Keynote Speaker, The Irish diaspora and revolution, Maynooth

I have been asked by Gerard Moran and his colleagues to be a keynote speaker at a conference, on the Irish diaspora and revolution, at Maynooth, at the end of October 2012.


Maynooth is worth visiting - a little Irish market town has been swallowed by a university.  And the significance of the college and university in the history of Irish Catholicism is ostentatiously visible.


The theme of the conference is interesting - especially since we put so much work into separating out the study of the Irish Diaspora from the study of conflict and politics within Ireland.  So, perhaps time for a reintegration.  Looking at my notes, I find myself thinking about the missing Irish working class.

I am going to this conference to listen and learn.

The Call for Papers is pasted in below.

Patrick O'Sullivan


CFP: The Irish diaspora and revolution, 1845-1945

The Department of History at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, invites submissions for a major international academic conference entitled ‘The Irish diaspora and revolution, 1845 – 1945’ to be held at NUI Maynooth, 30 October-1 November 2012.

‘Diaspora’ and ‘revolution’ have been central transformative features of Irish society between 1845 and 1945, penetrating every facet of life on this island over the course of that century. Revolution as experienced by the Irish diaspora during this period, however, transcended Irish geopolitical isolation, situating Irish issues within evolving global contexts and amorphous supranational networks. It is this rich and diverse engagement of the Irish diaspora with revolution which this conference seeks to explore.

Distinguished keynote speakers confirmed for the conference are Professor R.V. Comerford and Patrick O’Sullivan.

We invite submission of abstracts which address the conference title from any relevant historical period, geographical perspective or disciplinary approach. Papers are to be no longer than twenty minutes in duration. Panel proposals are welcome in addition to individual papers. Postgraduates are also encouraged to register an interest in participating. Proposals for papers and panels should include a title, an abstract of no more than 250 words and a brief biographical summary (including institutional affiliation and contact details).

Applications with these particulars attached are to be submitted to any of the conference convenors Dr. Darragh Gannon, Dr. Gerard Moran and Dr. Ciaran Reilly by 15 August at the email addresses below.

Applicants will be notified by email before 1 September. Conference attendance costs will be posted at a later date (there will be no registration cost for conference speakers).

Contact details Dr. Darragh Gannon: Darragh.J.Gannon@nuim.ie Dr. Gerard Moran: Gerard.Moran@nuim.ie Dr. Ciaran Reilly: Ciaran.J.Reilly@nuim.ie

Irish Diaspora Studies

At the end of May 2012 I began to close down the formal projects that I still then had in place to support the study of the Irish Diaspora.

I still remain interested in that study, of course, and will continue to make contributions - but most probably only in the form of articles, chapters, the occasional lecture.  Any specific project will have to be time-limited and costed.

The problem was that, in tying myself to formal, ongoing projects I had saddled myself with a myriad tiny tasks, but each task requiring thought and decision.

As I close things down, if there is a general point worth making, I will post a note here on Fiddler's Dog.

The relevant web sites are still, more or less, in place.

The old web site, at the University of Bradford, handcrafted by my son Dan O'Sullivan, when he was 12 years old...
http://www.brad.ac.uk/diaspora/

I no longer have access to that web site.

Stephen Sobol, at the University of Leeds, created an alternative web site for us, with a simpler technology, at...
http://www.irishdiaspora.net/

That web site will soon disappear, but I will most probably redirect the domain name.

Both those web sites have been archived by the British Library - so that they are preserved for posterity.

I did start to develop a back-up Irish Diaspora Studies web site at
http://www.irishdiaspora.org/

But, at this stage, I am not really clear how that is going to work.  Is there still a need for a formal web site?  And see above, myriad tiny tasks...

Patrick O'Sullivan

Bradford Women Singers, New CD, HIGH HOPES

Our friends and neighbours, the Bradford Women Singers,

http://bradfordwomensingers.org.uk/

have issued a new CD, High Hopes.  You can listen to some track samples on their web site, and you can download the song lyrics as a pdf file.

There are tracks from an earlier CD on My Space

http://www.myspace.com/bradfordwomensingers

Below, the invitation to the launch of the new CD.

Bradford Women Singers

warmly invite you to join us for the launch of our new CD ‘High Hopes’

High Hopes, High Tea

Saturday 21st July, 2012

2 to 4 pm

in the garden

Park Cottage, Randall Place, Bradford, BD9 4AE

hear the songs, live! buy

the CD enjoy

tea and cakes

with guest performers

Bradford Women Singers

www.bradfrordwomensingers.org.uk

singers@bradfordwomensingers.org.uk

07951776278

Autoharp Day at The American Museum, Bath, 7 July

To Bath, this coming weekend, for the UK Autoharp Association day at the American Museum...
http://www.americanmuseum.org/

The autoharpers are to be part of the Americana Festival
http://www.americanmuseum.org/default.cfm/loadindex.295

July 7
'Courses & Workshops: Autoharp Workshops with Mike Fenton

12noon-5pm Drop-in workshops and performances will be offered throughout the afternoon on this uniquely American instrument. If you've ever wanted to play an autoharp - or even just wondered what one is - then come along and give it a try. No registration required.'

Of course the autoharp is not an 'uniquely American' instrument.  But it has become a sort of folk instrument in the USA, partly because of its association with the Carter family.


Our slow jam organiser Bob Ebdon has created a Carter family songbook for the occasion.

For more on Bob Ebdon see
www.bobebdon.co.uk

For more on Mike Fenton see
http://www.harperscraft.com/

For more on the UK Autoharp Association see
http://www.ukautoharps.org.uk/

I seem to have signed myself up for a little display.  I am a bit worried.  I am not a natural soloist.  This damnable shyness of mine...

Might try to do some Woody Guthrie - Americana, surely?
http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

It's the 100th anniversary of his birth - 1912-2012
http://www.woody100.com/

Here is Wilco's version of The Jolly Banker
http://wilcoworld.net/#!/roadcase/the-jolly-banker/

Sarah Makem: The Heart is True

Listening to a new CD, Sarah Makem:  The Heart is True.

'The first complete CD devoted to the influential Northern Irish Traditional singer Sarah Makem.

 The Heart Is True is selected and presented by Rod Stradling from classic recordings made in the 1950s and 1960s...'

http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/?p=2716

It is part of Topic Records The Voice of the People series, choreographed by Reg Hall.

The CD comes with a little booklet, which includes Rod Stradling's notes, and A General Introduction to the Series by Reg Hall.  I'll see if I can find this General Introduction somewhere on the web - it makes good points about the changing shapes of our traditions.  (So many of Reg Hall's comments on music can be found only in sleeve notes - I sometimes think we need a little book, The Collected Sleeve Notes of Reg Hall.)

Remember to have a look at Rod Stradling's Musical Traditions Internet Magazine.
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/

Sarah Makem, austere, accurate, emotional, controlled.  Rod Stradling quotes A L Lloyd on Sarah Makem's repertoire, which included Irish, English and Scots songs - but he adds that she also had a number of American songs.  The first track I listened to was, of course, It Was in the Month of January - Rod Stradling calls it her finest song.

Discussion of the song and Sarah Makem's influence can be found on Reinhard Zierke's English Folk Music web site:
http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/folk/

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/frankie.armstrong/songs/itwasinthemonthofjanuary.html

And after listening to Sarah Makem I immediately put that original alongside Bradford's own Stephanie Hladowski, singing that song.

Stephanie Hladowski - It was in the month of January

You can hear the tradition.

Patrick O'Sullivan

Fiddler's Dog