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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250124T200000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250124T210000
DTSTAMP:20250211T051913Z
CREATED:20250104T175925Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250211T051913Z
UID:20708-1737748800-1737752400@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:Ó Rathaille - 24 Jan
DESCRIPTION:Join us on Friday 24 Jan for our first event of 2025. We are delighted to welcome back Professor Declan Kiberd to the Society to discuss the life and poetry of Aogán Ó Rathaille (c.1670–1729) and to launch a book by long time ILS member Brian O’Connor of a selection of the poems. Conveying Ó Rathaille’s intricate rhythms and rhyme schemes are a challenge for a translator\, even more so in his great laments of dispossession\, O’Connor carries the work into English with admirable simplicity and fluency. \n\nThese translations capture the fragile buoyancy of beautifully extended vowels\, which give each line a magnificent dignified internal patterning\, even as their endings sometimes refuse rhyme\, because the world the poet faces is no longer felt to be regular: Brian O’Connor helps us also to appreciate the sheer range of Ó Rathaille’s acoustic.Declan Kiberd\n\nThe evening will feature Professor Kiberd’s discussion of the work of Ó Rathaille and the closing down of the civilisation that nurtured him. There will be music and readings from the Irish and English. In O’Connor’s new book of translations\, Wave\, the Irish and English are presented in parallel text – this will be available for sale on the night. The parallel text format of the publication is suited to enhancing language acquisition and effectively scaffolding reading proficiency\, as such we have made this event free to encourage all those studying Irish to attend. Reserve tickets below. After the event you can purchase a copy from the publisher\, Eile.\n\n\n\n  Speakers:  Declan Kiberd\n\n\n\n  Declan Kiberd\nDeclan Kiberd teaches in the English Department and Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies as the Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies and Professor of English. A leading international authority on the literature of Ireland\, both in English and Irish\, Kiberd has authored scores of articles and many books\, including Synge and the Irish Language\, Men and Feminism in Irish Literature\, Irish Classics\, The Irish Writer and the World\, Inventing Ireland\, and\, most recently\, Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life in Joyce’s Masterpiece (2009). He has co-edited with PJ Mathews Handbook of the Irish Revival 1891-1922\, a five-hundred-page anthology of cultural and political writings with commentaries and introductions\, published by Abbey Theatre Press in June 2015.. \n\nBrian O'Connor\n Brian O’Connor\nBrian O’Connor has been a member of the Irish Literary Society for many years. He was born in Cork\, graduated from UCC and worked as a journalist and researcher. His selection of translations from Ó Rathaille is published by Eile Press and will be available for sale at the event.  \n[/content_band]\n\n\n\n 
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/orathaille-24-jan/
LOCATION:Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith\, W6 9DT\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Irish language,lecture,London-Irish,music,poetry,politics,social history
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240126T200000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240126T210000
DTSTAMP:20240120T134525Z
CREATED:20240113T192626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240120T134525Z
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SUMMARY:Martin Doyle\, Dirty Linen - 26 Jan
DESCRIPTION:We are delighted to kick off 2024 with a collaboration with our friends at the Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, home to many of our events over recent years. Martin Doyle will be joining us not in his more familiar capacity as the Literary Editor of the Irish Times but as an author in his own right. His Dirty Linen – The Troubles in My Home Place is a personal and profound exploration of the impact of the Troubles seen through the microcosm of a single rural parish in County Down\, Tullylish – part of both the Linen Triangle\, heartland of the North’s defining industry\, and the Murder Triangle\, an area devastated by paramilitary violence. Martin Doyle\, who grew up there\, lifts the veil of silence drawn over the horrors of the past\, recording in heartrending detail the toll the conflict took and the long tail of trauma it has left behind. \n\nDoyle skilfully weaves together the two strands of history\, with the decline of the local linen industry serving as a metaphor for the descent into communal violence\, but also for the solidarity that transcended the sectarian divide. Neighbours and classmates who lost loved ones in the conflict\, survivors maimed in bomb attacks and victims of sectarianism\, both Catholic and Protestant\, entrust him with their poignant stories. This unforgettable chorus of victims’ voices tells a terrible truth\, but the survivors’ stories of endurance and love will also inspire and restore one’s faith in humanity. \n \n \nAll paid up ILS members can claim a code to redeem a free ticket\, just contact the Secretary for the code: irishlitsoc@gmail.com.\n \n\nICC Ticket optionILS Ticket option Tickets are available online and at the venue from the Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith: TICKET LINK > The ILS 6 month membership option is now open covering all events January to July 2024: MEMBERSHIP SUBS LINK >\n\n\n \n\n\nSuperb\, really important and moving work that brings the reality of the Troubles to life and restores the human tragedy to its proper place in public memory… a vital\, potent and moving piece of work. — Fintan O’Toole. \n\n\nDirty Linen (Merrion Press\, 2023) \n  \n\n\n\n \n  \n  Speakers:  Martin Doyle\n\n\n\n  Martin Doyle\nMartin Doyle is Books Editor of The Irish Times\, which he joined in 2007.He started his career in London in 1990 with The Irish World\, joined The Irish Post in 1992 and became its editor before moving in 2001 to The Irish Times. He edited A History of The Irish Post\, which was published in 2000 to mark the newspaper’s thirtieth anniversary. A native of Banbridge\, County Down\, he is a graduate of the University of St Andrews\, where he studied French and German. He contributed an essay to The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices (Unbound\, 2021) and to The Routledge Handbook of the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace (forthcoming) \n\nAnne Flaherty\n\n\n\n  Anne Flaherty\nAnne Flaherty is a journalist who was born in London and grew up in County Clare. Anne has worked for the Irish Press in Dublin and The Irish Times in Belfast as well as reporting from Africa and Asia. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin\, holds an MA in Anglo-Irish Writing from Queen’s University Belfast and an MA in Children’s Literature from the University of Surrey. Anne is a Trustee of the ICC key and a member of its literature programming team.
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/martin-doyle-dirty-linen-26-jan/
LOCATION:Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith\, W6 9DT\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:book signing,Border,crime,documentary,London-Irish,Nationalism,politics,Reading,social history
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231027T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231027T190000
DTSTAMP:20231008T163202Z
CREATED:20231008T154152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231008T163202Z
UID:20012-1698433200-1698433200@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:Poetry as Commemoration showcase
DESCRIPTION:Last year we engaged with Poetry Ireland and the Poetry as Commemoration project in UCD to develop workshops which used poetry as a means to deepen our collective understanding of Ireland’s past and to explore a challenging period of history relating to the War of Independence and Civil War. The three workshops were delivered by Roisin Tierney and Ian Duhig who developed the work of poet members of the Society\, this event provides a stage for those poets to deliver their work.  \nWe hope we’ll have a good showing from members to support our poets in the beautiful setting of the Fitzrovia Chapel. This is a free event open to all. c70 mins running time\, a drinks reception will follow. \nThe workshops to develop our poets’ work were sponsored by:
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/poetry-as-commemoration-showcase/
LOCATION:Fitzrovia Chapel\, Fitzroy Place\, 2 Pearson Square\, London W1T 3BF\, London\, Fitzrovia Chapel\, Fitzroy Place\, 2 PeW1T 3BF\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:anniversary,history,London-Irish,Nationalism,poetry,politics,Reading,social history,violence
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://irishliterarysociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/POETRY-COMM-2.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231023T193000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231023T210000
DTSTAMP:20231008T172632Z
CREATED:20231008T095914Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231008T172632Z
UID:19990-1698089400-1698094800@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:ILS/ITS Joint Lecture - 23 Oct
DESCRIPTION:The Annual Noel O’Connell Memorial Lecture\, a joint venture of the Irish Literary Society and Irish Texts Society will be delivered by Dr. Mary MacDiarmada on ‘Art O’Brien and Irish Nationalism in London\, 1900-25’.  \n\nLondon-born and reared\, Art O’Brien’s journey from wealthy electrical engineer to leader of Irish militant nationalism in London was\, by any measure\, quite extraordinary. In her talk and in the book on which it is based MacDiarmada uses the life of O’Brien (1872–1949) as a central axis on which to construct an analysis of Irish nationalism in London from 1900 to 1925. \nShedding light on the work of the ‘presiding genius’ of the Irish movement in London [this] publication of Art O’Brien and Irish Nationalism in London 1900-25 by Dr Mary MacDiarmada is a long overdue biography of one of the most fascinating characters of the Irish revolution …Ronan McGreevy (Irish Times\, October 2020)\nO’Brien was a member of the Gaelic League\, Sinn Féin\, the Irish Volunteers\, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Self-Determination League of Great Britain. He also established a prisoner relief organization and had significant involvement in gun-running for the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence. Appointed London envoy of Dáil Éireann in 1919\, he was a close confidant of Michael Collins\, Arthur Griffith and Éamon de Valera and was a mediator in various peace initiatives between the British and Sinn Féin during 1920 and 1921. Yet\, despite his extensive contribution to the Irish revolution\, little is known of O’Brien’s activities. \n\nBased on rigorous research in British and Irish archives\, MacDiarmada recounts the vital contribution O’Brien made to the prosecution of the Irish revolution. The talk will also recount the hitherto little-known story of Irish cultural\, political and militant nationalism in London between 1900 and 1925. \n\nImage credit: Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney (left) and Art O’Brien (right) congratulating JJ O’Kelly (centre) on his re-election as President of the Gaelic League at the Mansion House in Dublin in August 1920. Photo: National Library of Ireland\, NPA POLF 170 \n\n \n  \n  Speaker:  Dr Mary MacDiarmada\n\n\n\n  Dr Mary MacDiarmada\nDr Mary MacDiarmada is a Research Fellow in the School of History and Geography\, Dublin City University (DCU).
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/ils-its-joint-lecture-23-oct/
LOCATION:Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith\, W6 9DT\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:emigration,history,Irish language,lecture,London-Irish,Nationalism,research
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20221017T193000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20221017T210000
DTSTAMP:20230406T162309Z
CREATED:20220903T182915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230406T162309Z
UID:19328-1666035000-1666040400@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:Bandit Country\, James Conor Patterson - 17 October
DESCRIPTION:​Joining us at the start of the ILS 2022-23 season are the poet James Conor Patterson and writer Darran Anderson to launch Patterson’s book bandit country. \n\n\nbandit country is the much-anticipated debut collection from James Conor Patterson\, who will be familiar to ILS regulars from our event last year launching his anthology of essays on the Irish border: The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border. \nbandit country is a rollicking\, hyper-literate and at times deeply troubling account of a young man’s navigation of the semi-lawless borderlands between the north of Ireland and the Republic – the ‘bandit country’ of the Troubles – and the criss-crossed sea border to England and beyond. Patterson shows us how the militarised boundary line of old has morphed into an invisible and semi-wild frontier\, where the ghosts of a thirty-year war continue to haunt the ‘ceasefire generation’.Patterson writes in a hybrid dialect of Newry street and Scots and Irish-inflected English – and in a virtuosic variety of forms: these poems crackle with vernacular wit and the rhythms of everyday speech\, absorbing the influence of the poet’s Belfast mentor\, Ciaran Carson\, and the radical poetics of Tom Leonard. Already a rising star and Eric Gregory award-winner\, James Conor Patterson is an extraordinary talent at the forefront of a new wave of poets exploring the linguistic inheritance of region and community. Pattterson will be reading from his work and joined in conversation by the writer Darran Anderson. \n\n\nFor this Newry to be believable\, it had to be rendered in language native to it. Not the received pronunciation of the Coloniser\, nor the Gaelic tongue stolen from our ancestors\, but a dialect specific to the borderlands of South Down\, South Armagh and North Louth. A language that self-consciously aped the history of the area in a dirty mélange of English\, Irish\, Ulster Scots and Shelta. Newry is a place where people drop their g’s\, where you’re more likely to be bitten by a cleg than a horsefly\, and where swear words punctuate even the friendliest of sentences. Writing about it wouldn’t be hard—it was the way I’d heard people speak all my life—but what I learned from the likes of Tom Leonard and James Kelman was the dignity in it. A kind of punchy survivalism that even the most ‘civilising’ aspect of colonialism couldn’t squash. — James Conor Patterson\, article for RTE. \n\n\n  \n  \nBandit Country by James Conor Patterson. Published by Picador (September\, 2022) \n\n\n\n  \n  \n  \n  Speakers and performers:  James Conor Patterson\n\n\n\n  James Conor Patterson\nJames is the author of the poetry collection ‘Bandit Country’ just released by Picador. He is also the editor of the anthology The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border (New Island Books\, 2021). His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Guardian\, i-D\, The Irish Times\, Magma\, The Moth\, Morning Star\, New Statesman\, Poetry Ireland Review\, Poetry London\, Poetry Review\, RTÉ Culture\, The Stinging Fly and The Tangerine\, among others. \n\nDarran Anderson\n\n\n\n  Darran Anderson\nDarran Anderson is the author of Imaginary Cities (2015)\, chosen as a ‘Book of the Year’ by the Financial Times\, the Guardian\, the A.V. Club and others\, and described by the Guardian as ‘a dizzying and brilliant piece of creative non-fiction’. He has co-edited The Honest Ulsterman\, 3:AM Magazine\, Dogmatika and White Noise. He writes for the likes of the Atlantic\, frieze magazine\, and Magnum\, and has given talks at the V&A\, the LSE\, the Robin Boyd Foundation and the Venice Biennale.
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/bandit-country-james-conor-patterson-17-october/
LOCATION:The Bloomsbury Hotel\, The Bloomsbury Hotel\, 16-22 Great Russell Street\, London\, WC1B 3NN \, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:book signing,London-Irish,poetry,politics,Reading,social history
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://irishliterarysociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/bandit-country.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20220929T193000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20220929T203000
DTSTAMP:20220911T144959Z
CREATED:20220707T112204Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220911T144959Z
UID:19287-1664479800-1664483400@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:Irish Texts Society / ILS Annual Lecture - 29 September
DESCRIPTION:The scholar Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail visits the Society to deliver our joint annual Noel O’Connell memorial talk with the Irish Texts Society. Her subject is Thomas O’Connor (alias Tomás Ó Conchubhair\, b. 1798)\, originally from the civil parish of Templemolaga\, Co. Cork\, he emigrated to London in 1820 where he worked as a tailor until his death around 1870. \nThe evidence in extant Irish manuscripts suggests that he had already begun working as a scribe in his native home place\, but that this role progressed significantly during his years in the Victorian city. His scribal material (in Irish and in English) provides an intriguing insight into a native man of letters who appears to have integrated himself into his host society\, while at the same time preserving a distinctive Irish identity. Moreover\, his fascinating collection of correspondence in English reveals a man with informed views about the language and literature of his native country. And\, in his thirty or so poetic compositions\, personal vignettes come to the fore as well as a great admiration for the Young Ireland movement and\, in particular\, for William Smith O’Brien\, the fair-haired boy (an buachaill bán). \nNí Úrdail first discovered O’Connor while conducting research some years ago on a text known in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Irish manuscripts as Leabhar Oiris (Book of History)\, which is essentially an encomium of the O’Briens of Thomond and this dynasty’s battles for supremacy in Ireland in the tenth and eleventh centuries. She was intrigued to discover that of this work’s twenty-six sources\, one was completed outside Ireland in 1848 by O’Connor “in the city of London” (a ccathair Londoine). Subsequent findings have uncovered eighteen extant manuscripts written entirely or in part by this Cork scribe when he was living in London\, and these are preserved today in the National Library of Ireland\, the Royal Irish Academy\, University College Cork\, NUI Galway and St. Malachy’s College\, Belfast. A further source containing O’Connor’s Irish translation of the first book of Milton’s Paradise Lost (written about the year 1860) is now lost\, but a copy may be consulted on microfilm.  In looking through old MSS\, which I purchased in Dublin a good number of years ago\, I find a translation into Irish of the 1st Book of Paradise Lost. It is by one Thomas O’Connor\, who\, from letters accompanying it\, seems to have been a tailor\, resident for many years in London…Letter 23 December 1893\, from Monsignor James O’Laverty to Fr Eugene O’Growney  \n  \nPresented in association with the Irish Texts Society:  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n\nSpeaker:  \nProfessor Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail\n\nMeidhbhín Ní Úrdail is Professor in\, and Head of Modern Irish at University College Dublin. Ní Úrdail’s areas of research include the Irish manuscript tradition; Ireland’s vernacular written tradition from medieval times to the nineteenth century; narrative discourse and historical representation; the complementary relationship between script and print in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland; and contemporary Irish writing and its heritage. Her most recent monograph\, Pádraig Ó Laoghaire (1870–1896): an Irish scholar from the Béarra Peninsula\, was published by Beara Historical Society (2021).
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/irish-texts-society-ils-annual-lecture-29-september/
LOCATION:Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith\, W6 9DT\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:biography,emigration,exile,Irish language,lecture,London-Irish
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://irishliterarysociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/its_ils_2022.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20211108T193000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20211108T210000
DTSTAMP:20211015T090439Z
CREATED:20211015T034805Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211015T090439Z
UID:18449-1636399800-1636405200@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:Irish-London - 8 November
DESCRIPTION:Professor Richard Kirkland joins in conversation with Roy Foster\, the Society’s Vice President\, on Kirkland’s new book Irish London: A Cultural History 1850–1916 (London: Bloomsbury\, 2021). In the years following the Irish Famine (1845–52)\, London became one of the cities of Ireland. The number of Irish in London swelled to over 100\,000 and from this mass migration emerged a distinctive and vibrant culture based on a shared sense of history\, identity and experience. In this book\, Richard Kirkland brings together elements in Irish London’s culture and history that had previously only been understood separately or indeed largely overlooked (as in the case of women’s’ contributions to London Irish politics and culture). In particular\, Kirkland makes resonant cultural connections between Irish and cockney performers in the music halls\, Irish trade fairs\, temperance marches\, the Fenian dynamite war of the 1880s\, St Patrick’s Day events\, and the later cultural agitation of revivalists such as W.B. Yeats and Katharine Tynan. \n  \n\nSpeaker: Professor Richard Kirkland\n\n\n \nRichard Kirkland is Professor of Irish Literature & Cultural Theory at King’s College London. Professor Kirkland’s research is focused on the literature\, culture\, and politics of Ireland in the modern period of contemporary Northern Ireland\, during the Irish Literary Revival of the early twentieth century\, and in the context of the Irish in London. He has written four monographs and co-edited two collections of essays grouped around these areas. \n  \nSpeaker: Professor Roy Foster Roy Foster recently retired as Carroll Professor of Irish history at Oxford\, he is a fellow of Hertford College. He has written widely on Irish history\, society and politics in the modern period\, as well as on Victorian high politics and culture. Foster produced a widely acclaimed biography of William Butler Yeats which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In Words Alone: Yeats and his inheritances (2011)\, he presents a re-reading of Irish literary history throughout the nineteenth century and places Yeats and his inspirations in apposition to a much wider range of literary and political precursors than is usually the case. His Vivid Faces: the revolutionary generation in Ireland 1890-1914 came out in 2014 and his most recent work On Seamus Heaney (Princeton\, 2020) came out last year and is the subject of an ILS film with Roy and Catherine Heaney.\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n 
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/irish-london-8-november/
LOCATION:Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith\, W6 9DT\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:emigration,history,interview,London-Irish,politics,Reading,social history
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://irishliterarysociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IRISH-LONDON-SS.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200512T193000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200512T203000
DTSTAMP:20200506T162247Z
CREATED:20200126T115034Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200506T162247Z
UID:16793-1589311800-1589315400@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:ILS / Irish Texts Society Annual lecture - POSTPONED
DESCRIPTION:THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO CONCERNS ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS. THE EVENT WILL RUN IN OUR 2020-21 SEASON. \nThe scholar Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail visits the Society to deliver our joint annual Noel O’Connell memorial talk with the Irish Texts Society. Her subject is Thomas O’Connor (alias Tomás Ó Conchubhair\, b. 1798)\, originally from the civil parish of Templemolaga\, Co. Cork\, he emigrated to London in 1820 where he worked as a tailor until his death around 1870. \nThe evidence in extant Irish manuscripts suggests that he had already begun working as a scribe in his native home place\, but that this role progressed significantly during his years in the Victorian city. His scribal material (in Irish and in English) provides an intriguing insight into a native man of letters who appears to have integrated himself into his host society\, while at the same time preserving a distinctive Irish identity. Moreover\, his fascinating collection of correspondence in English reveals a man with informed views about the language and literature of his native country. And\, in his thirty or so poetic compositions\, personal vignettes come to the fore as well as a great admiration for the Young Ireland movement and\, in particular\, for William Smith O’Brien\, the fair-haired boy (an buachaill bán). \n  \nNí Úrdail first discovered O’Connor while conducting research some years ago on a text known in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Irish manuscripts as Leabhar Oiris (Book of History)\, which is essentially an encomium of the O’Briens of Thomond and this dynasty’s battles for supremacy in Ireland in the tenth and eleventh centuries. She was intrigued to discover that of this work’s twenty-six sources\, one was completed outside Ireland in 1848 by O’Connor “in the city of London” (a ccathair Londoine). Subsequent findings have uncovered eighteen extant manuscripts written entirely or in part by this Cork scribe when he was living in London\, and these are preserved today in the National Library of Ireland\, the Royal Irish Academy\, University College Cork\, NUI Galway and St. Malachy’s College\, Belfast. A further source containing O’Connor’s Irish translation of the first book of Milton’s Paradise Lost (written about the year 1860) is now lost\, but a copy may be consulted on microfilm.  In looking through old MSS\, which I purchased in Dublin a good number of years ago\, I find a translation into Irish of the 1st Book of Paradise Lost. It is by one Thomas O’Connor\, who\, from letters accompanying it\, seems to have been a tailor\, resident for many years in London…Letter 23 December 1893\, from Monsignor James O’Laverty to Fr Eugene O’Growney \n\nPresented in association with the Irish Texts Society:  \n  \n \nSpeaker: Associate Professor Meidhbhín Ní ÚrdailMeidhbhín Ní Úrdail is Associate Professor of Modern Irish at University College Dublin. Ní Úrdail’s areas of research include the Irish manuscript tradition; Ireland’s vernacular written tradition from medieval times to the nineteenth century; narrative discourse and historical representation; the complementary relationship between script and print in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland; and contemporary Irish writing and its heritage.
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/ils-irish-texts-society-annual-lecture/
LOCATION:Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith\, W6 9DT\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:biography,history,Irish language,lecture,London-Irish,poetry,politics,research,social history,tradition
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200127T193000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200127T203000
DTSTAMP:20200203T161543Z
CREATED:20200117T115551Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200203T161543Z
UID:16281-1580153400-1580157000@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:The Female Detective - 27 Jan
DESCRIPTION:As we approach St Brigid’s Day we are delighted to welcome an all-female panel to an event considering the continuing popularity of Irish crime writing\, so-called “Emerald Noir”. Our guests will read from their work\, reflect on their portrayal of female detectives and as all three are UK-based we’ll consider their London and Dublin settings. In Maeve Kerrigan (Casey)\, Bridie Devine (Kidd) and Frankie Sheehan (Kiernan) we have three brilliantly drawn female detectives overcoming obstacles and prejudice. \nHow do we account for the huge growth in popularity of Irish crime writing\, is it connected to peace in Northern Ireland\, the economic collapse from 2008? Is generic labelling useful or does it signal a lack of appreciation of the quality of writing? Join our panel for an evening of readings and discussion on their work\, influences and perspectives on the crime fiction genre. \n\n ‘One of the most thoroughly human and convincing police officers in the fictional ranks’ The Guardian on Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan. \n‘Thrilling\, mysterious\, twisted’ Graham Norton on Jess Kidd’s Things in Jars \n‘Olivia Kiernan writes with a rare mastery . . . A total triumph’ Rachel Edwards\, on Olivia Kiernan’s The Killer in Me \n\n  \n\n\n \n The event will be followed by a sale and signing of books.   \n  \n \nChair: Katherine Armstrong\n\n\n \nKatherine Armstrong has worked in publishing for over fifteen years and is currently Editorial Director for Fiction at Bonnier Books UK. She has previously worked at Faber & Faber and Little\, Brown. Her speciality is crime and thriller fiction. She was one of the founding organisers of First Monday Crime Nights in London and is programme consultant for NOIReland\, a new international crime fiction festival in Belfast. Follow Katherine on twitter: @katherinecrime \n  \nSpeaker: Jane Casey\n\n\n \nCrime is a family affair for Jane Casey. Married to a criminal barrister\, she has a unique insight into the brutal underbelly of urban life\, from the smell of a police cell to the darkest motives of a serial killer. This gritty realism has made her books international bestsellers and critical successes; while Detective Maeve Kerrigan has quickly become one of the most popular characters in crime fiction. Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award for THE STRANGER YOU KNOW\, Jane also won The Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year 2019 for CRUEL ACTS. Her new Maeve Kerrigan novel THE CUTTING PLACE is publishing in April. Jane is also a member of Killer Women. Follow Jane on twitter: @JaneCaseyAuthor \n  \n  \n  \nSpeaker: Jess Kidd\n\n\n \nJess Kidd is the author of three novels and is the winner of the 2016 Costa Short Story Award. Jess’ debut novel\, Himself\, was published by Canongate in October 2016. The Hoarder\, her second novel\, hit the shelves in February 2018. Jess’s third book Things in Jars came out 4 April 2019 and features the intrepid detective Bridie Devine. She is also currently developing her own original TV projects with leading UK and international TV producers\, her children’s book Everyday Magic will be published in June 2020. Follow Jess on twitter: @JessKiddHerself \n  \nSpeaker: Olivia Kiernan Olivia Kiernan is an Irish writer. In a previous life\, she completed a diploma in anatomy and physiology then a BSc in Chiropractic before she succumbed to the creative itch and embarked on an MA in Creative writing. In 2015\, she began writing Too Close to Breathe\, a crime thriller that was published in 2018 and features Dublin detective\, Frankie Sheehan. The second in the series\, The Killer in Me was published April 2019. Follow Olivia on twitter: @LivKiernan. \n 
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/the-female-detective-27-jan/
LOCATION:The Bloomsbury Hotel\, The Bloomsbury Hotel\, 16-22 Great Russell Street\, London\, WC1B 3NN \, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:crime,exile,feminism,London-Irish,novel,Reading,women
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20191211T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20191211T183000
DTSTAMP:20200203T215410Z
CREATED:20191202T190354Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200203T215410Z
UID:14968-1576089000-1576089000@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:Aidan Higgins doc screening / Christmas drinks - 11 December
DESCRIPTION:Where Would You Like The Bullet: a film about Aidan Higgins\nfollowed by Christmas drinks.\n\nThe Irish Literary Society is banding together with the Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith to host a free screening of the UK premiere of a documentary on the Irish writer Aidan Higgins. Come along and be introduced to the Society and other London-Irish organisations on 11 December. Neil Donnelly’s new documentary ‘Where would you like the bullet: a film about Aidan Higgins’ will run from 18.30 to be followed by a Q&A with the director. The screening will be followed by Christmas drinks. \nSo come along\, enjoy the film\, if you like bring a mince pie or a dish to share. If you’re representing a cultural organisation do bring some flyers or a banner\, it could be a great opportunity for stimulating conversations about future collaborations. \n \n\nAsylum has been with me since I first read it in the 70s… Aidan has left us a vast map of London with the small roads that lead there from Kildare and elsewhere via a host of historical backgrounds and demeanours and aromas and cemeteries… a world of panel beaters somewhere off the long drags of Uxbridge. There are bad times so rich in detail that the sorrows are well hidden.Dermot Healy on 'Asylum' story in as Felo de Se (1960)
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/aidan-higgins-doc-screening-christmas-party-11-december/
LOCATION:Irish Cultural Centre\, Hammersmith\, 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith\, W6 9DT\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:documentary,film,London-Irish,party
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20190930T193000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20190930T210000
DTSTAMP:20200203T213016Z
CREATED:20190903T204313Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200203T213016Z
UID:12007-1569871800-1569877200@irishliterarysociety.org
SUMMARY:I Wouldn't Start from Here - 30 Sept
DESCRIPTION:The ILS is delighted to start its 2019-20 season with a showcase of second-generation Irish writers in Britain. Not quite British\, not quite Irish\, through their essays\, fiction and poetry about music\, family\, and history these distinguished writers explore questions of identity and belonging and ask the perennial question: where is home – here or Ireland?  When questions of authenticity arise\, the slur “plastic Paddy” cannot be far behind and this shameful epithet is referenced in several of the essays here. Moy McRory’s excellent Memory and Authenticity states that the term was “in part given spurs…by the new influx of educated and highly-skilled Irish who encountered the seismic shock of how openly hostile they found their new neighbours on relocation to Britain. When we were lumped in together as ‘English’ we were made invisible. In this way\, a group who had been barely perceived and described were being excluded and silenced”. Martina Evans review in The Irish Times The event also launches the volume I Wouldn’t Start from Here from the new publishing house The Wild Geese Press set up to publish on the Irish diasporic experience. The writers gathered in the volume hold up a mirror to the diverse and complicated experience of the Irish in Britain. \nThe collection features essays\, fiction and poetry from Elizabeth Baines\, Maude Casey\, Ray French\, Maria C. McCarthy\, Dr Tony Murray\, Moy McCrory\, Kath Mckay and John O’Donoghue and many more. \nDuhig’s The Road reflects on his upbringing in London and of family talk of ‘home’ of Irish pub and music culture of North London ‘…near where my father worked in Cricklewood\, was the Galtymore pub/club complex\, a great barn of a place where Sligo flute player Roger Sherlock had been a regular performer in a semi-professional house band. Even so\, Nuala O’Connor’s Bringing It All Back Home reports him saying\, “It still wasn’t enough to make a living out of\, nothing like it.” He also worked “six days a week with pick and shovel . . . mostly roads\, you know\, which was hard work.” Near the Galtymore\, the Crown was effectively a labour exchange for Irish construction workers where cheques could be cashed on pay nights.’ \nThe event includes the editors and contributors to the collection and features the poet Ian Duhig. The moving and insightful essay Ian contributed to the volume was also featured in the Irish Times recently to great acclaim. A book sale and signing will follow the event. \n  \nL TO R: JOHN O’DONOGHUE (PUBLISHER); IAN DUHIG; RAY FRENCH; MOY MCCRORY; KATH MCKAY\, VINCE BURKE \nBefore the launch event on 30 September Vince Burke recorded interviews with the panel and the ILS Chairman\, James Lazar\, you can listen below: \n\n			\n		\n	\n	\n	\n	\n		I Wouldn't Start From Here- final version	\n	\n	\n\n	\n  \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nSpeaker: Ian Duhig\n\n\n \nIan Duhig became a full time writer after working with homeless people for fifteen years and having being made redundant. He has published since then\, among other things\, seven books of poetry\, most recently The Blind Roadmaker (Picador\, 2016) which was shortlisted for the TS Elliot and Forward prizes. He works with musicians\, artists and socially excluded groups\, recently editing Any Change: Poetry in a Hostile Environment (2018)\, a small poetry anthology from Leeds immigrant communities chosen as a Poetry School Book of the Year. Duhig has won the Forward Best Poem Prize once and the National Poetry Competition twice. Follow Ian on twitter: @ianduhig \n  \nSpeaker: Ray French\n \nRay French is the author of The Red Jag & other stories and the novels All This Is Mine and Going Under (both Vintage). He is also the co-author of Four Feathers and the co-editor of with Kath Mckay of End Notes: Ten stories about loss\, mourning and commemoration. His short stories have been broadcast on Radio 4 and appeared in numerous magazines and compilations\, including Best European Fiction 2013. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Hull. Some of his essays and podcasts can be found on the Royal Literary Fund website. Follow Ray on twitter @RayFrench15 \n  \n \n \n  \nSpeaker: Moy McCrory\n\n\n \nMoy McCrory is a writer and academic of Irish patronage who writes about identity and class. As a fiction writer she has had three collections of short stories and a novel published. Two of her books were serialised by the BBC and her work has been translated into 15 languages. Her short fiction is widely anthologised and she was included in the seminal Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. She was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Award. She is a Hawthornden Fellow\, a Senior Fellow of the HEA\, has lectured in Bremen University\, London University and is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of Derby and is a PhD examiner. \n  \nSpeaker: Kath Mckay\n\n\n \nKath Mckay has published two novels\, three poetry collections\, and short stories. Work includes Hard Wired (Moth\, 2016)\, Collision Forces (Wrecking Ball\, 2015) and Telling the Bees (Smiths Knoll\, 2014). Her short stories are anthologised and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She taught creative writing in London and now lectures at the University of Hull. Her most recent book (co-edited with Ray French) is End Notes: Ten stories about loss\, mourning and commemoration (2017).
URL:https://irishliterarysociety.org/event/i-wouldnt-start-from-here-30-sept/
LOCATION:The Bloomsbury Hotel\, 16-22 Great Russell St\, London\, WC1B 3NN\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:archive,book signing,exile,London-Irish,poetry,politics,Reading,research,social history,tradition,women
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