Lecture Four ‘In the Streets: performing identity through parades, rituals and festivals in Ireland, 1750 – 2014’.

 For our final lecture of the series I'm delighted to announced that Dr Niamh NicGhabhann, the course director of the MA in Festive Arts at the Irish World Academy will be joining us to speak about performing idenity through parades, rituals and festivals. 

The talk takes place on April 14th (Monday) at 7pm in T1.16, Tara Building, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. 

All are welcome!

Abstract

This lecture reflects the path of the MA Festive Arts programme at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. Beginning with the origins of festivals and their meanings in societies, it will trace the movement of festivals through parade, protest, ritual, carnival and riot. There will be an emphasis on festivity and ritual in Ireland in particular, from the uses of medieval sites as the locus of festival throughout the modern period, to the ritual processions and parades in the changing cultural context of late nineteenth-century Limerick. In examining the creation of meaningful space between the medieval cathedral of St. Mary and the new cathedral of St. John, ideas of place, space, movement, body and authority will be explored.

Bio:

Niamh NicGhabhann is the course director of the MA Festive Arts programme at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Prior to moving to Limerick, she was the doctoral fellow on the IRC-funded ‘Reconstructions of the Gothic Past’ project, based at TRIARC: the Irish Art Research Centre at Trinity College, and postdoctoral researcher on the ‘Monastic Ireland’ digital humanities project, based at UCD School of History and Archives and the Discovery Programme. She is a writer and curator, and a founding director of the NovaUCD campus company, Stair: an Irish Public History Company (http://stairpublichistory.wix.com/stair). With Dr. Maeve Houlihan at the Kemmy School of Business, she is also currently engaged in the ‘Innovation and the Humanities’ research project. Her monograph, Building on the Past: medieval buildings in Ireland 1789 – 1915, will be published by Four Courts Press in winter 2014.

Lecture Three: From Blackboard to Bestseller

Have you ever dreamed of giving it all up and becoming a writer? Well that's just what out third speaker this season did - becoming a best selling author. A former pupil of Mary Immaculate College, Roisin Meaney's lecture is sure to be interesting and entertaining!

Monday, April 7th at 7pm in T1.16.


Roisin Meany: From Blackboard to Bestseller

Abstract:

In my lecture From Blackboard to Bestseller I’ll chart my rather scenic route into the world of fiction writing, an occupation that had never featured in my career plans when I was growing up. I’ll outline the various serendipitous stepping stones that led me out of the classroom and brought me to where I am today. I’ll also share the glitches that tripped me up from time to time, the things I have learned about the world of publishing and my hopes for the future.

Brief Biography:

In August 1977, just before beginning her three years in MICE, Roisin Meaney wrote seven words and won a car. Twenty-four years and one teaching career later she wrote eighty thousand words and won a book deal. In 2008 she put her red pen out to pasture and left the classroom to become a fulltime writer. Today she’s the author of nine (soon to be ten) published novels, four of which have ended up in the top five of the Irish fiction charts, one (The Last Week of May) going all the way to the top and another (The People Next Door) making it as far as number two (Anne Enright was hogging the top slot at the time with The Gathering). Two of Roisin’s books have been published in the US, and she has been translated into Danish, German and Italian. She’s been described as the new Maeve Binchy and the Irish Joanna Trollope. On the first Saturday of each month she tells stories to toddlers and their teddies in the library at The Granary. She is a fan of cats, chocolate and random acts of kindness. 

www.roisinmeaney.com

Twitter: @roisinmeaney

Facebook: Roisin Meaney

Lecture Two - 'Forgetting To Remember: Making Folk Memory Projects in Limerick and Louth' Tracy Fahy

Our Second lecture takes place on Monday, March 31st at 7pm in T1.16. 

Tracy Fahey from Limerick School of Art and Design will speak on her work with Memory project and it promises to be a really interesting insight into memory projects within fine art practice.

Forgetting to Remember: Making Folk Memory Projects in Limerick and Louth

The talk focuses specifically on two projects currently under way through Tracy Fahey’s fine art collective Gothicise, an open, collaborative, multidisciplinary network that investigates sites and stories that are concerned with otherness, the uncanny and sometimes the downright strange (www.gothicise.weebly.com)

In this talk she will analyse Remembering Wildgoose Lodge, a Louth-based project investigating individual, family and community memories of a traumatic historical event, and the different modes of investigation and enquiry guided by this work. There is also a presentation of a second project now in its genesis that relates directly to Limerick’s folklore and culture. Titled Waking St. Munchin, this project deals with the alleged city-curse of Limerick and is being carried out in conjunction with Open House Limerick, Dr. Niamh Nic Gabhann from the MA in Festive Arts programme in UL and postgraduate researcher in folklore and fine art, Marian Sheehan.  Audience participation and contributions are warmly welcomed!

The analysis of both of these projects deals with the role of memory projects within fine art practice, and in particular the different methodologies employed in social engagement and community negotiation. It also looks at the wider value of folk memory in constituting community identity and culture.

Tracy Fahey (bio)

Tracy Fahey is Head of Department in Fine Art and Head of Centre of Postgraduate Studies in Limerick School of Art and Design. She has previously worked as Head of Department of Humanities, IT Carlow and Head of Faculty of Design, Griffith College Dublin. She currently sits on the Board of the Hunt Museum (2012) and the Limerick Printmakers (2012). 

Her main area of research is the Gothic, specifically Irish Gothic and the Gothic nature of domestic space.  She has delivered papers on the Gothic at conferences in University of Aarhus, Denmark, University of Stirling, University of Cardiff, University of Northampton, Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds.  In the last year she has given papers at the Studies in Gothic Fiction conference in San Diego, the International Gothic Association conference in University of Guildford and the Art and Geography conference in NUIG.   She is a founder member of the Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia (2013) and the Irish Network for Gothic Scholars (2013).   In 2013 she both established the LSAD research centre ACADEmy (Art, Curatorial, Applied Design & Education research centre) and together with Prof.Donna Lee Brien (Central Queensland University, Australia)  founded CAIRN, the Creative Australasian Irish Research Network (2013).  Her short stories have been published in several anthologies; Impossible Spaces (2013), Hauntings (2014), Girl at the End of the World (2014) and Darkest Minds (2014).  Currently she is working with Dr. Maria Beville of Mary Immaculate College on the organisation of a Limerick conference, Locating the Gothic (forthcoming, October 2014)

In 2010 she founded the Limerick-based collaborative gothic art practice, Gothicise,(www.gothicise.weebly.com) who have produced ghostwalk/ghosttalk (2010), The Double Life of Catherine Street (2011) and A Haunting (2011) and are currently working on two memory projects, Remembering Wildgoose Lodge (2013 - present) and Waking St. Munchin (2014).

Lecture One - Marc MacLochlainn

Our first lecture of the spring season is on Monday, March 24th at 7pm.

The lecture takes place in T1.16 in the Tara Building in MIC, Limerick. It is free and open to the public. It promises to be an excellent starting point for the lectures, especially for those working in theatre or with young people. The abstract for Marc's talk is below!

Theatre for young audiences in Ireland:

The work of Branar - 

The international context of Irish work for children.

There are 1 million Irish citizen under 25. In 2008 saw the highest birth rate on record since the famine. These young citizens deserve access to quality theatre that is made for them. Theatre for young audiences in Ireland is and has always been the poor relation in Irish theatre. The view of work for children within the wider theatre fraternity has been at times a patronising one. The funding disparities between theatre for adults and theatre for children is an ever widening gap. In recent years due in no small part to the growth of children's arts festivals, Irish theatre artists have been exposed to high calibre European work dedicated to children. There have been a small number of Irish companies, Branar among them, who have been invited to present work at international festivals.  I will attempt to chart the growth and evolution of Irish children's theatre. The internationalisation of Irish companies and the how the footloose nature of children's theatre has allowed it to prosper where theatre for adults has floundered.

Marc is the Artistic Director of Branar

 Branar Téatar do Pháistí is Ireland’s leading theatre company for young audiences. The company has consistently developed and produced high quality theatre performances, touring nationally and internationally. It creates work that is not language dependent and captivates both young and old. Their body of work is imaginative, stimulating and entertaining while serving as a catalyst for education, thus making it an excellent choice for the residency at Mary Immaculate College.

 

Lime Tree Lectures - Spring 2014

I'm delighted to announce our Spring programme of lectures - starting on March 24th! We have an excellent line up of speakers planned and I'm really looking forward to each of the topics.

The lectures are all free and open to the public - so come along, ask questions and get involved!

The Lime Tree Lectures

Spring 2014

March 24^th @ 7pm T1.16

Marc Mac Lochlainn, Artistic Director, Branar

‘Theatre for young audiences in Ireland:

The work of Branar - The international context of Irish work for children’

March 31^st @ 7pm T1.16

Tracy Fahey, Head of Department in Fine Art and Head of Centre of Postgraduate Studies in Limerick School of Art and Design

'Forgetting To Remember: Making Folk Memory Projects in Limerick and Louth'

April 7^th @ 7pm T1.16

Roisin Meaney, Bestsestselling author

‘From Blackboard to Bestseller’

April 14^th @ 7pm T1.16

Niamh NicGhabhann, Course Director, MA Festive Arts Programme, UL

‘In the Streets: performing identity through parades, rituals and festivals in Ireland, 1750 – 2014’.

Full abstracts and bios to follow in the coming days! 

Lecture Four: The Artist and Arts Practice Research

I am delighted to announce that dance artist and choreographer, Dr Mary Nunan will give the final Lime Lecture of 2013. Mary is the Course Director of the MA in Contemporary Dance Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in UL and her lecture will focus on the artist as educator within the field of Arts Practice Research. 

The lecture takes place on December 9th at 7pm in T1.15.  All are welcome.


Abstract:

This lecture will focus on what I perceive to be the challenges and opportunities that the newly emerging field of Arts Practice research presents for artists/scholars (and also for third level institutions). As part of the presentation I will highlight some of the issues that cluster around the role and function of writing and its relationship with practice in this research context. In so doing I will draw on my experience of guiding MA Contemporary Dance Performance students through the process of devising original (solo) choreographies. Selected case studies will serve to highlight some of the methodological and pedagogical aspects of this process.

Brief Biography:

Dr Mary Nunan is a contemporary dance artist - choreographer and performer. She is Course Director of the MA in Contemporary Dance Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, UL. Her career as a professional dance artist began when she joined Dublin Contemporary Dance Theatre (1981-86). She was founder Artistic Director of Daghdha Dance Company (1988-1999). Throughout her career Mary has created a substantial body of solo and ensemble choreographies that have been performed in theatres nationally and internationally. Mary was a member of the Arts Council/an Chomhairle Ealaíon from 2003-2008. She was Chair of the Arts and Education Special Committee whose recommendations were published in the ‘Points of Alignments’ report. Mary was awarded a PhD from Middlesex University in 2103. She is currently a member of the committee established to over see the implementation of the Arts and Education Charter launched by Ministers Jimmy Deenihan and Ruairí Quinn.

Lecture Three: Hope: An Act of the Imagination

For our third lecture we are delighted to have Dr Peter O'Connor from the University of Auckland. His lecture Hope: An Act of the Imagination will explore how the arts can assist communities in reconnecting takes place on Monday, November 11 at 7pm in T1.15, Tara Building, Mary Immaculate College. 

Abstract:

In considering the vital importance of creating hopeful citizens, the arts are presented as a means of making sense of the troubled worlds we live in.  In the aftermath of natural disasters how the arts can help individuals and communities reconnect to the future provides an understanding of the interrelationship between the imagination,hope and resilience. The talk will be based in large measure around  the award winning applied theatre work in Christchurch following the earthquakes.

Brief Biography:

Associate Professor Peter O'Connor is the Director of the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre at the University of Auckland.

He has spent more than thirty years creating and researching theatre in prisons, psychiatric institutions, natural disaster zones, and schools.

His most recent work includes a UNESCO funded project in Christchurch schools, working with teachers and students to help young people’s transition back into classrooms following the Canterbury earthquakes.

He was named a New Zealander of the Year by North and South Magazine in 2011 for this work and in 2012 was named Griffith University School of Education and Professional Studies Alumnus of the Year.

The Lecture is free and open to the public.