2022-23 Archives - The Fund for Irish Studies at Princeton University

Lecture by Mary Burke: “Race, Politics, and Irish-America: A Gothic History”

Burke’s talk will draw from her new book, Race, Politics, and Irish-America: A Gothic History (Oxford University Press, 2023). Using the words and lives of Black and white writers and public figures of Irish connection, she will discuss the complex cultural and political legacies of centuries of Irish presence in the Americas, from the forcibly transported and Scots-Irish to post-Famine Catholic immigrants.

mary burke sits on a staircase with chin in her right hand, staring off to the side. — Photo courtesy Mary Burke

Professor of English at the University of Connecticut Mary Burke presents a talk that draws from her new book, Race, Politics, and Irish-America: A Gothic History (Oxford University Press, March 2023). Burke examines the cultural legacies of the forcibly transported Irish, the Scots-Irish, and post-Famine Catholic immigrants through the words and lives of Black and white writers and public figures in the Americas, from Andrew Jackson to Grace Kelly and the Caribbean-Irish Rihanna. Introduced by Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’52 Professor in Irish Letters Fintan O’Toole.

Burke’s first book with Oxford University Press was a cultural history of the indigenous Irish Traveller minority. Her collaboration with Tramp Press on a new edition of The Horse of Selene, Traveller novelist Juanita Casey’s lost classic, will launch in the U.S. in late April. Burke’s work has been featured or published with James Joyce Quarterly, NPR, the Irish Times, RTÉ, and Faber. She has served on Fulbright’s Screening Committee for Ireland and is a former NEH Irish Studies Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast, she was awarded a fall 2022 Long Room Hub Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin for her book in progress, Bohemian Ireland.

Tickets & Details

The lecture is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

Accessibility

The James Stewart Film Theater is wheelchair accessible. Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at 609-258-5262 or email LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week in advance of the event date.

Lecture by Elizabeth Boyle: “Fierce Appetites: Lessons from My Year of Untamed Thinking”

Elizabeth Boyle (University of Maynooth) lectures on “Fierce Appetites: Lessons from My Year of Untamed Thinking” on April 14

Elizabeth Boyle, Lecturer in Early Irish at Maynooth University in Ireland, presents a lecture based on her Irish Times bestseller Fierce Appetites. In this collection of personal essays, which was shortlisted for the Nonfiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2022, Boyle uses her historical learning to grapple with the raw and urgent questions she faces, questions that have bedeviled people in every age. She writes on grief, addiction, family breakdown, the complexities of motherhood, love and sex, memory, class, education, travel (and staying put) with unflinching honesty, deep compassion and occasional dark humor. Introduced by Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’52 Professor in Irish Letter Fintan O’Toole.

Elizabeth Boyle smiles with long dark hair, wearing a black blouse. — Elizabeth Boyle. Photo by Bob Foyers

Boyle is Lecturer in Early Irish at Maynooth University, Ireland, where she specializes in the intellectual, cultural and religious history of pre-modern Ireland. Her academic publications include the 2021 monograph History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland, in addition to numerous journal articles. She is the author of the Irish Times bestseller Fierce Appetites, a collection of personal essays which was shortlisted for the Nonfiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2022.

Tickets & Details

The lecture is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

Accessibility

Lecture by Fintan O’Toole — “Uneasy Peace: The Good Friday Agreement 25 Years On”

Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’52 Professor in Irish Letter Fintan O’Toole delivers the Robert Fagles Memorial Lecture, “Uneasy Peace: The Good Friday Agreement 25 Years On.” O’Toole examines Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in April 1998, a political deal designed to bring an end to 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles.

Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’52 Professor in Irish Letter Fintan O’Toole delivers the Robert Fagles Memorial Lecture, “Uneasy Peace: The Good Friday Agreement 25 Years On.”

In his lecture, O’Toole examines Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement, which was signed on April 10, 1998. The Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, was a political deal designed to bring an end to 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles. The agreement established three “strands” of administrative relationships: the creation of the Northern Ireland Assembly, an elected assembly responsible for local matters; an arrangement for cross-border cooperation between the governments of Ireland and Northern Ireland; and continued consultation between the British and Irish governments. Over the past 25 years, the deal has touched on every aspect of life in Northern Ireland.

O’Toole will explore the success of the deal, not just in ending the conflict, but in radically reimagining “the Irish question.” He will suggest that it contains the seeds of a much more open and pluralist sense of identity—one that has been undermined by Brexit and the difficulties it creates for Northern Ireland. He will consider whether the promise of a more fluid sense of belonging can be sustained in the coming years.

O’Toole’s books on politics include the recent best sellers We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland and Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain. His books on theater include works on William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Thomas Murphy. He regularly contributes to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Granta, The Guardian, The Observer, and other international publications. In 2011, The Observer named O’Toole one of “Britain’s top 300 intellectuals.” He has received the A.T. Cross Award for Supreme Contribution to Irish Journalism, the Millennium Social Inclusion Award, Journalist of the Year in 2010, the Orwell Prize, and the European Press Prize. O’Toole’s History of Ireland in 100 Objects, which covers 100 highly charged artifacts from the last 10,000 years, is currently the basis for Ireland’s postage stamps. He has recently been appointed official biographer of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney.

About Fintan O’Toole

fintan with greying hair and serious gaze wears glasses and white collar shirt with blazer — Photo by Ben Russell

Fintan O’Toole, one of Ireland’s leading public intellectuals, is a columnist for The Irish Times and Leonard L. Milberg ’53 visiting lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton. He also contributes to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Granta, The Guardian, The Observer, and other international publications. His books on theater include works on William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Thomas Murphy. His books on politics include the bestsellers We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland; Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain; Ship of Fools; and Enough is Enough. In 2011, The Observer named O’Toole one of “Britain’s top 300 intellectuals.” He has received the A.T. Cross Award for Supreme Contribution to Irish Journalism, the Millennium Social Inclusion Award, and Journalist of the Year in 2010, the Orwell Prize and the European Press Prize. O’Toole’s History of Ireland in 100 Objects, which covers 100 highly charged artifacts from the last 10,000 years, is currently the basis for Ireland’s postage stamps. He has recently been appointed official biographer of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney.

Tickets & Details

The lecture is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

COVID-19 Guidance + Updates

Per Princeton University policy, all visitors are expected to be either fully vaccinated, have recently received and prepared to show proof of a negative COVID test (via PCR within 72 hours or via rapid antigen within 8 hours of the scheduled visit), or agree to wear a face covering when indoors and around others.

Accessibility

Screening of Documentary Lyra and Discussion with Director Alison Millar

Critically acclaimed filmmaker Alison Millar screens her 2021 award-winning documentary film, Lyra, an emotive, intimate portrait of the life and death of Belfast journalist Lyra Mckee, who was murdered by the New IRA the day before Good Friday, April 2019. The film seeks answers to her senseless killing through Lyra’s own work and words. Followed by a discussion with Millar moderated by Fintan O’Toole, Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies.

Critically acclaimed filmmaker Alison Millar screens her 2021 award-winning documentary film, Lyra, an emotive, intimate portrait of the life and death of Belfast journalist Lyra Mckee, who was murdered by the New IRA the day before Good Friday, April 2019. The film seeks answers to her senseless killing through Lyra’s own work and words. Lyra runs approximately 90 minutes and will be followed by a 30-minute discussion with Millar moderated by Fintan O’Toole, Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters and Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies.

Part of the spring 2023 Fund for Irish Studies lecture series.

About the film Lyra

Lyra tells the story of McKee’s tragic death by a stray bullet during New IRA riots in Derry, Northern Ireland. Attending a riot in the Creggan estate near where she lived, McKee had been reporting events as they unfolded via Twitter, even in the final moments before she was shot in the head. Her death caused outrage throughout Ireland and beyond, and Millar recalls, “The whole of Ireland came to a standstill when she was killed.” The powerful film, which is narrated by McKee’s own voice, conveys with heart-wrenching irony that the determined young journalist became a victim of the very violence she wrote about in the hopes of reaching a new generation with the truth of affairs in post-conflict Ireland.

Millar, a colleague and close friend of McKee, was approached by the McKee family following her death to create a film that would share the story of the inspiring young journalist with the wider world. Using McKee’s own interview tape recordings along with audio rescued from voice notes, mobile phone recordings, and home videos, Millar and her team pieced together a film that historically places McKee’s death while powerfully fleshing out the passion, curiosity and ambition that characterized her life and work.

Since its release, the documentary has won numerous awards including the Audience Award at the 2022 Cork International Film Festival, the Tim Hetherington Award at the 2022 Sheffield Doc Festival, the Gryphon Award GEX Doc at Italy’s Giffoni Film Festival, and Best Feature Documentary at Achill Island Film Festival.

About Alison Millar

Photo by Jess Lowe

Millar is a critically acclaimed filmmaker with a reputation for making emotionally compelling films. She began her producing and directing career at the National Film and Television School in the U.K. in the mid 1990s. Since then, she has produced over 40 films for British and Irish television and has won a BAFTA, IFTA, Prix Italia and numerous other awards. In 2010 Millar founded Erica Starling Productions, an independent documentary production company based in Belfast. In addition to Lyra, her other award-winning documentary features or series include Lee Miller — A Life on the Frontline; Arena: The Changin’ Times of Ike White; The Disappeared; Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist; Searching for Shergar; Dispatches: Kids in Crisis; Love and Death in City Hall; the series Find Me a Family; and The World: The Shame of the Catholic Church.

Tickets & Details

The event is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

COVID-19 Guidance + Updates

Accessibility

Lecture by Dr. Geraldine Parsons — “The Quiet Girls of Early Ireland: Women in Medieval Irish Literature”

Dr. Geraldine Parsons, Senior Lecturer in Celtic and Gaelic and Head of Subject at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, lectures on the mythological hero Fionn MacCumhaill and her broader research on medieval Irish literature. Fionn MacCumhaill, also known as Finn McCool, was a 3rd century A.D. warrior and hunter in medieval Ireland. He led a clan of warriors called the Fianna Éireann, and his adventures are documented in the Fenian Cycle.

Dr. Geraldine Parsons, Senior Lecturer in Celtic and Gaelic and Head of Subject at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, lectures on “The Quiet Girls of Early Ireland: Women in Medieval Irish Literature.”

Finn Cycle, or fiannaíocht, literature was the most enduringly popular branch of Irish-language literature from the early Middle Ages until recent times. It prioritizes the exploration of male perspectives and experiences: its tales and poems present two different timelines united by the prominence of men. One is the hyper-masculine warrior culture of ancient Ireland; the other is populated by the male ecclesiastics, warriors and kings of Christian Ireland’s medieval Golden Age. The afterlives of these texts too suggest an enduring appeal among audiences typically gendered male: the oldest surviving manuscript to contain only this corpus of work was commissioned in the 1620s, by an Irish captain in the Spanish army, and written by male scribes. An association between this literature and Irish military culture, as well as the tradition of soldiery among Scottish Highlanders, continues today. Parsons’ talk will seek to complicate the gender history of the Finn Cycle, by recovering women’s roles in its production and in the narratives themselves.

geraldine parsons smiles with shoulder length brown hair. she wears a black sweater and a beaded necklace. — Photo courtesy Geraldine Parsons

Dr. Geraldine Parsons is Senior Lecturer in Celtic and Gaelic and Head of Subject at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Her research focuses on medieval Irish literature, with a particular interest in the material concerning the legendary hero Finn mac Cumaill (later Fionn Mac Cumhaill/McCool) that formed the most popular branch of Irish-language literature from about the twelfth century down to recent times. Her work is often concerned with the great text at the heart of this corpus, Acallam na Senórach (‘The Colloquy of the Ancients’), composed c.1225; this is the subject of a monograph currently in progress. Other interests include the reception of medieval Irish literature in modern Ireland and eighteenth-century Scottish Gaelic reflexes of the fíanaigecht tradition. Her recent publications include The Gaelic Finn Tradition II (editors S.J. Arbuthnot, G. Parsons & S. Ní Mhurchú, Four Courts, 2022); the article “Ancient Ireland” in The Oxford Handbook of W.B. Yeats (editors L. Arrington and M. Campbell, Oxford University Press, 2023); and an article co-authored with M. Mac Craith, “Reformation, Conquest and Exile 1534–1611 | An Reifirméisean, an Concas Eilíseach agus Deoraíocht thar lear 1534–1611” in Bone and Marrow/Cnámh agus Smior: An Anthology of Irish Poetry from Medieval to Modern (editors B. Ó Conchubhair and S. Fisher, Wake Forest University Press, 2022). Parsons has held visiting fellowships and professorships at Balliol College, the University of Connecticut, and Oxford. She is the recipient of a 2022-23 British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship.

Introduced by Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters and Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies Fintan O’Toole. Part of the spring 2023 Fund for Irish Studies lecture series.

Tickets & Details

The event is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

COVID-19 Guidance + Updates

Per Princeton University policy, all guests must either be fully vaccinated, or have recently tested negative (via PCR within 72 hours or via rapid antigen test within 8 hours of the scheduled visit) and be prepared to show proof if asked, or wear a face covering when indoors and around others.

Accessibility

“Listen to the Land Speak” with Manchán Magan

Inspired by language, landscape and mythology, Manchán Magan explores the insight and hidden wisdom native Irish culture offers to the people of Ireland and the world.

book cover of "listen to the land speak" featuring black cover with white linear botanical illustrations Bestselling writer and documentary-maker Manchán Magan presents a lecture entitled “Listen to the Land Speak: Lost Wisdom of the Land and Language of Ireland,” based on his recently published book of the same title. Inspired by language, landscape and mythology, Magan explores the insight and hidden wisdom native Irish culture offers to the people of Ireland and the world. Introduced by Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters and Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies Fintan O’Toole.

manchan magan smiles and wears wire rimmed glasses, a grey blazer, red vest and blue and white striped shirt — Photo courtesy Manchán Magan

Manchán Magan is a writer and documentary-maker. He has written two novels in addition to books on his travels in Africa, India and South America. He writes occasionally for The Irish Times, reports on travel for various radio programs in Ireland, and has presented dozens of documentaries on issues of world culture for TG4, RTÉ and the Travel Channel. His books Thirty-Two Words For Field (2020) and Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Words For Nature (2021) are acclaimed bestsellers. His latest book, Listen to the Land Speak, was published in October 2022

Tickets & Details

The event is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

COVID-19 Guidance + Updates

Accessibility

“Low the sun; short its course”: Tracing the Celtic ritual cycle through music, manuscript and performance

This lecture-recital by Professor of Arts Practice at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland, explores the musical and ritualistic evidence for the emergence and continuity of the Celtic ritual cycle, with a focus on the rituals of Imbolc and Samhain, a precursor of Halloween.

This lecture-recital by Helen Phelan, Professor of Arts Practice at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland, explores the musical and ritualistic evidence for the emergence and continuity of the Celtic ritual cycle, with a focus on the rituals of Imbolc and Samhain, a precursor of Halloween.

Ritual traditions are frequently transmitted through a combination of sanctioned and sanctified “official’ sources, as well as the songs, stories and performances of living communities. The emergence of an agrarian ritual cycle in Ireland, punctuated by four quarter days, is strongly associated with the traditions and practices of the Iron Age Celts, but its roots and shoots can be located in much earlier and later historical periods.

This presentation traces the evidence for this ritual cycle in both medieval manuscript sources as well as folkloric traditions. Focusing on music (particularly medieval Irish chant) and story (including the hagiographies or lives of the saints), it suggests a dynamic, syncretic understanding of ritual, moving fluidly between prehistoric, pre-Christian and Celtic Christian practices. It concludes with a proposal concerning the influence of this ritual tradition on contemporary ritual creativity.

About Helen Phelan

helen phelan stands by wrought iron fence holding a book — Photo courtesy Helen Phelan

Helen Phelan is Professor of Arts Practice at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research focuses on the relationship between music, ritual, and migration. She is an Irish Research Council recipient for her work on singing and the rituals of new migrant communities in Ireland and is founder and co-chair of the Singing and Social Inclusion research group at University of Limerick. Her most recent research, funded by the Health Research Institute, brings together an interdisciplinary research team to explore singing, health and well-being with culturally diverse communities. Her recent publications include the monograph Singing the Rite to Belong: Music, Ritual and the New Irish (Oxford University Press) and The Artist and Academia (Routledge), co-edited with Graham Welch.

Tickets & Details

The event is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

COVID-19 Guidance + Updates

Accessibility

Screening Ireland: A Life in Film with Lenny Abrahamson

Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters and Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies Fintan O’Toole interviews Academy Award-winning Irish film and television director Lenny Abrahamson on his career in film.

Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters and Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies Fintan O’Toole interviews Academy Award-nominated and Irish Film and Television Award-winning director Lenny Abrahamson on his career in film. Abrahamson is director of the critically acclaimed 2015 film Room, starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He also directed Normal People, a 12-episodes series for BBC, Hulu and RTE, adapted by and based on Sally Rooney’s Man Booker longlisted novel of the same name, for which he earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series.

About the Artist

lenny abrahamson stands by brick wall wearing navy baseball hat and glasses Lenny Abrahamson is the director of the critically-acclaimed film Room, starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Some of Abrahamson’s other work includes: Garage, Adam and Paul, What Richard Did, The Little Stranger and Frank.

Recently, Abrahamson directed Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends, a 12-episode, 30-minute series for BBC and Hulu starring Alison Oliver and Joe Alwyn. He also directed Normal People, a 12-episodes series for BBC, Hulu and RTE, adapted by and based on Sally Rooney’s Man Booker long-listed novel of the same name that was released in 2020, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series.

Tickets & Details

The event is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.

COVID-19 Guidance + Updates

Accessibility

The News from Dublin: A Reading by Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín stands and leans against a table and rests his hand on his chin — Photo by Reynaldo Revera

In a special event for the Fund for Irish Studies, the acclaimed novelist, playwright and poet Colm Tóibín will read, for the first time, a new story, “The News from Dublin,” and some recent poems. Colm Tóibín is one of the most widely acclaimed and admired of contemporary novelists. Born in Enniscorthy, Ireland, in 1955, he has won the LA Times Novel of the Year for The Master; the Costa Novel of the Year for Brooklyn; and the Hawthornden Prize for Nora Webster. His short story collections include Mothers and Sons, winner of the Edge Hill Prize. His most recent novel is The Magician. He has recently published his first collection of poems, Vinegar Hill, described by The New York Times as “A meditative probe into the language of ordinary days.”

Read the full press release on the Lewis Center for the Arts’ website.

Join the Event

The reading is free and open to the public. No advance tickets or registration required.

Get directions to the James Stewart Film Theater and find other venue information for 185 Nassau Street.