Three folktales with unhappy endings were identified via targeted browsing of the NFC Schools’ Collection. The first two stories have here been translated (for the first time) from Irish, while the third – the only one present in two versions – was recorded in English. The first tale is a poignant tragedy; the second has an abrupt and defla…[Read more]

This paper presents three distinctively Irish formulae that a seanchaí (story-teller) can use to signal the end of a folktale. Colophons 1 and 2 are in Irish, Colophon 3 in English; there is little evidence of any of these paradigms jumping the language barrier. Colophon 1, which is a sober and defensive, is strongly associated with Munster.…[Read more]

This paper provides a translation, structural analysis and commentary for an Irish-language wonder-tale in Ireland’s National Folklore Collection; the story describes the marvel-laden adventures of Neart (“Strength”), the only son of a southern Irish king. The complex yet coherent tale consists of eight largely independent narrative modules split…[Read more]

The fabled water-monster of Loch Ness has been designated a member of the putative genus Nessiteras and is referred to affectionately in media reports by the feminine diminutive “Nessie.” This paper points out that, by pure serendipity, such Nessi- appellations recall the name of the Slavic nežit of eastern and central Europe and the Latin ness…[Read more]

Three main questions are considered in this article. First, there is the question of how Oidheadh Chloinne hUisneach (OCU) draws on and feeds into the story world of the Ulster Cycle. Second, there is the question of how Deirdre’s character, specifically, contributes to linking OCU with the wider story world of the Ulster Cycle. Finally, there i…[Read more]

This note outlines several features common to the reception of ancient ruins by the Christian populations of three countries, each located on a different continent. Most of the sites were and are strongly associated with the realm of the dead. Fear of misadventure or calamity typically inspired a respectful avoidance of such pre-Christian sites…[Read more]

This article shows that James Joyce drew inspiration from the Philadelphia Inquirer for the period 1903-1904, particularly when writing the Aeolus episode of Ulysses. The 11 Jan 1903 Sunday edition of this newspaper is shown to have inspired the “crossed keys” of Leopold Bloom in the Aeolus episode, while leading Joyce to connect Shakespeare’s “…[Read more]

The historiola of an ancient Egyptian spell (AEMT 90) describes how Isis becomes a fugitive to protect her unborn/young son Horus from Seth, the murderer of her brother/husband Osiris. As her travel-group seeks refuge in the Nile Delta, a noblewoman’s inhospitality to the unexpected visitors results in her young son being stung by Isis’s sco…[Read more]

A recent genetic study has revealed that the adult male buried in the most elaborate recess of the Neolithic passage-tomb at Newgrange was the child of a first-degree incestuous union, suggesting that the complex was built as a burial monument for an endogamous family elite who may have been regarded as “god-kings.” The present paper shows how clo…[Read more]

This chapter examines the portrayal of Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes in Stephen Frear’s film Philomena (2013) and the biography on which the film is based, the British journalist Martin Sixsmith’s account of Philomena Lee’s life and search for her son, who was given up to an American couple for adoption under coercive circumstances. Enforced a…[Read more]

Nineteenth-century Irish emigration to Argentina has been studied from different perspectives. There is a growing number of historical, demographic and cultural studies focusing on diverse aspects of this migration, which together with Quebec and Mexican Texas, produced the only Irish settlements in non English-speaking territories. However, with…[Read more]

According to Declan Kiberd, “postcolonial writing does not begin only when the occupier withdraws: rather it is initiated at that very moment when a native writer formulates a text committed to cultural resistance.” The Irish in Latin America –a continent emerging from indigenous cultures, colonisation, and migrations– may be regarded as…[Read more]

Preface to Guy Beiner, Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press, 2018)

Assembled cigar box fiddle. Fiddlin’ John Hutchison learned to play on a fiddle made from an Old Virginia Cheroots Tobacco box. In a taped interview he calls it a “cigar box.”

The label is under the soundboard. Fiddlin’ John Hutchison learned to play on a fiddle made from an Old Virginia Cheroots Tobacco box. In a taped interview he calls it a “cigar box.”

Fiddlin’ John Hutchison learned to play on a fiddle made from an Old Virginia Cheroots Tobacco box. In a taped interview he calls it a “cigar box.”

Through a critical redefinition of the term ‘postmemory and the introduction of the corresponding term ‘prememory’, two different directions are proposed for advancing the historical study of memory in Ireland and beyond: Regenerative prememory and postmemory, which broadly surveys cycles of remembrance that range over extended periods of time.…[Read more]

On the face of it, the legacy of the 1798 rebellion in the northeastern Irish counties of Antrim and Down seems to be a paradigmatic case of “collective amnesia.” Over the course of the long nineteenth century, growing identification of the Protestants of the area with unionism, loyalism and Orangeism, fortified through opposition to the rise of…[Read more]

In this presentation, we provide an overview of the contents and development of The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music, a recently-launched open access collection of over 330 tunes and songs. The audio, sheet music, stories, and essays can be viewed and/or listened to on mobile devices, tablets, and computers. Through Omeka and SoundCloud,…[Read more]