The Royal Irish Academy

Join us on Brigid's Day to commemorate the Women of 1922, in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

From the handover of Dublin Castle, to the dawning of a new border across the island, to the fateful divisions of the civil war, a new book 'Ireland 1922' provides a snapshot of a year of turmoil, tragedy and, amidst it all, state-building as the Irish revolution drew to a close.

Join Fionnuala Walsh, Lindsey Earner-Byrne and Mary McAuliffe chaired by Darragh Gannon to explore a turning point in Irish history; one whose legacy remains controversial a century on. They will discuss events during that year, how they impacted on the year and the creation of the new state, and consider what role gender has to play in this Decade of Centenaries.

The book is available in all good bookshops or online at www.ria.ie/Ireland1922

In this special episode of Shelfmarks for St Brigid’s Day, in association with the Department of Foreign Affairs, podcaster-in Residence Zoë Comyns explores the figure of Brigid. She imagines her origins in Irish folktale and story and delves into the Royal Irish Academy collection for traces of Brigid in the recordings of the Doegen archive.

In 1926 the Irish government asked Dr Wilheim Doegen (Director of the Sound Department at the Prussian State Library in Berlin) to make recordings of Irish speech in the Gaeltacht. The Department of Education asked the RIA to organise the project. Dr Doegen came to Ireland with his assistant, Karl Tempel in 1928. Speakers were asked to sing a song, tell a story, recite a version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son (based on a copy supplied to them in advance), count numbers or recite a prayer. The recordings were made on wax matrices which were then transported to Berlin where they were converted to shellac.

In this piece Zoë has interweaved recordings from:

Máire McDaid: Máire counts in Irish.

Anna Feely: this doesn’t directly mention Brigid but instead refers to a girl gathering rushes, often associated with Brigid and her distinctive cross.

A chailín deas na luachra

‘A young man meets a beautiful young woman gathering rushes, which were traditionally used for making bedding. He tries to seduce her with various promises, and in the final verses the young woman reproaches him for the trouble he has caused her.’

Mícheál Mac Gearailt from Co. Kerry who recites a prayer to Brigid for her protection:

Coigilt na tine

'The practice of banking the fire for the night was one of daily necessity in former times, whereby glowing coals would be smothered with ash to keep them smouldering until the next day, when they could be rekindled. It was usually one of the last things to be done at night, and was often accompanied by protective prayers.'

Also included is:

Brat agus teagasc Bhríde - by Seán Ó Colláin

‘This account of St Brigid appears to combine legends from a number of sources. The motif of Brigid's cloak is found in early hagiographies concerning the saint.’ This recording points to Brigid’s charity and her magical cloak that spread out over the lands of Kildare.

Elaine Feeney joins Zoë for a walk in Renville Park in Galway to chat about Elaine’s early life on a farm, superstition, women’s safety in nature and what Brigid means to her. Elaine has written two specially commissioned pieces for the episode of Shelfmarks.

Elaine is a poet and writer whose most recent book is As You Were. In the past year she has won the Kate O’Brien and the Dalkey 'emerging writer' awards. Elaine’s writing examines how history and national identity structure the everyday lives of Irish women. For this episode of Shelfmarks Elaine has written an essay and a short story prompted by the figure of Brigit, the coming of Spring and the lives of women. She also takes inspiration from the Tom Murphy Mommo trilogy - the plays, Bailegangaire and A Thief of a Christmas and of course Brigit.

Her essay A Fine Roll of Cloud from the west brings us back to her early years growing up on a farm in Athenry. She describes the work she and her siblings did to keep the farm going and the brutality of working with animals. In spite of this, Elaine founds moments of beauty and escape that lay the foundations for her writing life.

In The Stranger, Elaine writes an origin story for the inspiration for Seamus’ statue of Brigit in Tom Murphy’s play Brigit. Seamus carves a statue of Brigit from bog oak and in Elaine’s account, he takes inspiration from a woman in a cafe.

Elaine Feeney’s book As You Were is published by Harvill Secker.

Thanks to the Department of Foreign Affairs for their support of this specially commissioned episode.

The Brexit referendum precipitated an era of tension and distrust between the British and Irish governments. In this month's episode of the ARINS podcast, Etain Tannam and Rory Montgomery reflect on the British-Irish Relationship and the Centrality of the British-Irish

Intergovernmental Conference.

You can read Etain Tannam's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.29

Rory Montgomery's response can be found at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.35

Etain Tannam is Associate Professor in the School of Religion, Trinity College Dublin.

Rory Montgomery is a former diplomat and Honorary Professor in the George Mitchell Institute, Queen's University Belfast.

This is episode 7 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

The sixth and final podcast in the series of the History of Emotions Podcasts 'From grief to wonder: Exploring emotions in Irish History' by Ciarán Wallace takes a surprisingly positive look at a cultural tragedy - the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland at the outbreak of the Irish Civil War. Peering behind the cloud of smoke which billowed up on 30 June 1922, he describes the sense of wonder associated with the establishment of the PROI in 1867 and its fifty-five years preserving Ireland's most precious records. The building, its staff and the national archive they created were marvels of 19th century Irish skill and scholarship. Despite the losses of 1922, their work is now enabling the virtual recreation of the record treasury - opening the door for a new generation to feel that same sense of wonder and excitement at the historical discoveries ahead.

Dr Ciarán Wallace

Ciarán Wallace is Deputy Director of Beyond 2022. He completed his PhD on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century municipal politics in Dublin at Trinity College Dublin (2010). Having lectured in Modern Irish History at Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University and Liverpool John Moore’s University Ciarán returned to Dublin to join the initial scoping phase for Beyond 2022: Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury.

Ciarán’s publications include ‘Civil society in search of a state: Dublin 1898–1922’ Urban History, August 2018; Curry, J., Wallace C., (2015) Thomas Fitzpatrick and the Lepracaun Cartoon Monthly 1905-1915; Griffith L.M., Wallace, C. (eds) (2016) Grave Matters: death and dying in Dublin 1500 to the present and Wallace, C., Gallagher, S. E., (2016) ‘A Far Cry from School History: Massive Online Open Courses as a Generative Source for Historical Research.’ The International Review of Open and Distributed Learning, 2016.

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities.

In this final episode, Graeme Warren (UCD)reviews evidence for the potential impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement of Ireland.

Graeme Warren is a Professor in the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin.

'Climate and Society in Ireland' is a collection of essays, commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy, that provides a multi-period, interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most important challenges currently facing humanity. Combining syntheses of existing knowledge with new insights and approaches, contributors explore the varied environmental, climatic and social changes that occurred in Ireland from early prehistory to the early 21st century. The essays in the volume engage with a diversity of pertinent themes, including the impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement of Ireland; weather-related food scarcities during medieval times that led to violence and plague outbreaks; changing representations of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820; and how Ireland is now on the threshold of taking the radical steps necessary to shed its ‘climate laggard’ status and embark on the road to a post-carbon society.

The book is available from our website: www.ria.ie/climate-and-society-ireland

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities.

In epidode 3, Bruce Campbell (QUB) and Francis Ludlow (TCD) consider the effects that climate had on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people in late medieval Ireland.

Bruce Campbell is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Economic History at The Queen’s University of Belfast.

Francis Ludlow is Assistant Professor of Medieval Environmental History, Trinity College Dublin .

'Climate and Society in Ireland' is a collection of essays, commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy, that provides a multi-period, interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most important challenges currently facing humanity. Combining syntheses of existing knowledge with new insights and approaches, contributors explore the varied environmental, climatic and social changes that occurred in Ireland from early prehistory to the early 21st century. The essays in the volume engage with a diversity of pertinent themes, including the impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement of Ireland; weather-related food scarcities during medieval times that led to violence and plague outbreaks; changing representations of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820; and how Ireland is now on the threshold of taking the radical steps necessary to shed its ‘climate laggard’ status and embark on the road to a post-carbon society.

The book is available from our website: www.ria.ie/climate-and-society-ireland

In this final episode of Shelfmarks, Zoë explores the life and work of chemist Richard Kirwan (President of the RIA 1790-1812). Richard Kirwan is often remembered for his peculiar habits but should be remembered as the first person to record accurate meteorological records taken in his garden in Dublin in the 1790/1800s. His study of the weather paved the way for more scientific studies of climate and the weather. He had grave personal concern about the weather and an overwhelming fear of the cold. 

The guest writer on this week’s podcast is Neil Hegarty. Neil grew up in Derry. His novels include The Jewel, published in 2019; and Inch Levels, which was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year award in 2017. Other titles include Frost: That Was the Life That Was, a biography of David Frost; and The Story of Ireland, which accompanies a BBC-RTE television history of Ireland. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Dublin Review, Stinging Fly, Tangerine and elsewhere; and he is a regular literary reviewer for the Irish Times and Dublin Review of Books.

Zoe and Neil chat about his garden, the human imprint on the planet (the Anthropocene) and how the weather has a significant part to play in our everyday. Neil writes about a visit to Derry with his father and getting caught up in a band of rain.

‘When I was last in Derry – in my home place – for the weekend, I spent a good deal of time watching the weather. Nothing strange about this, of course – it’s the Irish way, of a piece with checking what we should wear, pack, bring with us as we venture forth. An umbrella, a coat with a hood, light shoes or heavier shoes: glance up and out at the weather, and work with the grain of the day.’

He takes us on a trip to the Lough Foyle Sloblands and explores the ways in which we the current climate crisis has created an urgency in his writing. 

'These landscapes were enclosed by the Victorians: the water is held back by high sea walls, turfed on one side and stone on the other: on one side, the wide and shallow and silver-grey waters of the lough; on the other, rich, black soil, and flat polder lands threaded by drainage channels. A Dutch landscape, expansive and unexpected in Ireland.'

In this episode, Colin Harvey and Jennifer Kavanagh pick through the political uncertainties surrounding the anticipated referendums, north and south. How will the referendums work? How do we formulate the appropriate question to capture what the people should decide on? In episode 6 of the ARINS podcast, Colin Harvey and Jennifer Kavanagh discuss the intensifying conversation about constitutional change on the island of Ireland.

You can read Colin Harvey's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.37. 

Jennifer Kavanagh's response can be found at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.39.

Colin Harvey is Professor of Human Rights Law in the School of Law, Queen's University Belfast,

Jennifer Kavanagh is a Law Lecturer in Waterford Institute of Technology.

This is episode 6 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities.

In episode 2, Lucy Collins explores the changing representation of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820 and examines the relationship between literary convention and political and intellectual transformation in these texts.

Lucy Collins is Associate Professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin.

'Climate and Society in Ireland' is a collection of essays, commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy, that provides a multi-period, interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most important challenges currently facing humanity. Combining syntheses of existing knowledge with new insights and approaches, contributors explore the varied environmental, climatic and social changes that occurred in Ireland from early prehistory to the early 21st century. The essays in the volume engage with a diversity of pertinent themes, including the impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement of Ireland; weather-related food scarcities during medieval times that led to violence and plague outbreaks; changing representations of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820; and how Ireland is now on the threshold of taking the radical steps necessary to shed its ‘climate laggard’ status and embark on the road to a post-carbon society.

The book is available from our website: www.ria.ie/climate-and-society-ireland

'Irish Lives in America', edited by Liz Evers and Niav Gallagher, documents fifty Irish people featured in the Dictionary of Irish Biography who made an indelible mark on American society, politics and culture.

The book was launched by Neville Isdell on 24 November at 6.30 p.m. at EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum. The launch is followed by a panel discussion 'Irish Lives in America: underdogs or overlords?' chaired by Patrick Geoghegan and featuring Miriam Nyhan Grey, Diane Negra, Neville Isdell and Liz Evers.

The book is available in all good bookshops or online at https://www.ria.ie/irish-lives-america