Past news and events

November 2015 - 

Rethinking the theoretical and historical contours of Irish Modernism, St Mary's University, London.

Professor Alan Titley read from The Dirty Dust, his translation of Cre na Cille by Mairtin O Cadhain, on the Impact Day at the Hammersmith Irish Centre.

October 2015 - Liverpool Irish Festival

Between 16 and 25 October 2015, the Marginal Irish Modernisms Research Network ran a series of public engagement events under the auspices of the Liverpool Irish Festival. 

The first of these was entitled Lost Irish Books of the Modernist Era (Friday 16 October): three academics talked  about rare books of Irish interest from the shelves of Liverpool Central Library.

• Dr Deaglán Ó Donghaile on The Secret History of the Fenian Conspiracy (1877) by John Rutherford
• Shaun Richards on Patriots: A Play in Three Acts (1912) by Lennox Robinson 
• Diane Urquhart on Autobiography of a Liverpool Irish Slummy (1934) by Pat O’Hara

The second of these was a played entitled Nora & Jim (Saturday 17 October), written by Gerry Smyth and directed by David Llewellyn. 

A new play based on an episode in the lives of James Joyce and his partner Nora Barnacle, followed by a Q&A session with the writer, director and cast. 

The third of these was a public lecture (Monday 19 October) by Dr Keith Hopper entitled ‘Experimenting with Time: J.W. Dunne and Irish Modernism’.

Keith Hopper (St Mary’s University College) introduces the gloriously eccentric J.W. Dunne (1875–1949), an Irish aeronautical engineer and aviator who wrote a series of books on parapsychology and precognition.

Listen to a podcast of a conversation between Dr Paddy Hoey,  Dr Deaglán O Donghaile and Dr Diane Urquhart on the ‘Lost Irish Books’ event at Liverpool Central Library (recorded 11 October 2015). 

The fourth of these was a lecture and performance (Tuesday 20 October) by Gerry Smyth, entitled ‘James Joyce – Musician and Poet?!’. 

Watch a video of one of the songs from the event:

September 2015 

Dr Deaglán Ó Donghaile promotes Marginal Irish Modernisms in the United States.

In September, Dr Deaglán Ó Donghaile of the Department of English spent three weeks in the United States promoting the AHRC-funded project, Marginal Irish Modernisms.  This is a new scholarly network that was established by Principle Investigator, Dr Gerry Smyth,, along with Dr Ó Donghaile as Co-Investigator, to explore the work of marginalised or critically-neglected Irish modernist writers.   Dr Ó Donghaile met with modernism scholars at the University of California, Los Angeles, at Arizona State University in Phoenix  and at the Mapping Yeats Symposium, held in  Kansas City, Missouri.  At Arizona State University, he spoke to staff and students from the Barrett Honors College on the writings of Ernie O’Malley, an Irish republican author whose memoirs offer an aesthetically experimental reflection on the Irish War of Independence.

At UCLA, Dr Ó Donghaile also met Distinguished Professor Joseph Bristow, who sits on the Marginal Irish Modernism project’s Advisory Board, to discuss a number of immediate and longer-term plans for collaborative ventures, including conferencing and future dissemination of scholarship generated by the network.  

During his visit to Kansas City from September 2nd- 6th, Dr Ó Donghaile spoke at the Mapping Yeats symposium, organised by Professor Stephen Dilks of the University of Missouri.  Organised as part of the broader Kansas City Irish Festival, this event brought together scholars, poets and musicians from the across United States,  as well as from Ireland and England, to discuss the legacy of William Butler Yeats’ poetry.   

Events organised by Marginal Irish Modernisms

Marginal Irish Modernisms organise a lively programme of events

The initial AHRC phase of the Marginal Irish Modernisms project includes a range of activities, including interdisciplinary networking events, colloquia, public engagement activities and dedicated postgraduate events. You can find out more about the upcoming events by browsing through the listings below.

Call For Papers

Marginal Irish Modernisms, Liverpool John Moores University, 8-9 September 2016

A two-day international conference at Liverpool John Moores University.  For more information please see here.