The Royal Irish Academy

This Academy Discourse by Professor Michele Nicoletti, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Trento, Italy and Former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.is part of a discourse series sponsored by Mason Hayes & Curran.

Friday, March 29, 2019 - 18:00, Academy House.

About the speaker

Michele Nicoletti is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Trento. He has authored books on Kierkegaard’s philosophy of subjectivity (1983), Carl Schmitt’s political theology (1990), Politics and the Evil (2000) and edited critical editions and translations of XIX and XX century philosophers like Rosmini, Stein, Guardini, Boeckenfoerde. His research interests focus on the intertwining between ethics, anthropology and political theory. Visiting fellow at several international universities (i.a. Freiburg i.B.. KU Leuven, Notre Dame, IN, USA), he has been the scientific coordinator of national and international research projects and is the chief editor of the scientific journal Politica e Religione. Annuario di Teologia politica. 2013-2018 he has been a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he has led the Socialist, Democratic and Green Group. From January to June 2018 he has served as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. During his mandate, he has launched the Council of Europe Academic Network initiative, which he is now developing: a project for the coordination of major universities and academic institutions in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

About the discourse

In his presentation, Professor Nicoletti will discuss how fear, intolerance, resentment, hatred, mistrust in the ruling classes are seriously affecting European countries. Representative democracies are showing an increasing weakness and lack of efficacy in governing the great contemporary challenges, such as climate changes, migrations or the protection of social rights. The overlapping of different democracy levels (local, national, international) does not help. These difficulties are not new, but it is clear that the meaning and practices of democracy in Europe require a new theoretical and practical effort to regain the trust of citizens. This effort should start with an in-depth analysis of the present situation. In this context, the fear of self-dispossession can be identified as a feature common to contemporary societies. This fear can either draw regressive responses, such as instable self-identification with charismatic leaders or populist movements, or can foster emancipation. The latter is possible through a vigorous re-proposal of the principle of ‘self-belonging’, understood as, on the one hand, the aspiration that one’s dignity is respected, and, on the other, that the irreducibility and inviolability of the Self be recognized. This principle can serve as the foundation for not only an existential perspective of the liberty and relationality of the individual, but also a vision of society based upon respect for basic universal rights and discursive and participatory procedures which extend from the local to the global level. This vision entails an idea of democracy which aims to be truth-sensitive, non-paternalistic, transparent and responsive, and can serve as a new conceptual basis for rethinking Europe as a community of peoples and States based on the recognition of diversity and mutual respect.

Rural Conversation No. 3: 'Building vibrant and sustainable communities in rural Ireland’, the nal intheseriesofthreeRuralConversationswasheld on Thursday, 4 April 2019 and hosted in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).

Dr Willie Donnelly, President, WIT (timecode—1:18) welcomed the delegates and opened the event. Professor Áine Hyland, MRIA spoke on behalf of the Royal Irish Academy's Social Sciences Committee, outlining the background to the series and making some observations on the theme of rural communities (timecode—5:33). Mr William Parnell, Assistant Secretary General spoke on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development(timecode—10:01).DrFelicity Kelliher, WIT, member of RIA Social Sciences Committee (timecode—16:20) gave an introductory presentation of the topic in advance of facilitating the two questions below. All of the stakeholder roundtables considered, discussed and fed back their suggestions on:

• What are the characteristics of vibrant and sustainable rural communities in Ireland? (timecode—26:42)

• What policy actions need to be taken to ensure that rural communities are resilient, vibrant and inclusive, and better equipped for the challenges of the future? (timecode—46:30)

In conclusion, Felicity Kelliher summarised the stakeholders’ feedback (timecode—1:17:25)

Dr Elizabeth Boyle is Head of the Department of Early Irish at Maynooth University. Her research centres on the religious, cultural and intellectual history of medieval Ireland. She is currently writing a book, entitled History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland, to be published by Routledge.

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 7 March 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Dr Chantal Kobel is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 8 March, 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Dr Deborah Hayden is a Lecturer in the Department of Early Irish at Maynooth University, where she is currently also working as Principal Investigator for the project Medieval Irish Medicine in its North-western European Context: A Case Study of Two Unpublished Texts, funded by a Laureate Award from the Irish Research Council. Her research interests and publications centre on medieval Irish, Latin and Welsh language, literature and textual culture, in particular the history of linguistic thought and education in classical and medieval tradition, Irish-language medical manuscripts and medieval Irish and Welsh law.

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 7 March, 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Dr Mícheál Hoyne is Bergin Fellow in the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. He studied Modern Irish and History in Trinity College, where he also wrote his PhD, and before joining the School of Celtic Studies taught in the Philipps-Universitaet in Marburg.

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 8 March, 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Kevin Murray is a Senior Lecturer in The Department of Early and Medieval Irish in University College Cork. His research interests include medieval Irish language and literature (particularly the Finn Cycle), and textual editing. He is also one of the editors of the Locus project which is creating a new Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames to replace Fr Edmund Hogan’s Onomasticon Goedelicum.

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 8 March, 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Dr David Stifter is Professor of Old and Middle Irish at Maynooth University. He is founder and editor of the interdisciplinary Celtic-studies journal Keltische Forschungen (Vienna 2006–), and founding member of the Societas Celtologica Europaea (European Association of Celtic Studies scholars). His research interests are language variation and change in Old Irish and comparative Celtic linguistics (esp. Old Irish and Continental Celtic). His research projects include a dictionary of the Old Irish glosses in the Milan manuscript Ambr. C301 infr, Lexicon Leponticum - an interactive etymological dictionary plus edition of texts of Lepontic, and, since 2015, the ERC-funded project Chronologicon Hibernicum. His introductory handbook Sengoídelc. Old Irish for Beginners (Syracuse University Press 2006) has been adopted for teaching Old Irish in universities world-wide.

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 8 March, 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Prof. Richard Sharpe, Hon. MRIA

Based at the University of Oxford, Richard Sharpe has published extensively on a range of medieval topics – lives of saints, studies of medieval libraries, individual manuscripts and collections. With Mícheál Hoyne, he has compiled Clóliosta, an online catalogue of books printed in Irish, 1571-1871 (publication autumn 2019).

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 8 March, 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Nollaig Ó Muraíle, MRIA, is a former senior lecturer in Irish at NUI Galway, and, prior to that, reader in Irish and Celtic Studies at Queen's University Belfast. His numerous publications treat, inter alia, of the Gaelic manuscript tradition, learned families of Gaelic Ireland, Irish onomastics, and medieval Irish annals and genealogies.

Conference by the Royal Irish Academy Library in partnership with Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad.

The Royal Irish Academy manuscript known by its shelfmark ‘23 N 10’ was produced in Ballycummin, Co. Roscommon, in the sixteenth century. It is an extraordinarily important manuscript for many reasons, but it is particularly significant because it contains tales which are amongst the oldest surviving literature in Irish. These tales would originally have been preserved in a now-lost manuscript called Cín Dromma Snechta. Aside from wonderful examples of Old Irish narrative literature, the manuscript also preserves legal texts, poetry and wisdom literature from early medieval Ireland. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of the production, survival and significance of the ‘Book of Ballycummin’ and the marvels of medieval Irish literature which are contained within it. Described in the nineteenth century as a ‘little remnant of the work of the ancients’, this manuscript is a remarkable witness to the earliest development of Irish literature.

Location: Academy House

Date: 8 March, 2019

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.