PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dear Friends,

This is the last issue that you will receive before the ACIS Marquette conference (5-8 June 2002). There has been a great response to the call for papers, and John Harrington and his committee have done a marvelous job putting together a program. (You can go to the ACIS Web site for a look at their work.) If anyone missed the call for papers and still wishes to read a paper or chair a session, contact me directly and as soon as possible. I will do whatever I can to include members who wish to attend.

The local committee for the conference, under the very able direction of Bill Starr, has done a fine job in organizing the non-academic side of the meeting. In addition to our banquet on Saturday, there will be an opening reception at the Irish American Cultural Center, a reception opening an exhibition of contemporary Irish art at Marquette's Haggerty Art Museum, a production of one or two Yeats plays, and an evening of music supplied by Milwaukee Irish-American musicians.

For those who have not yet registered, this issue contains a registration form. Please fill it out and send it to me as soon as possible. Check the Web site for housing information.

Let me also remind you of the need to renew your membership in ACIS. If you missed the renewal notice sent to you recently, you can use the form included in this issue of the Newsletter.

In closing let me thank John Harrington, David Gardiner, Katie Conrad, and all of the other members of the executive committee for their hard work. Whatever success ACIS enjoys this year is due to their efforts.

I hope to see you all in Milwaukee where I promise every day will be sunny and every paper brilliant.

As ever,

Michael

CALLS FOR PAPERS/CONFERENCES

The Representations of Ireland/s: Images from Outside and from Within

The second International Conference of the Spanish Association for Irish Studies will meet at the University of Barcelona, 30-31 May & 1 June 2002. This conference aims at providing a forum for the discussion of the discursive formations that underlie the imagined communities of Ireland, and their representation in literature, the media, cinema and the visual arts. Papers are welcome from a broad range of disciplines including: Literary Studies, Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Postcolonial Studies, Gender Studies and Critical Theory. Proposals for papers, with a 150-word abstract, should be sent as e-mail attachments to the conference coordinator Dr. Rosa González Casademont (rosag@fil.ub.es) asap. Final papers, which should not exceed 10 pages (20 minutes delivery) are due by May 1 2002 in triplicate. Please include a copy on diskette (Word or Word Perfect). A selection of papers will be published according to their thematic relevance to the publication.

The Irish Revival Reappraised

The tenth international conference of the Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland (SSNCI) will take place at All Hallows College, Dublin, on 28-30 June 2002. The conference will feature presentations by Roy Foster, P.J. Mathews, Fintan Cullen, Alex Davis, David Gardiner, Brian Griffin, Christina Hunt Mahony, Siobhan Kilfeather, and Lucy McDiarmid. The Irish revival had its roots in the 1880s and flourished until the 1920s. While not neglecting the great figures or key texts of the age, special emphasis will be placed during this conference on the social, economic and political contexts, such as journalism, theatre and the arts, politics, education, religion and business, which informed the intelligentsias of the period, and contributed to the emergence of movements as diverse as the Gaelic League, the Anglo-Irish literary renaissance, the co-operative movement and Sinn Féin. Registration forms can be obtained from www.qub.ac.uk/english/socs/ssnci.html. or from: Dr E.A. Taylor- FitzSimon, Dept. of English, All Hallows College, Grace Park Rd, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland; e-mail: tayfitz@indigo.ie.

IASIL 2002

The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures and The Brazilian Association of Irish Studies announce an extended deadline for proposals for papers (aprox. 300 words) and previously organized panels: 15 February 2002, for the annual conference in São Paulo, 28 July -1 August. Based on the theme, "Interrelations: Irish literatures and other forms of knowledge," this conference aims at developing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Irish literatures. It looks at literary connections with history, psychology, philosophy, science, other arts (such as music, dance, cinema, painting), critical theory and translation. Papers and panels may also address the following issues: intertextuality, cultural encounters, Irish images abroad and Irish culture. All proposals and c.v.’s (one paragraph) must be submitted to the organizers electronically: Munira H. Mutran & Laura Izarra, Universidade de São Paulo- DLM, Av. Luciano Gualberto 403, 05508-900 São Paulo SP, Brazil; fax: 0055-11-3032 2325; e-mail: iasil@usp.br. The program and further information may be found at: http://www.fflch.usp.br; then click on EVENTOS and IASIL 2002.

FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

British Association for Irish Studies Postgraduate Bursaries Scheme

The British Association for Irish Studies has established a scheme to support postgraduate research in great Britain on topics of Irish interest. BAIS will award bursaries of £500-1,000 each to postgraduate students registered at universities in Great Britain conducting research on any aspect of Irish Studies. Students may use the bursaries for travel expenses, payment of fees, subsistence or other expenses related to the completion of a research project. Applicants will be required to submit a completed Application Form, including completed forms from two referees sent direct to the Chair of the Bursaries Committee. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Deadline for submission of applications is 1 March 2002. The awards will be announced in May 2002. The decision of the BAIS Postgraduate Committee will be final. To apply send a request for an Application Pack to EibhlinEvans@aol.com.

Queen’s University of Belfast Scholarship

A scholarship to the value of £3,000 is available for a well-qualified student, enrolled in the one-year MA degree course in Irish Studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast. This scholarship is open only to citizens of the USA or Canada, enrolled as overseas students on this course. Applications will be judged by a panel on the basis of academic merit and reasons for taking the course. Deadline: 31 May. For further information, contact Catherine Boone, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland; tel: 44 (0) 28 9027 3386; e-mail: irish.studies@qub.ac.uk, Web site: www.qub.ac.uk/iis

SUMMER SCHOOLS

International Summer School in Irish Studies

To be held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, 27 June to 27 July 2002, this is an integrated program in Irish Studies designed for undergraduate and graduate students in Archaeology, History, Literature & Film, Gaelic Culture and Society. The program also includes an interdisciplinary introduction to Irish Studies incorporating elements from all the contributing disciplines, weekly seminars on key themes in Irish Studies and a series of field trips designed to complement the courses taught in the various modules. For further information, contact Seamus O’Grady, Summer School, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. Tel. 353-91-750304; fax 353-91-525051; e-mail: intloffice@mis.nuigalway.ie; Web site: www.mis.nuigalway.ie

The Irish Studies Summer School is taking place 20 June-8 August and is designed for North American university students. The Summer School takes place on the campus of Trinity College, with one week of study at Queens University in Belfast. The curriculum includes literature, drama, history, critical issues, visual culture and Gaelic culture and can be taken for up to six units of university credit. In addition to coursework, a range of cultural event, seminars and guest speakers are included. The poet Seamus Heaney, film director Jim Sheridan and UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson are all previous contributors to the Summer School. Please contact Ann Scott, UsitNY@aol.com, for further information.

The Ireland in Europe Summer School takes place 15-27 July and is designed for the casual student of Irish Studies. Irish culture and its place in a wider Europe is the focus of this two-week summer school at Trinity College Dublin. It will endeavor, by examining important cultural developments, to offer participants a sense of the country part and present as the country takes its role in a new integrated Europe. The program will consist of a series of seminars together with field trips and cultural activities which will offer a comprehensive view of contemporary Ireland. It is open to students of all ages and backgrounds. For further information, contact incoming.ireland@usitworld.com

The 43rd Yeats International Summer School

Held in Sligo, Ireland, 27 July-10 August, the school will consist of two weeks of poetry, drama, seminars, tours, and lectures. The program will include readings by John McGahern, Michael Longley, Paul Muldoon, Pat McCabe, and Peter Fallon. The patron is Michael Yeats, and the directors are Bernard O'Donoghue, Wadham College, Oxford, and Gerladine Higgiins, Emory University, Atlanta. The official opening will feature Roy Foster. There is no deadline for applications. For more information contact: Yeats Society Sligo, Yeats Memorial Building, Hyde Bridge, Sligo, Ireland; tel: 353 (0)71 42693; e-mail: info@yeats-sligo.com or visit: www.yeats-sligo.com

JOURNALS

Victorian Ireland

For a forthcoming Editor’s Topic section on Victorian Ireland, the journal, Victorian Literature and Culture, seeks papers dealing with any aspect of the literature and culture of the period, including diasporic Irish literature and culture. Send papers by 1 December 2002 to Abigail Burnham Bloom, 54 Riverside Drive, 15D New York, NY 10024; e-mail: abigail.bloom@nyu.edu

NEW POSITIONS

The Music Department and the Irish Studies Program of Boston College is seeking an ethnomusicologist for a full time, tenure track position to begin in the Fall of 2002. Expertise in Irish traditional music is essential, as well as some experience teaching world music, and/or another area in ethnomusicology at the undergraduate level. Applicants should possess a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. The Music Department of Boston College, founded in 1989, is a small but growing department within a large, undergraduate liberal arts program. In addition to major and minor concentrations in music we support a large chorale (150 voices), a small symphony orchestra and chamber music society, as well as numerous smaller a cappella singing groups and bands. The music major, minor and all the courses are open to students who come from varied musical backgrounds. An important component of the department has been the program in Irish Music performance. Applicants should submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae and three letters of recommendation by 1 April 2002 to: Professor T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., Chair, Search Committee, Music Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill. 02467. Boston College is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

An Aran Keening

Andrew McNeillie writes about traveling in 1968 to Inishmore to live for nearly a year. The book is being published by Liliput Press in Dublin and the University of Wisconsin, with the latter for sale only in North America. For more information about the book, please visit http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/books/2147.htm

History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800

The Ulster Historical Foundation announces the publication of the six-volume set comprising four volumes of biographies, providing biographical studies of the 2,300 Members of Parliament who sat in the institution during the period 1692-1800. One volume will include histories of the 200 constituencies and one volume will cover the statutes passed by the parliament and a political survey. In terms of its value to the student of Irish historical studies, it will be an enormous research and reference aid. The publication will be launched in Dublin by the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, on 21 February 2002 and in Belfast by Michael McGimpsey, the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure on 27 February 2002. It will go on sale after 28 February 2002. For further information, contact the Ulster Historical Foundation, 12 College Square East, Belfast BT1 6DD, N. Ireland; tel: (0)28 90 332288; fax: (0)28 90 239885; e-mail: fintan@uhf.org.uk

The Wearing of The Green - A Political History of the Irish in Manchester

The Irish in Britain Representation Group is pleased to announce the publication of its first book, a full-length of 200 years of Irish political activity in Manchester, England, from the late 18th to the end of the 20th century. It examines the Manchester Irish contribution to the struggle for Irish independence and freedom in political movements such as the United Irishmen, Fenianism, Home Rule and Republicanism and also looks at their role in radical movements such as Chartism, trade unionism and Votes for Women. This book is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist academic and will be of interest to all those wishing to know more about the history of Manchester's long-established Irish community. It can ordered directly from the publishers by writing to IBRG, PO Box 22790, London England N22 8AE. For more information about the book or IBRG, e-mail bernadette@mossleybrow.demon.co.uk

REVIEWS

Irish Film Watch by Gerard Furey & Jim MacKillop

Typing against Type: The story goes that Waking Ned Devine was originally meant to take place in Wales. Scottish actor Ian Bannen was better known for his Welsh accent than his Irish. Perhaps the British production company (and Fox Studios) hoped to cash in and enchant viewers with the delighting fun and pratfalls of all peoples of the Celtic Fringe: Cymry and Caledonian as well as "Leprechaunian." Scottish films, like Bill Forsyth’s early works, had a charm that guaranteed at least independent status. But the attractiveness faded with his foray into the metaphysically meandering What Dreams May Come. Trainspotting, directed by Danny Boyle, won cult status for Irvine Walsh’s quite un-Forsythian Scots, though thanks for that are in no small part due to Ewan McGregor in the starring role. So, the story goes, Waking Ned Devine was going to introduce the Welsh as a global commodity. By the time the film started production though, another "Welsh" film had come and gone with alarming speed and scant return. The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain, starring Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald, opened on the strength of Grant’s fame from Four Weddings and a Funeral and closed soon after. It seems Wales just didn’t have it. The answer? Make it Irish. [Editor’s Note: The film was actually shot on the Isle of Man, another "Celtic" country.] But, Waking Ned Devine isn’t so much Irish as it is an image fit to the idea of what Irish should be to folk who like to be entertained. How dangerous! Ned Devine is sometimes thought of as The Quiet Man for the ‘90s. One hopes that idea will fade. The Quiet Man, for all its own peculiarities, has stereotypes that say something about the Irish. Ned Devine could have been as dead in Wales or Scotland, in Cornwall or the Cotswolds and the story would still have worked. Some "Irish" films are losing the sense of a real Ireland and a complacent viewing audience really doesn’t care. Stories have intricate twists and intriguing characters, but there’s no soul to them. We attend the accents, but don’t find accentuation of place, of culture, of kind. There are films that hold true to their type - Margaret Thatcher’s England is definitely part of Billy Elliot, but Guy Ritchie’s Snatch gang could thrive in nearly any city in the world. Non-Hollywood cultures can thrive, but we must be sure not to confuse "types" of film for film types.

Three more film festivals should be added to the growing list where recent Irish productions find prominent places on the playbill: Doclands Film Festival, held each September in the Temple Bar neighborhood in Dublin. The "Doc" of the title indicates "documentary," a genre that often has a difficult time finding screens anywhere. Last year one of the most prominent Irish titles was Irina Maldea and Brendan Culleton's Shamrocks and Swastikas (2001, 50 min.) about forgotten episodes in "The Emergency" of the 1940s. Web site: www.doclands.ie, e-mail: info@doclands.ie; Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, 1-5 August 2002, c/o Outhouse, 6 South William Street, Dublin 2. Next summer's program is not yet available, but the 2001 festival featured a retrospective of the late British filmmaker, Derek Jarman (1942-1994). Web site: www.irishculture.net/filmfestival, e-mail: dballard@eircom.net; Celtic Film and TV Festival, 20-23 March 2002, Quimper, Brittany. Twenty Irish titles appear on this year's program, most prominently Les Blair's drama of the prison protests from the early 1980's, H3 (known during production as 66 Days). Although the venue for each year's festival rotates from country to county, the permanent administrative offices are in Scotland: 249 West George Street, Glasgow G2 4QE. Web site: www.celtfilm.co.uk, e-mail: mail@celtfilm.co.uk;Lastly, the April Dublin Film Festival, long in poor economic health as reported in the last issue, has canceled this year's session with the expectation of stronger offerings in 2003.

 NEWS FROM ACIS MEMBERS

Jennifer Cornell writes: "I am an ACIS member from Oregon State University, currently on leave in Belfast, where, among other things, I am investigating the genesis, financial history, and current management structure of the Spectrum Centre on the Shankill Road. I know the Centre is a project of the Greater Shankill Partnership, of which Jackie Redpath is a key member; I know too that the project was funded in part by a substantial grant from the Ireland Fund -- but little further information about how and by whom the Centre is organized and operated appears to be available locally." She requests that anyone familiar with the history, activities, or management of the Centre write to her: Jennie Cornell, 14 Paris Street, Belfast BT13 1QA Northern Ireland, or by e-mail to jcornell@orst.edu

Joan Navarre and Marilyn Bisch announce the formation of The Oscar Wilde Society in America, a new society organized to promote the study, understanding, and dissemination of research about Oscar Wilde and his times. The Society will be especially engaged in fostering a wider awareness of Wilde's 1882 American lecture tour and of the artists, educators, and other individuals he encountered. Inaugural events will be held in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, on the weekend of St. Patrick's Day 2002, in commemoration of the 120th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's visit to the Twin Cities. All interested persons are welcome to join. For more details, please contact Joan Navarre and Marilyn Bisch by post at The Oscar Wilde Society in America House, Half Moon Park, 332 Eleventh Street East, Menomonie WI, 54751 or via e-mail to: hubisch@scifac.indstate.edu

The deadline for the Fall issue of the Newsletter is Aug. 15; for the Winter issue Nov. 15 and for the Spring issue Feb. 15. We encourage submissions from all ACIS members (please send to doan@nova.edu). Changes of address or status should be sent to the Treasurer, David Gardiner (gardiner@creighton.edu).
 

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