Craig Dobbin chair lecture published
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The inaugural lecture of the first holder of the Craig Dobbin Professorship of Canadian Studies has been published by the Faculty of Arts.
Mapping the Great Land: How the Butlers Did it is an examination by Professor Dennis Duffy of the work of one Lieutenant William F Butler, who travelled through the new Dominion of Canada in the 1870s and later wrote an account of his travels, The Great Lone Land.
Using that account, and the investigation of a painting by Lieutenant Butler's wife Elizabeth, Evicted, Professor Duffy's paper examines the complexity of an Irish Catholic career soldier who, among other things, recommended the establishment of a mounted police patrol in the new country. Butler also expressed misgivings about the Empire he served.
Elizabeth Butler, later Lady Butler, was a painter whose work generally evoked the glories of British armies in battle, but her Evicted, which is now part of the UCD collection, is a departure from her normal theme.
Towards the end of his career, Lieutenant-General Sir W F Butler GCB served on the Senate of the National University of Ireland.