NEICN

Leverhulme: Public Lecture

2009-05-20T12:40:00.003+01:00

'To Buy or Not to Buy, or As You Hype it: Advertising on the Dublin Stage from 1742 to 1898' by Dr. Alison O' Malley- Younger (University of Sunderland).

She has published in the fields of contemporary critical theory, women's writing in Ireland, and Irish Drama, both contemporary and nineteenth century. She is currently working as part of the research team on a Leverhulme funded research project on Advertising and Commodity Culture in Irish Literature in the period between 1848 and 1921 for which she will be contributing to and editing the multi-authored volume of essays on Consumer Culture, Advertising and Literature in Ireland 1848-1921. She has edited, with Frank Beardow, Representing Ireland: Past, Present and Future, with John Strachan, Essays on Modern Irish Literature and with Paddy Lyons, No Country For Old Men: Fresh Perspectives on Irish Literature. Her current projects include Essential Criticism: Brian Friel for Palgrave Macmillan, and a monograph on Advertising in Nineteenth century Irish Theatre. Other projects include edited collections with John Strachan, entitled, Ireland at War and Peace for Cambridge Scholars Press and Ireland: Revolution and Evolution for Peter Lang, both expected in 2009.

Call for Papers: Fantasy Ireland, Imaginings and Re-Imaginings

2009-04-22T12:00:00.001+01:00

Fantasy Ireland, Imaginings and Re-Imaginings

Following the success of the previous six international Irish Studies conferences, the University of Sunderland, in association with NEICN, is soliciting papers for an interdisciplinary conference, which will run from 13-15th November 2009. The conference will begin with a plenary lecture on 13th November; there will be a book launch and wine reception on the Friday evening and a ceilidh and conference banquet on Saturday 14th November.

The conference organisers hope to represent a wide range of approaches to Irish culture from academics and non-academics alike. Performances, roundtables, collaborative projects, and other non-traditional presentations are encouraged in addition to conference papers. We welcome both individual submissions and proposals for panels. As with previous year’s conference, we welcome submissions for panels and papers under the thematic headings of Fantasy Ireland : Imaginings and Re-imaginings in the following areas: Literature, Performing Arts, History, Politics, Folklore and Mythology, Ireland in Theory, Gender and Ireland Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Tourism, Art and Art History, Music, Dance, Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies, and Studies of the Diaspora. North American and other international scholars, practitioners in the arts, and postgraduate students are all encouraged to submit proposals to the conference organisers.

Each session will include three or four 20-minute presentations each followed by discussion. A selection of the accepted papers will be subsequently published in the conference proceedings.
The University of Sunderland houses the North East Irish Culture Network, established in 2003 to further the study of Irish Literature and Culture (see www.neicn.com). It has held six previous conferences. Previous speakers include Terry Eagleton, Robert Welch, Luke Gibbons, Ailbhe Smith, Kevin Barry, Siobhan Kilfeather, Shaun Richards, Lance Pettitt, Stephen Regan, Lord David Puttnam, Andrew Carpenter, John Nash and Willy Maley, with readings from Ciaran Carson Medbh McGuckian, Bernard O’Donoghue and Eilis Ni Dhuibhne. In 2008, the English department at Durham was the recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Grant to sponsor its project ‘Consumer Culture, Advertising and Literature in ireland 1848-1921’.

Leverhulme: Public Lecture

2009-04-15T12:00:00.002+01:00

'The Development of Modern Consumer Culture in Dublin: Department Stores and the Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853' by Dr Stephanie Rains (NUI Maynooth).

Stephanie is the Subject Leader in the Centre for Media Studies, she also co-ordinate and teach on a number of modules on the BA in Media Studies, as well as co-ordinating the MA in Radio and TV Production. Her research interests include Irish and Irish-American popular culture, including television, film and popular cultural practices such as tourism and shopping. Stephanie's doctoral thesis, completed at Dublin City University in 2003, examined the ways in which late-20thC Irish-American identity was created through the consumption of Irish-themed popular culture. Her book entitled The Irish American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000, was published by Irish Academic Press in 2007.

Stephaine has continued to research 20th century Irish and Irish-American material, but her current research focuses on 19th century Irish popular culture, with a particular emphasis on commodity culture.

Leverhulme: Public Lecture

2009-02-28T12:00:00.002Z

'Look Back in Hunger: Ireland in Famine's Wake from Munster to The Maze, or The Faerie Queene to Steve McQueen ' by Professor Willy Maley (University of Glasgow)

Professor Willy Maley is a Fellow of the English Association (FEA). He has published widely on English Renaissance Literature, from Spenser to Milton, and on aspects of early modern and modern Scottish and Irish culture, from James Joyce to Alasdair Gray. He is the author of A Spenser Chronology (1994), Salvaging Spenser: Colonialism, Culture and Identity (1997), and Nation, State and Empire in English Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare to Milton (2003). He is editor, with Andrew Hadfield, of A View of the Present State of Ireland: From the First Published Edition (1997). He has also edited five collections of essays: with Brendan Bradshaw and Andrew Hadfield, Representing Ireland: Literature and the Origins of Conflict, 1534-1660 (Cambridge University Press, 1993); with Bart Moore-Gilbert and Gareth Stanton, Postcolonial Criticism (Longman, 1997); with David J. Baker, British Identities and English Renaissance Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2002); with Andrew Murphy, Shakespeare and Scotland (Manchester University Press, 2004); and with Alex Benchimol, Spheres of Influence: Intellectual and Cultural Publics from Shakespeare to Habermas (Peter Lang, 2006).
Willy has published with Argyll Publishing, Ashgate, Barnes and Noble, Blackwell, the British Council, Cambridge Scholar’s Press, Cambridge University Press, Capercaillie Press, Clydeside Press, Continuum Press, Duquesne University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Fitzroy Dearborn, Four Courts Press, Freight Design, Greenwood Press, Longman, Manchester University Press, MIT Press, Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Peking University Press, Peter Lang, Prentice Hall, Rodopi, Routledge, St Martin’s Press, Sulis Press, Sunderland University Press, Universitätsverlag C. Winter Press, and University of Toronto Press. His work has appeared in forty different journals and magazines, and has been translated into several languages, including Chinese and German.

Willy founded, with Philip Hobsbaum, the Creative Writing Master's at Glasgow in 1995. The course has since become one of the most successful of its kind, producing a host of published writers and prizewinners, including Anne Donovan, Rachel Seiffert and Louise Welsh.

Willy has been a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (1997), and was the first recipient of the Gerard Manley Hopkins Visiting Professorship at John Carroll University in Cleveland (1998). Research interests range from the representation of national and colonial identities in early modern texts through to deconstruction and postcolonialism. Willy is presently working on the depiction of Britain in Milton and Shakespeare.

His own interests for postgraduate supervision are contemporary Irish and Scottish writing; creative writing; literary theory; and Renaissance literature (focusing on colonialism and national identity).

Leverhulme: Public Lecture

2008-11-20T12:00:00.003Z

'The Irish Novel andConsumer Culture in the Nineteenth Century' by Dr Helem O' Connell (University of Durham)

Helen O'Connell's research interests lie in the fields of Irish literature and culture; British writing and educational theory of the Romantic period; and the relationship betwen literature and modernisation. In particular, her work to date has focused on 'improvement' (principally in the form of fictional pamphlets and instructional manuals) and literary culture in Ireland from the Romantic period through to the Irish Revival. She is the author of Ireland and the Fiction of Improvement (Oxford University Press, 2006).Current research includes a study of the relationship between fiction and education in the early nineteenth century.

NEICN's Reimagining Ireland: the morning after

2008-11-17T12:00:00.001Z

The conference was a big success with around 80 delegates from the UK, Europe and America, plus the Lady Mayor, and some extra guests at the banquet. NEICN give special thanks to Professor Flavia Swann who did so much, and the Glasgow University staff: Will, Paddy and Matt Mcguire and also to Colin, Vikki, Gemma, Bernie and Mel who co-ordinated the conference so well and to all attendees. Thanks also to the Inchigeelagh Irish Dance Academy who provided a number of fine displays. ITV News visited the conference and gave us an excellent article on the local news. We will post the video of the news item as soon as we can acquire a copy and video highlights of keynote speeches will follow over the coming weeks. In the mean time, do check out our picture galleries and get in touch with any feedback.

One delegate commented that; 'You know what I am going to say: I had a lovely time as usual. I know how much work goes on behind the scenes and how exhausted and mad it makes you feel, but it was well worth it. I met lots of old Sunderland conferences buddies and made several new buddies too. I came home with bulging notes of things I have to read, and new and interesting connections so it was a success on all levels.'

Another said that; Thanks for having me to speak at the conference - you did such a tremendous job and all your hard work really paid off; it was a great weekend. It was lovely to see you and to catch up. See you again soon, I hope. I'll definitely hope to be back in Sunderland again.'

The Leverhulme project

2008-10-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

It is with great pleasure and delight that we, the NEICN team congratulate Dr. Alison O' Malley- Younger and Professor John Strachan on winning the Leverhulme award.

This project, funded by the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust, addresses a fascinating but relatively neglected topic: the historical and literary resonance of consumer culture and advertising in Ireland between 1848, the year of the Famine, and 1921, the year which saw the signing of the treaty which led to the formation of the Irish Free State.

Alongside detailed consideration of the cultural significance of advertising copy in the period, both amongst nationalist and unionist constituencies, the project will also look at the way in which literary figures such as James Joyce, W. B. Yeats and others reacted to the nascent commercial culture around them.

The project team is based at the Universities of Durham and Sunderland.

Professor John Strachan, University of Sunderland, will deleiver the initial lecture, ‘Consumer Culture, Advertising and Literature in Ireland, 1848-1921’, on Wednesday October 8th 2008.

Flavia's farewell

2008-08-09T17:00:00.002+01:00

Professor Flavia Swann has stepped down after over 16 years at the School of Arts, Design, Media & Culture. The School has grown from strength to strength since its inception in 1992 with Professor Swann at its head.

Professor Swann is still very much committed to the development of the University, and will retain her links with us as an Emeritus Professor.

She said: “I am very proud of all that each of you, singly and collectively, have achieved, as well as what you have facilitated for our students. I am sure you will continue in this excellent and positive vein into the new era of Faculties.”

Thank you for all your years of hard work and determination, which have made the School Arts, Design, Media and Culture a school of brillent, bright minds fuelled by passion and determination

Festival Time

2008-07-26T17:00:00.002+01:00

Members of NEICN have for a long time said that 'we will take over the world' and it has finally happened, well we have taken over the city at least, as NEICN launches its first city Irish festival with its many and expanding friends, as the event has been organised by the Strategic Partnership, which includes the University of Sunderland, NEICN, Sunderland Council, The Chamber of Commerce and Gentoo. All of who are part of our international strategy, so please do all come along and enjoy excellent Irish entertainment.

A brief precis of the programme is:
1.00 - River Wear Dance with Fagan's School of Irish Dancing
1.30 - The Funky Buddhas, (students from English and Performing Arts at Sunderland stru their stuff
2.15 - Peter Desmond, (brilliant Irish musician)
3.00 - Open air ceilidh (this will be great fun)
4.00 - Solo dancers and exhibition dancing with Inchigeela dance troupe
5.00 - Alan Kelly and the Dogs of Tralee, (not to be missed)

All of this is to be followed by Aos Dana, led by Colin Younger and food in Eauzone

More information can be found at http://www.neicn.com/NEICN/Newsandevents/200808%20Sunderland%20Irish%20Festival/Festivalhome.html

Readings and Risings: The rising the morning after

2008-04-22T10:46:00.000+01:00

A night to remember’ is the way the NEICN seminar of St Patrick’s Day has been described.

As with all NEICN seminars in the past, the evening was a fantastic success and proceeded without a problem, a record number of students and community members attended to hear the guest speakers deliver their spectacular papers- an intellectual hot potato of debates ranging from topics regarding the Bald Robert Emmet and his heroic rebellion to W. B. Yeats and his passion for all things oriental and Seamus Deane and his love of all things Gothic, dark and looming. These papers were concluded with open questions from all, followed by a presentation of a bottle of champagne and a Shamrock cake, in order to celebrate a fantastic night and the award of Leverhulme bid by Alison O’Malley- Younger and John Strachan.

Once this event concluded matters turned to making sure everyone was dressed and presented fabulously in order to show NEICN at its best.

At The Bonded Warehouse, the chosen venue, things started fantastically with live music and singing from Emma Callaghan and Mark Bushell, which was later followed by Alison O’Malley- Younger, Colin Younger, Dave Lucas and the other members of Aos Diana (the gifted ones)- the music and the merriment continued until the early hours of the morning allowing all those who attended a chance to mingle and enjoy the night to it’s fullest.

Gemma Hughes, a Postgraduate student, commented that; ‘ it was a brilliant night, I enjoyed the music and the atmosphere- it was a fantastic that so many student turned up to support NEICN and the team.’

Emma Callaghan, a community member and local musician, said that ‘I loved the crowd I loved the mix of people, from students to lectures to those local people from Sunderland. Overall a fantastic event, looking forward to more.’

Call for Papers: Re-imagining Ireland (s)

2008-04-22T10:42:00.004+01:00

Re-imagining Ireland(s)

Following the success of its last five international conferences: Representing-Ireland: Past, Present and Future, (2003) and The Word, The Icon and The Ritual, (2004), Lands of Saints of Scholars, [2005], Ireland: Renaissance, Revolution and Regeneration, (2006) and Ireland at War and Peace (2007) the University of Sunderland, in association with NEICN, is soliciting papers for an interdisciplinary conference, which will run from 14-16 November 2008.

The conference organisers hope to represent a wide range of approaches to Irish culture from academics and non¬-academics alike. Performances, roundtables, collaborative projects, and other non¬-traditional presentations are encouraged in addition to conference papers. We particularly welcome proposals for panels. As with previous year’s conference, we welcome submissions for panels and papers under the thematic headings of: Re-Imagining Ireland(s), in the following areas: Literature, Performing Arts, History, Politics, Folklore and Mythology, Ireland in Theory, Gender and Ireland Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Tourism, Art and Art History, Music, Dance, Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies, and Studies of the Diaspora. North American and other international scholars, practitioners in the arts, and postgraduate students are all encouraged to submit proposals to the conference organisers.

We also welcome proposals for papers in absentia for delegates who wish to participate but may find it difficult to attend the event.LENGTH – Papers should not exceed 2,500 – 3,000 words/20 minutes’ deliveryDEADLINES

Enquiries and submissions should be submitted by 30th July, 2007 to the conference coordinators-
Dr Alison O’Malley-Younger – alison.younger@sunderland.ac.uk
Professor John Strachan – john.strachan@sunderland.ac.uk

All papers must be copied to the conference administrator, Ms Susan Cottam – susan.cottam@sunderland.ac.uk

Turning Sunderland Green

2008-02-12T09:00:00.006Z

The University of Sunderland continually grows and Irish Studies, culture, music and as the dynamics of Sunderland grows to incoporate this growth of 'Irishness,' then is it a surprise that Sunderland is almost reaching out across the Irish sea, is it any wonder then that Ireland is doing the same.

One of Ireland's leading ambassadors travelled to Sunderland to celebrate the city's links with the emerald isle - and his first stop was the University of Sunderland's Media Centre. David Cooney is Ireland's Ambassador to the United Nations. During his visit to Wearside he toured the University's state-of-the-art Media Centre, the National Glass Centre and the Stadium of Light. Sunderland has close links with Ireland, both through Roy Keane's team at the Stadium of Light, and the University's annual Irish Conference and Festival, hosted by NEICN. The Festival, now in its sixth year, is the largest independent Irish conference in the UK and has grown so much in stature that it is now sponsored by the Irish Government.

Ambassador Cooney said: 'I was very impressed with the quality of the facilities at the University of Sunderland.' Professor Peter Fidler, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sunderland, said: 'We were delighted to welcome Ambassador Cooney to the university.'

Dr Alison O’Malley-Younger, director of the North East Irish Culture Network, added: 'We feel it particularly appropriate that the Ambassador visited the University and SAFC, two organisations which have a close partnership and are linked to the developing Irish culture in the region.'

The Irish Embassy has offered great support to our endeavours in promoting Irish culture in the North East.

NEICN Event: Readings and Risings

2008-02-02T12:11:00.014Z

It is my pleasure to announce the next NEICN seminar will be held on 17th March 2008, St Patrick's Night. This NEICN events takes a new form, in comparison to previous St. Patrick's day events in that we are hosting a seminar entilted Readings and Rising. This event will take place in Priestman Bulding, Green Terrace, Sunderland at 6:00pm, in room C21

The fabulous guest speakers are Willey Maley, Paddy Lyons and Claire Nalley, as well as Alison O'Malley- Younger-

Professor Willy Maley- University of Glasgow – The Rising of the Moon and the Reading of the Riot Act.

Dr Alison O’Malley-Younger – University of Sunderland –Unhappy the Land that Has No Heroes: Heroic Masculinity in the Patriotic Melodramas of Boucicault and Whitbread.

Paddy Lyons – University of Glasgow – Ireland versus Scotland – pleasure, lies, money.

Dr Claire Nally – University of Hull – Yeats's Dreaming of the Bones: a critique of nationalist memory.

From 8:00pm there is a wine reception and St Patrick’s Day celebration at the Bonded Warehouse, Low Street, Sunderland. This event includes a live music from Aos Dana, Emma Callaghan and other local musicians.

Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy themselves.

Cultural Events- Putting the 'mick' into Mi [Mick]ry: Brian Friel's Postcolonial Drama

2008-01-26T11:59:00.003Z

Alison O'Malley- Younger and Putting the 'mick' into Mi [Mick]ry: Brian Friel's Postcolonial Drama

Following in the foot step of the Irish poet Eavan Boland, the Indian critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, to name but a few, as part of the Critical and Cultural Theory season at the University of Glasgow, Alison O’Malley- Younger of the University of Sunderland returns to the work of Brian Friel and the field of postcolonial studies.

In her paper entitled Putting the ‘Mick’ into Mi[Mick]ry: Brian Friel’s Postcolonial Drama. Alison O’Malley- Younger offers an insightful and detailed exploration, analysis and commentary of mimicry and liminality, hybridity and conceptual third spaces within Brian Friel’s drama, in this instant The London Vertigo. The London Vertigo is based upon The True Born Irishman, by Charles Macklin Brian Friel comments that ‘My reason for renaming the play The London Vertigo is that this title both signposts the play’s theme and hints as the fate the author himself eagerly embraced.’

Alison argues that The London Vertigo is a mediation of non- realist dramatic genre which is highly artificial in its contrived plots, characterisation and settings, and which capitalises on wit, satire, and verbal brilliance to explore the ludicrous discrepancy between the surface veneer of decorum in modish, middle class London society and the unabashed debauchery beneath it. Friel translates this canonical genre into an Irish context, and through the discourses of mimicry highlights identity as a complex, theatricalised, citational process something that is peripatetic and prosthetic; a mobile, transferable, enacted, theatrical event based on role-play, costume and ritual. In effect mirroring Friel’s own comment regarding The London Vertigo.

One of the most significant strengths and joys of Alison’s paper will be the reconceptualisation of the applicability of a postcolonial paradigm to Ireland, and particularly Friel’s. Exploring Friel’s position at the fulcrum of various exclusivist and essentialist foundational myths of identity based on static binarisms such as ‘us’ and ‘them.’

The Return

2008-01-12T12:15:00.000Z

Hi everyone, I would like to thank this chance to say welcome back and sorry it has been such a long time since.

Although this weblog has not been updated recently, things for NEICN have been ticking along fantastically.

As the year progresses NEICN is looking forward to hosting a series of public lectures, events and of course our sixth Irish studies conference- which we have begun to plan already. So keep and eye out for details of our various events.

Slainte

Call for Papers- Visual, material and print culture in Nineteenth-century Ireland

2008-01-05T11:45:00.002Z

The Society for the Study of Nineteenth Century Ireland began its annual conferences in the early 1990s - firstly in Ireland, and then rotating between Ireland, Europe and North America.

The University of Limerick is running a two-day international conference exploring the nature and extent of Visual, material and print culture in Nineteenth-century Ireland. Taking a broad view of the nineteenth century, panels are being constituted from, but not limited to, the following areas: history; art history; English literature; geography; architecture; politics; folklore; urban and rural development; photographic images; film; Litríocht na Gaeilge; Gaeltacht; cultural nationalism; poetry; the Irish novel; diaries; letters; newspapers; demography; diaspora; gender; childhood; landscape; maps; settlement; education; work; religion; travel writing; the stage Irishman; music.

Confirmed Plenary speakers include
Prof. Liam Kennedy, QUB
Catherine Marshall, IMMA
Prof. Niamh O’ Sullivan, NCAD
Dr Neil Buttimer, UCC

For further details check out the following link:
http://www.ssnci.com/

Call for Papers- Home and Elsewhere: the Spaces of Irish Writing

2007-12-29T03:14:00.001Z

Home and Elsewhere: the Spaces of Irish Writing
Oporto , Portugal , 28 July – 1 August 2008
Conference Website: http://web.letras.up.pt/iasil08/

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
Deadline 14 January 2008

The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures invites you to attend its 2008 conference at Universidade doPorto, in Portugal.
The conference will take place at the Faculties of Letters and Architecture (Faculdade de Letras / Faculdade de Arquitectura), close to the city centre and overlooking the river Douro. Accommodation will be available in hotels within walking distance of the conference venue, at a special rate to delegates.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Academics: Edna Longley , Professor Emerita, Queen’s University Belfast; Chris Morash , NUI Maynooth; Claire Connolly , Cardiff University
Writers: Michael Longley, Hugo Hamilton

The conference theme, Home and Elsewhere: the Spaces of Irish Writing, reflects the currency that notions of space, place, and territory – in a variety of acceptations, from physical to virtual – have gained within literary and cultural studies. Suggested topics include:

• Irish locales, Irish identities;
• Irish writing and “other places” (utopias, dystopias, heterotopias);
• local and global, parochial and cosmopolitan in Irish writing;
• enabling elsewheres: texts and selves in transit; travel and/or translation in/of Irish writing;
• spaces of performance: Irish texts on stage and on screen;
• intermedial territories: Irish writing and other arts;
• versions of textual space: page, screen, cyberwriting.

Proposals for twenty-minute papers are welcome on these and other aspects of the literatures of Ireland, within the range of interests of IASIL members.

For futher details check out the following link:
http://web.letras.up.pt/iasil08/

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2007-12-25T03:13:00.000Z

Hi everyone

This is a quick message from all of the NEICN Team- wishing and hoping that everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

May all your wishes and desires come true.

Cultural Liaison Officer and Entertainments Manager: Colin Younger

2007-11-14T10:00:00.000Z

Colin Younger’s interest in Ireland and Irish Studies began as a student at De La Salle College, Manchester where he became an accomplished folk musician along with gaining his Bachelors’ degree in Education. During this time he was a member of a number of bands and learned how to entertain, book venues, deal with PA systems and all the ephemeratara that is associated with musical events.

He has worked for NEICN in the capacity of Cultural Liaison Officer and Entertainments Manager on a voluntary basis since its inception. Colin deals with the business and financial side of the network along with the booking of entertainers and artists for our cultural events. He also ensures that cinema screenings are organised, publicised and enjoyed by both NEICN members and the wider public in the region.

In 2007 Colin was instrumental in organising the hugely successful NEICN St Patrick’s Day Charity Ball to raise money for local hospices. With his team of volunteers and students, in particular Robert Finnigan, Colin will be responsible for the smooth running of this year’s conference and cultural event.

NEICN's Ireland: War and Peace

2007-11-13T12:00:00.001Z

The conference presented a wide range of approaches to Irish culture from academics and non-academics alike. Performances, roundtables, collaborative projects, and other non-traditional presentations were included in addition to conference papers.

Combining an academic conference with a celebration of Irish culture, the event included a book launch of the new NEICN publication, Essays on Modern Irish Literature edited by John Strachan and Alison O’Malley Younger and also poetry readings by Bernard O’Donoghue, exhibition dancing and a conference banquet and ceilidh.

Co-founders and co-directors of NEICN:- John Strachan

2007-11-12T12:13:00.000Z

John Strachan is Professor in Romantic Literature at Sunderland. He has published widely on the comic literature of the late Georgian period and is co-editor of Parodies of the Romantic Age (5 volumes, 1999), general editor of British Satire 1785-1840 (5 volumes, 2003), and editor of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine: Selected Criticism, 1820-25 (2006). He is also a specialist in the poetry of Leigh Hunt, John Keats and the 'Cockney School' and has edited Hunt's Poetical Works (2 volumes, 2003; the first scholarly edition for 80 years). His Routledge Complete Critical Guide to the Poems of John Keats appeared in 2004. With Professor Richard Terry, he is co-author of Poetry (2000). A long-term project Advertising and Satirical Culture will be published in 2007 by Cambridge University Press. Dr Strachan is the Associate Editor for Romanticism for the seventh edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature (to be published in 2010). He has a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2006-2007 to complete his book The Devil’s Baits: The Literature of Sport 1780-1840.

Professor Strachan has a long-term interest in Irish literature. His Oxford D.Phil. was on the work of Charles Robert Maturin and he is the general editor of The Satires of Thomas Moore (2003). With Dr Alison Younger, he co-founded the annual Sunderland Irish Literature conferences and he is a founding member of NEICN. He is currently involved in a research project entitled Shopping with James Joyce: The Cultural History of Advertising in Nineteenth-Century Ireland with Dr Younger, Professor Stephen Regan (University of Durham) and Dr John Nash, (University of Durham). John enjoys clay pigeon shooting, playing the five-string banjo and spreading world peace.

Co-founders and co-directors of NEICN:- Alison O'Malley- Younger

2007-11-12T12:00:00.000Z

Dr Alison O'Malley- Younger

BA, MA, PhD (Sunderland), joined the University in 2005, after having worked as a visiting lecturer at Sunderland and the Open University. She has published in the fields of Contemporary Irish Drama, Contemporary Critical Theory, and Women's Writing in Ireland . She has recently completed a monograph entitled Brian Friel's Liminal Drama (Mellen), and a selection of essays entitled, Representing Ireland: Past Present and Future (University of Sunderland Press), and has recently completed a book for Edinburgh University Press entitled Drama: Text and Performance for the Elements of Literature series.

She is currently co-editing a selection of essays entitled Essays in Modern Irish Literature with Professor John Strachan and working on a selection of articles on the contemporary Irish playwright, Brian Friel and the nineteenth century playwright Dion Boucicault. She is also involved in a research project entitled Shopping with James Joyce: The Cultural History of Advertising in Nineteenth-Century Ireland with Professor John Strachan (University of Sunderland), Professor Stephen Regan (University of Durham) and Dr John Nash, (University of Durham).

Her research is reflected in her teaching and she currently runs modules on Irish literature at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels: these are, ‘The State of Play: Contemporary Irish Drama’; ‘The Living Stream: Contemporary Irish Poetry’, and ‘Strange Country: Irish Literature from 1790 – 1831’. She has also been centrally involved in the coordination and organisation of the five international Irish Studies conference hosted at the University of Sunderland, and is a member of Member of BAIS (British Association for Irish Studies); Member of IASIL (International Association for the study of Irish Literatures); NISN – Nordic Irish Studies Network; ACIS – American Conference for Irish Studies.

Volunteer Coordinator: Robert Finnigan

2007-11-12T11:26:00.000Z

Robert first developed his re-awakened passion for Irish literature, while attending Alison O’Malley- Younger’s Irish Drama module as an undergraduate, where he challenged the notion Alison was making regarding a mythical figure- (hopefully Alison was impressed). Since then Robert has been involved with NEICN and Irish Studies at the University of Sunderland in many ways, along with Alison O’Malley- Younger and especially Colin Younger, in helping promote and encourage research into the various characteristics of Irish culture and society.

Robert’s main areas of interests lye in the realms of Irish mythology, folklore and legends, particularly tales of heroic battles, creatures of old and the myths of origin. He also possess a passion for Irish drama, in both English and Gaelic, while enjoying poetry by Irish authors, especially the works of Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, W. B. Yeats, Charlotte Brooke and Seamus Heaney; it is drama and theatre that Robert finds his spirit lies.

Recently, Robert has begun to explore his taste for gothic literature, literature that emphasises mystery and horror, texts filled with ghost-haunted rooms, underground passages, and secret stairways, monsters of a time long forgotten and death. Although, it is particularly Irish gothic writers such as Sheridan Le Fanu, Charles Maturin, Maria Edgeworth and Bram Stoker that have become the focus his research. Ultimately it is the Irish Vampire in particular that appears to have captured his imagination.

The North East Irish Culture Network

2007-11-12T11:04:00.000Z

The North East Irish Cultural Network (NEICN) is an academic association based at the Universities of Sunderland and Durham. It seeks to promote and encourage the study and teaching of all aspects of the society, culture and literature of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Irish Diaspora. NEICN organises seminars, symposia and conferences for scholars, Ph.D. students, teachers and other interested parties as well as hosting cultural events such as dance performances, poetry readings and musical evenings for the benefit of the community. NEICN also encourages discussion among members on topics of Irish interest, and promote and enhance the interest in Irish studies within the North of England and beyond.