PRESIDENT’S REPORT

This is the last president’s report from this particular ACIS president, and there is little to report except that we have our 39th annual meeting coming up in New York City from June 6-9, hosted by my own Fordham University at its Lincoln Center campus. There we will announce the results of the election to the new executive board, to be presided over by Michael Patrick Gillespie, my much-esteemed successor. While an agenda is yet to be confirmed, we will also receive the report of the by-law review committee (chaired by Mid-West Representative Sean Moran) and the committee to review the book prizes (chaired by Social Science Representative, David Miller). And there may be a continuation of some business raised at our last meeting in Limerick. The current procedures of the nominations committee in slating no more than two candidates for each elective position was challenged an alternative proposal may be brought to your attention in New York.

Like voting in Chicago, my gratitude to a number of people cannot be acknowledged too early or too often. First I must thank the current crew of executive offices – Vice-President Michael Patrick Gillespie, Treasurer Monica Brennan, and Secretary Kathryn Conrad for the maintenance and smooth running of routine and extra-routine operations over the last two years. If I leave office with any sense of accomplishment, it is because of the efforts of these people in carrying out innovations and regularizing procedures. I am especially grateful to Michael, who served more as a co-president than a vice-president, and by shouldering so many of the burdens of my office, lightened my own load.

Thank you to the rest of the Executive Committee for your patience, indulgence, and responsible stewardship. And thanks to Riana O’Dwyer, who served as our international treasurer the first part of my term, and to Daire Keogh who has succeeded her. We all must thank Jim Doan for editing our newsletter, and all those members who have generously agreed to serve on the nominations and book prize committees. Our organization is only as strong as the commitment of its members, who steal precious time away from their day jobs and other professional distractions to assure an active and visible place for Irish Studies.

And finally, thank you all for the honor, the privilege, and I must now admit, even the pleasure, of presiding over the this organization in association with so many fine people.

 Nancy J. Curtin

President, ACIS

REGIONAL MEETINGS

New England: The 2001 Regional meeting will take place 28-29 September, sponsored by Boston University's College of General Studies. Paper and panel proposals are invited which speak to the theme of "Home: Through the Eyes of the Emigrant." The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ruth-Ann Harris. The conference will also feature a panel concerning the Common Ground initiative, which fosters discussion between women from the Republic and Northern Ireland. Paper and panel proposals may be sent to Dr. Sally K. Sommers Smith, Boston University, 871 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. Deadline for submissions is 31 May 2001. Information about accomodation and schedules may be found at: http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~irish/neacis.htm

Midwest: The 2001 Regional meeting (Creighton University, Omaha, NE, 26-27 October) will explore the theme of shifting changes in contemporary Ireland. Presentations and discussions in Irish and Irish-American history, literature, philosophy, performing arts, the sciences, business, and technology are welcome. The plenary speaker will be Andrew Carpenter (University College Dublin), with a reading by Eamonn Wall (University of Missouri-St. Louis). As always, the Midwest Regional encourages the participation of graduate students, for whom discounts on conference fees will be available. Already formed panels, discussion group proposals, and alternative presentation formats are encouraged. Presentations must be no more than 20 minutes in length. For further information, David Gardiner, Department of English, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 68178; tel: 402-280-2306; fax: 402-370-3528; E-mail: gardiner@creighton.edu. Abstracts (not to exceed 250 words) are due by 31 July.

Western: October 2001. Twenty-minute papers are invited on any Irish theme, genre to gender. E-mail Audrey Eyler by 25 July (eyleras@plu.edu). Watch the Web site (www.acisweb.com) for place, date, and details.

Mid-Atlantic: This year’s meeting will take place 2-3 November at the Abington campus of Pennsylvania State University, near Philadelphia. The host committee for the meeting is headed by Tramble Turner, who will be happy to deal with requests for information about the conference arrangements at (215) 881-7532 or by E-mail at ttt3@psu.edu. The theme will be "Revisiting, Reclaiming and Revising: Perspectives on Irish Culture and Society." Abstracts (of about 300 words) should be sent by 18 May 2001, either to: Robert Mahony, Department of English, Catholic University, Washington DC 20064, or to: mahony@cua.edu

Southern: The Southern Region's twelfth annual meeting, hosted by the University of North Florida, was held 22-24 February at the Sea Turtle Inn, Atlantic Beach, FL. Featured presenters and panelists included documentary film maker Anne Crilly, from Derry, Northern Ireland; Bernard Cullen, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Queen's University Belfast; Geraldine Higgins of Emory University; Lucy McDiarmid of Villanova University; Mick Moloney of New York University; Mary O'Malley of Moycullen, Co. Galway; and Catherine Shannon of Westfield State College (ret.). The theme of the meeting was "Mother Ireland." Over 100 people, drawn from 20+ states and Canada, participated in the meeting. Ed Madden of the University of South Carolina was elected to succeed Richard Bizot as President of the region. The 2002 meeting will take place at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia. Contact Louiaa Franklin (lfranklin@yhc.edu) for information on lodging, meals, amenities, etc., and Ruth Looper (rlooper@yhc.edu) regarding papers and panels.

AHA REPORT

Tim Meagher reports that one of the two ACIS sessions at the AHA in January 2001, "No More Paddy, Biddy, or Ballyhoo: Protest and Negotiation in the Representation of Ireland and Irish America in American Popular Culture," was the only session of the AHA written up in the local daily newspapers, winning a full page and a half discussion in the Boston Herald. The other, "Philanthropic Rivalries: Competition between Catholic and Protestant Charitable Organizations in Ireland and Irish America," featured a number of newly minted PhDs.

MLA 2001

Guinn Batten has announced the two ACIS panels at the MLA meeting in New Orleans 27-30 December: 1) Ireland and Empire: Recent Approaches to Irish Postcolonialism, in Theory and in Literature; 2) The Poetics of Space and Modern Irish Literature. Members should send their proposals as e-mails to: mgbatten@artsci.wustl.edu. All proposals are due by 15 March.

CALLS FOR PAPERS

Fifteenth Irish Conference of Medievalists

The meeting will be held at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 28-30 June 2001. Papers are invited on medieval archaeology, art, history, language and literature (Latin and the vernaculars). The length for papers should be 45 minutes (15 minutes discussion), or 20 minutes (10 minutes discussion). Send titles and abstracts by 28 February 2001 to Dr Colmàn Etchingham, Dept of History, NUI Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; tel: 353-1-7083481, or 7083816 (direct line); fax: 353-1-7083314; E-mail: colman.etchingham@may.ie. The Conference program and details concerning fees for registration, meals and accommodation will be circulated in March 2001.

Canadian Association for Irish Studies: 2001 - An Irish Odyssey

Held once again in conjunction with the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, this year's conference of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies promises to be an exciting, stimulating few days of discussions, presentations and of course arguments about Irish culture, history and politics. The themes of this year's Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities are: "Language, Culture and Community," "Plagues and Viruses" and "The Role of the Intellectual in Society." We want to especially encourage proposals about the complex, unique relationship enjoyed (and sometime not enjoyed!) between Ireland and Québec. Possible topics might include: Representations of the Famine as a plague;

The contemporary meaning of the Grosse Île memorial; Irish health care policy; Medieval Irish representations of plagues; Cú Chulainn: Public Intellectual avant la lettre?; Irish creative artists engaged with Irish politics, from Pádraig Pearse to Sean O'Faolain to Nuala Ní Dhomnaill; The novels of Brian Moore, Jacques Ferron's Le salut de l'Irlande, or Madeline Ferron's Sur le Chemain Craig; Post-1960 fiction and poetry in Irish Gaelic; Important political or philosophical work being done in Irish Gaelic; Comparisons of Bord na Gaeilge's policies with those of Comunn na Gàidhlig or Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg; The changing nature of the Gaeltacht communities; Policy for the islands of Ireland, Québec or Canada; Newfoundland English and its relationship to Irish Gaelic and Irish variants of English; The relationship between Irish and Francophone clergy; Comparisons of the October Crisis and British policies in Northern Ireland; Relationships between Native Canadians and the Irish; Irish women's movements in the context of international feminism. Please send a 300 word abstract, in English or French, by 7 February 2001 to: Canadian Association for Irish Studies Conference 2001 c/o Celtic Studies, St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, 81 St. Mary Street, Toronto ON M5S 1J4 or E-mail to: Laura.Shintani@utoronto.ca

Facts and Fictions: Ireland and the Novel in the 19th Century

The Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research at Cardiff University will hold a conference 14-16 September 2001 dealing with the following question: What was the relationship between the emerging national cultures of Britian and Ireland and the increasingly institutionalized form of the novel in the 19th century? The conference invites papers which will locate ideas of nationality within the multiple contexts determining how fictions were written, read and distributed in the 19th century. Plenary speakers include: Marilyn Butler, Joe Cleary, Ina Ferris, Margaret Kelleher, Joep Leerssen, Josephine McDonagh and Norman Vance. Send abstracts (max. 200 words) by 27 April 2001 to: Dr. Jacqueline Belanger, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3XB, Wales, UK. Tel: 44-29-2087-6339; fax: 44-29-2087-4502; E-mail: belangerj@cardiff.ac.uk

Graduate Irish Studies Conference

The graduate students of the Boston College Irish Studies Program and the Irish American Cultural Institute invite your participation in "Set Apart? Locating Ireland," the 13th Graduate Irish Studies Conference. The conference will be held on 12-13 October 2001 on the Boston College Campus. Proceedings will include conference panels, a plenary discussion, keynote address, and GISC business meeting. All papers submitted in full before the conference will be considered for a $500 prize sponsored by IACI, and possible publication in Éire-Ireland. Interdisciplinary projects and papers that use the title conference as a window into Irish history, literature, and culture are particularly encouraged. Panel topics include, but are not limited to: New immigrants to/ asylum seeking in Ireland; Ireland and the EU/ adoption of the Euro; Comparative literatures; Ireland and the visual arts; Ireland, Irish Studies, and theory in the academy; Celtic Tiger economics and contradictions; Medieval history and literature; Ireland in the context of European modernism; Law and literature; Language and translation; Irish cinema; The Clinton Administration and Northern Ireland; Post-Good Friday Accords Northern Ireland. Send E-submissions to: halsteam@bc.edu or hard copies to GISC, c/o Cathy McLaughlin, Irish Studies Program-Connolly House, 300 Hammond St, Chestnut Hill MA 02135: 2-3 pp. abstracts or conference length (15-20 min.) papers will be considered until 15 April 2001.

Central New York Conference on Language and Literature

The annual conference will be held 28-30 October 2001 in Cortland, New York. The Chairs of the following standard sessions of Irish interest are seeking papers from faculty and qualified graduate students:

Modern Irish Drama. Steven Dedalus Burch: 776 Garden St., Meadville PA 16335 (sburch@allegheny.edu) ; Modern Irish Fiction. Peter J. Quinn: English Dept., Curry College, 1071 Blue Hill Ave., Milton MA 02186 (peterquinn@post.harvard.edu); Modern Irish Poetry. Robert Rhodes: English Dept., Cortland College, SUNY, P.O. Box 2000, Cortland NY 13045 (no e-mail)

Contemporary Irish Literature. Nainsi Houston: 431 Lackey Rd. #10, Martin TN 38237 (nhouston@utm.edu); Irish Women Writers. Alexander G. Gonzalez: English Department, Cortland College, SUNY, P.O. Box 2000, Cortland NY 13045 (gonzalez@cortland.edu). (All papers will be considered, but those on Eavan Boland are preferred); James Joyce. Joseph Schneider: 18 Turning Mill Lane, Randolph MA 02368 (jschneid@curry.edu); Yeats. Elizabeth Brewer: 2400 Greylock Pl., Decatur GA 30030 (ehbrewe@emory.edu). Special-session proposals on Irish-literature subjects are welcome. To receive an application sheet, please contact the director, Alex Gonzalez: gonzalez@cortland.edu Please note that there will likely be at least one Irish-literature session at each conference time slot and that other sessions of related interest will be held, such as Colonial and Postcolonial Literature, Exile in Literature, Autobiography, The Novel, etc.

CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIA

Ulster Roots/Southern Branches:A Symposium on the Scots-Irish Heritage in Northern Ireland and the Southern United States

Sponsored by the W. B. Yeats Foundation of Emory University, this one-day symposium (3 March) is intended to advance a greater understanding and appreciation of the history and cultural tradition of the Scots-Irish on both sides of the Atlantic. The day will conclude with a concert exploring the common tradition, particularly in folk arts, that continues to exist between Ulster and the Southern States. Speakers/performers include Tony McAuley, Owen Dudley Edwards, Kerby Miller, Jim Flannery, Anne McCartney, Michael Montgomery, Richard MacMaster, Katharine Brown, Erskine Clarke, James Doan, Tyler Blethen, Maggie Holtzberg, and the musical group, Clatter o Fowk. For further information, contact Chris Moser (chrismoser@mindspring.com).

Queer Men: Historicizing Queer Masculinities, 1550-1800

This conference to be held in the Physics Theatre, Newman House, Stephen’s Green, Dublin, on Saturday, 21 July from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., will be a gathering of the most recent scholarship on the historicization of masculinity by the most original and widely respected thinkers in this relatively new field of Queer Studies. By using the analytical tools of Queer Theory, these international, interdisciplinary scholars have reconfigured the history of sexuality in radically altering both how we think about sexuality and how we write history. This will be a timely benchmark in answering and raising questions about male love, sex, friendship and intimacy in

the Early Modern era, taking into account how widely this matter has been debated over the last ten years, and will prove an invaluable contribution to Gay, Lesbian & Queer studies; sexual, social and cultural history and Early Modern & Enlightenment studies more generally. The speakers include Randolph Trumbach (Baruch College, CUNY), George Haggerty (University of California, Riverside), George Rousseau (DeMontfort and Oxford), Alan Bray (Historian and Honorary Research Fellow of Birkbeck College, University of London), Alan Stewart (Birkbeck College, London), Jeffrey Masten (Northwestern University, Evanston), Robert Tobin (Whitman College, Washington), Mario DiGangi (Lehman College, CUNY), Hugh Stevens (University of York, UK), and Jody Greene (University of California, Santa Cruz). The conference is being organized by Katherine O'Donnell (WERRC) and Michael O'Rourke (UCD). For further information, peruse the following Web sites: www.ucd.ie/~werrc/queermen.html or www.ucd.ie/~werrc/queermenbkg.html for the booking form. Apply early since space is limited.

Peoples and Migrations: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in Comparative Perspective

The annual conference of the AHRB Centre for North East England History will be held 14-16 September 2001, at the University of Sunderland. The AHRB Centre was established as NEEHI in 1995 to bring together the five north-eastern universities (Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside) in association with the Open University, the Beamish Industrial Museum and other partners, to study regionalism and regional identity over a very long time span. The topic of this conference is migration, one of the most important demographic, economic and cultural phenomena in human history.

Proposals for papers are invited which relate directly to aspects of the history of North East England, but papers which relate to broader migration themes in British or Irish history are also welcome, as are international comparisons and theoretical studies. There is no restriction as to time period, and interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged. It is hoped that new researchers as well as established scholars will offer papers. Themes for consideration include: Emigration and return migration; British regional identity and the migration effect; Economic aspects of migration; Transplanted cultures; Ethnic networks; Ethnic violence;

Urbanisation; Associational culture and migration; Borders, boundaries and migration; Assimilation, integration and ethnic plurality. Outline proposals (100/200 words) should be sent to Prof. A.C.Hepburn, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Sunderland, Sunderland SR1 3PZ, U.K. or, preferably, by E-mail to tony.hepburn@sunderland.ac.uk. For further information about the AHRB Centre for North East England History contact the Director, Professor David Rollason or the Research and Outreach Officer, Margaret McAllister, at the Department of History, University of Durham.

FELLOWSHIPS AND PRIZES

BAIS Post-Graduate Bursaries Scheme, 2001

The British Association for Irish Studies (BAIS) has established a scheme to support postgraduate research in Britain on topics of Irish interest. BAIS will award four bursaries of £1000 each to postgraduate students based in a university in Great Britain, conducting research on any aspect of Irish Studies. Students may use the bursary for travel expenses, payment of fees, subsistence or other expenses related to the completion of the research project. Applicants must be registered for a postgraduate degree in a higher education institution in Great Britain. All applications must be received by 1 March 2001.

Applicants should supply ten copies of the following information on no more than three sides of A4:

*Personal details (full name, contact details, date of birth)

*An outline of the research project, in no more than 500 words.

*Details of the specific purposes for which the research funding is

intended, and when the money will be spent.

*Details of educational background, qualifications and postgraduate

registration.

*Information regarding any other source of funding received or applied for.

*The contact details of two referees. Applicants must arrange for

references to be sent directly to the conveynor of the Bursaries Committee, address below. The Bursary winners will be announced in May 2001: the decision of the Awarding Committee will be final. Applications and references should be sent by 1 March 2001 to: Dr Eibhln Evans, 48, Brampton Road, St Albans, Herts. AL1 4PT, UK; E-mail: e.evans@herts.ac.uk

Helen Wallis Fellowship at the British Library (2001)

This annual, named fellowship offers a convenient and unusually privileged working environment in the British Library. The fellow will be treated like a member of staff (i.e. not restricted to reading room hours) and will be provided with their own work-station, with an E-mail account and access to the Internet. In addition, the fellowship carries with it a voucher worth £300 to be spent within the Library. The award honours the memory of the former Map Librarian at the British Museum and then British Library, Dr Helen Wallis OBE (1967-86), and confers recognition by the Library on a scholar, from *any* field, whose work will promote the extended and complementary use of the British Library's book and cartographic collections. The closing date is 1 May 2001.

Preference will be given to proposals that relate to the Library's collections and have an international dimension. The fellowship may be held as a full or part-time appointment, and would normally be for 6-12 months. For the *full* terms of reference please contact Tony Campbell, Map Librarian, British Library Map Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB (tony.campbell@bl.uk); tel.: 44-20-7412 7525; fax: 44-20-7412-7780.

J.C. Beckett Prize in Irish History

The J.C. Beckett Prize in Irish History is awarded each year to a

postgraduate student working in the field of medieval and modern Irish history. An essay of between 12,000-15,000 words, based on the thesis, should be submitted by 5 May 2001. For additional information, please contact: info@four-courts-press.ie. The judging committee is chaired by Dr Raymond Gillespie and includes Nancy Curtin of Fordham as one of the main judges. A medal and prize of 750 Euros forms the prize and is awarded in the Autumn. The 2000 recipient was Michael Huggins, Liverpool University, for his essay "A Secret Ireland: Agrarian Conflict in Pre-Famine Roscommon."

SEMINARS

For the past ten years, the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) has hosted an International Faculty Development Seminar in Northern Ireland, focusing on "The Troubles" and hosted by the University of Ulster, Coleraine. Over the last decade, more than 100 U.S. professors have participated on these Northern Ireland programs. Another seminar this summer, entitled "Peace and Conflict in Northern Ireland," will be held 17-23 June 2001. Check http://www.ciee.org/ifds/Seminars/nireland.htm for further details. Applications are due 15 March 2001.

Anglo-Irish Identities, 1600-1800

The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Keough Institute for Irish Studies announce a 2001 interdisciplinary Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers to be held at the Keough Institute, University of Notre Dame, 16 June-18 July 2001. Focusing on a crucial period if Irish history, this five-week seminar will explore the complex and contested cultural, politicaland ideological identities of the group who have come to be called the Anglo-Irish. How did they imagine themselves and differentiate themselves from others? Visiting Faculty include: Seamus Deane, Jim Smyth, Kevin Whelan, Carole Fabricant and S.J. Connolly. The fifteen participants will hold visiting scholar status and have time to work in Notre Dame’s major library holdings in Irish studies. All teachers selected to participate in the seminar will be awarded a stipend of $3,250 to cover travel, research and living expenses. For further information, contact the Web site: www.nd.edu/~irishstu or send an e-mail requesting information to: Nila Gerhold, Keough Inst. for Irish Studies, 1146 Falnner Hall, Univ. of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556; tel.: 219-631-3555; E-mail: irishstu@nd.edu

SUMMER SCHOOLS

International Summer School in Irish Studies

The Irish Studies Summer School is based in the Faculty of Humanities and co-ordinated by the Institute of Irish Studies, an internationally recognised research Institute that achieved a top grade 5 in the last United Kingdom Research Assessment Exercise. Lectures and seminars are given by internationally acclaimed scholars in various aspects of the study of Ireland, including history, politics, anthropology, film and theatre, language and literature. In addition, participating students have the opportunity to visit sites of historical and cultural interest in the northern capital itself and beyond, such as Stormont Parliament Buildings, Belfast City Hall, the Giant's Causeway and Derry's Walls, thus enhancing traditional learning with fieldwork and social activity. In one of the most popular sessions, summer school participants have the opportunity to meet and dialogue with leading members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Students who successfully complete the Summer School will be awarded a transcript and the equivalent of 3 US credits. Further details are available from: Catherine Boone, Summer School Administrator, Institute of Irish Studies, 8 Fitzwilliam Street, Belfast BT9 6AW, Northern Ireland; tel: 44 28 9027 3386; fax: 44 28 9043 9238; E-mail: irish.studies@qub.ac.uk or see the Summer School Web site: www.qub.ac.uk/iis/summerschool.htm

TCD Irish Studies and Ireland in Europe Summer Schools

The Irish Studies Summer School, taking place from 21 June- 9 August 2001 and designed for North American university students, 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 6 units of university credit. In addition to the coursework, a range of cultural events, 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. For further information, contact Ann Scott at USitNY@aol.com

The Ireland in Europe Summer School takes place from 15-28 July 2001 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 past and present as the country takes its role in a new integrated Europe. The programme will consist of a series of seminars togather 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 Liz.Daly@usitworld.com /Joe.Donnelly@usitworld.com

Yeats International Summer School

The 42nd Annual Yeats International Summer School will be held in Sligo, Ireland, 28 July - 10 August 2001. The lecturers include Helen Vendler, Rand Brandes, Sinéad Garrigan Mattar, Declan Kiberd, John Kelly, Daniel Allbright, Hugh Haughton, James Pethica, Neil Corcoran, Lucy McDiarmid, Declan Kiely, George O'Brien, Tom Paulin, Mitsuko Ohno, and Chris Morash; readings & dramatic presentations by Seamus Heaney, Jamie McKendrick, Tom Paulin, and George O'Brien, and a drama workshop by Carol Moore. For bookings, go to www.yeats-sligo.com

NEWS FROM ACIS MEMBERS

Mary K. Trotter (matrotte@iupui.edu) asks if anyone wishes to start an on-line conversation dealing with Irish theatre's response to the EU, and how writers such as Dermot Bolger, Donal O'Kelley, Pom Boyd and Jimmy Murphy respond in their dramas to the effects of the Celtic Tiger on Ireland's geographical, sociological and theatrical landscapes, with an eye to setting up a panel dealing with this topic at the Midwest ACIS meeting in October.
 
 

Irish Film Watch by Jim MacKillop & Gerard Furey

In the first "Irish Film Watch" we spoke of the substantial number of new Irish films becoming available this season. Quite a few readers responded with the familiar questions, "How can we get to see them?" And, "Will they ever be available on video or DVD?"

The short answers are these: Only a tiny minority or Irish-made films ever reaches the typical suburban or small-town multiplex. Some films appear only in the five major markets (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Toronto), and some appear only at festivals. A certain number appear in the larger university cities. An unpredictable number of films, including those that never played North American cinema houses, may appear on video and DVD, but it takes work to hunt them out. In general, more Irish films will appear in Canada than in the United States.

Part of the reason for this is that North American film rights are expensive. Indeed, it’s the plum market for international filmmakers. If a film appears at, say, the Lincoln Center Film Festival, it is essentially being advertised for distribution, without regard to North American rights. Thus a review might appear in national publications, as happened recently with the Samuel Beckett films, but the rights were never sold, and so the films never appeared again commercially here. An Irish filmmaker would be most unwise to sell his product to a poorly financed small-timer who cannot get the film on any screens. If the film cost $3 million to make, a relatively modest sum, the filmmaker is hoping to recover some of his cost in North America. The reason some films appear in Canada but not the U.S. is that Canada-only rights may be sold for a smaller sum.

Additionally, a film has a short shelf life. If it is not sold to a distributor within a few months, it cannot be sold at all.

A second avenue is cable television. Several recent Irish-made films, like Brylcreem Boys, with Riverdance star Jean Butler, and When the Sky Falls, about the Veronica Guerin murder, appeared on pay cable stations. For some reason, the cable stations never see a reason to advertise Irish associations, as brick and mortar cinema house owners do, perhaps on the justifiable assumption most viewers want to see only native-made films. Looking for such films requires diligence and the prior knowledge of the film’s title, a service we tried to provide in the first of these Irish Film Watches.

The third route is through video and DVD rental agencies, of which there are three kinds: local stores, national chains, and national mail order services. Of these national mail order services are the best, and the most notable of these is Facets Video of Chicago, which maintains a list of more than 50,000 hard-to-find items in many interest areas. The company has a Web site, www.facets.org and also issues, from time to time, an oversize printed catalogue as well as period newsletters of specialty interest. A few years ago Facets sent out an Irish-area interest newsletter but has not continued to do so. Nevertheless, many Irish items are still available, sometimes categorized as "British," alas. Look, for example, for Mike Leigh’s Four Days in July (1984), set in Belfast with a young Bríd Brennan and young Stephen Rea.

Rentals at Facets run $10 an item plus postage, after you have first secured a membership for $35.00, which turns into three free rentals. The toll-free rental number is (800) 532-2387, 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Central Times. Or you may prefer to purchase titles through a different toll-free number: (800) 331-6197. If you find that Facets does not stock the title you’re seeking, it may be valuable to ask for the title anyway as a way of demonstrating that there is a demand for it.

Large independent rental agencies are usually the second best choice. A beloved independent called Chimney’s thrived in Syracuse until it as run out of business by the chains. Until last October it maintained a list of seventy Irish titles, including such choice selections as O’Sullivan’s December Bride and The War of the Buttons. Sales of discontinued titles from independents can yield unexpected pleasures. At such a sale in New Haven, recently, a colleague found a video of James Joyce’s Women with Fionnuala Flanagan, a film that never enjoyed widespread national release as a feature film.

Large national chains like Blockbuster usually offer the poorest choices because they rely on computer monitored mass marketing. This means an Adam Sandler vehicle will occupy the shelf space that might have gone to the rare Irish masterpiece as it can be shown to generate more rentals. Still, surprises are possible, especially with new releases, even better if the store has a knowledgeable clerk who can help you to identify Irish titles. Lastly, on-line auction houses like eBay and Yahoo offer a huge number of titles for sale at prices generally lower than those of Facets. There is no separate listing for Irish films, which might appear under "Foreign," or might also be classed as "Comedy," "Drama," "Classic," etc. The stock available changes by the day, of course, but a search device allows the purchaser to manage time efficiently.

Be mindful that VHS videos sold in Ireland or Britain may look exactly like those sold in North America but are not compatible with North American machines.