Symposium: ‘Shakespeare the Irishman’ – 14 April 2023

A one-day symposium as part of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays.

The Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin will host a one day symposium under the title ‘Shakespeare the Irishman’ from 9am to 5pm on Friday 14th April.

The symposium is hosted by Prof Andy Murphy of Trinity’s School of English and it will feature papers from Neil Rhodes (University of St Andrews, UK), and from Mark Burnett, Emer McHugh and Molly Quinn-Leitch (Queens University Belfast); Patrick Lonergan and David O’Shaughnessy (University of Galway); Stephen O’Neill (Maynooth University); Jason McElligott (Marsh’s Library) and Marc Caball (University College Dublin).

The event is open to the public and is free to attend, but registration is required. See eventbrite for tickets.

The symposium is part of a week-long series of events at Trinity celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Shakespeare First Folio, including an exhibition in the Long Room of the Old Library, an online exhibition, and a public lecture by Prof Andy Murphy on the history and significance of the First Folio and of Trinity’s own copy of the volume on Wednesday 12th April. Attendance at the lecture is open to the public free of charge, but registration is required.

Symposium Program:
9:00-9:15 Introduction & welcome – Andy Murphy
9:15-10:00 Stephen O’Neill (Maynooth): ‘”This earth shall have feeling”: Looking for (Irish) Roots in Shakespeare’s Richard II’
10:00-10:45 David O’Shaughnessy (Galway): ‘Shakespeare and Irish Patriotism: Thomas Sheridan’s Coriolanus (1752)’
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-11:45 Marc Caball (UCD) & Jason McElligott (Marsh’s Library): ‘Tralee, 1756: Shakespeare on the Atlantic Edge’
11:45-12:30 Molly Quinn-Leitch (QUB): ‘The Presence of Shakespeare Material Traces in Victorian Belfast (1837-1901)’
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-2:15 Neil Rhodes (St Andrews): ‘Shakespeare and Yeats’
2:15-3:00 Patrick Lonergan (Galway): ‘Hamlet the Irishman’
3:00-3:15 Break
3:15-4:00 Emer McHugh (QUB): ‘Siobhán McKenna’s “Experimental Version” of Hamlet, or, Some Reflections on Writing About Irish Shakespeare Performance’
4:00-4:45 Mark Thornton Burnett (QUB): ‘Ireland’s Shakespeare: Cinematic Histories/Social Justice’
4:45-5:00 Close

Shakespeare’s First Folio in the Folger Shakespeare Library (This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication)

Talk: “The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare: Four Hundred Years of the First Folio” – 12 April 2023

As part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays – the ‘First Folio’ – Prof Andy Murphy of the School of English at Trinity College Dublin will give a public lecture at the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute on the history of the volume and why it is so important. Trinity holds the only copy of the First Folio on the island of Ireland and Prof Murphy will also speak about the particular features of the Trinity copy, including examining some of the peculiar marks and inscriptions to be found in the book.

The event is open to the public and is free to attend, but registration is required – see eventbrite here.

Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

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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Resource: Reading East

Reading East: Irish Sources and Resources is a window onto Dublin’s extraordinary collections of rare books.

The heart of the website is a selective catalogue of early modern printed texts attesting to encounters between Europe and the East during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The project covers a variety of genres (including travel accounts, historical and geographical texts, but also books about oriental medicine, languages, religions, to name but a few examples), thus showcasing the complex and multifaceted relationships between East and West in the Renaissance. Providing detailed descriptions of each text, the site includes bibliographical reports, copy-specific information, images, scholarly essays, and links to relevant online resources. Participating libraries include Marsh’s Library, The Chester Beatty Library, The Edward Worth Library, The Royal Irish Academy Library, University College Dublin Library Special Collections, and Trinity College Library Dublin.

Reading East was developed as a postdoctoral research project by Dr Marina Ansaldo, under the supervision of Dr Jane Grogan, at the School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin. The project was developed from January to December 2012 under the Government of Ireland Research & Senior Research Fellowship Project in the Humanities and Social Sciences, funded by the Irish Research Council. The website itself was created in collaboration with Niall O’Leary of the Digital Humanities Observatory, a project of the Royal Irish Academy.