test-marketed to Latino neighborhoods, who took little interest in the fate of Irish fighting men in the Mexican army. MGM spent less than a million on marketing, nor would they provide a dubbed version to the Spanish speaking audiences. The dialogue is somewhat wooden, and liberties are taken with the San Patricio’s relation to guerilla forces, it sheds light on the extent of Anti-Irish and Anti-Catholic feeling in America at the time.
You might also want to look at Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s 1993 film, December Bride, starring Donal McCann, Ciaran Hinds and Saskia Reeves. This is a quiet film centered on a turn of the last century Ulster Protestant farm community. To have a film about Ulster without distraught IRA terrorists is treat enough, but this film’s austerity and the sense of repression produced by fire and brimstone beliefs proved too much for most American audiences. It is a quiet gem.
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The deadlines for submitting items for the Newsletter are as follows: Aug. 15 (Fall issue), Nov. 15 (Winter issue) and Feb. 15 (Spring issue). The editor cannot guarantee placement of items received after those dates. Send submissions to doan@nova.edu