Gorey,

Co. Wexford

16th Byrne/Perry Summer School

Theme: “Entwined Histories II: Ireland, France and America”

June 25th – June 27th, 2010

In association with WEXFORD COUNTY COUNCIL, HISTORY IRELAND

& KEOUGH

NOTRE DAMNE CENTRE, DUBLIN

From the growing interest in genealogy and the recent boom in television programmes on popular history, our hunger to know our ancestors, acknowledge our past and understand its influence on us and our community is becoming almost insatiable. Clearly the Internet has made a huge difference so that now technology is enabling people to find out who their ancestors were as never before.

This fascination with our roots paradoxically is happening at the same time as the break-up of traditional structures and a huge increase in the mobility of large numbers of people are taking place. Engagement is an accurate and professional way with our past is clearly important in understanding who we are and how we got here and in helping us to shape the future.

The Byrne/Perry Summer School is based on the key idea that history is important: or rather the right sort of history is important: "the sort that does not belittle or trivialise historical memories. One American writer has said:

‘Our historical sense is often skewed, skewered or plain screwed up by myths, misconceptions and makeovers’.

Our hope is that this Summer School provides some help to our historical literacy, as we examine again the complex and creative connections between America, France and Ireland over many centuries.

The Summer School has been a rich and marvellous experience over the past 16 years – The camaraderie, the lecturers, the field trips, the laughter and the total originality of it all. We look forward to welcoming you to another such experience on June 25th.

Fr. Walter Forde
Chairman.

2010 Theme:
Entwined Histories II: Ireland, France and America

Venue: Christian Brothers School, Wexford Street, Gorey

Speakers:

RUTH BARTON is lecturer in Film Studies at Trinity College Dublin. Among her publications are Jim Sheridan: Framing the nation (2002), Irish national cinema (2004) and Acting Irish in Hollywood: from Fitzgerald to Farrell (2006). Her current research is a historical and analytical study of the representation of the Irish in America on film, television and internet and other media.

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ELAINE BYRNE is a weekly Irish Times columnist and adjutant lecturer on Irish politics in Trinity College Dublin. She writes on political reform, corruption, citizenship and Irish history. Her first book, Political Corruption in Ireland, will be published by Manchester University Press in 2010.

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BILLY COLFER studied in St. Patrick’s College Drumcondra and Trinity College Dublin. His books include Arrogant Trespass: Anglo Norman Wexford 1169 – 1400 (2002), The Hook Peninsula, County Wexford (2004) and Wexford: A Town and its Landscape (2008). He is a member of the Heritage Council and is currently working on a study of castles in Ireland.

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JAMES CHANDLER is a director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities and Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Professorship in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of two award-winning books on English Romanticism. Chandler is currently writing The Sympathetic Eye: A Brief History of Sentiment, a project that examines the work of Frank Capra and of the ‘Golden age’ of Hollywood.

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TOMMY GRAHAM is editor of History Ireland. He lectures in Irish history and politics at the Dublin programme of Tisch School of the Arts, New York University and since 2007 has been a presenter of Newstalk’s ‘Talking History’ radio show.

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JOHN GRAY, Librarian (retired), Linen Hall Library, Belfast.

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JOHN WYSE JACKSON, bookseller and author of biographies and poetry anthologies. His most recent books include: John Stanislaus Joyce: The Voluminous Life and Genius of James Joyce’s Father (1998) and We All Want to Change the World: The Life of John Lennon (2005).

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GRACE NEVILLE is Vice-President for Teaching and Learning, and Associate Professor of French at UCC. She has published widely on Franco-Irish links from the medieval to the modern period, language legislation and women’s writings. She has presented her research in Harvard, the French Senate (Palais du Luxembourg, Paris), the College de France, Paris, and numerous other venues.

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TIM O’CONNOR worked in the Irish Public Service from 1972 to early 2010, most recently as Secretary General to the President. His career also included almost thirty years in the Irish Diplomatic Service, in the Department of Foreign Affairs. A large portion of his career in the Diplomatic Service was spent working on the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

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FERGUS O’DOWD T.D. for Louth and Fine Gael front bench spokesperson on Transport and Marine. He was previously spokesperson on
Environment, Heritage and Local Government and served as spokesperson on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Fergus O’Dowd has served three terms as Mayor of Drogheda. He was named Magill Magazine T.D. of the year in 2006.

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MARY SHINE THOMPSON, Dean of Research, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. Her major research specialism is in the field of twentieth-century Anglo-Irish literature. An acknowledged expert on the dramatist, poet and critic, Austin Clarke, her volume Selected Plays of Austin Clarke appeared in 2005. She has also made a significant contribution to the study of children’s literature.

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KEVIN WHELAN is the inaugural Director of the Keough Naughton University of Notre Dame Centre in Dublin. He has published fifteen books and more than one hundred articles. Among his books are The Tree of Liberty (1996). Fellowship of Freedom (1998), Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape (second edition, 2010), and the forthcoming The Green Atlantic: Ireland and the wider world in the long eighteenth century.

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Venue: Christian Brothers School, Wexford Street, Gorey

For further information: Website: www.byrneperry.ie

V. Rev. W. Forde, Chairman.
Tel: 053 – 9159769. Fax: 053 – 9159158

Dr. Matthew Stout, Director
Tel: 01 – 8842210
E-mail: matthew.stout@spd.dcu.ie

Bookings & Accommodation: Gorey Tourist Office. Tel: 053 – 9421248

Subscriptions: €130 includes all lectures, dinner, entertainment and field trip.
Students and Seniors €80.

SUPPORT: Chief Sponsor: Wexford County Council

Other Sponsors:
Gorey Community Development Group
Gorey Community Social Services
Gorey Town Council
North Wexford Tourism
Funges’ of Gorey
A.I.B. Gorey
Gorey Credit Union
The Arts Office, Wexford County Council

The T.D. Sinnott Scholarship:

A number of scholarships are awarded to students in memory of the late T.D. Sinnott, Wexford’s first County Manager.

Publications:

The proceedings of previous Summer Schools have been published as “The Mighty Wave” (Dublin 1996), “The Women of ‘98” (Dublin 1998) both edited by Daire Keogh and Nicholas Furlong and “Acts of Union” edited by Daire Keogh and Kevin Whelan (Dublin 2001). The School also published “From Heritage to Hope: Christian Perspectives on the 1798 Rebellion” (Wexford 1998) edited by Fr. Walter Forde.

The Gordon Wilson Memorial Lecture:

1996: Albert Reynolds T.D.
1997: Dr. Martin Manseragh
1998: Peter Temple Morris M.P.
1999: Alban Maginess M.L.A.
2000: Bertie Ahern T.D.
2001: Ruairi Quinn T.D.
2002: The Hon Justice Susan Denham
2003: Archbishop D.A. Caird2004: Professor Joe Lee
2004: Professor Joe Lee
2005: Professor Paul Bew
2006: Dr. Garret Fitzgerald
2007: Professor Bruce Nelson
2008: Senator Joe O’Toole
2009: Pierre Joannon
2010: Kevin Whelan