John J. Burns Library Events

Nótaí/Notes

Notai/Notes: Music & Ireland

Nótaí/Notes: Music and Ireland
Research Symposium
Saturday, 23 September 2017
Gasson Hall, Boston College

Boston College and NUI Galway presented the research symposium Nótaí/Notes: Music and Ireland on Saturday, 23 September 2017 in Boston College’s Gasson Hall. This full-day symposium gathered together international scholars from a variety of academic disciplines. The symposium theme is tied to a 2019 special issue of Éire-Ireland: an Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies. Keynote speakers included Dr Helen O’Shea (University of Melbourne) and Dr Méabh Ní Fhuartháin (National University of Ireland, Galway).

Symposium participants also had an opportunity to acquaint themselves with Boston College’s extensive Irish Music Archives at the opening reception Friday, 22 September, 5:30PM at the Burns Library. Irish Music Librarian Elizabeth Sweeney, onsite coordinator for the symposium, displayed featured items and was available for questions in the Burns Library Reading Room.

Prof. James Murphy, Professor of English and Director of Irish Studies and the Center for Irish Programs, hosted a dinner for all attendees at Connolly House following the symposium.

The symposium was free and open to all interested parties.

Questions? Email kate.edrington@bc.edu

This event was cosponsored by Comhrá Ceoil, Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway, together with the Boston College Libraries and Boston College Center for Irish Programs, with additional funding provided by the Irish Research Council New Foundations scheme.

Image: Piano Accordion Girl by Lorcan Vallely

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

Friday, September 22 -- Evening Reception

5:30 pm	Reception / refreshments
6:15 pm	Harp demonstration: “Key Changes: John Egan and the Revival of Ireland’s Harp” by harp historian Nancy Hurrell. The John J. Burns Library owns two rare Portable Irish Harps by Dublin’s leading nineteenth-century harp maker, John Egan (fl. 1797-1829). Egan’s iconic shamrock-adorned harp was a nationalistic product in post-Union Ireland, and at a time when harp playing was dying out, the newly-invented chromatic model enabled a new harping tradition to continue in Ireland. Hurrell will play a two-hundred year old Egan harp from her own collection.
6:45-7:30pm	Conversation and an opportunity to view staff selections from the Irish Music Archives of the John J. Burns Library. Hosted by Elizabeth Sweeney, Irish Music Librarian, and other Burns Library staff.
8:00 pm	Reception ends

Saturday, September 23 -- Full Day Symposium

8:45am	Tea/Coffee
9:00am	Fáilte (Welcome)
9:15am	Panel A Chair: Méabh Ní Fhuartháin Thomas O’Grady Ars Poetica: A Cultural History of Patrick Kavanagh’s “On Raglan Road” Adam Kaul Pedestrian Performances: Irishness, Cosmopolitanism, and Busking in Ireland Verena Commins Bronzing the Tradition: Commemoration and the Willie Clancy Summer School
10:45am	Tea/Coffee
11:00am	Keynote 1 Chair: Sally K. Sommers Smith Wells Helen O’Shea Listening to Irish Music from the Outside: Jos Koning’s Study of East Clare Music
12:30pm	Lunch hour Acknowledgements from NUI, BC Irish Programs/Studies, BC Burns Library. Lunch is included with free registration.
1:30pm	Panel B Chair: Verena Commins Dan Neely On the Importance of Shaun O'Nolan, the Wicklow Piper of Boston Aileen Dillane Irish Music, Material Culture, & the Curatorial Impulse: A Chicago Case Study Michael Nicholsen From the Neals to O’Neill’s: Major Published Collections and the Invention of Traditional Music, 1724-1907
3:00pm	Tea/Coffee
3:15pm	Keynote 2 Chair: James M. Smith Méabh Ní Fhuartháin Dance Halls, Parish Halls and Marquees: Regulating and Sharing Spaces for Music and Dance Practice in Early Twentieth Century Ireland
4:45 - 5:00pm	Performance of Irish traditional fiddle music by Sheila Falls Keohane