Glucksman Ireland House, NYU

Spring 2011 Events Calendar

The Nissan Foundation Glucksman Ireland House NYU presents our Spring 2011 calendar of events with support from:

  1. January

    1. Friday, January 28th at 9pm: The Blarney Star Concert Series:
      Rose Flanagan, Margie Mulvihill,
      Patty Furlong and Brendan Dolan

      A Violin

      Rose Flanagan is a superb New York/Sligo style fiddler. She will be joined by – flute and tin whistle player Margie Mulvihill and button accordionist Patty Furlong. Accompaniment from local piano maestro Brendan Dolan, a member of the all-star Pride of New York band.

  2. February

    1. Thursday, February 17th at 7pm: Roll Away the Reel World:
      James Joyce and Cinema

      f17-rollawayreelworld.jpg

      To mark the publication of Roll Away the Reel World: James Joyce and Cinema, Maria di Battista (Princeton University), John McCourt (Università Roma Tre), Jesse Meyers (New York) and Philip Sicker (Fordham University) discuss James Joyce as a pioneer of Irish cinema and show how his novels were influenced by the screen innovations of the early twentieth century. They will also explore the impact of his revolutionary output on future filmmakers from Huston to Scorsese.

    2. Thursday, February 24th at 7pm: Joseph O’Connor reads from Ghost Light

      f24-ghostlight.jpg

      Joseph O’Connor reads from his new novel, Ghost Light, about the romance of Molly Allgood and John Millington Synge. A number one best-seller in Ireland, the vividly and beautifully written novel tells Allgood’s swirling, fractured narrative as she moves from Dublin to London via New York.

      Sponsored, in part, by:

    3. Friday, February 25th at 9pm: The Blarney Star Concert Series:
      Antóin Mac Gabhann with Felix Dolan

      f25-macgabhann.jpg

      Antóin Mac Gabhann (aka Tony Smith) is one of Ireland’s great fiddlers. He’s won about every competition there is, but is even more renowned as a legendary street session player at the annual Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the biggest traditional music festival in the country.

      Piano accompaniment from Irish-American keyboard legend Felix Dolan.

  3. March

    1. Wednesday, March 2nd at 7pm:
      Barra Ó Donnabháin Memorial Lecture:
      “Beatha teanga í a labhairt. Signs of Life:
      the Irish Language in the Twenty-First Century”

      A photo of Professor Máire Ní Annracháin

      Professor Máire Ní Annracháin will deliver the sixth Barra Ó Donnabháin Memorial Lecture exploring the areas of growth and flowering that Irish currently enjoys in domains legal, national, worldwide, educational, literary and cultural.

    2. Saturday, March 5th 1pm to 5pm: Lá Gaeilge: Irish Language Day

      A sign indicating entry into the Gaeltacht, an Irish speaking area of Ireland.

      Discover the richness and beauty of the Irish language in a program designed for learners of all levels and led by Glucksman Ireland House Language Lecturers Pádraig Ó Cearúill and Hilary Mhic Suibhne.

    3. Saturday, March 5th at 5pm: Eibhlín Ní Bheaglaíoch and Síona Loughnane Perform Traditional Irish Songs

      A photograph of the coast of the Dingle Peninsula

      Eibhlín Ní Bheaglaíoch and Síona Loughnane will give a concert in sean-nós and traditional songs in Irish. They will describe the Irish language song tradition, in the past and today. Eibhlín is one of the talented from the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry. She will be joined by her daughter, fiddler Síona Loughnane.

    4. Thursday, March 10th at 7pm: The Irish at Bunker Hill and in the Revolutionary War

      The cover of 'Now We Are Enemies,' depicting two hands reaching for a rifle from opposite directions

      Thomas Fleming marks the 50th anniversary edition of his first book, Now We Are Enemies, with a lecture on the role the Irish played at Bunker Hill and in the Revolutionary War.

    5. Friday, March 11th at 8pm: A Tribute to the Famous McNultys, the First Family of Irish Music

      Venue:

      Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th St., NYC

      A photo of the McNulty trio.

      photo courtesy the McNulty Family Collection (AIA051), Archives of Irish America, NYU

      The McNulty family – Ma, her daughter Eileen and her son Peter – were the most extraordinarily successful and acclaimed Irish entertainers in America between 1930 and 1960. Now, close to the 50th anniversary of their last performance in their beloved New York City, folklorist and musician Mick Moloney leads a tribute to this peerless trio – the last of the great vaudevillians in America. This is a ticketed event, see the event page for details.

    6. Saturday, March 12th at 12pm: Irish-Language Mass at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral

      Venue:

      32 Prince Street, Manhattan

      An historic drawing of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral

      For the fourth consecutive year, the Basilica of Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral, the New York Irish History Roundtable, and Glucksman Ireland House NYU will celebrate Mass in Irish.

    7. Monday, March 14th–August 13th, 12pm to 8pm: Ireland America: The Ties That Bind

      Venue:

      New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
      Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
      40 Lincoln Center Plaza

      A photograph of Kitty O'Neil, a popular New York-based singer and dancer of the late 19th century.

      Irish music and theater have carried the cultural markers of identity across an ocean and down two centuries. This exhibition explores aspects of Irish American performance history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly those that illuminate the nexus between public and private, culture and subculture.

      Curated by Professor Marion R. Casey, Clinical Professor of Irish Studies and Senior Archivist, Archives of Irish America, at NYU.

      Sponsored, in part, by:

    8. Tuesday, March 15th at 7pm: Ireland Unhinged:
      Encounters With a Wildly Changing Country

      A portion of the cover of 'Ireland Unhinged,' depicting a man standing impossibly on the side of a street-sign post, looking into the distance.

      Travelers’ accounts of Ireland have long sought to understand and communicate the essence of the place, the landscape and the people: the beauty, the wit, the eccentricity, the habitual, and the modern. When does the outsider become part of the place? A student at Trinity College, Dublin from 1972–73, journalist David Monagan moved his family from Connecticut to Cork ten years ago and has since explored and reflected upon the diverse Irelands and the varied Irish he has met.

    9. Friday, March 18th at 9pm: The Blarney Star Concert Series:
      The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra

      The banner of the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra, depicting the US and Irish flags, with a shield picturing a shamrock and harp, symbols of Ireland.

      New York University’s own amateur traditional music group, Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra founded and directed by Prof. Mick Moloney, launches their new CD featuring a great selection of traditional tunes and songs, many from the Golden Age of Irish-American music-making in the 1920s and ’30s. With fiddles, flutes, whistles, piccolo, tenor banjo, mandolin, piano, guitar and songs, the Orchestra helps bring this great old repertoire back to life.

    10. Wednesday, March 23rd at 7pm: Fireside Tales: Collecting and Preserving
      Local History in Co. Longford

      The County Longford Association of New York banner. It depicts Saint Mel, the patron saint of Longford, and Saint Mel's Cathedral, which is located in Longford Town.

      The County Longford Association of Greater New York, founded 1891, joins Glucksman Ireland House NYU in presenting a talk by Jude Flynn, President of the Longford Historical Association. Jude will discuss the importance and the challenge of local history.

    11. Thursday, March 24th at 7pm: Eccentric Nation: Irish Performance
      in Nineteenth Century New York City

      A photograph of Stephen Rohs.

      Stephen Rohs, Professor of American Studies at Michigan State University, discusses his recent book which examines the ways that Irish nationalism was constructed as a cultural phenomenon in the American diaspora.

      Sponsored, in part, by:

    12. Friday, March 25th at 7pm: 1916 and After

      A photograph of Professor Nicholas Allen.

      Nicholas Allen, Moore Institute Professor at the National University of Ireland, speaks on how and why 1916 remains a defining year in the historical imagination of Ireland’s past.

    13. Thursday, March 31st at 7pm: Tammany Hall and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

      A photograph of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, Asch Building, New York, 1911

      To mark the centenary of the terrible fire that claimed the lives of 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, Glucksman Ireland House presents a panel discussion on the connections between employers, city politicians and police, the lives of working-class immigrant women in 1911, the impact of the fire on trade unionism, on reform of labor law, and on the attitude of Tammany Hall to reform. The panel will feature Terry Golway, Ronald Rainey, and Christopher Finan.

  4. April

    1. Thursday, April 7th at 7pm: The Linen Hall Library, Belfast:
      The Last Subscription Library in Ireland

      A photograph of the entrance to the Linen Hall Library.

      Librarian John Killen explores the history, the special collections, and the ways in which the Linen Hall Library is adapting to the current age.

    2. Friday, April 8th at 7pm: Never Give In: The Theatre of Frank McGuinness

      Irish 55-cent postage stamps picturing Fran McGuinness.

      Frank McGuinness reflects on his writing life and upon the world of Irish theater. His best-known play is the Tony Award-nominated Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, which drew its theme from the experience of Belfast man Brian Keenan, held as a hostage in Lebanon for four years.

      Sponsored, in part, by:

    3. Monday, April 11th at 7pm: Manly Art:
      Pete Hamill interviews George Kimball
      on boxing and writing

      Pete Hamill interviews Irish Times columnist, celebrated American sports writer, and long-time friend George Kimball on boxing and writing. This month brought the publication by McBooks Press of Manly Art: They can run but they can’t hide, a wide-ranging collection of his boxing journalism from The Irish Times, ESPN.com, Boxing Digest, and the website TheSweetScience.com.

    4. Thursday, April 14th at 7pm: The Riddle of the Sands

      The cover of 'The Riddle of the Sands,' picturing a sailing clipper ship superimposed over an imperial eagle.

      Penguin Classics releases a new edition of Erskine Childers’s thrilling classic tale of espionage with a new introduction by the author’s great-grandson. The great-grandson, also called Erskine Childers, will read from and discuss The Riddle of the Sands.

    5. Friday, April 15th at 9pm: The Blarney Star Concert Series:
      Mike Rafferty and Willie Kelly

      The cover of Kelly and Rafferty's most recent album 'The New Broom.'

      The National Endowment for the Arts flute player Mike Rafferty’s tremendous contribution to Irish traditional music in America with a National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor this country can give to a folk artist. He will be joined by fellow New Jersey resident Willie Kelly, an extraordinary fiddler with a style greatly influenced by the music of the east Clare/east Galway area.

    6. Saturday, April 16th 9:30am to 5:30pm: Glucksman Ireland House NYU University Day
      “Who Do We Think We Are? The Irish Family”

      A black and white photograph of a large Irish family.

      Writers, artists and scholars – including President of the Betty Ford Institute Dr. Garrett O'Connor, writer Colm Tóibín, actress Fionnula Flanagan, writer Peter Quinn and Pete Hamill, Irish America magazine editor Patricia Harty, and NYU Irish Studies faculty Marion Casey, Linda Dowling Almeida, and Miriam Nyhan -- will discuss the Irish Family, at home and abroad from a variety of perspectives and disciplines.

      Please see the event page for the full program and ticketing information.

    7. Saturday, April 16th at 9am: European Certificate in Irish Language Examination B1

      my8_teg.jpg

      This is a certification scheme developed by The Language Center at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth for adult learners of Irish to measure their progress. It is linked to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (Council of Europe, 2001). The tests provide a benchmark offeringsix levels in the system of certification for learners within and outside formal academic environments. The test on this date is for Level B1.

    8. Thursday, April 21st at 7pm: O’Brien’s Bridge:
      Irish Romanticism and the Art of the Everyday

      A photograph of Dr. Claire Connolly

      Dr. Claire Connolly, Cardiff University, speaks on Irish Romanticism of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Connolly’s research and publications have focused on the cultural history of eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland, especially the writings of Edmund Burke, Maria Edgeworth, Sydney Owenson, Charles Robert Maturin and Thomas Moore.

    9. Monday, April 25th at 7pm: Brennan:
      The Irish Catholic Republican
      Supreme Court Justice

      Part of the cover of 'Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion,' depicting Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr.

      When President Eisenhower summoned New Jersey judge and first generation Irish American William Brennan, Jr., to Washington in September 1956, Brennan was dumbfounded by his nomination for the Supreme Court. Recent biography Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion by Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel makes public for the first time Brennan’s case histories, his strategies behind major battles of the past half century, including abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, obscenity law, and the constitutional right to privacy.

    10. Thursday, April 28th at 7pm: “The Seated Figure on Beckett’s Stage”

      A scene from Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot.' Two characters in disheveled clothing and bowler hats sit on the stage, conversing. One of the holds a carrot.

      Enoch Brater, Kenneth T. Rowe Collegiate Professor of Dramatic Literature & Professor of English and Theater, University of Michigan, gives the NYU Dept. of English's annual Joe A. Callaway Distinguished Lecture in Drama. Professor Brater will explore those characters in Beckett’s dramaturgy who sit on the stage with “The Seated Figure on Beckett’s Stage.”

    11. Saturday, April 30th 10am to 4pm: Down These Green Streets:
      Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century

      The cover of 'Down These Green Streets,' depicting a silhouetted figure walking though a tiled, underground passage.

      This event has been re-scheduled to the Fall 2011 season

  5. May

    1. Monday, May 2nd at 7pm: Mondays of May:
      Catch Me

      The Origin Theatre logo, a red, brush-stroke spiral, with the name Origin beneath.

      Origin Theatre Company returns to Glucksman Ireland House NYU with Mondays of May, the seventh annual reading series, presenting four works by contemporary European playwrights.

      Violet’s scrapbook is full of rubbish, but it̵s also her life. Will anyone live it with her? Catch Me is a gritty urban fable from the emerging Welsh writer Bethan Marlow and is produced by the RSC, Paines Plough, and Welsh TV station S4C.

    2. Wednesday, May 4th at 7pm: Columnist Dan Barry on Baseball’s Longest Game

      A historic photo of the baseball game in question, with the catcher and umpire standing. Another playe, or perhaps a coach, crouches before them, apparently arguing with the umpire.

      Pulitzer Prize-winner, Dan Barry, national columnist for theNew York Times, speaks on the subject of his new book Bottom of the 33rd:Hope and Redemption in Baseball’s Longest Game.

    3. Thursday, May 5th at 7pm: Child or Harlot? Yeats’s Malleable Muse

      The cover of 'Yeats and the Muses,' depicting the outlines of human figures dancing.

      Joseph Hassett discusses his book W. B. Yeats and the Muses, which explores how nine fascinating women inspired much of Yeats’ poetry. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a Ph.D. in Anglo-Irish Literature from University College, Dublin.

    4. Friday, May 6th at 9pm: The Blarney Star Concert Series:
      Irish Music From Maryland with
      Billy McComiskey, Laura Byrne and Donna Long

      A photograph of Billy McComiskey, seated, holding an accordion.

      One of the real hotbeds of Irish traditional music making in the U.S. today is Baltimore, Maryland. No one has had a greater influence on this development than Brooklyn-born button accordion legend Billy McComiskey, who relocated to the area in the late 1970’s. Billy, who recorded recently with the Pride of New York Ceili Band, will be joined by flute player Laura Byrne and pianist Donna Long, the latter a veteran of the celebrated Cherish the Ladies ensemble.

    5. Monday, May 9th at 7pm: Mondays of May:
      The Sign of the Whale

      The Origin Theatre logo, a red, brush-stroke spiral, with the name Origin beneath.

      Origin Theatre Company returns to Glucksman Ireland House NYU with Mondays of May, the seventh annual reading series, presenting four works by contemporary European playwrights.

      In 1970s Belfast, copy-editor Dermy had an unfortunate accident involving awhale. Or did he? Mondays of May continues with this year’s Ireland Stewart Parker Trust winner The Sign of the Whale, by Jimmy McAleavey.

    6. Saturday, May 7th at 9am: A Taste of the Yeats Summer School

      A line drawing of a young W.B. Yeats.

      Every summer, aficionados of the poet William Butler Yeats come from all over the world to enjoy two weeks of lectures, readings and theater in Sligo, Ireland, and to tour nearby “Yeats Country.” Here is an opportunity to sample the Yeats International Summer School for a day in New York. Along with a full day of programs, we?ll have information on the 52nd Summer School.

    7. Saturday, May 7th at 9am: European Certificate in Irish Language Examination A2

      my8_teg.jpg

      This examination has been canceled

      This is a certification scheme developed by The Language Center at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth for adult learners of Irish to measure their progress. It is linked to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (Council of Europe, 2001). The tests provide a benchmark offeringsix levels in the system of certification for learners within and outside formal academic environments. The test on this date is for Level A2.

    8. Thursday, May 12th at 7pm: Airneál na Bealtaine

      A photo of the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra performing at Glucksman Ireland House.

      Airneál na Bealtaine at Glucksman Ireland House welcomes the month of May and the end of the academic year. Join Pádraig Ó Cearúill and students from his Irish language folk-group in an evening of traditional music and song.

    9. Monday, May 16th at 7pm: Mondays of May:
      Bal Trap

      The Origin Theatre logo, a red, brush-stroke spiral, with the name Origin beneath.

      Origin Theatre Company returns to Glucksman Ireland House NYU with Mondays of May, the seventh annual reading series, presenting four works by contemporary European playwrights.

      After a suburban French town ball, in the deserted ballroom, two couples try to get back to where they started and find a way forward. Bal Trap is an uncanny spectacle from Xavier Durringer, France’s answer to Kane and Ravenhill, translated by the Institut Francais London’s resident ensemble.

    10. Wednesday, May 18th, at 7pm: The launch of Solace by Belinda McKeon

      The front cover of Solace. The title and author's name in the foreground, with a blurry row of plows retreating into the background.

      Join us for the launch of Belinda McKeon’s powerful debut novel, Solace, a story of father and son; one clinging to the land and the inheritance of generations of hard work, and one attempting to forge a new path.

    11. Thursday, May 19th at 7pm: Wisdom of Two:
      The Spiritual and Literary
      Collaboration of George and W.B. Yeats

      The cover of 'Wisdom of Two,' a line drawing of a man and its mirror image, each colored differently.

      Margaret Mills Harper, Glucksman Chair in Contemporary Writing in English at the University of Limerick, presents a talk based on her 2006 book Wisdom of Two: The Spiritual and Literary Collaboration of George and W. B. Yeats about the Yeatses’ “incredible experience”, drawing George Hyde Lees back to a central position as a literary collaborator .

    12. Saturday, May 21st at 9am: European Certificate in Irish Language Examination A1

      The TEG logo

      This is a certification scheme developed by The Language Center at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth for adult learners of Irish to measure their progress. It is linked to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (Council of Europe, 2001). The tests provide a benchmark offeringsix levels in the system of certification for learners within and outside formal academic environments. The test on this date is for Level A1.

    13. May 21st through August 14th: The Fifth Province:
      Irish County Societies in America

      A black and white photograph from the Dublin Society of New York 1958 annual dinner, showing a crowd in formal dress seated in a large hall. At the back, a band can be seen, along with a banner reading 'Erin go bragh.'

      The impulse to recreate a sense of home through social, cultural and sporting events can be documented wherever the Irish have settled in the world. New York City can claim the largest cluster of Irish county societies, with the greatest longevity.

      Join us in celebrating the lifetime commitment many Irish men and women made to their heritage through membership in county societies. For them, America is Ireland’s Fifth Province.

    14. Monday, May 23rd at 7pm: Mondays of May:
      H to He: I’m Turning into a Man

      The Origin Theatre logo, a red, brush-stroke spiral, with the name Origin beneath.

      Origin Theatre Company returns to Glucksman Ireland House NYU with Mondays of May, the seventh annual reading series, presenting four works by contemporary European playwrights.

      In the hysterical solo “stand-up play” H to He: I’m Turning into a Man, by cult comedian Claire Dowie, corporate potentate Helen wakes up to discover she has been turned in her sleep into a man. Or so it seems.

    15. Thursday, May 26th at 7pm: The Search for George Yeats and Where It Led Me

      A 1910 photograph of George Yeats in blouse and feathered hat.

      Bertha Georgie Hyde-Lees was called Georgie by her upper-middle class English family and George by her husband, W.B. Yeats. Ann Saddlemyer explores the life and work of George Yeats based on her magisterial biography Becoming George.

    16. Tuesday, May 31st at 7pm: Edna O’Brien reads from Saints and Sinners

      Part of the cover of Saints and Sinners, thin white text on a bright orange background

      The great Irish author Edna O’Brien, author of The Country Girls and many other works, reads from her new collection of stories, Saints and Sinners.

  6. June

    1. Friday, June 10th at 9am: Home Away from Home:
      Immigrants & Associational Culture

      The emblem of the United Irish Counties Association.

      Immigrants frequently recreate a sense of home through the associations they join and form: a home away from home. This colloquium brings together a number of scholars who are interested in immigrant associational culture in different ethnic groups and through a variety of disciplinary lenses.

      The meeting aims to provoke a dialogue on various issues: What are the roles of associations in immigrant communities? What leads to the growth and decline of immigrant associations over time? What is the correlation between the size of the immigrant community and the dynamism of the associational topography? Does an associational culture play a significant role in patterns of acculturation and assimilation? Join us as we attempt to formulate answers to these and other questions, as we celebrate New York University’s presentation of the exhibit The Fifth Province: County Associations in Irish America.

    2. Tuesday, June 21st at 6:30pm: NYU’s Informed Neighbor Discussion:
      The Fifth Province

      Venue:

      NYU’s Open House, 528 LaGuardia Place, NYC

      A black and white photograph from the Dublin Society of New York 1958 annual dinner, showing a crowd in formal dress seated in a large hall. At the back, a band can be seen, along with a banner reading 'Erin go bragh.'

      Informed Neighbor brings together organizations, local officials, and community members at NYU for meetings to provide information on projects and initiatives at the University, including updates on construction, upcoming events, sustainability, and other happenings that are pertinent for the community.

      This month, the series welcomes Glucksman Ireland House NYU Professor Miriam Nyhan, who will speak on the exhibition The Fifth Province: County Societies in Irish America, which recently opened at NYU’s Open House space.

Free admission to Members of Glucksman Ireland House and to all students/faculty with a valid NYU I.D. card. For non-members: $10 donation at the door for regular event series; $15 donation at the door for Blarney Star Concert Series.

In order to ensure a seat at events, please RSVP to 212-998-3950 (option 3) or email ireland.house@nyu.edu, except for the Blarney Star Concert Series which does not accept reservations.

All events are held at Glucksman Ireland House unless otherwise noted.

All events are supported by members of Glucksman Ireland House. Become a member.

Glucksman Ireland House NYU's Spring 2011 Events are also made possible by The Nissan Foundation; Imagine Ireland an initiative of Culture Ireland; and Ireland’s Department of Community, Equality, and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Please click on event titles or images for more further information regarding each listing.