Adam Hanna (Senior Lecturer in Irish Literature, Department of English), along with colleagues from DCU and Trinity College Dublin, recently co-organised a symposium on the Peacock Stage of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. The day was devoted to representations of the Greek heroine Antigone by Irish artists.  This event was the first run by the new Legal Humanities Working Group of the Irish Humanities Alliance.

Adam Hanna (Senior Lecturer in Irish Literature, Department of English), along with colleagues from DCU and Trinity College Dublin, recently co-organised a symposium on the Peacock Stage of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. The day was devoted to representations of the Greek heroine Antigone by Irish artists.  This event was the first run by the new Legal Humanities Working Group of the Irish Humanities Alliance.

Since it was first performed in ancient Greece, Sophocles'   Antigone has raised vital and troubling questions. Antigone refuses to yield to more emollient voices, and demands that her brother be laid to rest with all customary respect. King Creon, similarly, refuses to compromise, and insists that her brother, as a lawbreaker, must go without traditional burial rites. When is it right to defy the law? When does rebellion become a necessity? What price should one be willing to pay to follow one's conscience? These questions were discussed in academic papers and conversations by writers, academics and lawyers, including playwrights Marina Carr and Darren Murphy, novelist Carlo Gébler, and High Court judge and novelist Mr Justice Brian Cregan.