Irish Renaissance Seminar at Queen’s University Belfast

IRS

Queen’s University Belfast

Saturday 28 January 2023

12.00-12:45 Arrival

12:45-1:45 Welcome Ramona Wray (QUB)/Jane Grogan (UCD) and Opening Plenary

Andrew Murphy (TCD): ‘Shakespeare comes to Dublin: Culture and colonialism in eighteenth-century Ireland’, Chair: Ramona Wray (QUB)

1:45-2:45pm Marie Curie Projects at IRS

Emer McHugh (QUB), Maria Shmygol (University of Galway), Helen Newsome (UCD), Chair: Ann-Maria Walsh (QUB)

2:45-3:45 New work in Shakespearean Adaptation

Edel Semple (University College Cork), Stephen O’Neill (Maynooth University), Mark Thornton Burnett (QUB), Chair: Edel Lamb (QUB)

3:45-4:15pm Break

4:15-5:15pm PGR Projects at IRS

Hannah Gregg (QUB), Alan Waldron (Maynooth University), Annie Khabaza (UCD), Chair: Anna Graham (QUB)

5:15-6:15pm Closing Plenary

Lillie Arnott (QUB) ‘Witnessing Grief: Sight, Subjectivity and Gender in Early Modern Literature’, Chair: Mark Thornton Burnett (QUB)

6:15-7:30 Reception

For all enquiries on this meeting of the IRS, please contact Dr Ramona Wray.

Irish Renaissance Seminar – online Sat. 21st May

24th meeting of the IRS
online from University College Cork
Saturday 21st May 2022

“Early modern families on the page, stage, and screen”

1.30pm          Social for postgraduates and early career researchers led by Anna Graham (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast)   

2pm              Welcome to the 24th IRS from Edel Semple (UCC)

2.05pm          Panel

Anna Graham (Queen’s University Belfast) “Mother Knows Best: Tensions within Maternal Authority”

Miranda Fay-Thomas (Trinity College Dublin) “We Are Family? Queer Inclusion/Ostracization in Twelfth Night”

3.05pm          Virtual coffee – take a screen-break or socialise

3.30pm          Plenary

Katherine Scheil (University of Minnesota) “Father Shakespeare”

4.30pm          Closing remarks

For the MS Teams link, please email the host for this IRS meeting, Edel Semple: e.semple@ucc.ie

Irish Renaissance Seminar – Marsh’s Library and UCD

“Early Modern Science and its Boundaries”

The 22nd meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar will be held in Marsh’s Library, St Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8, and hosted by UCD English on Saturday 12th October 2019.

Schedule

1.30pm Welcome

1.45pm Natural philosophy and human bodies

Dr Sue Hemmens (Marsh’s Library), ‘Some things worth a philosophical pen’: queries and desiderata relating to Ireland, 1650 to 1700

Dr Harriet Knight (independent scholar), Meaningful chaos: Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle’s Indigested Particulars

Mark Ronan (UCD), From Hal to Henry, ‘breaking through the foul and ugly mists’: Addiction and Maturing Out in the Henriad

3.15pm Break

3.45pm Plenary: Prof. Kevin Killeen (University of York), “The symphonic unknowability of the world: early modern poetics, science and the Book of Job”

4.45pm Response to the afternoon’s papers by Prof. Danielle Clarke (UCD)

We are very grateful for the support of the Society for Renaissance Studies, the World Universities Network and Marsh’s Library.

         

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Irish Renaissance Seminar at Ulster University – May 18th

“SHAKESPEARE, ULSTER, BEYOND”

A meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar

Saturday 18th May 2019 at Ulster University, Belfast

For further information on this meeting of the IRS, please contact the organisers Kevin De Ornellas and Alisa Hemphill.

SCHEDULE

11.00-11.15: Welcome – in the Conor Lecture Theatre:

Kevin De Ornellas, Ulster University, co-organiser

Frank Ferguson, Ulster University, Research Director for English

Tom Maguire, Ulster University, Head of School of Arts and Humanities

11.15-12.05: Shakespeare in India:

Thea Buckley, Queen’s University, Belfast: “Indigenising Cleopatra as South India’s avenging goddess in Jayaraj’s Kannaki”.

Rosa Maria Garcia Periago, Queen’s University, Belfast: “Localising Romeo and Juliet in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela”.

12.05-1pm: (Later) Early Modern European Histories:

Gabriel Guarino, Ulster University: “Sexuality and its Discontents: Marital Tensions and Sexual Defamation in the Court of Bourbon Naples, 1734-1799”.

Andrew Sneddon, Ulster University: “Representing Irish Witchcraft in ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’”.

1pm-1.40pm: Lunch

1.40-2.40pm: Legacies of the Past: Perspectives from around Ireland:

Emily Allen, National University of Ireland, Galway: “Lost Lands and Language: rhetoric of women’s petitions for land during Ireland’s Desmond and Baltinglass Rebellions”.

Nathan Dooner, University College Dublin: “Reactions to a gender-based vocabulary”.

Dónall MacCathmhaoill, Ulster University: “Save the Rose! Space and place in the campaign to preserve an Elizabethan theatre.”

2.40-3.20pm: Keynote Address:

Tom Maguire, Ulster University: “When Shakespeare’s not our contemporary: retelling, adaptation and contemporary children”.

3.20-3.30pm: Break.

3.30-4.20pm: Problems: Books, Brexit:

Marie-Louise Coolahan: National University of Ireland, Galway: “‘My lady’s books’: Devising a toolkit for quantitative research; or, What is a book and how do we count it?”

Stephen O’Neill, National University of Ireland, Maynooth: “Brexit Cliff Notes: Finding Refuge in Shakespeare’s King Lear”.

4.20-5.30pm: Adaptation, Animals, Performance: Four perspectives:

Amanda Finch, Ulster University of Ulster: “Cross-Gender Casting and Violence in Contemporary Performances of Shakespeare’s Comedies”.

Alisa Hemphill, Ulster University: “A common treasury for all: levelling  the animal-human divide through the Digger movement, 1649-1650”.

Kelly McCloy, Ulster University: “‘Alien’: Arnold Wesker and The  Merchant of Venice”. 

Alex Watson, Royal Holloway, University of London: “Protest in Contemporary Adaptations of Shakespeare’s Roman Plays”.

5.30-6.30pm: Conference close and reception

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Irish Renaissance Seminar at Maynooth University

The 20th Meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar will be hosted at Maynooth University, Department of English, on Saturday 10th November 2018, in the Iontas Building.

The theme is “Earth Songs: Eco-Criticism and Early Modern Studies”

Schedule

1.30 Welcome / Light Lunch
2.00 Paper Session I:
Dr Kevin De Ornellas (University of Ulster): “‘Great is the beauty of Creatures’: Godfrey Goodman Praising Animals Praising God”
Professor Pat Palmer (Department of English, NUI Maynooth): “Earthen Bodies: The Chthonic in Country House Poetry”
Chair: Dr Edel Semple (Department of English, University College Cork)

3.00 Tea / Coffee

3.15 Keynote Paper
Dr Deana Rankin (Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, Department of English & Drama, Royal Holloway), “Border Disputes”
Chair: Professor Andy Murphy, School of English, Trinity College Dublin

4.15 Paper Session II:
“Dramatising Denial: A Looking Glass for London and new directions for ecocriticism”: Dr Gwilym Jones (Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, University of Westminster)
Chair: Professor Marie-Louise Coolhan (Department of English, NUI Galway)

5.15 IRS Discussion / Business meeting, followed by wine reception to mark 20th anniversary.

The organisers, Dr Stephen O’Neill and Professor Pat Palmer, acknowledge the support of Maynooth University Conference & Workshop Fund, and Maynooth University Department of English.

“Renaissance Prose: New Directions” – Irish Renaissance Seminar at NUI Galway in May 2018

“Renaissance Prose: New Directions” – a meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar at NUI Galway, Saturday 5th May 2018 

1.30pm: Welcome

1.45‐3.15pm: Panel

• Darrell Jones (NUI Galway): ‘Scribo, ergo mundum est: John Locke’s Scenes of Writing’
• Jason Harris (University College Cork): ‘Travel for the Feckless: A Few Words of Advice from Bonaventure Baron (1666)’
• Daniel Carey (NUI Galway): ‘The Early Modern Travel Book as Glossographic Text’

3.15‐45pm: Refreshments

3.45‐4.45pm: Plenary

• Cathy Shrank (University of Sheffield): ‘Virtuous Matrons and Subtle Bawds: Women (and their absence) in Early Modern Dialogue’

4.45pm: Close of meeting

6.30pm: Dinner (optional)

To express interest in attending, please contact Prof. Marie‐Louise Coolahan (marielouise.coolahan@nuigalway.ie) or Prof. Daniel Carey (daniel.carey@nuigalway.ie).

This event is generously sponsored by the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies, NUI Galway, and the Society for Renaissance Studies.

[Main image: Edward Cocker’s The Pen’s Triumph, 17th c.]

Irish Renaissance Seminar meeting, TCD, 18 November, 1–4.30pm

The next biannual meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar will be held at Trinity College Dublin on Saturday, 18 November 2017 at 1–4.30pm.

Full details will be posted shortly!

Irish Renaissance Seminar at UCD – “Conflict and Contestation in the Early Modern World “

The first meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar for 2017 will be held on Saturday 22nd April in the School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin.

The theme for this meeting is Conflict and Contestation in the Early Modern World. The meeting will convene in Room J207-8, John Henry Newman Building, UCD, and the schedule is as follows:

1-1:30pm: Welcome

1:30-3:00pm: Panel
Chair: Dr Jane Grogan

Dr Marc Caball (UCD): ‘Hugh O’Neill and his Gaelic and Renaissance Cultural Context’

Professor Andrew Hadfield (Sussex): ‘James Shirley’s The Politician: Anglo-Irish Literature and Politics in the 1630s’

Dr Ann-Maria Walsh (UCD): ‘The Boyle Sisters and the Familial Correspondence Network: A Life-Line in Times of Civil Strife and Beyond’

3:00-3:30pm: Refreshments

3:30-4:30: Keynote
Chair: Dr Colin Lahive

Professor Nicholas McDowell (Exeter): ‘The Poetics of Civil War: Shakespeare to Marvell (to W.B.Yeats)’

4:30-5:00: Roundtable
Convener: Dr Naomi McAreavey

Early Modern Studies in Ireland: Current Locations, Future Directions

6:30: Dinner

The event is generously supported by the School of English, Drama and Film, UCD, and the Society for Renaissance Studies.

For further details on this meeting of the IRS, contact Dr Colin Lahive (colin.lahive@ucd.ie)

 

            

Report – Irish Renaissance Seminar at the University of Limerick, 5th November 2016

 

Guest report by Dr Carrie Griffin

The Centre for Early Modern Studies, Limerick, was delighted to welcome delegates and speakers to the autumn meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar, held for the first time at the University of Limerick. We gathered on a beautiful, crisp Saturday in UL’s Kemmy Business School for an afternoon of papers on the theme “Early Modern Otherness: Outlaws, Exiles, Outsiders”.

Our three-paper panel session opened at 1pm with Dr Clodagh Tait, a lecturer in the History Department at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and a member of the executive committee of the Limerick Centre for Early Modern Studies. Clodagh’s paper, entitled “Outlawed Emotions: Lordly Rage and its Consequences in Early Modern Ireland”, was concerned with what the State Papers can tell us about the language around reports of emotional outbursts, cursing, oaths, and verbal violence, in particular focusing on Turlough Luineach, seemingly renowned for overawing others through rage and violent language. She argued that our sense of an idealised Irish lord, an impression formed from the honour values associated with that community and the praise-poetry composed for them, might in fact be challenged by this evidence, which seems to have more to do with emotional responses in a predominantly “face-to-face society”.

Dr Clodagh Tait

 

The Gaelic lords and the peculiar nuances of Bardic poetry were the subject of the second paper in this panel. Dr Gordon Ó Riain’s paper “A Fifteenth-Century Ulster Poet in Exile”, traced the fortunes of Conchubar, a poet exiled by his patron ÉinrÍ (one of the O’Neill of TÍr Eoghain). From his uncertain position as an outcast in Connacht, the poet composed a poem that includes a warning of an impending full satire; this warning found formal expression in the poem in a tréfocal, and its inclusion augments the kind of praise offered by the poet in this context.

Finally in this session Evan Bourke, a PhD researcher with the RECIRC Project, NUIG, presented a paper entitled “The ‘Burden[some] Sister’: The Reception and Representation of Jean Appelius (nee Dury) in the Hartlib Circle, 1641-1661”, showcasing research on letters that evidence the social exclusion suffered by Jean Appellius, sister to John Dury, that can be found in letters written by Dorothy Moore, her sister-in-law. Though no letters written by Jean are extant, Moore’s letters to members of the circle show that Jean was a problematic figure in the Dury circle: she was considered to be less than pious, and described in very strong terms in correspondence. Bourke’s contention was that the letters evidence a project of ‘othering’ within a close network, containing very great detail about Jean but also a very strong dismissal of her.

Evan Bourke

After tea we were treated to a plenary lecture by Dr Ruth Ahnert. Ruth, a senior lecturer in Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and a co-director (with Prof Joad Raymond) of the Centre for Early Modern Mapping News and Networks, is currently conducting research on Tudor Networks of Power, in which she combines digital methods from the field of Complex Networks to study Tudor letters from the State Papers. Ruth’s fascinating lecture, entitled “Conspiracy and Surveillance in Tudor England”, demonstrated how Complex Network analysis can be incredibly revealing for Tudor letters, exploiting and studying similar aspects such as nodes, hubs and edges to reveal similar underlying patters and real-world networks. Ruth showed us in great detail how this kind of collaboration (undertaken with her husband Sebastian Ahnert) can uncover all sorts of activity and connections between suspected spies, conspirators and double-agents that would not ordinarily be discernible in traditional approaches to this sort of archive. One of the case-studies used here were the letters of Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon and the great-grandson of Edward VI, who was a prisoner in London and was exiled to Venice in the 1550s. Ruth’s evidence uncovered an anomaly (an unusual burst of activity) around him. All but one of his letters preserved in the State Papers was sent from exile, and a high proportion of them were intercepted. Courtenay knew he was under surveillance, but he persists in writing to dubious individuals.

Dr Ruth Ahnert

After a day of wonderful papers we adjourned to the nearby Castletroy Park Hotel for an early dinner and a very jolly time. We heartily recommend the fish and chips!

This meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar was sponsored by the faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, UL; The School of Culture and Communication, UL; and the Society for Renaissance Studies. A sincere thanks to delegates who travelled to be with us on the day, and in particular huge gratitude to our four splendid speakers. We look forward to reconvening in the springtime at UCD for the first Irish Renaissance Seminar meeting of 2017!

Guest post by Dr Carrie Griffin, Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature in the School of Culture & Communication at University Limerick.