The Royal Irish Academy

Karen Ralph lectures in medieval art in NYU Paris. Her research interests focus primarily on the patronage of art and architecture in medieval Ireland.

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.

John Carey is Professor of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Cork.

His most recent books, both published in 2018, are The Ever-New Tongue: The Text in the Book of Lismore (Brepols) and The Mythological Cycle of Medieval Irish Literature (Cork Studies in Celtic Literatures).

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.

Professor Ruairí Ó hUiginn MRIA is Director and Senior Professor in the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. He formerly was Professor of Modern Irish at Maynooth University and has held lecturing positions in the universities of Uppsala, Bonn, Galway and at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published widely on many aspects of the Irish language and its literature.

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.

Professor Liam Breatnach, MRIA is a Senior Professor in the School of Celtic Studies and co-editor of the journal Ériu, published by the Royal Irish Academy. His main research interests are in Old Irish language, Middle Irish and the historical development of Irish, law texts, and poets, poetry and metrics.

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.

Rural Conversation No. 2: ‘Enhancing social cohesion among communities in rural Ireland’ was held on 28 February 2019. It was the second in this series of consultative rural stakeholder events and was held in Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT)

This consultative rural stakeholder event was opened by Dr Michael Mulvey, President, DkIT (timecode— 1:00) who hosted this event. Professor Áine Hyland, MRIA spoke on behalf of the Royal Irish Academy's Social Sciences Committee, outlining the background to the series (timecode—4:28). Mr William Parnell, Assistant Secretary General spoke on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development (timecode—6:40).

Professor Colette Henry, DkIT (timecode—15:15) gave an introductory presentation of the topic in advance of facilitating the three questions below. Each of the stakeholder roundtables considered, discussed and fed back their recommendations on enhancing social cohesion among communities in rural Ireland under these three questions:

• What are the key positive and negative factors impacting social cohesion in rural communities? Listen to the feedback on this question at this timecode on the recording—29:50

• Which cohorts within rural communities are most affected by a lack of cohesion among and between community segments (e.g. youth, elderly, new citizens, etc.), and how are they impacted? Listen to the feedback on this question at this timecode on the recording—45:00

• What actions need to be taken in order to enhance cohesion and strengthen social support structures for all rural dwellers? Listen to the feedback on this question at this timecode on the recording—59:25

In conclusion, Colette Henry summarised the stakeholders’ feedback (timecode—1:10:05)

Supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development, and DkIT.

Wednesday 12 December 2018

Discourse marking the centenary of the 1918 parliamentary elections when women voted and stood for election to parliament for the first time, the Royal Irish Academy presented the four female former Tánaistí: Joan Burton, T.D., Mary Coughlan, Frances Fitzgerald, T.D. and Mary Harney in conversation with David McCullagh to share their experiences of governing and gender in Ireland, particularly their experiences of holding the second highest role in government: Tánaiste. Separately, in advance of the event, Joan Burton, T.D., Mary Coughlan, Frances Fitzgerald, T.D. shared their views on the impact of gender quotas and their thoughts the need for the Academy to mark this centenary.

Each of the Tánaistí spoke briefly before the discourse about their views on gender quotas and the importance of commenmorating and reflecting on the progress in our democracy, see the individual interviews below.

Discourse with Professor Chris Bean in which he discusses predictability and uncertainty in forecasting volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides.

On 25 September 2018, Professor Chris Bean's discourse 'Recent insights into how the Earth works: embracing uncertainty' took place in Academy House. In the following interview, he outlines...

• How the Earth interacts in its totality and how Earth’s components interact in the Earth’s system.

• The difference between prediction and forecasting where he explains that science cannot always predict with precision what is going to happen in particular circumstances, for example, we cannot answer questions like ‘will there be an earthquake here tomorrow at 3.00 o’clock?'. However, we are able to forecast complicated things that are likely to happen in the Earth, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides but not exact predictions.

Wednesday 7 November 2018

This Academy Discourse by Professor Máire O'Neill, Queen's University Belfast, is the eighth in the series sponsored by Mason Hayes & Curran.

With the rapid proliferation of pervasive electronic devices in our lives, the internet of things (IoT) has become a reality and its influence on our day to day activities is set to further increase with a projected 125 Billion connected devices by 2030. However, this poses serious security and privacy issues as we will no longer have direct control over with whom and what our devices communicate. Counterfeit, hacked, or cloned devices acting on a network are a significant threat. In addition, IoT devices are often low-cost in area, low-power and typically are restricted in both memory and computing power.

Professor O'Neill outlines the challenges in addressing security for resource-constrained IoT devices and some of the solutions currently being considered. The impact of quantum computers on security will also be discussed.

About the speaker

Professor Máire O’Neill (FIAE, MRIA) has a strong international reputation for her research in hardware security and applied cryptography. She is currently PI of the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), QUB, and Research Director of the £5M UK Research Institute in Secure Hardware and Embedded Systems (RISE), funded by EPSRC and the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). She also leads an EU H2020 SAFEcrypto project in the area of practical quantum-safe cryptography. She previously held an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship (2008-2014) and was a former holder of a UK Royal Academy of Engineering research fellowship (2003-2008). She has received numerous awards for her research work which include a 2014 Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal and British Female Inventor of the Year 2007. She has authored two research books and has over 140 peer-reviewed conference and journal publications.

Academy Discourse Series sponsored by Mason Hayes & Curran

Tuesday 15 January 2019, Academy House

Sir David Cannadine, President of the British Academy and Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University, addresses the key issues in Irish history within the context of British history from the early 1800s and the Act of Union, through to the current Brexit situation.

R. J. Hunter was a highly respected (and much loved) historian of the Ulster plantation, who spent the bulk of his academic career teaching at the University of Ulster. His varied research interests included the role of the English settler in the Ulster plantation, the history of Ulster trade and migration from and to Britain and North America and development of towns, and the cultural and intellectual history of Ulster from 1580 to 1660.

The R. J. Hunter Grants Scheme was established in 2014 using funding generously made available by his daughter, Ms Laura Hunter Houghton, through the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.

The Royal Irish Academy was delighted to host a very successful event marking the end of phase one of the R.J. Hunter Postdoctoral Fellowships on 13th September 2018. The event, which was Chaired by Professor Mary O’Dowd MRIA, Queens University Belfast included presentations on the outcomes of their completed research projects by recipients Dr Gerard Farrell, Trinity College Dublin and Dr David Heffernan, Queen’s University Belfast. These projects, entitled ‘An ethnohistory of Gaelic Ulster, 1500–1700’ (Dr Gerard Farrell) and ‘The Goldsmiths Company of London and the Londonderry Plantation under James I’ (Dr David Heffernan) were fully funded through the scheme.

Dr Gerard Farrell gave a lecture entitled ‘An ethnohistory of Gaelic Ulster, 1500-1700’. This talk represented the core output of Dr Farrell’s fellowship, which will be a monograph entitled An Ethnohistory of Gaelic Ulster, 1500–1700.

Dr David Heffernan spoke on ‘The Goldsmiths Company of London and the Londonderry Plantation under James I, c. 1609–25’.

Professor David Dickson MRIA, Trinity College Dublin, also gave an insightful and engaging talk on remembering Bob Hunter and his legacy. Other speakers included Professor Mary E. Daly MRIA.

To access an audio file of the day’s lectures and proceedings please click here.

Phase one of the R.J. Hunter scheme saw the funding of a number of bursaries, as well as the aforementioned two postdoctoral fellowships.

The next phase of the R.J. Hunter scheme will be announced in 2019. All details will be available on the RIA website. If you are interested in receiving the latest details and up to date information on the Royal Irish Academy’s grants please join the Academy’s grants mailing list.

Can the above information be used for the news summary on the Academy website

Yes

List all lectures/talks here with further details (titles, institutions etc.) of speaker/s (keynote speaker, respondent, chair, etc.):

Dr Gerard Farrell: ‘An ethnohistory of Gaelic Ulster, 1500-1700’.

Dr David Heffernan: ‘The Goldsmiths Company of London and the Londonderry Plantation under James I, c. 1609–25’.

Professor David Dickson, MRIA 'Remembering Bob Hunter and his legacy'.