An Droim Deileoir: The Great Famine and language—linguistics and representation
University of Ulster Belfast/ the MAC Belfast
Keynote Speakers: Cormac Ó Gráda, Terry Eagleton
An Droim Deileoir (the barren ridge) is the location of Seosamh Mac Grianna’s classic short story of the Great Famine, ‘Ar an Trá Fholamh’ (On the Empty Shore). The fictional place name is a metaphor for the very crisis that was central to the making of modern Ireland, its society and economy, politics and culture. The concern here is language. The Great Famine accelerated the decline of the Irish language, and it left its mark on oral and print culture. More immediately, this mortality crisis precipitated a crisis of representation. How do you describe what you have seen? And language shaped how the hungry and diseased themselves understood and expressed their suffering. This bilingual conference assembles scholars from Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States to discuss the Great Famine and Language from a range of disciplinary perspectives. The keynote speakers are economist Cormac Ó Gráda, a leading authority on famine, and critic Terry Eagleton.
Ar an Droim Deileoir a thosaíonn gearrscéal iomráiteach sin Sheosaimh Mhic Grianna ‘Ar an Trá Fholamh’, mar a gcuirtear síos ar aimsir an Drochshaoil. Meafar atá sa logainm féin don ghéarchéim sin ónar eascair Éire na nua-aoise, idir shochaí, gheilleagar, pholaitíocht agus chultúr. Is ar theanga atá ár n-aird anseo. Thapaigh an Gorta Mór meath na Gaeilge agus d’fhág sé a lorg ar an chultúr béil agus ar chultúr an chló. Thairis sin, lean géarchéim léirithe an éigeandáil básmhaireachta seo. Cad é mar a chuirfeá síos ar a bhfaca tú? Agus mhúnlaigh teanga an tuiscint agus an friotal a bhí ag lucht Gorta agus plá ar a n-anás féin.
Tiocfaidh scoláirí as Éirinn, an Ríocht Aontaithe agus S.A.M. le chéile don chomhdháil dhátheangach seo ina bpléifear impleachtaí iomadúla an Ghorta Mhóir i gcúrsaí teanga agus léirithe de réir réimse peirspictíochtaí agus disciplíní.
Is iad Cormac Ó Gráda, eacnamaí agus saineolaí ar ghorta, agus Terry Eagleton, criticeoir, a thabharfas na príomhléachtaí.
To download the programme please click: here.
Image: A Kind of Quietism, Alann O'Kelly (1990). Courtesy of Ireland's Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipac University.