CSANA annual meeting and Call For Papers
University of California Celtic Studies Conference/Annual Meeting of the Celtic Studies Association of North America, March 8-11, 2012
Members of CSANA are invited to submit paper proposals on Celtic topics for this upcoming conference, sponsored jointly by the UCLA Celtic Colloquium, the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the UCLA Department of English, the UCLA Indo-European Studies Program, the UCLA Dean of Humanities, and California State University, Bakersfield, along with the Celtic Studies Association of North America.
The proposal should be no longer than a double-spaced page and should indicate any audio-visual needs. Proposals may be submitted (to jfnagy@humnet.ucla.edu) as late as January 13 (Friday), and those whose proposals have been approved by the program committee will be informed no later than the end of that month.
Only proposals from members of CSANA in good standing (i.e., fully paid-up members) will be accepted. For information on how to join CSANA or renew your membership, please see the website at http://irishlanguage.nd.edu/programs/csana/csanahomepage.htm.
Invited speakers include Thomas Clancy (Univ. Glasgow); Fiona Edmonds (Cambridge); Sìm Innes (Harvard); Tara MacLeod (Notre Dame); Torsten Meissner (Cambridge); Daniel Melia (UC Berkeley); Brian Ó Conchubhair (Notre Dame); Nollaig Ó Muraile (NUI Galway); Paul Russell (Cambridge); David Stifter (Maynooth); and Karin Stüber (Univ. Zürich).
A special session on texts pertaining to the “heroic biography” of Conchobar mac Nessa is being organized by Chantal Kobel (Trinity College Dublin) and Anna Pagé (UCLA).
Plans are also afoot for a reception Thursday evening, a concert Friday evening, a banquet in Westwood Village (next to the UCLA campus) Saturday evening, and an expedition Sunday afternoon for conference members staying on after the final paper session (which should be over by three o’clock). Details will be forthcoming.
For information about hotels in the UCLA area, see:
http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCLA/menuitem.789d0eb6c76e7ef0d66b02ddf848344a/?vgnextoid=d7fc064a9a7d1010VgnVCM1000008f8443a4RCRD
(Note: the UCLA Celtic Colloquium does not vouch for the “Banana Bungalow.”)
We hope to see you here in March! For more information, please contact Professor Joseph Nagy, co-chair of the program committee, at jfnagy@humnet.ucla.edu.
JFN, on behalf of the UCLA Celtic Colloquium
Dr Damien Ó Muirí: An Appreciation
The unexpected death of Dr Damien Ó Muirí at his home in Walkinstown on December 21st after a sudden heart-attack at the age of only 62 came as a terrible blow to his family and many friends.
Damien was a noted Irish scholar and for many years, until his recent retirement, Leachtóir na Gaeilge at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (since 1997, the National University of Ireland). But he also had a keen interest in the law, being called to the Bar in Dublin in 1995 and to the State Bar of California in 2003.
He studied at UCD, from where he obtained a BA in Celtic Studies, and an MA and PhD in Modern Irish. He won the Mansion House Fund Scholarship in Irish (for being placed first in the NUI in the subject) and the JH Curran Scholarship. These achievements resulted in a studentship in the school of Celtic studies of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
His law studies at the King’s Inns, Dublin, led also in time (in 2002) to the award of a further degree from UCD, an LLM. Damien was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and an accredited mediator. In addition, Foras na Gaeilge recognised him as an accredited translator in 2006.
Damien, from boyhood, had also been very interested in oriental matters. He ran extra-mural courses at Maynooth in Japanese studies and Oriental studies. He was vice-president of the Ireland-Japan Society, director of its language school, and (on two occasions) chairman of the Friends of the Chester Beatty Library.
He was an ardent organiser and canvasser for the interests of Fianna Fáil in Dublin. He was both amused and perturbed by the trend of the Haughey years, viewing this as an aberration that would pass – as indeed it did. But the recent crisis was a more serious matter: he felt uncertain and indeed betrayed by what his party had brought to pass.
For Damien’s view of politics was of community help and involvement, in the best and Christian sense, as was emphasised by Fr Micheál MacGréil, SJ, in his funeral homily. He was a good person to know simply because he was so invariably kind and helpful to his friends, always with a twinkle in his eye.
His published work includes articles on Criostóir Ó Floinn, Eoghan Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird and O’Growney, and on the Irish dialect-forms of Gweedore, Co Donegal. Most recently, in 2010, he had published (with Susan McKenna-Lawlor) An English-Irish Lexicon of Scientific and Technical Space-Related Terminology.
The real and abiding tragedy is that Damien has died relatively young, with so much of his best still to give, both to Irish studies and to law.
The large gathering at Damien’s funeral mass at Walkinstown Church included family and friends, and colleagues from Maynooth, law, and politics. Music included the “Ó Riada Mass”, Panis Angelicus(César Franck), Ave Verum(Mozart), Abide with me(Lyte/Monk) and Requiem aeternam(Bruckner’s Requiem).
Luíonn corp Damien anois i reilig Glais Naoín lena athair Leo agus lena mháthair Bridie.
Damien and Bríd Clarke were married in 1985 in the picturesque church at Glencullen in the Dublin mountains. To Bríd now and their three children Bláthmhac, Ornat and Aonghus go out our deepest sympathies.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
The Four Courts Press Michael Adams Prize in
Irish Medieval Studies
• This prize will be awarded annually at the International Congress on Medieval
Studies at Kalamazoo.
• The prize will be awarded for the best peer-reviewed essay/article on Irish
Medieval Studies published in a book or journal during the previous calendar
year (please note that for the first year’s prize, which will be awarded in
May 2011, the prize will be awarded for the best peer-reviewed essay/article
published in a book or journal during the period 2006–2010).
• Only articles/essays written by members of ASIMS will be considered.
Membership of ASIMS can be arranged via:
http://www.facebook.com/l/24c64;irishmedievalist.wordpress.com/
membership-information/membership-dues
Membership dues for a given year are as follows: Regular Membership:
$50.00 Lecturer/Part Time Faculty: $30.00 Student Membership: $20.00
• The prize is open to everybody, from students to senior academics.
• Each entrant must submit 4 copies of his/her article on paper or by PDF on
or by 25 February of the year of the prize ceremony (i.e. if you are entering
the competition with an essay/article that was published in 2010 you must
submit your entry for consideration on or by 25 February 2011).
• All submissions for the year 2010 are to be sent by 25 February 2011 to
Dr. John Soderberg, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota,
395 Humphrey Center, 301 19th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
E-mail: sode0018@umn.edu
• The essays/articles will be judged by a panel consisting of (a) Michael
Potterton representing Four Courts Press (b) a judge representing
ASIMS (c) a Chairperson selected by Four Courts Press and ASIMS.
• The winning essay will be announced annually at the International Congress
on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo.
• The prizes will consist of the following:
A specially selected gift from Four Courts Press. A cheque to the value of
US$500.00 from Four Courts Press. A summary of the article will be
reprinted in EOLAS.
33rd Annual Conference
The 33rd Annual University of California Celtic Conference was held at The University of California, Berkeley on April 1 and 2, 2011.
32nd Annual Conference
The 32nd Annual University of California Celtic Studies Conference, sponsored by the UCLA Celtic Colloquium and the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, took place on March 4-7, 2010, on the UCLA campus (Royce 314).
Invited guests included Kim McCone (NUI Maynooth) and Katharine Simms (Trinity College). For more information, please contact Karen Burgess at kburgess@ucla.edu or Joseph Nagy at jfnagy@humnet.ucla.edu.