Events

Did Early Christian Ireland have a Unique (“Celtic”) Liturgical Rite?

Attend in person - Register here

While the category of Celtic Rite is not accepted by any mainstream liturgical scholar today, it is still alive and well in the popular imagination. Fr. Neil Xavier O’Donoghue endeavors to examine the roots of the theory of a “Celtic Rite,” the influence of first Anglican and later Roman Catholic self interests in maintaining this Rite’s existence, and the conclusions that can be drawn on the subject today.  Fr. O’Donoghue proposes that the theory of a “Celtic Rite” has actually impoverished both the study of early Irish liturgy and the field of general early medieval Western liturgy.

We're delighted to have as our first keynote speaker renowned Joycean Vicki Mahaffey. Vicki will introduce her award-winning new book, The Joyce of Everyday Life (Bucknell UP, 2024). We're equally excited to have another noted Joycean, Katherine O'Callaghan of UMass Amherst, present a second keynote address. Our own Marjorie Howes of Boston College, Patrick Mullen of Northeastern University, Rafael Hernandez of Boston University, and John Lurz of Tufts University will also bring their expertise to us. 

This student-centered conference will include a round table discussion on "How To Teach Ulysses," and features contributions from the graduate students on Northeastern and the Raidn the Wake members as well as exhibits from Professor Nugent's current Ulysses class. 

A full day of sociability, chat, and information on the great writer is guaranteed, and we'll complete the day with the ever-entertaining Finnegans Wake Public Reading. 

This event is co-sponsored by the ILA & Irish Studies. 

The event is student-centered, but some seats are open to the public. If you would like to attend, register here.

Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid is Professor in Irish History and Faculty Director of Education for Arts and Humanities at the University of Sheffield, where she has taught since 2013. She works primarily on Irish history, in particular the Irish Revolution, and more broadly the history of political violence and terrorism since the nineteenth century. Her current research engages the cultural history of the Irish Revolution, focusing particularly on the history of emotions. Her publications include two monographs: Terrorist Histories: Individuals and Political Violence since the 19th Century (Routledge, 2016) and Seán MacBride: A Republican Life, 1904-1946 (Liverpool University Press, 2011).

For further background on Professor Nic Dháibhéid and her Burns Visiting Scholar residency, please visit the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies web page. 

Burns Library will host a complimentary beer, wine, hors d'oeuvres reception beginning at 5:00pm, with Prof. Nic Dháibhéid’s lecture to follow at 6:00pm. All are welcome.

Dan Neely, ethnomusicologist, will give a lecture followed by a performance by Diarmuid Ó Meachair, accordion player. 

The 2024/2025 Flatley Lecture will be delivered by broadcaster and writer Emma Dabiri.

Emma Dabiri FRSL is an award-winning (Cannes Lion, Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage University Philosophical Society and Praeses Elite Award (2023)) broadcaster and Sunday Times best-selling author of Don't Touch My Hair, What White People Can Do Next and Disobedient Bodies. She spent over a decade as a teaching fellow in the African department of SOAS University of London. In 2022, she was appointed Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University in PA. Emma is a Contributing Editor at ELLEUK and a columnist at The Guardian. She has presented numerous history, arts and culture series on both TV and radio including Journeys into Afrofuterism, BBC's Back in Time, and Britain's Lost Masterpieces.

Irish Studies will host a panel discussion on race in Ireland with Emma Dabiri (broadcaster and writer), Kim DaCosta (NYU), Chanté Mouton Kinyon (Notre Dame University), Victor Augusto da Cruz Pacheco (University of São Paulo), and Lorelle Semley (Boston College). 

Emma Dabiri FRSL is an award-winning (Cannes Lion, Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage University Philosophical Society and Praeses Elite Award (2023)) broadcaster and Sunday Times best-selling author of Don't Touch My Hair, What White People Can Do Next and Disobedient Bodies. She spent over a decade as a teaching fellow in the African department of SOAS University of London. In 2022, she was appointed Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University in PA. Emma is a Contributing Editor at ELLEUK and a columnist at The Guardian. She has presented numerous history, arts and culture series on both TV and radio including Journeys into Afrofuterism, BBC's Back in Time, and Britain's Lost Masterpieces.

Kimberly McClain DaCosta is an Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. DaCosta served as Gallatin's dean of students for seven years and was part of the founding leadership team of NYU's Prison Education Program. She is the author of Making Multiracials: State, Family and Market in the Redrawing of the Color Line (Stanford 2007) and other articles on the commercialization of intimate life and institutional production of racial boundaries. She teaches a summer course in Dublin called the Black and Green Atlantic, exploring African and Irish diasporic connections. 

Chanté Mouton Kinyon is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. A scholar of transatlanticism and race, Mouton Kinyon investigates African American, Irish, and Caribbean literature and culture from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. In addition to her scholarship on the long history of the Irish-Black cultural exchange, her research also considers the transnationalism of writers and art that is often limited to discussions of its national impact and significance in contrast to the very international explorations of the artists themselves. In particular, her scholarship focuses on performative material that articulates race and identity; her goal is to illuminate a narrative of cultural exchange that is rooted in the intersection of literature and history.

Victor Pacheco holds a PhD and a master's degree from the University of São Paulo. In 2022, he completed a research internship abroad at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He holds a bachelor's degree in Letters (Pourtugeses-Spanish) from the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH/USP) and took courses at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina during an academic exchange program (2016). He undertook an undergraduate research "The representations of revolutionary Ireland in Sean O'Faolain's short stories" (2014), funded by a scholarship from the Rectory of the University of São Paulo. He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (IASIL) and the Spanish Association of Irish Studies (AEDEI). He is currently the editorial assistant for the William Butler Yeats Chair of Irish Studies. Pacheco integrates the board of directors of the Brazillian Association of Irish Studies and is the Brazillian representative for the IASIL Biography.