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We noticed this article in the journal Hypertension.

The abstract does not say whether or not these French males were drinking
red wine - the effects of red wine being one of the standard explanations of
the 'French Conundrum' (high fat diet/low rates of heart disease)

P.O'S.

Hypertension
ISSN: 1524-4563

Volume 38, Issue 6
December 1, 2001
Pages 1361-1366


[In-process record]
Different Alcohol Drinking and Blood Pressure Relationships in France and
Northern Ireland: The PRIME Study
Marques-Vidal, P; Arveiler, D; Evans, A; Amouyel, P; Ferrières, J;
Ducimetière, P

INSERM U558, Faculté de Médecine Purpan, Toulouse (P. M-V., J.F.), France

Abstract
To assess the effect of alcoholic beverages consumed on blood pressure
levels by day of the week, baseline data from the Prospective
Epidemiological Study of Myocardial Infarction (PRIME), including 6523 male
subjects who drank at least once a week (5156 in France and 1367 in Northern
Ireland), were analyzed. In France, alcohol consumption was rather
homogeneous throughout the week, with a slight increase during weekends,
whereas in Northern Ireland, Fridays and Saturdays accounted for 66% of
total alcohol consumption. After adjustment for age, body mass index, heart
rate, tobacco smoking, educational level, marital status, and professional
activity, blood pressure levels were higher in Northern Irish drinkers on
Monday and decreased until Thursday, whereas blood pressure levels were
constant throughout the week for French drinkers (dayxcountry interactions,
P<0.05). Conversely, no between-day differences were found regarding
teetotalers in both countries. In drinkers, between-day differences and
dayxcountry interactions were suppressed after adjustment for the average
alcohol consumption of the third day before measurement. We conclude that
the binge-drinking pattern observed among Northern Irish drinkers leads to
physiologically disadvantageous consequences regarding blood pressure
levels, whereas no such fluctuations in blood pressure levels are found for
regular consumption. [Journal Article; In English; United States]


See also
http://www.lifeclinic.com/focus/blood/articleView.asp?MessageID=76

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This might interest all those USA members of the Ir-D list who are - I
hear - rapidly becoming experts in the history of Australian/New Zealand
literature...

P.O'S.
Title: American Association of Australian Literary Studies:
Narrative in Australian Fiction and Cinema
Location: Missouri
Deadline: 2002-03-15
Description: Papers are invited for the annual meeting of the
American Association of Australian Literary Studies, to be held
in Kansas City, MO, 18-21 April 2002. Conference theme:
Narrative in Australian Fiction and Cinema. Fifteen to twenty
minute presentations on all aspects of Australian/New Zealand
literature...
Contact: hoyjames[at]emporia.edu
URL: www.australianliterature.org

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The following item has been brought to our attention...

P.O'S.

From: Deborah Oliver [mailto:deborah.oliver[at]new.oxford.ac.uk]
Subject: Dorian Gray

Dear Sir-

I am the Producer of a new adaptation of 'The Picture of
Dorian Gray' that is applying for a slot in the Autumn at the Oxford
Playhouse.
The play will be a student production, but all members of the team are very
experienced.

This is a very exciting adaptation by Peter Harness, who is a young writer
who has written for FilmFour. We are intending to put this play on in
conjunction with a series of talks about Wilde and his presentation today.
Already
confirmed are: Peter Harness, Sos Eltis (an expert on Wilde from Brasenose
College, Oxford), and Julian Mitchell (writer of the screenplay for the film
'Wilde') and also Stephen Fry has expressed considerable interest in giving
a
talk also on the subject of playing Wilde. Do you think your readers would
be
interested in this production and, should we be successful in our
application, would you be prepared to mention the production in your
publication?
Many thanks,

Deborah Oliver
Producer

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The following item has been brought to our attention...

P.O'S.

- -----
Here's news for any Dublin-based list members, or for anyone who might be
visiting Dublin over the period.

There's an excellent festival taking place in Rathmines, Dublin 6, from
Friday 22nd March to Sunday 24th. Here's the programme.

Friday 22nd

8:30 pm Exhibition of Fr Brown Photographs
8:30 pm Showing of 1988 Television Documentary,
?Villages of Dublin: Rathmines?
10:00 am Art Exhibition by the Mellini Art Group (Rathmines Library)
8.30 pm Friday Night Entertainment:
 Music by Frankie Lane and Paul Kelly (ex Fleadh Cowboys)
 Comedy with Joe Taylor and Malcolm Douglas ?Excerpts from
the Tribunal Show, Flood and Moriarity Revued ?

Saturday 23rd

12:00 pm Exhibition of Fr Brown Photographs
12:00 pm Showing of 1988 Television Documentary,
?Villages of Dublin: Rathmines?
12:00 pm Exhibition of paintings by Brian Palm
10:00 am Art Exhibition by the Mellini Art Group (Rathmines Library)
2.00 pm A Walking Tour entitled ?The Township of Rathmines? by Eamon Mc
Thomáis. (meet in front hall)
3.00 pm Soloists from DIT Conservatory of Music present
?Favourite Songs from Moore?s Melodies to Opera?
4.00 pm Poetry and Music: Denis Costello and Michael O?Dea
5.00 pm ?The Work of Brian Palm?, an illustrated talk by Brian Palm
7.00 pm Launching of Cyphers Poetry Magazine. The latest number of
one of Ireland?s longest standing literary magazines.
Music by Kylemore College String Ensemble
8.30 pm ?Literary Associations of Rathgar and Rathmines?, a talk by
Ulick O?Connor


Saturday 24th

12.00 pm Exhibition of Fr Brown Photographs
12.00 pm Showing of 1988 Television Documentary,
?Villages of Dublin: Rathmines?
12.00 pm Exhibition of paintings by Brian Palm
12.30 pm Mary Stokes Band
2.00 pm Eanna Ní Lamhna ?Wildlife in Rathmines? Talk with slides
3.00 pm Eanna Ní Lamhna ?Wildlife in Rathmines? Walk
3.30 pm R&R Members Soloists present ?Songs from the Musicals?
4.30 pm Poetry and Music by Mary Begley, Ruth O?Sullivan, Nessa O?Mahony
and Maeve O?Sullivan
5.30 pm A Recital of Choral Music from the 16th to the 20th Century by
Cantairí Óga Átha Cliath, conducted by Brian Ó Dubhghaill
7.00 pm ?The Pleasure of Food: French Cuisine.? A talk by Patrick Desprez.
8.00 pm Laurence Foster presents ?Dickens in Dublin?, a recreation of
Dickens? performance in the Rotunda Hospital

Children?s Festival


1.45 pm Marbles Workshop: The old-time favourite, Marbles ? 1 hour
2.00 pm Art Class - ages 6 to 11 (Rathmines Library) ? 1 hour
3.00 pm The Magic and Witchcraft Workshop by Professor Nicholas
Sweetmeadows. Magic, Monsters and Harry Potter ? 2 hours


12.30 pm Marbles Workshop: The old-time favourite, Marbles ? 1 hour
3.30 pm The Magic and Witchcraft Workshop by Professor Nicholas
Sweetmeadows. Magic, Monsters and Harry Potter ? 2 hours

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We have been asked to mention Gearóid Denvir's

MA in Irish Studies
MA sa Léann Éireannach

at Galway.

And we are happy to do that. A teaching team that includes Dr Louis de
Paor,
Professor Nollaig MacCongáil, Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Dr Gearóid
Denvir, Dr Pádraig Ó Héalaí
Professor Chris Curtin ,Professor John Waddell, Professor Micheál Mac
Craith...

Nuff said.

Further information at the NUI, Galway website

http://www.irishstudies.ie/

P.O'S.

From: "Eileen Reilly"
Subject: Peter Carey Reading at NYU on March 14th

For anyone in the NYC or tri-state area who may be interested

Glucksman Ireland House presents Peter Carey reading from the True History
of the Kelly Gang

Thursday, March 14th at 7PM

New York University's Main Building, Washington Square East at University
Place,
Room 101A, Jurow Lecture Hall, 7PM:

Peter Carey reads from his novel "True History of the Kelly Gang." Carey is
the 2001 winner of the Booker Prize and is also author of Oscar and Lucinda
and Illywhacker. Reception to follow.

This event is free to members of Glucksman Ireland House and the NYU
community.
$5 to members of the general public.
Please call 212-998-3950 or email ireland.house[at]nyu.edu to reserve a seat.

************
Dr. Eileen Reilly,
Associate Director,
Glucksman Ireland House,
New York University,
One Washington Mews,
New York NY 10003

Tel: (212) 998-3951
Fax: (212) 995-4373

www.nyu.edu/pages/irelandhouse
www.nyu.edu/fas/summer/dublin/index.html

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For information...

Age of Massacres: Violent Death in Early Modern Ireland
Location: Ireland
Conference Date: 2002-04-20

Age of Massacres: Violent Death in Ireland, c1547-1650 Collins Barracks,
Dublin, Saturday 20 April 2002
Despite contined interest in the history of early modern Ireland, historians
have rarely engaged fully with the character and consequences of violence
during this time. This conference deals with various aspects of violent
death in early modern Ireland. Speakers include David Edwards on martial law
and martyrdom and on the impact of the suppression of the Desmond Rebellion
in Munster, Clodagh Tait on ideas of God's providence in tales of violent
deaths of persecutors, Brian Donovan on Frontier violence in Leinster, Hiram
Morgan on Hugh O'Neill's political assassinations, Rory Rapple on the
rhetoric of violence, John Young and Kenneth Nicholls on Irish refugees in
Scotland and massacres in the 1640s and John Morrill & Micheál Ó Siochrú on
experiences of the Cromwellian massacres.


Dr. Clodagh Tait,
Dept. of History,
NUI Maynooth,
Co. Kildare, Ireland.
or
Dr. David Edwards,
Dept of History,
University College Cork, Ireland.

Email: clodaghtait[at]hotmail.com

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I thought it worth mentioning that the GeoLytics company - contact point

http://www.uscensus.info/

- - now has a number of CD Rom products ready which harness the USA Census
material, 2000 and some previous decades... For well-funded members of the
Irish-Diaspora list only...

P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From: DanCas1[at]aol.com
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 13:29:19 EST
Subject: Saving the Irish soul / Writers, scholars look beyond stereotype in


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/03/07
/DD221071.DTL

A Chairde:

If above click does not take you to story...go to san francisco
chronicle...today, Friday, March 8th, and you will see the reference to the
article on front page.

Athbhreith cead athbhreith
Rebirth many rebirths...

Here's to the First Irish American Renaissance...

Daniel Cassidy

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For Information...

I know that a number of us are interested in these themes...

P.O'S.

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion[at]h-net.msu.edu (March, 2002)

Tristan Marshall. _Theatre and Empire: Great Britain on the London
Stages under James VI and I_. Politics, culture and society in early
modern Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. viii +
211 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $74.95 (cloth), ISBN
0-7190-5748-5.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Rosalind C. Hays ,
Department of History and American Studies, Dominican University

When James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England, he hoped to
unite his two kingdoms. Although that project ultimately failed, Tristan
Marshall claims that James's reign witnessed the popularization of "the
idea of 'Britain'" as a cultural entity. In _Theatre and Empire_,
Marshall argues that a careful, contextualized reading of a number of
Jacobean plays reveals an evolving discourse focused on such a British
identity and concerned with issues of war, religion, and overseas
exploration. The argument contributes, of course, to the interpretation
of the plays, but historians of Jacobean political thought should read
Marshall's nuanced discussion even more attentively than should historians
of the drama. Marshall's contention that "public theatre described,
informed and ruminated on aspects of both foreign and domestic policy" (p.
5) reflects important aspects of Jacobean thought. His portrayal of a
public discourse on "empire" is, on the whole, convincing. Moreover,
Marshall's careful handling of dramatic texts models methodology both for
historians who rely on literary evidence and literary scholars searching
for political contexts.

Marshall sets his discussion of theatrical portrayals of Britain in the
context of early seventeenth-century concepts of both imperialism and
empire, arguing that "the early Jacobean period saw the coalescing of
sixteenth-century ideas of empire into a new form" (p. 9). Those ideas
concerned both "the internal sovereign national state" (p. 11) and the
plantation of colonies overseas; both were in turn linked by 1603 to
notions of militant Protestantism. Marshall dubs ideas of empire
stressing the autonomy of the English throne "_imperium_"; he traces the
notion of an _imperium_ of Great Britain back to attempts to create a
political union of England and Scotland as early as the reign of Edward
VI. James I's campaign for union had roots also in the writings of such
Scottish intellectuals as John Gordon, William Cowper, James Maxwell, John
Mair, and George Buchanan; their works variously stressed religious
aspects to the re-creation of Britannia and emphasized British overseas
expansion (a prospect Buchanan deplored). Much of the imagery praising
James or celebrating his accession Marshall sees as "specifically imperial
iconography" (p. 31) in which James might be "phoenix, the British king
reborn, and the mighty cedar" (p. 34) or, like King Arthur, both an
exemplar of chivalric values and the unifier of Britain.

James's early reign also witnessed a growing acceptance of overseas
colonization, a movement associated in the popular mind with the image of
imperial Rome. Advocates of the Virginia settlement played on the idea of
ancient British glory and linked the seventeenth-century spread of British
Protestant rule to the "Constantinian legacy of conquest" (p. 19); the
participation of both Scots and Englishmen made Virginia an "extension of
the new British power" (p. 23). The Ulster plantation pointedly included
both English and Scots tenants in a firmly British settlement and placed
both Scots and Englishmen on the committee that allotted lands, although
Scots tenants took second place to their English counterparts. Between
1610 and 1615 many scholarly writers celebrated Great Britain as physical
entity with a memorable ancient political past, linked also to the
restoration of true religion. Marshall maintains this writing was not
simply oppositional, contending also that the myth of Brute retained a
popular following, although England's antiquarians had begun to question
its truth by the 1590s.

During the period 1603-1610, when the king sought a _reunion_ of England
and Scotland "'under one Imperiall Crowne'" (p. 53) and the idea of
Britain retained currency in the London Lord Mayor's pageant, Marshall
finds that a number of contemporary plays incorporate implicit or explicit
reference to Britain as _imperium_ or as empire. Properly understanding
the "British" dimension of plays performed during the years when James's
project for British union was unraveling shows a British identity that
retained popular appeal despite James's political failures. Although an
important dimension of each of the plays discussed, dramatic references to
Britain or to empire are not always the central issue in each play. In
his introduction Marshall emphasizes that his findings do not provide
complete interpretations of the plays; rather the playwrights' voicing an
ideology of Britain is best seen as part of an on-going dialogue that is
but one of several dimensions of any particular drama. Discussion of _The
Tragedy of King Lear_, _No-Body and Some-Body_, _Macbeth_, _A Shoe-Maker,
a Gentleman_, and _Cymbeline_ shows that each of these plays is set in an
ancient, British past, most comment on aspects of proper rule, and several
also make important associations between an imperial Britain and true
religion.

Marshall notes, for example, that Lear's mistakes include not only
diminishing his own power but also dividing his kingdom, and that _King
Lear_ couples "British" material with prophecy, a Britain made whole in
the play by the geographical markers for Albany, Cornwall, and Kent. The
play concerns the unity of Britain as an autonomous kingdom during the
period when the king pressed his parliament to support Union: it was a
play illustrating "a specific moment in the British reconstruction at the
time," and was not replayed "simply because its message and become
outdated" (p. 59). _No-Body and Some-body_ or the history of Elidurus,
shows a virtuous and ancient king accept the British crown with such
reluctance that he weakens the kingdom. _Macbeth_ shows Scotland in a
time of war: "a traitor seizes the throne and...is then undone by
intervention from a friendly England. A young king who expresses his wise
thoughts on the subject of the just ruler comes to the throne as a result"
(p. 63). Marshall notes that late Elizabethan and early Jacobean writers
saw Malcolm's alliance with Edward as "prefiguring the Union" (p. 64).
Rowley's _Shoe-Maker_ emphasizes Britain's imperial future by associating
Britain with Rome and showing also the long linkage of Britain with true
religion.

_Cymbeline_, for Marshall, presents a particularly interesting and complex
commentary on early Jacobean conceptions of Britain as both _imperium_ and
empire. Marshall emphasizes the dangers inherent in attempts to identify
characters in the play with James or other historical figures and looks
rather for "themes relevant to the Jacobean Court," among them intense
British patriotism and the importance of seeing an autonomous British
_imperium_ functioning within the wider framework of European politics.
Marshall sees the character of Lucius, Caesar's deputy, as the
"iconographic core of the play" (p. 75), a point supported by the comments
of a Jacobean playgoer who probably saw _Cymbeline_ in 1611. In a drama
larded throughout with imperial imagery, Lucius is instrumental in
bringing about the reunions that resolve the play's dilemmas: the reunion
of Imogen and her husband, of Cymbeline with his daughter, and of Britain
and of a Rome about to be blessed with the birth of Christ. Whether or
not the formal Union sought by James was realized, the London stage
continued to celebrate Britain, its glorious Roman and Christian past, and
its imperial destiny.

The chivalric, imperial, and religious enthusiasms of Henry, Prince of
Wales, contributed to the imperial thinking of the period 1611-13, years
which saw Henry's investiture and his sister's marriage to the Elector
Palatine. Before his death in November, 1612, Henry had cemented
friendships with a number of aggressive and expansionist leaders, listened
to calls to raise arms for Protestantism, and developed strong interests
in British naval affairs, in expansionist ventures like the Virginia
colony and the search for a Northwest passage, and in harassing Spain in
the West Indies. In the central part of this book Marshall explores "the
apotheosis of theatrical material relating to the new Britain" (p. 87),
material with a sometimes martial endorsement of British expansionism that
provides a clear contrast to the more restrained royal ambitions reflected
in the royal masques of the same years. The themes he discovers in the
plays vary greatly.

Marshall sees an imperial subtext in _The Tempest_ featuring "a stage
representation of...Britain as a distinct island kingdom replete with a
past steeped in ancient history" (p. 96; Marshall stated the argument for
this interpretation at greater length in a 1998 article in _The Historical
Journal_). The play's ending recognizes the role of the outside world in
the destinies of the characters who populate the kingdom. If we are to
accept Marshall's reading of the play (his case rests largely on the
wealth of "imperial" imagery in the text), the imperial theme is
relatively subdued in _The Tempest_. In _Tom a Lincoln_ an illegitimate
son of King Arthur conquers much of Europe, mirroring the martial
ambitions of a young British prince. Another young prince, a character
stirred by chivalric values, brings the "only ray of hope" (p. 104) amidst
the political corruption of _The White Devil_, authored by John Webster
who was to eulogize Prince Henry a year after the play was first
performed. Caradoc, the _Valiant Welshman_, becomes British as he defends
Britain against the Romans, just as Prince Henry of Wales supports the
father who has united Britain. Marshall calls the play "almost a
manifesto of the prince's specific beliefs and aspirations" (p. 105), and
Caradoc, like Henry is, for a time, prevented from practicing war as he
would like. William Rowley's _The Birth of Merlin_, Jasper Fisher's _The
True Trojans_, and Fletcher's _Bonduca_ all draw on episodes from the
historical relationship between Rome and Britain, emphasize chivalric
values, and are steeped in the imagery Marshall identifies as imperial.
The first is, Marshall says a "clarion call for ambitious patriotism" (p.
114), the second a warning against divisions within the imperium, and the
third ends with a lament for the dead young prince who promised to bring
the empire to greatness.

Censorship did not prevent playwrights from endorsing Prince Henry's
chivalric and military ambitions, but the authors of the masques wrote at
James's or his queen's command for a specifically royal audience.
Marshall believes most of the masques written during these years
"attempted to deflect" (p. 123) Henry from too militant an agenda. He
examines Prince Henry's _Barriers_, Samuel Daniel's _Tethys Festival_,
_Oberon, The Fairy Prince_, _The Masque of Flowers_, _the Memorable
Masque_, and _The Masque of Truth_. Henry himself may have written the
last of these for his sister's wedding, and it is the only one to advocate
a dynamic Protestant foreign policy, although all the other masques
reflect the imagery of imperium.

>From 1614 to the end of the reign, playwrights had no recognizable
champion on whom to pin imperial ambitions. Marshall argues that Britain
as empire nonetheless figured in playwrights' political vocabulary,
particularly after 1618 when debate about foreign policy was increasingly
vociferous. Even plays without an imperial subtext might comment on
foreign policy--deploring James' new wife, for example--and appeals to
Britain in history, in drama, or in a lord mayor's pageant, could mean
advocating intervention in the Palatinate crisis. Marshall comments on
Wentworth Smith's _The Hector of Germany_ (c. 1614), Thomas Middleton's
_Hengist, King of Kent_ (1615-20), Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger's
_The Virgin Martyr_ (published 1622), Massinger's _The Maid of Honour_
(1621), and Dekker's _The Welsh Embassador_ (1623). Smith's play adapts
fourteenth-century events that united a brave but somewhat hesitant
English king--who had recently lost a son--in an alliance with a brave
German Palsgrave in a "piece of theatrical jingoism" (p. 159). Middleton
writes of foreigners who adhere to the wrong religion betraying a British
king, and Marshall links the play to warning commentary on the dangers of
British kings succumbing to foreign and Catholic influence. Similarly,
all three of Dekker and Massinger's plays advocate suspicion of Spain and
a pro-Protestant agenda through the medium of plays that portray the
British past or the by now familiar vocabulary of Britain as empire. The
island kingdom of Sicily represents England, for example, in _The Maid of
Honour_, which rebukes a generally well-meaning king for misdirected
foreign policy.

In his afterword, Marshall points out that King Charles would appropriate
the matter of Britain, although as a motif depicting a king guarding the
peace, not material associated with the aggressive foreign policy
advocated by late Jacobean playwrights. Under Charles, too, "Britain"
seems to mean the subordination of Scotland and Wales to England, not the
participation of some or all in a unified _imperium_.

Marshall's study is gracefully written and closely argued and repays
careful attention. He is _very_ careful about how he uses evidence: for
example, he sets each group of plays in the context of non-dramatic
discourse that is _contemporary_ (within his scheme of periodization).
Subtexts are identified as subtexts. Rarely does Marshall identify
dramatic characters with the courtly figures of the playwrights' own
world--rather he sees the political rhetoric of empire as material that
enables the playwright to comment obliquely on contemporary political
themes. He repeatedly reminds the reader of _other_ plays, plays that did
not use the imagery or themes of the plays in this study: the "theatre of
empire" was one of many kinds of rhetoric to be heard on the Jacobean
stage. Because of this care Marshall's thesis relies on a broad spectrum
of evidence: he has addressed plots, characters, imagery, political
context, and intellectual context in three distinct groups of Jacobean
drama and found a changing political rhetoric of empire. The thesis does
not depend on his reading of any single work; I am not, for example,
persuaded by the section on _The Tempest_, but find the whole book
convincing.

The book orginated in Marshall's 1995 Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, extended
here to include a long chapter (one of four) on the period after 1614.
Marshall's careful attention to particular (but not all) relevant
controversies betrays these origins, as does also, perhaps, his bypassing
the more extended discussions of Jacobean politics that might have given
his work more general application (and made it more accessible to, for
example, a general American audience). The select bibliography includes
relatively few works published since 1995 (it omits, for example, Curtis
Perry's relevant 1997 _The Making of Jacobean Culture: James I and the
Renegotiation of Elizabethan Literary Practice_). There are also
occasional technical lapses: two of the plays that merit their own
headings, for example, are not in the select bibliography, although their
editions appear in the chapter endnotes. On the whole, then, this is a
convincing, well-written book with a generally persuasive argument.

Copyright 2002 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the
redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,
educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the
author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and
H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses
contact the Reviews editorial staff: [at]mail.h-net.msu.edu.

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

Call for Papers

West Virginia University Announces the Fifth U.S. Senator Rush D. Holt
History Conference

To be held March 14-16, 2003
In Morgantown, West Virginia

On the Move: Migration and the Reconstruction of Cultural Identity

With the 40th annual James M. Callahan Lecture presented by Dr. Joe William
Trotter, Mellon Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University.

The conference committee invites papers and panel proposals from any field
of history that applies to this year's theme. Completed panel proposals
will be given preferential treatment. Abstracts will be accepted until
August 1, 2003. Abstracts should be between 250 and 500 words in length and
discuss the paperís theme and its conclusions.

Please address all submissions or questions to the addresses given below.

Conference Director: OR Panel Coordinator:
Carletta H. Savage Connie Rice
Department of History Department of History
West Virginia University West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV Morgantown, WV
26506-6303 26506-6303
chswvu80[at]westco.net
corice[at]westco.net

Several special events are being planned in conjunction with the conference.
Please check this site regularly for further details. Registration
information is forthcoming.
http://www.as.wvu.edu/history/Holt/rushholt.htm

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For Information...

Subject: Mother Jones on May day


The Trustees of the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, Greater
Manchester invite their friends and supporters to join with them in marking
May Day this year with a visit from Mother Jones, the legendary
Irish-American trade unionist. Eileen Pollock will perform her one-woman
show Fight Like Tigers, based on the life of this remarkable woman. Born in
Cork (on 1st May 1830 she later claimed) Mary Harris went to the United
States as a young child and after losing her family to fever became
increasingly involved in the labour movement and eventually worked for the
miners union, travelling the land inspiring workers to fight for their
rights. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 1930 and was even filmed making
a speech. She is buried in a miners cemetery.
Eileen Pollock is well known for her work on stage, screen and film. She has
performed Fight Like Tigers in Britain, Ireland and the United States
The performance on 1st May begins at 7.30pm.
More information from Michael Herbert
michael[at]mossleybrow.demon.co.uk

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For Information...

There is one Irish theme here that might interest a specialist...

P.O'S.

The "Reader's Guide to British History" (editor: David Loades) is a 2-volume
book that will contain review-essays on around 1000 topics.

Most of the material is currently at proof stage, for publication later this
year. We need, however, to reassign URGENTLY a handful of entries because
the original commissions have not been received. It is important to stress
that we do not require encyclopedia-style digests of historical facts;
rather, we require book-review type essays, which, in 1000 words or so, can
describe / discuss succinctly a selection of books / articles (of the
contributor's choosing) about the topic in question. (Sample entries may be
viewed at http://www.fitzroydearborn.com/london/rgbhsample.htm)


The entries we need to reassign are:

1) Roman architecture in Britain, studies of (1000 words)

2) Ireland before the Norman Intervention, general studies of (1500 words)

3) Parliament of Scotland, studies of (1000 or 1500 words)

4) British Art (c.1914 to the present), studies of (1000 words)

5) British Film and Film Industry, studies of (1000 words)

6) Feminist Approaches to British History (1000 or 1500 words)

7) John Major and his government, studies of (1000 words)


All entries are signed, each contributor receives a short credit-paragraph,
and contributors writing up to 2000 words receive the 2-volume set on
publication (and additional honoraria for commissions over that length).

Our schedule is for publication in July 2002, and typesetting begins in
April. We are therefore able to allow only about 2 WEEKS for these entries
to be written -- sorry!

If you are intested in writing any of the entries, please email me at the
address below. I will reply promptly. All assignments will be dealt with via
email.

Thank you,

Mark Hawkins-Dady
Commissioning Editor
- --
Reader's Guide to British History
Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers (London)
tel +44 (0)20 7467 1414
fax +44 (0)20 7636 6982
email: rgbh[at]fitzroydearborn.co.uk

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Albion[at]h-net.msu.edu (March, 2002)

Alan Hayes and Diane Urquhart, eds. _The Irish Women's History Reader_.
London and New York, Routledge, 2001. ix + 233 pp. Index. $80.00
(cloth), ISBN 0-415-19913-1; $24.95 (paper), 0-415-19914-X.

Reviewed by Sally Warwick-Haller , School
of Social Science, Kingston University, England

This is a very worthwhile and much-needed collection of thirty-one
articles on women in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland reproduced
from chapters and articles already published. Some of these have appeared
in obscure journals and books with small print-runs. Thus a major strength
of this book is that it brings together some important research and makes
this easily available to students of women?s history. Chapters by some of
the leading academics in Irish women?s history are included in this work,
which also offers clear evidence of the flourishing extent of research in
recent decades on Irish women.

It provides a particularly useful research aid for undergraduates, and
suggests topics, ideas and reading for research essays/projects, as well
as offers a general introduction to Irish women?s history. It highlights
problems women in Western society faced, while also emphasizing some of
the more unique circumstances in Ireland which impinged on the position of
women. The articles are written in a form that makes them very accessible
to students unfamiliar with women?s history and/or Irish history. The
conciseness of each article (on average five to six pages) means that the
book can cover a wide range of aspects, and by confining the content to
the two last centuries, the reader is offered a coherent work. There are
good introductory statements to each section, with useful suggestions for
further reading. Given the limitations of space for each article, most
represent a clear and cogently argued contribution. The book is organized
into six well-defined areas, and it is also pleasing to note that a few of
the contributors (including one of the editors) are male.

The opening section on Historiography contains a useful discussion of
women?s contributions as historians, the role of feminism, the usefulness
of gender as a defining concept, and the development of women?s history in
Ireland. The second section on Politics contains more articles than the
other sections, and leans towards the twentieth century. It is a pity
that room could not have been made for two potential nineteenth?century
inclusions: Brigitte Anton?s article on women in the Young Ireland
movement ('Women of The Nation', _History Ireland_, Autumn 1993) and Janet
Te Brake?s on peasant women in the Land League ('Irish peasant women in
revolt: The Land League years', _Irish Historical Studies_, May 1992).

Particularly clear and interesting is the survey of the diversity and
importance of women ?s contributions to political life and the strains
imposed by the nationalist/unionist question; this opens up a lot of
avenues for research. Also useful is the inclusion of women in Ulster
Unionism, the analysis of Cumann na mBan and the discussion of the
position of women under the 1937 Constitution. The third section on Health
and Sexuality covers a range of topics. They all complement one another
well. The myths about nineteenth-century Ireland as some idealised sexual
age with no sexual relations outside marriage are attacked in a
well-focused analysis; there is a good introduction to prostitution in
Ireland and the work of the Magdalen asylums; the chapter on the way
madness was perceived raises some important questions. The article on the
role of a birth control clinic in Northern Ireland in the 1930s and the
40s is interesting, and might have been usefully broadened to include a
comparison with the attempts to introduce birth control into Southern
Ireland (e.g. in the 1960s and 70s). Particularly well-written and
persuasively argued is the chapter which aims to prove that women were not
discriminated against in the Famine years; some useful illustrative tables
are included and are also clearly analysed.

For a reader on Irish women?s history a section devoted to Religion is
essential, and it is gratifying to see this included as the fourth
section, with some useful articles stressing the influence of and the role
of religion as a means of enlarging women?s sphere of influence in
Ireland. The contribution on nuns and class divisions is excellent,
coherent and well-researched, with a good balance between argument and
detailed evidence. The inclusion of an analysis of women and evangelical
religion is also a successful attempt to counter the emphasis on the
political aspects of Ulster?s religious history. However, the importance
of the Catholic church in defining the ideal of womanhood must be
acknowledged, and this is explored in the last chapter of this section to
highlight the restrictions women faced in post-1922 Ireland. The fifth
section stresses another essential aspect of Irish women?s history:
emigration. It is useful to think about different categories and
time-periods, one of the central themes of the opening article. Here the
problems for researchers are clearly articulated, and also the need for
more research is signalled, while the author acknowledges that a key
question remains unanswered: was emigration a step towards emancipation?
As one might expect, there are chapters on emigration to Australia, to the
United States and to Britain. The first of these reports on schemes to
help orphan girls escape the Famine, and the discussion raises some useful
questions, but does need more evidence on what the girls did once they
arrived. The chapter on emigration to Britain is focused on the post-1922
period, and places some emphasis on Ireland?s cultural developments in
these years, exploring how the concept of Irishness was bound up with a
woman?s ties with her family and her role in the home. It might be
appropriate to mention at this point that had space allowed, it would have
been interesting to have had a separate section in the book (in addition
to the six categories) devoted to the subject of women and cultural
nationalism.

The sixth and final section (perhaps the strongest section in this book)
is on Work and covers a wide range of subjects. The opening chapter is an
overall survey of patterns of female employment from the eighteenth
century onwards, with a clear analysis of the impact of industrialisation
and changes in agricultural employment. This contribution has managed to
incorporate a lot into a few pages without losing the clarity of the
argument. The chapters on women in rural Ireland (from the small farmer
and landless labourer classes) and in domestic service in Dublin do lean a
little towards description, but, nonetheless, give insight into the grim
lives these women led. A particularly useful article is the one on women
and trade unions, which, though a survey of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, does offer a good, coherent analysis. The argument moves
easily from section to section and is a good example of effective editing.
Also acknowledged as 'work' is involvement in philanthropic activities
(with the emphasis on the impact of the religious divide) and housework.
This latter offering is an amusing, cogently argued, well-structured
article which explores the link between housework and power. A chapter on
women and the professions could have been a useful addition, but some
topics had to be omitted. Women and education is another area that could
have received more acknowledgement in this book, though a good, concise
discussion of women and higher education was incorporated into the
Politics section.

The overall quality of the offerings in this book is high, and they
reflect good scholarship and reporting of research. There are a couple of
articles, however, where no references/end-notes have been included: the
chapters on Irish suffrage and on the emigration of Famine orphans. The
problems of editing and slimming down from the orginal texts must be
acknowledged, and generally, this has been very well done. However, there
are some instances where the argument could flow more smoothly. The
articles on Catholic sisterhoods in twentieth-century Ireland and on
women?s contributions to the Oireachtas debate in the Irish Free State are
two main examples, but both contain interesting information and ideas.
All in all, this book offers a thought provoking, readable and informative
insight into a wide range of subjects. Questions are raised, issues are
signalled. Above all, this collection plugs a big gap in Irish women?s
history and will be an essential text for students of women?s history.

Copyright 2002 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the
redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,
educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the
author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and
H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses
contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks[at]mail.h-net.msu.edu.

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For Information...

Please distribute widely...

Forwarded on behalf of Edna Longley
e.mail e.longley[at]qub.ac.uk

P.O'S.


ISAI 2002

third conference of ISAI - the Irish-Scottish Academic Initiative

Queen's University Belfast
20-22 September 2002

Ireland (Ulster) Scotland:
Concepts/ Contexts/ Comparisons

Four universities contribute to ISAI - Queen's University Belfast, Trinity
College Dublin, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Strathclyde.
ISAI promotes comparative and related study of Ireland and Scotland,
especially in the disciplines of history, literature and language. It also
promotes public discussion of cultural and political questions associated
with the pursuit of Irish and Scottish studies. Devolution makes
Irish-Scottish studies centrally relevant to East-West relations in these
islands. Here Ulster has a unique position as the territory where Ireland
and Scotland have experienced their most intense cultural relationships and
political collisions.

Some conference panels: 'Governance, Regionalism & Identity' - 'Devolution
and Cultural Policy' - 'Sport and Sectarianism' - 'Ireland (Theory)
Scotland' - 'The Great War & Irish and Scottish Culture' - 'The New British
Histories: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective' - 'The New British Histories:
An Historio-graphical Overview' - 'Enlightenments' - 'Critical Projections:
The Condition of Irish & Scottish Film' - 'Telling Stories' - 'Banquo's
Ghost: The English Question' - 'Shameless Bards and Mad, Abandoned Critics'.

Some conference speakers: Guy Beiner, Michael Brown, Cairns Craig, Patrick
Crotty, Maurna Crozier, Jane Dawson, Terence Dolan, Douglas Dunn, David
Goldie, Liam Harte, Ian McBride, Keith Jeffery, John Kerrigan, Katerina
Hollo, Cathal McCall, Elizabeth Meehan, James Mitchell, Jane Ohlmeyer,
Micheal O'Siocriu, Rick Wilford Patrick Wright.

Reading/ Song: an event with poetry read by Kathleen Jamie, fiction read by
John McGahern, songs in Gaelic, Scots & English sung by Len Graham &
Padraigín Ní Uallacháin.

Committee: Fran Brearton, S.J. Connolly, Enda Delaney, Colin Graham, Eamonn
Hughes, John Kirk, Edna Longley, Dónall Ó Baoill, Des O'Rawe

Contact: Edna Longley, School of English, Queen's University, Belfast BT7
1NN; Tel 028 90335104; Fax 028 90314615; e.mail e.longley[at]qub.ac.uk

The annual Language and Politics Symposium organised by John Kirk & Dónall Ó
Baoill will be held at Queen's just before the ISAI conference (18-20
September). Contact: j.m.kirk[at]qub.ac.uk/ d.obaoill[at]qub.ac.uk

From CHRIS GILLIGAN
C.Gilligan[at]ulster.ac.uk

Patrick

On the Irish language in Northern Ireland it is well worth checking out:

{http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/language/index.html}

The page contains links to a few articles on the Irish language issue in
Northern Ireland, including an article by Camille O'Reilly, probably
the most measured author on the political dimensions of the Irish
language in Northern Ireland.

Ir-D members might also like to know that Camille O'Reilly wrote a review
essay for the Global Review of Ethnopolitics on language and ethnicity.
She does not talk about the Irish language, but there is a lot of material
in
the essay on comparative and international dimensions to language
and ethnicity. The review essay can be accessed at:
{www.ethnopolitics.org}

While on the subject, it is worth mentioning that issue 2 of the Global
Review of Ethnopoliticsalso has a thought provoking article by Andrew Finlay
on northern Protestant identity and an interesting review essay by Stephen
Hopkins on auto/biography in Northern Ireland.
You can find them both at the same address:
{www.ethnopolitics.org}

In the GRE archive you will find an article by Colin Irwin on the use of
opinion polls in the run up to the referendum on the Agreement (in
Volume 1, Issue 1).

Kind regards

Chris


Chris Gilligan
Reviews Editor
Global Review of Ethnopolitics

Department of Sociology
Magee College
University of Ulster
Northland Road
Derry
Northern Ireland
UNITED KINGDOM

c.gilligan[at]ulster.ac.uk
[00 44] + 28 - 7137 5241
www.ethnopolitics.org

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The death of Spike Milligan last month was noted in all mediums, here in
Britain - and by now it is quite easy to pick up items on the Web.
Examples...

{http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4364677,00.html}

{http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4366408,00.html}

{http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,659186,00.html}

He was a child of the Irish Diaspora, who claimed his Irish citizenship. My
concerns about his visible 'Irishness' are matched by other concerns when
watching a man who was clearly constantly in battle with the grim demons of
depression. But he certainly has a place in the history of British culture,
and especially in the history of British comedy - where he has had long and
beneficial effects. He was held in great affection by the young Pythons who
followed him.

I have my own childhood memories, of crouching next to the family radio to
listen to The Goon Show - the following day, in the school playground, we
would all re-do the show from memory. I remember there was one boy with red
hair who was very good at sound effects...

P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The sad, unexpected and untimely death of Roy Porter has attracted much
comment - see

{http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,662211,00.html}

Many members of the Irish-Diaspora list are attempting to bring some sort of
historical dimension to the study of mental distress, and I know they would
wish to acknowledge the work of this pioneer...

P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of
Jean Talman
jean.talman[at]utoronto.ca

Subject: Canadian Association for Irish Studes - conference information


THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR IRISH STUDIES
"Hibernicis ipsis Hibernior":
Rethinking Irishness

May 22-24 2002

University of Toronto at Mississauga

The CAIS 2002 conference committee has confirmed five visitors for this
year?s event and is considering a couple of others. Join us in
Mississauga to welcome them to Canada.

Sam McAughtry returns. Sam attended CAIS in 1994. He is a Belfast
storyteller, author, and familiar voice on Irish radio. His books
include Blind Spot and other stories (1979), McAughtry?s War (1985) and
Touch and Go (1993). Many other stories have been published in the
Ulster Tatler and the Belfast Telegraph and broadcast by both RTE and
the BBC. In 1996, Sam was elected a member of the Irish Senate. He is
writing his autobiography for publication by Blackstaff Press.

Maria Luddy is a leading researcher in Irish women?s history. She is the
author of Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (1995)
and editor of Women in Ireland, 1800-1918: A Documentary History (1995;
reissued 1999). Dr. Luddy's research encompasses nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Irish history, with a particular emphasis on Irish
women's history. She is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of
Warwick.

Louis de Paor is a poet. His published collections include 30 Dán and
Seo siud agus eile, and he is the author of Faoin mblaoisc bheag sin, a
study of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's short fiction. His awards include the Sean
O'Riordan Prize at the Oireachtas 1999 and St. Thomas University's
Laurence O'Shaughnessy award in 2000. Louis is also Director of the
Centre for Irish Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
At CAIS 2002, he will talk about literature in Irish since 1940, a topic
based on his research for The Cambridge History of Irish Literature.

Donald MacRaild. Don is the author of Culture, Conflict and Migration:
The Irish in Victorian Cumbria (1998), Irish Migrants in Modern Britain
1750-1922 (1999), and editor of the collection The Great Famine and
Beyond: Irish Migrants in Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries (2000). He is the book review editor for the journal
Immigrants and Minorities and is currently pursuing research on the role
of the Irish in the British labour movement and the history of the
Orange Order in Britain. Dr. MacRaild is Head of History and a Principal
Lecturer in the School of Humanities at the University of Northumbria in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. He is a graduate of the University of
Sheffield

Lionel Pilkington has a passion for drama and theatre. He is the author
of Theatre and the State in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Cultivating the
People (Routledge: London and New York, 2001) as well as numerous
articles on Irish drama, Irish theatre and cultural history. Formerly a
lecturer in the Faculty of Cultural Studies at Sheffield Hallam
University in England, Lionel is now a lecturer in English at NUI,
Galway. He is a former Course Director and joint-founder of the M.A. in
Culture and Colonialism at NUI, Galway. He was educated at University
College Cork (M.A. 1981) and at the University of Toronto (Ph.D. 1988).
He is currently (until June 2002) Visiting Associate Professor of
English at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Email Patrick O'Sullivan


'Sex diaries of Roger Casement found to be genuine
John Ezard
Guardian

Wednesday March 13, 2002

The private diaries of Sir Roger Casement, in which the folk hero of Irish
republicanism wrote in exuberant detail of sex with men, are genuine beyond
doubt, the first forensic study of them for 86 years found yesterday. '

Full story at...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4373191,00.html

An interesting quote is assigned to Bill McCormack...

'Professor McCormack, head of literary history at Goldsmiths College,
London, said Irish-Americans might find the verdict harder to accept than
Irish people. This raised the issue of "influential members of the Irish
diaspora in the US seeking to promote a version of Irish identity that
emphasised racial, cultural and sexual purity".'

P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England