The lure of the Irish
An exhibition and round table on Griffintown. A concert of Irish and Québécois music. A reading by the author of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto.
These events, along with an impressive array of academic panels and keynote lectures, will transform traditional understandings of Irish Studies. Concordia’s School of Canadian Irish Studies and Department of Design and Computation Arts are jointly hosting a conference July 6 to 9.
The Canadian Association for Irish Studies conference’s co-organizer, Rhona Richman Kenneally, explains that the conference is “groundbreaking. The theme, Text and Beyond Text in Irish Studies: New Visual, Material and Spatial Perspectives, signals our biggest ambition for the conference,” says Richman Kenneally, chair of the Department of Design and Computation Arts. “We are taking Irish Studies beyond the well-worn paths of literature and history toward such disciplines as design, geography, anthropology, film, music and popular culture.” In order to do so, the conference has forged a thriving partnership with both the Faculty of Fine Arts (FOFA) and the Faculty of Arts and Science, underlining the interdisciplinary flexibility that is Concordia’s hallmark.
“This has gone way beyond text and is involving the visual arts, material culture, music and oral history. It will appeal to all the senses,” says Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, Concordia’s Johnson Chair in Quebec and Canadian Irish Studies, who is also organizing the meeting’s musical performance. “This will be bringing the conference to the people.”
Close to 100 speakers from 10 countries will give readings or present formal papers. Featured speakers include novelists Patrick McCabe and Peter Behrens, anthropologist and folklorist Henry Glassie, literary critic Paige Reynolds, and design theorists Elaine Sisson and Linda King from Ireland’s Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
A special panel of Gaelic speakers will explore the ongoing vitality of that language, which has been taught at Concordia for several years. In addition, installations focusing on Griffintown by Concordia graduate students Marie-Andrée Pellerin, Alice Jarry and Alison Loader are on display throughout the conference in the FOFA Gallery as part of a special exhibition called Griffintown: Inside Stories, curated by PhD candidate Shauna Janssen. The exhibition will be complemented by a discussion on July 9 between academics and former residents of this once Irish working-class neighbourhood.
“Our goal was to broaden the academic dimensions of Irish Studies,” says co-organizer Michael Kenneally, principal of the School of Canadian Irish Studies, “and also reach out to members of Montreal’s Irish community, who are such important stakeholders in our activities.
“Since the beginning of the 19th century the Irish have been essential to this city, and their interest in their heritage has motivated their ongoing support for the School of Canadian Irish Studies, through the Canadian Irish Studies Foundation.”
While the exhibition, readings, and films (on the potato famine and Griffintown) will be free to the public, tickets will be available for the July 7 concert, which will feature Ó hAllmhuráin, a prize-winning Irish musician, Pierre Schryer, a Juno-nominated fiddler, and Martine Billette, a leading Québécois pianist.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for people to experience the musical journey that has been made by the Irish in Quebec and around the world,” says Ó hAllmhuráin.
The four-day event is both a tribute to the multidisciplinarity of Irish Studies at Concordia, and the dynamism of Irish culture writ large.
Related links:
• Conference information
• School of Canadian Irish Studies
• Department of Design and Computation Arts
• Canadian Association for Irish Studies
• FOFA Gallery
• “Ghost of Griffintown” - Journal, May 30, 2011
• Urban Occupations