From: Jim Doan [mailto:doan[at]polaris.acast.nova.edu]
Subject: Re: ACIS Southern Regional Conference Cruise


Dear Eileen,

Many thanks for your kind words. Just one addition: David Lloyd from
Syracuse, NY, also read from his poetry on the final evening of the cruise.

Sla'n,

Jim Doan

From: Kevin Kenny, Boston College: kennyka[at]bc.edu
Special Irish-American issue of Eire-Ireland

Dear Patrick

Sunscribers to the Irish Diaspora list may be interested to
learn of a forthcoming special issue of _Eire-Ireland_ (the
interdiscplinary journal of Irish Studies published by the
Irish-American Cultural Institute). The call for papers
has just been issued and will appear in the relevant
journals in due course. But I thought it might be a good
idea to post it here as well:

Call for Papers

Éire-Ireland invites submissions on all aspects of
Irish-American history and culture for a special issue
devoted to that topic. Emphasis will be on the Irish
migration to North America along with the themes of labor,
race, religion, gender, politics, nationalism, social
mobility, ethnicity, and assimilation in the history of the
American Irish, including the impact of emigration and
American culture on Irish society. Articles on
cross-Atlantic influences between Ireland and America in
the areas of art, music, film and literature are also
encouraged.

Please send a one-page abstract of your proposed essay by
May 31, 2000 to Professor Kevin Kenny, Department of
History, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3806 (E-mail:
kennyka[at]bc.edu)
----------------------
Kevin Kenny
Department of History, Boston College
140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Phone(617)552-1196; Fax(617)552-3714; kennyka[at]bc.edu
www2.bc.edu/~kennyka/

From: "Brian McGinn"
Subject: Sheelas

1. For origins and variants of Irish names, see Donnchadh Ó
Corráin and Fidelma Maguire, IRISH NAMES (Dublin: Lilliput,
1990). According to authors, who are both native Irish
speakers and teachers of history, Síle is a borrowing from
Latin Caecilia and was brought to Ireland by the
Anglo-Normans (perhaps this is the source of Síle's rumored
origins in Wales?). Modern Anglicized forms include Sheila,
Shiela, Sheela and Shelagh.

2. P.W. Joyce, in English as we Speak it in Ireland
(Dublin: Wolfhound, 1991) adds additional southern Irish
meaning of Sheela as "reproachful name for a boy or man
inclined to do work or interest himself in affairs properly
belonging to women."

3. Examples given in Terence Patrick Dolan, A Dictionary of
Hiberno-English (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1998) confirm
that in Ireland Síle served as shorthand for woman or
typical woman's name; e.g., the Irish proverb 'Fán go fóill
go bpósfaidh Síle' which Dolan translates 'Wait your turn'
and explains 'Wait for a while until Sheila gets
married?i.e. the oldest daughter had to get married first
when marriages were arranged.'


Brian McGinn
(brother of Sheila)
Alexandria, Virginia

From: Dymphna Lonergan
Subject: Re: Ir-D Sheelas

Thanks to all who have responded so far. I'm looking
forward to following up the information I did not
have. The supposed origin of Oz sheila as the female
Christian Saint Sheila has always puzzled me. Firstly,
growing up in Ireland I had only ever met one
'sheila'. It was not a particularly common name and
not one which one would choose for a name in the
generic sense of 'Irish female'. Secondly, a cursory
examination of the names of female convicts who were
sent to Australian during the period of Transportation
shows not 'sheila' on board those hulks. The word
first appears in print in Oz in The Monitor, a Sydney
newspaper, in 1828 where it is used as the female
version of Paddy, ie as a generic term for an Irish
female. My theory at present is that the origin is
probably Irish Síle in the sense of 'sissy' and I am
told it is also a word for 'homosexual male'. This
accounts for the male sense of the word. My theory is
that the imbalance in the sexes in early European
Australia would have led to practices and social norms
that would have been frowned upon. I think that
Irish-speaking convicts may have used this Irish word
to describe what was going on around them and the word
was picked up and interpreted as 'female activity' and
finally surfaced into Australian English in the
meaning that is given to it today. I have documented
this theory in a paper. The more I delve into the word
Síle, however, the more interesting it becomes. It
must be an old old word of great significance.

As for Baker and other lexicographers, it never ceases
to surprise me how little attention has been paid to
the influence of Irish on words of slang and dialect.
Consider the Oxford English Dictionary's attempt to
provide an origin for the word 'spree' (in which they
refer us to 'spray' as in water spray) and compare the
variety of usages of the word spraoi in Irish
dictionaries. There is no doubt in my mind that the
origin of 'spree' is Ir, spraoi

But I digress. Please continue to forward any other
thoughts on sheila or Síle

many thanks

slán

Dymphna Lonergan
The Flinders University of South Australia

From: "Brian McGinn"
Subject: Fwd: Review of Green English

The following review, forwarded courtesy of World Wide
Words (see below), may be of interest in light of recent
linguistic puzzles on the Ir-D.

Book Review: Green English
------------------------------------------------------------
When cultures clash, the weak learn the language of the strong. It
has been so in Ireland in recent centuries, to the point that the
native Irish language has in the past hundred years been
forced back to the margins among fears that - despite great
efforts - it will follow Manx and Cornish into extinction.

In this monograph, Loreto Todd, Reader in International English at
the University of Leeds, argues that the influence of Irish on
English - not only on the English of Ireland, but also on that of
the Caribbean, the USA, Australia and elsewhere - goes much further
than linguists have traditionally believed.

She suggests that many English words may have had their roots in
Irish, words that most lexicographers today assign to other
origins: 'cant', for example (which most dictionaries say comes
from Latin); 'ballyhoo' (which dictionaries don't even try to give
an origin for); 'shanty' (in the sense of shack, more often said to
derive from Canadian French); 'slogan' (which is certainly Gaelic,
from words meaning an army war cry, but usually said to be from
Scots rather than Irish Gaelic); 'hobo' (from the Gaelic 'ob', an
origin which is disputable). She also argues that the personal
pronoun 'she' may come from Irish.

Loreto Todd takes readers through more than a thousand years of
Irish history, from the Celtic foundations of Irish society, the
incursions of the Vikings, the impact of Norman French, and the
settlement of English and Scots immigrants in different parts of
the country that have left the north linguistically different from
the south.

She examines the characteristic sentence patterns of Irish and the
way they have affected modern Irish English: why it is that the
Irish are so reluctant to answer a simple yes or no to a question,
or how such characteristic forms as "I'm after seeing him" or "I
have a terrible cold on me" have been built into Irish English,
based on Irish Gaelic models.

She deeply regrets the shift in Ireland towards losing the native
Gaelic elements in Irish English and argues that there must be a
way to keep Gaelic in a way attractive to future generations. Alas,
she presents no firm proposals for a way to do that.

[Todd, Loreto, _Green English_, The O'Brien Press, Dublin,
1999.
ISBN 0-86278-543-X. Hardback, pp152. Publisher's quoted
price GBP16.99.]

* WORLD WIDE WORDS is copyright (c) Michael B Quinion 2000.
You may reproduce this mailing in whole or in part in other
free media provided that you acknowledge the source and quote
the Web address of .

From: Carmel McCaffrey
Subject: Re: Ir-D Green English

Brian,
Thanks for the book review, but you will know that this is not new
thinking. The term in Ireland for this is Hiberno-English and has been
under active scholarly discussion for at least 10 years. Far longer if
you consider the work of P.W. Joyce.
Personally, I find the term "Green" English to be slightly patronizing.
In 1998 David Patrick Dolan published his very interesting "Dictionary
of Hiberno-English' and gives the origin of many words used in English
in Irish speech. It makes for a great read. Seamus Heaney in
discussing language in Ireland pointed out that 'the Irish language is
not dead because it gives us origin' i.e.. English as spoken in Ireland
has indeed many roots in the Irish language especially if you consider
sentence syntax. I did my master's thesis on this subject in the work
of James Joyce some years ago.

Carmel

irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

> From: "Brian McGinn"
> Subject: Fwd: Review of Green English
>
> The following review, forwarded courtesy of World Wide
> Words (see below), may be of interest in light of recent
> linguistic puzzles on the Ir-D.
>

The following has been brought to our attention...


["Robert Tabak" writes:]

This site was just noted on Museum-L, the list for museum professionals.
The Immigration Museum in Melbourne opened in 1998. The exhibit part is
arranged around themes of departing, the journey, and arrival. This web
site includes photos, a searchable catalogue of books, a timeline on
immigration, educational and other web links inside and outside of
Australia. I found it quite interesting. It might well be viewed as a
companion to sites such as those for Ellis Island and Angel Island (US) and
Pier 21 (Canada).

http://www.mov.vic.gov.au/immigration/

Robert Tabak
Director of Programs
Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies
www.balchinstitute.org

Irish Studies and Irish Diaspora Studies within Britain have been very fortunate in recent
years, in that our main contact at the Irish Embassy, London, was Geoffrey Keating...

It really is impossible to do justice, in a brief message, to all his hard work - but his
effectiveness had much to do with his own calm personality and his ability to listen...

We now learn that Geoffrey Keating has been Shanghai-ed. Britain's loss is China's gain.

P.O'S.



Forwarded on behalf of the Tricycle Theatre, London...


The Tricycle Theatre
London
requests the pleasure of your company at a special
screening of
THE QUIET MAN

IN HONOUR OF GEOFFREY KEATING
who is departing after four years as Cultural Officer at
the Irish Embassy, London

On Tuesday, 29 February at 6.30 pm

Followed by a post-screening reception at 9.00 pm

Tickets for screening and reception at £10 (£4 for reception
alone) are available from the Tricycle Box Office on 0171
3281000.

For further details, please ring the Film Information Line:
0171328 1900.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

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

From: Dymphna Lonergan
Subject: Re: Ir-D Sheelas


Many thanks to Brian McGinn for providing evidence that Sheila is a generic
name in Ireland for 'woman'. I am now looking for Dolan's A Dictionary of Hiberno-English
(Gill & Macmillan, 1998). But of course the book is not generally
available here in Australia so I won't get to to see the
entry for myself for a while.

But has anyone else heard of sheila as a generic name in Ireland? I
suspect it belongs to Irish speaking Ireland rather
than English speaking Ireland - which makes it very possible that the
generic Australian use may have come from Irish
speaking convicts or free settlers.

Dymphna Lonergan
The Flinders University of South Australia

From: KP Corrigan
Subject: Re: Ir-D Green English

While Todd has done some really significant work on the linguistic
implications of language contact in Ireland (especially in the North) and
as I haven't yet seen Todd's new book, I cannot comment directly, I would,
however, urge some caution - not just with regard to the rather unfortunate
title which I also agree is rather too emotive. A major difficulty with
some of Todd's previous publications on lexis is that some of her
etymologies are, at best, open to challenge and, at worst, genuinely
misleading.In this instance, I'm thinking particularly of :
Todd, L. (1971) 'Tyrone English', "Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect
Society", 13, 29-40.
Todd, L. (1984) "Modern Englishes: Pidgins and Creoles", Oxford: Basil
Blackwell.
Todd, L. (1988) 'The story of a language', in Ferrara, K., Brown, B.,
Walters, K. and Baugh, J., eds, "Linguistic Change and Contact: NWAVE-XV"I,
Austin: University of Texas. 360-67.

With regard to the most appropriate technical term for the English spoken
in Ireland, 'Hiberno-English' has largely been replaced since Carmel
McCaffrey's thesis by 'Irish-English'. An interesting perspective on the
problems of nomenclature in this regard can be found in P.L. Henry's
contribution to Harris, J., Little, D. and Singleton, D., eds, (1986)
"Perspectives on the English Language in Ireland", Dublin: CLCS, TCD.

In fact, the views expressed by Todd and Heaney known technically within
linguistics as the 'substratist hypothesis' (Irish being the substrate in
this particular language coantact situation) have given way in more recent
times to an emphasis on weighing up the relative importance of the
substrate, the superstrate (in this case the non-standard varieties of
English and Scots to which the indigenous population were exposed during
the plantation period) and universal processed associated with language
learning strategies in general. Anyone who is interested in pursuing this
should have a look at the most recent volume of essays on Irish-English in
a volume edited in 1997 by Jeffrey Kallen entitled "Focus on Ireland"
(Amsterdam: John Benjamins).

One further small point - the name of the editor of the 1998 dictionary
that Carmel refers to is Terence Patrick Dolan.

Karen.

>From: Carmel McCaffrey
>Subject: Re: Ir-D Green English
>
>Brian,
>Thanks for the book review, but you will know that this is not new
>thinking. The term in Ireland for this is Hiberno-English and has been
>under active scholarly discussion for at least 10 years. Far longer if
>you consider the work of P.W. Joyce.
>Personally, I find the term "Green" English to be slightly patronizing.
>In 1998 David Patrick Dolan published his very interesting "Dictionary
>of Hiberno-English' and gives the origin of many words used in English
>in Irish speech. It makes for a great read. Seamus Heaney in
>discussing language in Ireland pointed out that 'the Irish language is
>not dead because it gives us origin' i.e.. English as spoken in Ireland
>has indeed many roots in the Irish language especially if you consider
>sentence syntax. I did my master's thesis on this subject in the work
>of James Joyce some years ago.
>
>Carmel
>
>irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:
>
>> From: "Brian McGinn"
>> Subject: Fwd: Review of Green English
>>
>> The following review, forwarded courtesy of World Wide
>> Words (see below), may be of interest in light of recent
>> linguistic puzzles on the Ir-D.
>>


******************************************************************************
Dr. Karen P. Corrigan,
Deputy Director, Centre for Research in Linguistics,
Department of English Literary and Linguistic Studies,
Percy Building,
University of Newcastle,
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
NE1 7RU
Telephone: 0191 222 7757
Fax: 0191 222 8708
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/crl/

From: Carmel McCaffrey
Subject: Re: Ir-D Irish-English

Yes, Yes Terence Patrick Dolan was the editor of the Hiberno-English. I had the
book in front of me as I typed so I don't understand the typo! Absent mindedness
I suppose. As to the terminology, I think there is still some confusion here as
the Dictionary was only published 13 months ago and I have heard Irish-English
used in the 80s so maybe there is still a struggle until we settle on the correct
science of it. As an Irish speaker I prefer Hiberno as it seems to acknowledge
the non English language influence or the pre-English influence on our speech.
But that is just my preference.
BTW for those who expressed a desire for a copy the dictionary can be ordered from
overseas from any Irish bookseller. Hodges and Figgis have a web site at
www.hodgesfiggis.com

Carmel

From: Sara Brady
Subject: Irish Studies Conference

GRIAN, The Graduate Irish Studies Association at New York University, is
holding its 2nd annual conference. The program follows below.
Sara Brady


>>
>> Technologies in Transition: Ireland 1000-2000
>> The Second Annual GRIAN Conference on Irish Studies
>> 3-5 March 2000
>> New York University?s Glucksman Ireland House
>>
>> Friday March 3
>>
>> 6:00-10:00 pm
>> Opening Reception
>> location and details to be announced
>>
>> Saturday March 4
>>
>> 9:30 am Coffee
>>
>> Opening Remarks: Robert Scally
>> Professor of History, New York University
>> Director of Ireland House
>>
>> 10:00-11:30 Gender and Technology
>>
>> Moira Casey, University of Connecticut
>> Sexless Romance: Popular Music in Patrick McCabe?s Breakfast
>> on Pluto and Roddy Doyle?s The Woman Who Walked into Doors
>>
>> Erin Kathleen Moran, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
>> Gender and Technology in Medieval Irish Literature
>>
>> Lahney Preston, New York University
>> Homophobia and Gender in Táin Bó Cúailgne:
>> Translation as a Technology of Adaptation in Irish Literature
>>
>> 11:45-1:15 Technologies of Space
>>
>> Sophie Sweetman McConnell, New York University
>> Reclaiming the Land: Catholic Gentry of 19th Century Ireland
>>
>> J?aime Morrison, New York University
>> Cartography, Chorography and Choreography:
>> Mapping the Social Body in 17th and 18th Century Ireland
>>
>> Karen Eileen Overbey, New York University
>> Mapping the Sacred:
>> time, space and politics in the stories of the saints
>>
>> 1:15-2:45 Lunch Break
>>
>> 3:00-4:30 Re-Presentations: 20th Century Media
>>
>> Will Hatheway, City University of New York
>> ?...the Cracked Camera Lens of a Servant:
>> Photographing Ireland?s ?Constitutive Split? in
>> Bolger?s A Second Life and McCann?s Songdogs
>>
>> Kathryn Farley, Northwestern University
>> Watering Down Irishness:
>> An Exploration of St. Patrick?s Celebrations
>> in Chicago (1989-1999)
>>
>> Bill Kelleher, University of Illinois
> Surveillance Techniques, Memory and
> Amplifying History in a Northern Ireland Town.
>>
>> 4:30-5:00 Coffee Break
>>
>> 5:00-6:30 Keynote Address
>> Catherine McKenna
>> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
>> The Graduate School and University Center,
>> City University of New York
>>
>>
>>
>> Sunday March 5
>>
>> 10:30 am Coffee
>>
>> 11:00-12:00 Roundtable: Teaching and Resources in Irish Studies
>> James Smith, Pennsylvania State University
>> Eileen Reilly, New York University
>> Jon Curley, New York University
>>
>> 12:00-1:30 Lunch Break
>>
>> 1:30-3:00 Language in Transition
>>
>> Beth Gilmartin, New York University
>> The Technology of Language:
>> Creating the Hiberno-English dialect in Synge?s
>> Riders to the Sea and Gregory?s Spreading the News
>>
> Mark Feltham, University of Western Ontario
> Joyce, History, and Hyptertext
>>
>> Kim Bendheim, CCNY
>> Personal as Political: The Yeats-Gonne Correspondence
>>
>> 3:00-3:30 Coffee Break
>>
>> 3:30-5:00 Social Technologies and Irish Identity
>>
>> Sean Moore, Duke University
>> Swift and Professionalism: Irish Economic Writing
>> and the Formation of a National Irish Readership
>>
>> David Attis, Princeton University
>> The Ascendancy of Mathematics:
>> Mathematics and Irish Society from Cromwell to the Celtic Tiger
>>
>> Sara Brady, New York University
>> Changing Technologies and the Experience of Emigration
>>
>> 5:00-5:30 Conference Response and Closing Remarks
>> Joe Lee
>> Glucksman Professor of Irish Studies, New York University
>>
>> 5:30 Reception
>
>
>
>
>
>

Sara Brady
Managing Editor, TDR
Tisch School of the Arts
721 Broadway, 6th floor
New York, NY 10003-6807
212-998-1626 phone
212-998-1627 fax

Read TDR on the Web at:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/TDR

From: Dymphna Lonergan
Subject: sheila 'sissy'

To extend the discussion of sheila I'm curious to know
if there are other Irish female names in use as
derogatory terms, particular as terms describing
homosexual men. Patrick O'Sullivan has pointed out to me the use
of Molly as a term for a homosexual in Robert Hughes,
The Fatal Shore (the history of the transportation of convicts to Australia.

Another term
that comes to mind is the term 'an old biddy', used as
a disparagiong term for a curious person (I think).
However, I wonder if biddy is Irish based or is it
used elsewhere (the diaspora wiill empathise with
someone who has now spent more time in Australia than
spent growing up in Ireland so vocabulary has become
blurred).

One other point if I may, to commend Patrick O
Sullivan on the setting up of this Ir-D network. I have
received so much assistance in such a short time that
my research has been advanced by at least 6 months

Dymphna Lonergan
The Flinders University of South Australia

[This is always a good conference - historians DOING history. P.O'S.]

Forwarded for information...

Twelfth Conference of Irish Historians in Britain

BLUEPRINTS FOR UNION AND SEPARATION IN IRISH HISTORY
University of Sussex 14- 16 April 2000

CONVENORS
Professor Marianne Elliott (University of Liverpool)
Professor Roy Foster (Hertford College, Oxford)
Professor Norman Vance (University of Sussex)

With the generous Sponsorship of Allied Irish Bank, (G.B.), The Bank of Ireland, The
Cultural Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin, The Ireland
Fund of Great Britain and the British Council of Great Britain

FRIDAY 14 APRIL
3.30-4.30 Registration & Tea
Professor Nicholas Canny {National University of Ireland Galway): Differing concepts of
Union, Plantation and Separation in Early Modem Ireland

Professor Marianne Elliott {Institute of Irish Studies, Liverpool University): Separatists
or Conformists: how 'disloyal' was the Ulster Catholic in the' penal era'?

6.30pm Drinks reception, hosted by University of Sussex
7.30pm Dinner

SATURDAY 15 APRIL
8-9am Breakfast
9.30am Professor W.J McCormack {Goldsmith's College, University of London): The Edgeworths
and the Union

Ms Gillian O 'Brien {Institute of Irish Studies, Liverpool University): 'Ireland must be
our province if she will not be persuaded to Union' - British policy in Ireland 1795-8.

11am Coffee 11.30am Dr Donal Lowry (Oxford Brookes University): Colonised and Coloniser:
Ireland and the British Empire in the age of the Union

Dr Virginia Crossman (Staffordshire University): The Poor Law in Ireland; engine of
assimilation or separation?

Lunch - afternoon free

4.30pm Tea
4.45pm Professor George Watson (University of Aberdeen): Celticism and Unionism

Fergus Dunne (University of Sussex): Fragments, Politics and 'The Bells of Shandon'

6pm Reception hosted by the Irish Embassy

7.30pm Conference Dinner - Guest Speaker, Professor Hugh Keamey

SUNDAY 16 APRIL
8-9am Breakfast
9.30am Dr Peter Hart (Queen's Univeristy Belfast): Memory, ethnicity and revolution in the
Irish South

Professor Alvin Jackson (Queen's University, Belfast): L.C. Beckett: faith, scholarship
and politics

11am Coffee

11.30am Dr Conor Mac Carthy (University of Liverpool):John Banville and the idea of
history

Dr Colin Graham (Queen's Univeristy, Belfast) 'Fingerprints and Blueprints': Textuality,
Union and Separation

1pm Lunch

REGISTRATION BY 10 MARCH 2000
Conference fee: inc. full board, accomodation, conference dinner and reception £110.
Please make cheques payable to 'University of Sussex'.

Bookings and queries to Mrs Margaret Reynolds, Graduate Research Centre in the Humanities,
Arts B, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QN. Tel (01273) 678098, email
M.Reynolds[at]sussex.ac.uk.

Every effort will be made to arrange partial rebates for students and unwaged, as on
previous occasions. Please indicate special dietary requirements - Non-residential terms
available on request.

Our attention has been drawn to this Web page...
http://www.hamrick.com/names/
Hamrick software's surname distribution page - shows distribution of specific surnames
across each of the states of the USA.

P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Much to interest Irish Diaspora Studies and members of the Ir-D list in the latest Irish
Historical Studies, now being distributed...


Irish Historical Studies
VOL. XXXI No.124 NOVEMBER 1999
The joint journal of the IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY and the ULSTER SOCIETY FOR IRISH
HISTORICAL STUDIES
Joint editors: CIARAN BRADY AND DAVID HAYTON
Copy-editor: C. H. CROKER

CONTENTS

The collapse of the Gaelic world, 1450-1650 By Steven G. Ellis
...Can be put alongside the review of Ellis, by Colm Lennon, below. Here, intriguing
comparisons with Scotland in the same period...

Women and the Irish chancery court in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
By Mary O'Dowd
...Women used English chancery law to gain rights denied them by Gaelic customary law -
one (ironic) example cited, Grainne O'Malley's petitions to Queen Elizabeth...

Nationalist responses to two royal visits to Ireland, 1900 and 1903 By Senia Paseta
...'crucial impact' of Boer War on Irish nationalism too often ignored. And see review of
McCracken, below...

The missing personnel records of the R.I.C. By Gerard O'Brien
...a cautionary tale of fruitless adventures in the archives...

The case of Biafra: Ireland and the Nigerian civil war By Enda Staunton
... the 'much-revered' policy of neutrality in action. (Language note: Paul Keating,
Irish Ambassador in Lagos at key times, wrote some reports to Dublin in Irish, fairly
safely assuming that no one in Nigeria could read them)...

Historical revisit: Edmund Curtis, A history of medieval Ireland (1923, 1938) , By James
Lydon
... very respectful of Curtis' achievement - feels you need to read both editions...

Review article; Gender and sexuality in Ireland By Richard Dunphy
... a helpful review article, as far as it goes, but curiously bitty...

Major accessions to repositories relating to Irish history, 1998

Theses on Irish history completed in Irish universities, 1998

Index to vol. xxxi

REVIEWS AND SHORT NOTICES
Ellis, Ireland in the age of the Tudors, 1447-1603
By Colm Lennon

Forrestal, Catholic synods in Ireland, 1600-1690
By Declan M. Downey

O'Connell, The Irish College at Alcala de Henares, 1649-1785
By Declan M. Downey

Claydon & McBride ( eds ), Protestantism and national identity: Britain and Ireland,
c.I660 - c.1850, and Kidd, British identities before nationalism: ethnicity and nationhood
in the Atlantic world, 1600?1800
By Jim Smyth
...in effect, flags an emerging critique of the 'new British history'...

Fagan, Catholics in a Protestant country: the papist constituency in eighteenth-century
Dublin
By Petri Mirala

Kelly, Henry Flood: patriots and politics in eighteenth-century Ireland
By Patrick Kelly

McBride, Scripture politics: Ulster Presbyterians and Irish radicalism in the late
eighteenth century, and McBride, The siege of Derry in Ulster Protestant mythology
By Terence McCaughey

McCracken, MacBride's Brigade: Irish commandos in the Anglo-Boer War
By Donal Lowry
...'Irish and Irish-American volunteers in the Boer armies were deeply divided'...
'numerically dwarfed' by the tens of thousands of Irishmen fighting for British...

Fischer & Dillon (eds), The correspondence of Myles Dillon, 1922-1925
By Eda Sagarra

Daly, The buffer state: the history of the Department of the Environment
By Eunan O'Halpin

Doherty, Irish men and women in the Second World War
By Phyllis Gaffney

Davis, Dublin?s American policy: Irish-American diplomatic relations, 1945-1952
By G. T. Dempsey

Pryce (ed. ), Literacy in medieval Celtic societies
By Bernadette Cunningham
'excellent... sets problem of literacy exactly where it should be...' There has been much
excellent work in Ireland recently on literacy. I'll send out a separate email about
Bernadette Cunningham's own book...

McCoog (ed. ), The reckoned expense: Edmund Campion and the early English Jesuits, and
McCoog, The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland and England, 1541-1588
By Brian Jackson


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

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

From: Hilary Robinson
Subject: Re: Ir-D Sheila/Sheela

I have found the discussion of sheela na gigs interesting (just back from
NY and catching up); I'd like to endorse the recommendation of Eamonn
Kelly's book. People might also be interested in Mullin, Molly,
'Representations of History, Irish Feminism and the Politics of
Difference', Feminist Studies, 17.1 (1991), 29-50 - this concerns the
reaction to a feminist antidote to a poster celebrating famous names in
Dublin's history (part of the 1000 years celebration). All the famous names
were men, so another poster was made celebrating Dublin women - a little
decorative border of sheela na gigs went around it.

The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin put on an exhibition of sheela na
gigs in 1994 as part of their From Beyond the Pale season. There was a
catalogue for the season (same year same titile), which included another
essay by Eamonn Kelly, and an essay by Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill called sheelagh
in her cabin. I published an essay on the overall curating of the season,
which pivoted on the juxtaposition of the sheela na gig exhibition with one
called 'from Picasso to Koons' with its images of the primitive, the noble
savage, etc etc.: Robinson, Hilary, 'Within the Pale in from: Beyond the
Pale: The Curation of 'Femininity' in an Exhibition Season at the Irish
Museum of Modern Art', Journal of Gender Studies, 6.3 (1997), 255-267

The US artist Nancy Spero has used images of a sheela na gig in her work -
she made a wonderful 'can-can' line of them - but it was one of the English
ones she used, the one from Kilpeck church with a big grin on her face.

Hilary


_______________________________

Dr. Hilary Robinson
School of Art and Design
University of Ulster at Belfast
York Street
Belfast BT15 1ED
Northern Ireland


direct phone/fax: (+44) 01232.267291)

From Patrick O'Sullivan

If present day development studies had any guidance for Irish Diaspora Studies, it would
be... Look at female literacy...
P.O'S.


Forwarded on behalf of Bernadette Cunningham...

The experience of reading: Irish historical perspectives
edited by Bernadette Cunningham and Maire Kennedy. Dublin: Economic and Social History
Society of Ireland & Rare Books Group of the Library Association of Ireland, 1999. pp.xii
+ 212pp; illus, + microfiche appendix. ISBN 0-947897-33-X. Price IR/£15 (postage extra)

CONTENTS:
Bernadette Cunningham: Introduction: The experience of reading.
Toby Barnard: Reading in eighteenth-century Ireland: public and private pleasures
Elizabethanne Boran: Reading theology within the community of believers: James Ussher's
'Directions'
Raymond Gillespie: Reading the Bible in seventeenth-century Ireland
Maire Kennedy: Women and reading in eighteenth-century Ireland
John Killen: The reading habits of a Georgian gentleman
Marie-Louise Legg: The Kilkenny Circulating Library Society and the growth of reading
rooms in nineteenth-century Ireland
Rolf loeber and Magda Stouthamer-loeber: Fiction available to and written for cottagers
and their children
John logan: Book learning: the experience of reading in the national school

Books may be ordered by post from: Bernadette Cunningham, the Library, Royal Irish
Academy, 19 Dawson Street. Dublin 2, Ireland. (e.mail B.Cunningha[at]ria.ie) Payment by
cheque/bank draft/postal order in IR£/Stg£, should be enclosed with order. Cheques payable
to 'Experience of reading'. Payment by credit card VISA/MASTERCARD also accepted.

From: Hilary Robinson
Subject: Re: Ir-D Sheila

from growing up in England I understood 'old biddy' as a disparaging term
for an old woman, which was derived from 'old bird' -???. And re: one of
the other posts - the tradition of the older sister being married first is
also English (and upperclass): see appropriate passages in Sense and
Sensibility etc etc.

Hilary

>From: Dymphna Lonergan
>Subject: sheila 'sissy'
>
>To extend the discussion of sheila I'm curious to know
>if there are other Irish female names in use as
>derogatory terms, particular as terms describing
>homosexual men. Patrick O'Sullivan has pointed out to me the use
>of Molly as a term for a homosexual in Robert Hughes,
>The Fatal Shore (the history of the transportation of convicts to Australia.
>
>Another term
>that comes to mind is the term 'an old biddy', used as
>a disparagiong term for a curious person (I think).
>However, I wonder if biddy is Irish based or is it
>used elsewhere (the diaspora wiill empathise with
>someone who has now spent more time in Australia than
>spent growing up in Ireland so vocabulary has become
>blurred).
>
>One other point if I may, to commend Patrick O
>Sullivan on the setting up of this Ir-D network. I have
>received so much assistance in such a short time that
>my research has been advanced by at least 6 months
>
>Dymphna Lonergan
>The Flinders University of South Australia


_______________________________

Dr. Hilary Robinson
School of Art and Design
University of Ulster at Belfast
York Street
Belfast BT15 1ED
Northern Ireland


direct phone/fax: (+44) 01232.267291)

If you happen to be in Brazil...

From: KSK Tours [mailto:kskt[at]openlink.com.br]

Announcing

A Happy ST. PATRICK'S DAY Family Barbecue & Show For All

Presenting the 4-man band "MURPHY's Law", direct from Co. Cork, Ireland.

Irish traditional music and popular pub songs (Whiskey in the Jar, Irish
Rover, Black Velvet Band, Dirty Old Town etc.) + the Beatles, Rolling
Stones & Don McLean songs, all in great party style.
Instruments: Accordion, fiddle, tin whistle & bodhran.

Members of the group have played in England, the United States, Canada,
Thailand, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and various European countries.

Date: Saturday, 18 March from 11:00 a.m. to late afternoon, at Colégio
St. Patrick's, Estrada do Pontal 2760 - Recreio dos Bandeirantes, Rio.
The show will take place in a covered area

Advance tickets: R$ 15,00 each for adults, R$ 10,00 each for children
under 12. Infants under two - free. Secure parking: free.
Ticket price includes barbecue & show. Cash bar.
Tickets at gate: R$ 20,00 adults, R$ 15,00 children. Infants under 2 free.

Tickets available as of 1 March from: Cólegio St.Patrick's, Rua Rainha
Guilhermina 116 - Leblon; Margaret Frew - tel.: 609-5819

With Compliments

Peter O'Neill
Coordinator
Happy St. Patrick's Day Celebrating 2000
_______________________

Tel.: + 55 21 210-2424
Fax: + 55 21 544-5380
e-mail: kskt[at]openlink.com.br