Schedule
Noon Kurka Boshkin play at Memorial
stadium, UC Berkeley
4-7 pm Third conference of the
International Congress of Irish
Studies
at the Geballe Room 220 Stephens Hall
Introduction by Prof Dan Melia
(Emeritus, UC Berkeley)
Part 1: The American Irish Diaspora
4pm G UC Berkeley 8th
annual UC Berkeley St Patrick's day lecture
Prof Christopoher O'Sullivan (USF)
“The Irish in California”
Part 2: Conflict and resolution on the
island of Ireland
5 pm Seán Ó Nualláin
UOI
“Why Prime Minister Gerry Adams is
unlikely to invade Northern Ireland”
Abstract
By April 2016, the 100th
anniversary of the Easter rising that gained Ireland a measure of
independence, it is likely that Gerry Adams will be Prime Minister
of the Republic of Ireland. Moreover, as his lieutenant Martin
McGuinness has stated, it is likely that the set of elations in early
2016 for the Westminster and Northern Ireland assemblies will make a
United Ireland inevitable. With Sinn Fein fulfilling their master
plan of being in government in both jurisdictions of the island,
neither of which jurisdictions they recognized until recently, they
may be tempted to simply send the army over the border. This paper
argues that Adams has his eye on another anniversary and will simply
let the border melt away;. 1919 was the first meeting of the
“provisional” government after which his paramilitary
organization was named, and from which it claimed its role as the
legitimate government of the whole island from 1919 to 1999. It is in
keeping with Adam's extreme-long term thinking that it is also the
850th anniversary of the first Anglo-Norman invasion.
5-30 pm response by Jack DuVall,
president, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (or Jack
DuVall, co-author, A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent
Conflict)
6pm, St Patrick, Man and Myth
The historical St Patrick is a fugitive figure, as one would expect
looking across a chasm of over 1.5 millennia. This has allowed
various concepts to be projected on him; a Briton who yet becomes the
most potent rallying-symbol for the entire Irish diaspora; a liberator
who seems to have been involved in expunging the native Celtic
traditions
Yet we have two documents from him that indicate a well-defined
subjectivity; his confessions and the letter to Coroticus. It is
interesting how different the songs celebrating him are from these.
“Dóchas linn Naomh Pádraig” speaks of his Druidic opponents as being
“useless, and hard of heart” and “He cleansed them for us forever,
great glory to our dear saint!”
The historical St Patrick is a fugitive figure, as one would expect
looking across a chasm of over 1.5 millennia. This has allowed
various concepts to be projected on him; a Briton who yet becomes the
most potent rallying-symbol for the entire Irish diaspora; a liberator
who seems to have been involved in expunging the native Celtic
traditions
Yet we have two documents from him that indicate a well-defined
subjectivity; his confessions and the letter to Coroticus. It is
interesting how different the songs celebrating him are from these.
“Dóchas linn Naomh Pádraig” speaks of his Druidic opponents as being
“useless, and hard of heart” and “He cleansed them for us forever,
great glory to our dear saint!”
By contrast, the Lorica of Saint Patrick declares “ I arise today.
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity” and
continues to refer to the Druidic concept of “niurt”, a divine
strength pervading the cosmos. According to respected researchers
like O Duinn of the University of Limerick, there is a sly reference
to the Chandogya Upanishad, with Christ rather than the infinite
invoked to be beside, behind and above the speaker.
The Lorica of Saint Patrick was almost certainly written several
centuries after Patrick’s death. It may represent a historic
compromise between the Druidic remnants still existent and a
Christendom weakened by the fall of the Roman empire. It is a text
plunged in the kind of nature mysticism that O Duinn insists is
central to the Druidic tradition. As such, it resembles Tibetans'
equally successful reconstruction of
Indian Buddhism.
The ebbing of Christendom has again
been experienced by 21st century
Ireland, leaving moral chaos..
Ireland, leaving moral chaos..
6pm: Prof Dan Melia (Emeritus, UC
Berkeley) on a redating of St Patrick's mission to the mid 4th
century form the received date of 432
6-30 pm Melanie O''Reilly;
“Introduction to nn ethno-jazz setting of Patrick's Lorica”
We propose giving the Lorica an ethno-jazz setting,
with Celtic and other themes. We propose also an indirect tribute to
our late friend, Dave Brubeck, by setting “Ailiu Iath eirann” with its
celebration of the physical land of Ireland to 5:4; the fact the lines
in general have 5 syllables making this possible.
Bio
Melanie O''Reilly was Ireland's
representative at the Euro-Jazz festival at UCLA in 2013
Melanie O''Reilly and Frank Martin's
Joyce & Jazz Suite already had an invite and grant to be
performed atCork Jazz Festival as part of the Jazz Gathering, in
2013.
Both Joyce & Jazz Suite AND the Sean O Riordain pieces have been
recorded on Ceol Ceantair CD and these pieces were performed at NCH,
-this concert was picked as one of the top ten concerts of the 2103,
by Ireland's Sunday Independent. The Sean O Riordain pieces were performed part of Dublin's IMRAM festival in 2014; among other current Imran projects is the Doors in Gaelic, featuring Ray Manzarek's saxplayer George Brooks.
Both Joyce & Jazz Suite AND the Sean O Riordain pieces have been
recorded on Ceol Ceantair CD and these pieces were performed at NCH,
-this concert was picked as one of the top ten concerts of the 2103,
by Ireland's Sunday Independent. The Sean O Riordain pieces were performed part of Dublin's IMRAM festival in 2014; among other current Imran projects is the Doors in Gaelic, featuring Ray Manzarek's saxplayer George Brooks.
8pm Melanie O'Reilly and Frank Martin
perform ethno-jazz, Cafe Trieste, San Pablo, Berkeley
