News / Events

School of Irish Learning Autumn Seminar Series

21 Oct 2021

The series will begin on Thursday, 21 October at 5pm. The first seminar will be conducted in English; the following two will be conducted in Irish.

All three events will take place via MS Teams). Everyone is welcome to attend.

The first seminar in the series will comprise a special event to celebrate the recent return to Cork of the 15th-century Irish manuscript known now as the Book of Lismore.

It is exactly ten years since the Book of Lismore visited UCC from Chatsworth in England (some of you may remember that event which was organised by Professors Máire Herbert and John Carey and the poster for which I have inluded here: Travelled Tales. Leabhar Scéalach Siúlach 2011) and now, thanks to the Duke of Devonshire Peregrine Cavendish, Professor Pádraig Ó Macháin (Head of the Dept of Modern Irish) and Special Collections in the Boole Library, the manuscript has returned to Cork, this time for good.

The first seminar of our Autumn Seminar Series will be a celebration of the manuscript and will comprise three short talks (15 minutes each) within the usual hour of the seminar slot. Professors John Carey and Pádraig Ó Macháin and Dr Kevin Murray will deliver these talks in which they will consider various aspects of the manuscript including In Tenga Bithnua (The Evernew Tongue), a 9th-century text which reveals the mysteries of the creation, the cosmos and the end of the world, as related by the soul of the apostle Philip speaking in the language of the angels; Acallam na Senórach (the dialogue between surviving Fianna warriors and St Patrick) and the production and illustration of the manuscript itself.

Directly after the seminar talks, at 6pm, the Book of Lismore will be set up in the Manuscripts Reading Room of Special Collections in the Boole Library for a maximum of 30 people to see. Interested parties will be able to view the manuscript in groups of 5 for 10 minutes each. Elaine Harrington of Special Collections has very kindly arranged for this part of the event to take place.

If you wish to view the manuscript after the seminar, please email emma.niccarthaigh@ucc.ie before 8 October.

A pdf of the bilingual booklet compiled for the 2011 event by Professors Máire Herbert, John Carey and College Translator Brian Ó Donnchadha may be found here: https://www.ucc.ie/en/smg/newsevents/travelled-tales--leabhar-scealach-siulach.html 

Roinn na Sean- agus na Meán-Ghaeilge

Department of Early and Medieval Irish

Bloc A, Urlár na Talún, Áras Uí Rathaille / Block A, Ground Floor, O'Rahilly Building, UCC, Cork

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