Re-Imagining Ireland in Brief From May 7-10, 2003,
Americans from around the country and Irish from across the sea will converge
on Charlottesville, Virginia, to take part in Re-Imagining Ireland,
a groundbreaking international ‘town meeting’ of Ireland, out of Ireland –
a time-out to discuss the past and present, and build bridges to the future.
President Mary McAleese
This
unique gathering – to be opened by President Mary McAleese of Ireland – will
explore the meaning of Ireland for the world as a modern and prosperous,
yet traditional, culture. Participants – more than 100 journalists, writers,
politicians, artists, scholars, musicians, and citizen activists, most of
them from Ireland – will discuss how the Ireland of the future can emerge
as a compassionate and vital society that creates itself anew, while preserving
the strengths of its heritage. Produced by the Virginia Foundation for the
Humanities (VFH), events will be held at various locations in downtown Charlottesville,
Virginia, and at the University of Virginia.
The conference is open to the public and can accommodate three-hundred
and fifty registered guests. Interested persons are encouraged to register
as soon as possible, beginning January 10, 2003. Individual tickets
also will be available for performance events, which will accommodate much
larger audiences. The project documentary film – co-produced by Academy
Award-winning Paul Wagner Productions and RTÉ (Ireland’s national broadcaster)
– will reach an audience of millions. A volume of essays written by the
Re-Imagining Ireland consultants and published by the University
of Virginia Press will further extend the life of the project.
The key to this gathering is the tremendous range of participants from
all parts of Ireland, who might never meet under any other circumstance.
The goal is to encourage new bonds and affirm old friendships, to find and
celebrate the transforming power of culture, to support participants in
a reflective re-visioning of Ireland.
Who
are the Irish and where does Ireland stand in a global context? Where is
Ireland going and how do its people view their course in the 21st
century? How can the Irish, or any people, come to respect cultural diversity,
bridge social divides, and find peace, bringing all sections of a society
together in a process of reconciliation and development? How has Ireland
affected the course of world history – and, in particular, shaped the social,
economic, and political character of America? Can the long-standing bonds
between Ireland and the U.S. be strengthened, while preserving the unique
qualities and energies of Irish culture? How can and do contemporary arts
– from music and dance to literature; from drama to film and the visual arts
– affect and reflect the aspirations of a people and the changes occurring
in Ireland? These are among the questions to be explored.
Project activities will focus on three interrelated themes:
the transforming effects of global economics on traditional cultures
– Specifically, the program will focus on the social and cultural effects
of the historically unprecedented, recent economic boom in Ireland, now
being reassessed as America and all of the world’s economies adjust to
new realities.
the historic worldwide migration and interaction of national populations
– Speakers will consider the way in which emigrants remain bonded to and
exist in tension with their homelands, while enriching and challenging other
cultures. The focus here will be on Ireland’s historical and contemporary
position relative to Europe and America. Discussion will include how the
Irish have contributed to the U.S., developed new relationships with Britain,
and are now conditioned by ties to the European Union – exemplified by the
switch to the Euro currency on January 1, 2002.
the relation of religious and political identity to issues of terrorism,
war, and peace – Discussion will encompass many of the issues raised by
the process of negotiating peace in Northern Ireland, among these the cultural
complexities of Catholic and Protestant communities and their linguistic
inheritances and legacies, Gaelic and Ulster Scots, both in Ireland and
America.
River Liffey, Dublin / Photo by Richie Devane
Courtesy Irelandposters.com
Concerts, film screenings, theater, exhibitions, and poetry readings will
illuminate discussions that explore Ireland’s culture, asking, “What does
it means to be Irish now?” From “Silicon Ireland” to “Celtic Myth and Spirituality,”
experts will plumb the complex relationships between economic growth and
cultural transformation. Across a range of panels, speakers will consider
the special connections between Ireland and America, Ireland’s new status
in the European Union, the story of worldwide Irish emigration, and the
emergence of “Irish Empires.” Exploring religious and political differences
– and other fault lines, both North and South – the event will foster social
understanding and support the process of waging peace. Considering forces
and trends that are effecting significant, not always well understood, change
around the world, Re-Imagining Ireland will show that the Irish example,
though uniquely patterned, is widely relevant.
Featured Guests President Mary McAleese of Ireland
will keynote Re-Imagining Ireland. Among the more than 100 featured
guests are
Writers – Roddy Doyle, Frank McCourt, Cathal O Searcaigh,
Colm Toibin, and Theo Dorgan
Journalists – Fintan O’Toole, Susan McKay, David McKittrick,
and Eamonn McCann
Musicians – Frankie Gavin, Seamus Egan, Mick Moloney, Andy
Irvine, Joannie Madden, Martin Hayes, Tommy Sands, Bruce Molsky, and
Len Graham and Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin
Historians – Joe Lee, Kerby Miller, Donald Akenson,Tim Pat
Coogan, Marianne Elliott, Roy Foster, and Noel Ignatiev
Activists/Politicians – David Ervine, Liz O'Donnell, Brid
Rodgers, Margaret Mac Curtain, Nan Joyce, and Peter McVerry
Program Components
31 Panel discussions and special events
Concerts by The Green Fields of America and De Dannan and
Solas and Cherish the Ladies
Short film screenings presented by the Cork International Film Festival
New Irish film presented by the Irish Film Board
10 Musical Narratives and Life Stories
Corn Exchange Production of Foley with Andrew Bennett
Contemporary Irish art from the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Major Sponsors: National Endowment for the Humanities;
Cultural Relations
Committee of Ireland/Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism; Anne Lee
Ueltschi Foundation; Caroleen Feeney; the Office of the President at the
University of Virginia; Foras na Gaeilge; Dominion Digital; Gropen; The FUNd
at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Community Foundation; Marty and Richard
Wilson; Peter Sutherland; Charlottesville/Albemarle Convention & Visitors
Bureau; The Forum for Contemporary Thought; Caterpillar; ServerVault; RBC
Dain Rauscher; The Milwaukee Irish Fest; and Vinegar Hill Theatre.
Institutional Collaborators: Bord Scannán, the Irish Film Board;
the Cork International Film Festival; the Irish Centre for Migration Studies;
the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Poetry Ireland; and Glucksman Ireland House
at New York University.
Consultants:Re-Imagining Ireland has been planned
in consultation with an outstanding board of ten Irish and American writers,
scholars, and arts/performance experts. Seven of the consultants are based
primarily in Ireland and Northern Ireland. These include University College
Dublin Irish Studies expert Angela Bourke, National University of
Ireland sociologist Mary Corcoran, poet and radio presenter Theo
Dorgan, Notre Dame-Ireland cultural theorist Luke Gibbons, Dublin
City Arts Centre Director and former Irish Museum of Modern Art Director
Declan McGonagle, Sunday Tribune journalist and author Susan
McKay, University of Ulster film scholar Martin McLoone, and cultural
commentator, author and Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole.
U.S. based consultants include University of Missouri emigration historian
Kerby Miller and musicologist and performance artist Mick Moloney,
founder of the “The Green Fields of America.” For further information on
the consultants, who will also participate as panelists at the Re-Imagining
Ireland program, please see the Featured
Guests section of this web site.
How to Attend: The conference is a public event, with free admission
to all panels, but registration will be limited. Those interested in
attending can register on-line. Click
here to register, beginning January 10, 2003. The fee structure
for the conference package (including all arts presentations, dinner
receptions, and luncheon programs) will be posted on the site. Those
wishing to receive printed bulletins and registration materials when
available should e-mail: re-imagine-ir@virginia.edu.
Tickets for individual events, including concerts, film screenings,
Foley, and other performances, will be available on-line and
by mail, beginning March 1.
