News & BAIS Newsletters
BAIS Postgraduate Essay Prize Ceremonies
Winner 2009: Brynhildur Boyce (Goldsmiths), for an essay entitled ‘Pismires and Protestants: the ‘lingering dissolution’ of Samuel Beckett’s All That Fall’.
Brynhildur was presented with £500 worth of Cambridge University Press books by His Excellency Bobby McDonagh, The Irish Ambassador to London. Her essay will appear in Irish Studies Review in 2009-10. Photographs of the 2009 awards ceremony are available here
BAIS Postgraduate Bursaries 2009
Winners:
Olive Barnes (Oxford Brookes University),
Thesis: The Catholic Church in England
Niall Carson (Liverpool University),
Thesis: The Bell: Ireland’s Voice
Mary Gemma Clark (Oxford University),
Thesis: Social and political violence within the local community - Irish Civil War
Erika Hanna (Oxford University),
Thesis: Planning, Preservation and Heritage in Dublin, 1950-1980
Anna Hoare (UCL),
Thesis: Making Space: changing forms of architecture and mobility among Irish Travellers in the UK and Ireland’
Paul Jones (York University),
Thesis: Joyce’s Forgings: Literature, Interpretation, Irish Identity
John Paul McCarthy (Oxford University),
Thesis: Gladstone’s Irish Questions: An Historical Approach, 1830-1886
Patrick Wadden (Oxford University),
Thesis: Irish Ethnographic Writing during the 11th and 12th centuries
Theresa Wray (Cardiff University),
Thesis: Realist Modes in the work of Mary Lavin
Chair’s Report to the Annual General Meeting of the British Association for Irish Studies, 29th November 2008
Funding is a key element informing the ambitions of any association which wishes to support a stimulating programme of activities and underwrite projects which nurture future scholars, and the ongoing availability of money to enable these objectives has been – and remains - a concern. To date the association has benefited from financial support of the Irish Government but as that is now less certain it has to be a matter of debate how far the successes of this year can be repeated. Nevertheless, there have been successes and these are detailed below.
This year Professor Maria Luddy and Dr Mathew Campbell continued to convene the panels for the Postgraduate Bursary Awards and Postgraduate Essay Prize respectively. Thanks are due to them, and their colleagues on the two panels, for their work in these two vital areas: to Professor Clair Wills; Professor John Hill: Dr Virginia Crossman: Dr Scott Brewster and Professor Roy Foster on the bursaries panel and Dr Yvonne Whelan, Professor Fintan Cullen, Professor Neil Sammels and Dr Ian McBride on the postgraduate prize panel. Also, thanks, of course, to those postgraduates who took part – and congratulations to those who were successful; the names of whom, along with their projects, can be found on the BAIS website. Their sense of achievement was, I know, made all the greater by their being able to have their prizes presented by the Irish Ambassador at a ceremony in the Embassy in London when they were able to meet one another along with members of the panels and other council members. Our thanks to the ambassador His Excellency David Cooney and Mrs Geraldine Cooney for hosting this event. And also, of course, to Ray Ryan of Cambridge University Press for support of the Essay Prize and to Professor Neil Sammells for facilitating the publication of the winning work in Irish Studies Review. This year’s award ceremony was also significant as it provided us with the formal opportunity to initiate our awards of Honorary Members of the association in recognition of those who have made a significant contribution to the work of Irish Studies in Britain. This year it was a particular pleasure to recognise the work of two individuals whose distinguished work as historians has never inhibited their giving all possible support to BAIS: Professor Marianne Elliott of the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool and Professor Roy Foster, of Hertford College Oxford, both of whom attended the embassy for the event. BAIS is pleased that it has been also able to support a range of other activities across the year. The well-established work in the Irish Language continued to be organised and developed by Christy Evans. Christy’s own report will provide the detail. But I will just add that it has been as wide-ranging and inspiring as in previous years and BAIS was delighted to be able to use monies previously donated by Cáit Thompson – a predecessor of Christy’s on the council – to support this work. And also to say that it was a pleasure to see that Cáit was able to speak at one of the events. The Irish Studies Seminar Series at University of London, which have now been running since 2000, are supported by BAIS and organised by Dr Ian McBride, Professor Clair Wills and Dr Ben Levitas. A full programme was held across the year which culminated in June with a symposium on Paddy and the Public Sphere: Print Culture and Politics in Late Eighteenth-Century Ireland. And it’s worth noting that Ben Bankhurst, one of our bursary prize winners, and Dr Catriona Kennedy, BAIS Treasurer, presented papers at the event. In the same context of BAIS sponsored activities I also want to thank Professor Richard Kirkland for representing BAIS on the organisation of a lecture at the Houses of Parliament to recognise the 40th anniversary of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights movement. The lecture, by Dr Thomas Hennessey, was given in July. Also, as an event with which BAIS is associated, mention should also be made of the AHRC-funded Wales-Ireland seminar series at University of Cardiff; a project in which BAIS Secretary, Dr Claire Connolly, is the Principal Investigator. Clearly, the range of activities noted above demonstrates the range of BAIS activities and its contribution to Irish Studies in many locations and to many constituencies. I also want to both thank the embassy and congratulate Mervyn Busteed and Catherine Nash whose new books were celebrated at a reception at the embassy earlier this month: Mervyn’s Irish Protestant Identities which he edited with Frank Neal and Jonathan Tonge and Catherine’s Of Irish Decent. And, finally, congratulations to Richard Kirkland for the award of a chair in Irish Literary and Cultural Studies at Kings College, University of London and to Catherine Nash in being awarded a chair in Human Geography at Queen Mary, University of London.
This year also saw BAIS elections and I’m particularly pleased that so many colleagues saw able to stand again and continue to make invaluable contributions to Irish Studies. I’m especially glad to be able to welcome Drs Kevin Bean and Maria Power from the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool to the council. BAIS and the Institute were and now formally are, natural allies and I hope their presence will help strengthen long-standing natural interests. While, however, we gained Kevin and Maria we lost Professor Neil Sammells, editor of Irish Studies Review, whose other commitments necessitated that he stand down. However Neil is happy to continue his formal relationship with BAIS council as and when appropriate. I’m especially grateful to Neil for this commitment, as from the moment when he and Paul Hyland, with financial support from BAIS, started ISR in the 1980s, it has always been a partnership to be proud of, and it continues to ensure, through its quality of content and production, that BAIS is associated with the highest academic standards.
It’s also appropriate to say thank you to Derek Hannon who has returned to Dublin after working for several years as cultural attaché at the embassy in London where he was always a supportive and enabling friend to the association. But also to welcome his replacement Ciarán Byrne. I recognise the difficult budgetary situation in Ireland, as elsewhere, but hope that Ciarán, as Derek, will be able to aid BAIS in accessing those funds which are so important to its work. And while we are now in a period of political calm it’s worth remembering the situation in the 1980s when BAIS was founded. Then, at a conference attended by the education ministers of the UK and Ireland, the Irish minister spoke of the founding of the association as ‘marking an important step in developing the understanding between [the two countries], and hence improving the occasionally tangled and tortuous relationship between these Irelands.’ I’m sure we all agree that the journey initiated by that step is still underway.
Finally, thanks to my colleagues on the Council in all their various roles, to Viola Segoreth who took over the administrative reins from Linda Christiansen, and to Claire Connolly, who oversaw the election arrangements this year and acted, as ever, as an efficient secretary always able to remind me of he multiple things I’d forgotten.
Shaun Richards, BAIS Chair
Visiting Fellow in Irish Studies at Boston College – Ireland
Visiting Research Fellow in Irish Studies, Centre for Irish Programmes, Boston College: Ireland
Boston College’s Centre for Irish Programmes, based in Dublin, is pleased to offer a Visiting Fellowship in Irish Studies. The Fellowship is open to any scholar of postdoctoral standing working in any area of Irish Studies, and would be ideal for someone on research leave from their own institution and seeking a base for their research in Ireland. The Fellow will be given an office in the Centre for Irish Programmes building at 42 St Stephen’s Green, and full computing and administrative support. The building is in the heart of Dublin and a short walk to the National Library and National Archives. The Centre runs a full lecture and research seminar programme throughout the year, and the Fellow would be invited to present a lecture during their tenure. Although there is no stipend attached to the Fellowship, there will be funds available to the Fellow to assist with travel to Ireland and some basic research costs.
The Fellowship is normally available for a period of between two and six months.
For further information, please contact the Director of the Centre, Mike Cronin by e-mailing croninmr@bc.edu or call 00353-(0)1-6147450. Further details on our website.
BAIS Postgraduate Essay Prize Ceremonies
(for details of other winners, see ‘Postgraduate Awards’)Winner 2007: Stefanie Lehner, University of Edinburgh, for an essay entitled ‘Archive Fever as Arkhe-taintment? The Peace Process and the Burden of History in Contemporary Northern Irish Fiction: Glenn Patterson’s That Which Was and Eoin McNamee’s The Ultras’
Stefanie was presented with £500 worth of Cambridge University Press books by Ray Ryan of Cambridge University Press and His Excellency Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh, the Irish Ambassador to London. Her essay will appear in Irish Studies Review in 2007/8.
His Excellency Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh with Stefanie Lehner at the Irish Embassy, 16 May 2007. Photograph by Louise Jefferson.
BAIS Postgraduate Bursaries 2007
Winners:
Benjamin Bankhurst, King’s College, University of London.
Thesis: Religion, Republicanism and Exile: America in the Ulster Presbyterian Imagination, 1760 – 1820
Stephen Forrest, Hertford College, University of Oxford,
Thesis: Crossing the North Channel: How the Island Scots of Antrim Stayed Irish
Ciaran O’Neill, Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool,
Thesis: Varsities: the Education of the Irish Catholic Elite at Home and Abroad (1850 – 1900)
L-R: His Excellency Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh (Irish Ambassador to Great Britain); Stefanie Lehner (University of Edinburgh; Essay Prize winner); Ciaran O’Neill (Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool; Bursary winner); Professor Shaun Richards (Staffordshire University; BAIS Chair); Benjamin Bankhurst (Kings College, London; Bursary winner); Stephen Forrest (Hertford College, Oxford; Bursary winner).
L-R: Ray Ryan (Cambridge University Press), Derek Hannon (First Secretary to the Irish Ambassador), Emilie Pine (BAIS/University of York), Ciaran O’Neill (BAIS Bursary Winner/University of Liverpool), Benjamin Bankhurst (BAIS Bursary Winner/King’s College, London), Stefanie Lehner (BAIS Postgraduate Essay Prize Winner/University of Edinburgh), Matthew Campbell (BAIS/University of Sheffield), Shaun Richards (BAIS/Staffordshire University), Antoinette O’Ceallaigh, Stephen Forrest (BAIS Bursary Winner/University of Oxford), Neil Sammells (BAIS/Bath Spa University), Claire Connolly (BAIS/Cardiff University), Aidan Arrowsmith (BAIS/Manchester Metropolitan University), Richard Kirkland (BAIS/King College, London), Anja Hill-Zenk (Universität Hamburg), Scott Brewster (BAIS/University of Salford).
Coláiste na nGael, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk
Irish Speakers in Surrey: Margaret Broderick, Éamonn Ó Domhnaill, Dr Gavin O’Toole
B.A.I.S. members held an Irish college at Sutton Hoo and Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk in March 2007. This wild area of East Anglian coastline was once at the centre of a powerful Saxon kingdom and has been described as ‘Page One of English history.’ Sutton Hoo’s impressive museum was opened in 2001 by Seamus Heaney. A glossary follows for people learning Irish.
Tá ár gcoláiste suite ar an gcósta i mBawdsey, ocht mhíle soir ón Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Is teach mór maorga é ‘Bawdsey Manor’ ó ré na dTudorach atá suite in áit cianda, cois na farraige. Tá an Manor togtha le brící dearga agus le fuinneoga muilleanacha, cruthanta na dTudorach. Chomh maith le sin, tá faiche fhairsing thart timpeall ar an manor, coillte, gáirdín luibheanna agus radharcanna go dtí an trá.
Is iontach go deo í an áit Aldeburgh chun dul ar cuairt ann. Is sráidbhaile beoga é, Aldeburgh. Tá an-ghnaoí ag ealaíontoirí air an sráidbhaile seo. Chonaigh Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh agus tá leacht iomráiteach do ar an trá. Is baile stairiúil é, Orford. Tá dún an-mhór go h-ard os cionn Orford. Inniu, téann mórán cuairteoirí ar thurasanna chuig ‘Orford Castle’ agus timpeall thart an cheantar sin.
Bhí Suffolk lárnach i ríocht Shacsanach cumhachtach. Tháinig Naomh Ethelbert go Suffolk i AD 597. Bhunaigh manaigh cuid mhór eaglaisí sa chontae. Bhí Sutton ann mar reilg i gcomhair mórán ríthe Sacsanacha, agus ina measc, b’féidir, an laoch Beowulf. In Iúil 1939, nocht seandálaithe long oll-mhór cogúil agus, ina theannta sin, uaigh rí. D’fhionn siad carbaid, cnámharlacha agus clogad ollásach. D’oscail Seamus Heaney an iarsmalann ag Sutton Hoo i 2001.
Tá bailliúchán breá de h-iarsmaí sa mhúsaem: seoda, boinn, dealbha, fístéip faoi na Sacsanaigh agus a leithéid sin.
Glossary for learners
Suite – located
Soir ón – east of
Maorga – stately
Cianda – remote
Fuinneoga muilleanacha – Tudor-style windows
Luibheanna – herbs
Radharacanna – views
Iomráiteach – impressive, imposing
Cumhachtach – powerful
Carbaid – chariot
Ina theanta sin – as well as
D’oscail – opened
Bailliúchán – collection
Ollásach – richly detailed, extravagant
B.A.I.S. and the Irish Language
Simon Hughes, Studying Japanese and Irish
B.A.I.S. members actively promote the Irish language. Christy Evans and Eleanor Burgess, for example, helped found Coláiste na nGael – Britain’s Irish language college. In recent years, they have held residential Irish language colleges all over Britain and Europe. Locations have included Durham University, Fron Goch internment camp in north Wales, The Haag and Brittany. B.A.IS. members successfully lobbied for Irish to become a working language of the European Union. Members of Coláiste na nGael are also working with ‘Asset Languages’, an organisation with close links to Cambridge University.
BAIS Council Member Christy Evans receiving the ‘pride of Ireland’ teaching award in 2007
Christy Evans received the title ‘Language Ambassador’ from ‘Léargas’, an award from the office of European Commissioner Jan Figel. In 2007, he also received the ‘Pride of Ireland’ teaching award from Waterford Crystal and the Irish Post newspaper.
Coláiste na nGael shares the aims of B.A.I.S. and promotes the study of Ireland’s history, politics and culture. Coláiste na nGael is also supportive of language learning generally. As well as teaching Irish, we promote other languages, including French, Spanish and Japanese!
The Irish language is promoted in British schools and on the website www.irishlanguagebritain.com. The website was launched on 17th March 2007 to offer practical support and advice to people learning Irish in Britain. For a full description of forthcoming Irish language events, contact donal.kelleher@yahoo.co.uk or phone Dónal on (UK) 020 8348 5016.