UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland is to host a bilingual interdisciplinary conference on Gaelic Identities on June 2 & 3, 2006, together with an exhibition of original artwork from An Leabhar Mór. This two-day conference, sponsored by the Humanities Institute of Ireland, in association with the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics, will draw together contributions from a range of disciplines with a view to suggesting directions for further research and fostering collaborative projects. Disciplines include, but are not limited to, language, literature and folklore, anthropology, art history, geography, history, linguistics, music and sociology.
Michael Kane/ Frances Breen, An Leabhar Mòr © 2002 Pròiseact nan Ealan / The Gaelic Arts Agency
The Gaelic-speaking regions of Ireland and Scotland were major repositories of meaning and memory for cultural, political and commercial interests during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Meanwhile, minority language status restricted Gaelic speakers’ access to communications media and fostered their continued use of oral storytelling, singing and other ‘traditional’ arts. These two phenomena make the Gaelic world a rich field for the study of identity, memory and meaning in the twenty-first century. While Gaelic culture has been extensively documented, it remains to integrate the view from outside with that from inside, and to set Irish-language studies in dialogue with other disciplines which apply themselves to questions of meaning, memory and identity.
Plenary speakers will include Máirín Nic Eoin and Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, authors of important books in this area, and Seosamh Ó Cuaig, journalist and Elected Board Member, Údarás na Gaeltachta.
Expressions of interest or paper abstracts [250 words], in Irish or English, should be sent (preferably by e-mail) to Dr Angela Bourke angela.bourke@ucd.ie by January 31, 2006. Postal submissions can be sent to C206, Newman Building, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
