DERRY CITY & STRABANE DISTRICT COUNCIL
AUTUMN LECTURE SERIES TO W E R M U S E U M , D E R R Y
ISLAND VOICES 2018 BORDER CROSSINGS Navigating the frontiers of language, culture and identity
D E R R Y S T R A B A N E . C O M / MUSEUMS TO B O O K YO U R P L AC E ,
contact the Tower Museum on tel: 028 7137 2411 or email: tower.reception@derrystrabane.com.
D E R R Y S T R A B A N E . C O M / UG LASETI LEGR ES C O T S
DERRY CITY & STRABANE DISTRICT COUNCIL
AUTUMN LECTURE SERIES TO W E R M U S E U M , D E R R Y
ISLAND VOICES 2018 BORDER CROSSINGS Navigating the frontiers of language, culture and identity Borders are never far from our minds. Both literal and figurative, they serve to compartmentalise our world. Borders mark out territories, they create, for some, a sense of nationhood and belonging, but they also serve to create a symbolic frontier in the mind separating ‘us’ from ‘them’, and ‘ourselves’ from the ‘other’. Despite globalisation we remain defined by national, social and cultural borders. And never has space and place seemed more contested than now, as we contemplate a new post-Brexit landscape which challenges us to rethink our traditional understanding of national, cultural and linguistic identity. Derry City and Strabane District Council presents Island Voices 2018 - a series of free lunchtime lectures exploring the role of borders within our shared heritage, and reflecting on borders in our contemporary understanding of ourselves and others.
Being Irish, Being British: Difference, similarity, and the work of imagining group boundaries Dr Dominic Bryan, Queen’s University Belfast // Thursday 20th September 2018, 1:00pm – 2:00pm // Tower Museum, Derry This talk will examine the construction of identities in our society. It will start from the premise that, broadly speaking, the peoples of our islands share the same culture. Nevertheless, particular differences in social identity come to dominate political processes. By examining group identities, the marking of ethno-national boundaries and the use of symbols and rituals, we can
Dr Dominic Bryan
better understand how the work of imaging communities takes place. How is it that people with such similar life experiences come to view themselves as an ‘us’ and a ‘them’? By looking at examples such as the attachment to symbols, the use of historical narratives, and the practices of ‘telling’ in everyday life the talk will explore similarity, difference, conflict and peace.
Dr. Dominic Bryan is a Reader in Social Anthropology at Queen’s University Belfast. From 2002-2014 he was Director of the Institute of Irish Studies. Research interests include political rituals, symbols, commemoration, public space and identity in Northern Ireland. He is author of ‘Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual Tradition and Control’. In 2014 he was co-author of ‘The Flag Dispute: Anatomy of a Protest’ and recently was co-author of ‘Flags: Towards a New Understanding’. Dominic is also the Chair of Diversity Challenges and co-Chair of the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition.
The Anglo-Scottish Borders and the Plantation of Ulster Robert Bell // Thursday 18th October 2018, 1:00pm – 2:00pm // Tower Museum, Derry
Our history defines us, as do our borders. For three hundred years until the end of the sixteenth century, the lawless Scots-English borders shaped a society of great marauding families that were a plague to both governments. In one of history’s great coincidences, the end of the Nine Years War in Ireland in 1603 coincided with the death of Elizabeth I, and the English crown passed to James
Robert Bell
VI of Scotland. He then ruthlessly pacified his ‘Middle Shires’ and in a few years the Riding Clan culture was utterly destroyed. Meanwhile, the colonisation of Ulster was being imposed. Untold numbers of Scots borderers fled persecution for Ulster. Despite going largely undocumented they came in great numbers and helped to shape and influence the character of the planter population.
Robert Bell was born in Belfast in 1953. He left school at 16 and worked in a variety of jobs in Ireland and England for 10 years before studying Modern History at Queens University in Belfast. He was Supervisor of the NI Political Collection at the Linen Hall Library from 1984 to 1994, when he also published ‘The Book of Ulster Surnames’. He then worked as a freelance writer for the UN in Bangkok and as a programme developer for the International Organisation for Migration in Sarajevo. He worked for 15 years as a writer and editor for UNICEF in Copenhagen before retiring there in 2015.
Changing spaces: the new geographies of the Gaeltacht and Irish language networks Dr John Walsh, NUI Galway // Friday 30th November 2018, 1:00pm – 2:00pm // Tower Museum, Derry Space and place are probably the most fundamental concepts in geography, yet despite the obvious spatial manifestations of so much of the world, including the linguistic, space is not widely employed beyond the confines of geography. Although languages and their speakers are deeply bound up with issues of space and place, sociolinguistics itself is poorly engaged with these concepts. This talk explores why
Dr John Walsh
sociolinguists need to pay much more attention to space and explains how it can redefine our understandings of the current spatiality of the Irish language both within the Gaeltacht and elsewhere in Ireland. The talk will also examine the mapping of the Gaeltacht and more lately the ‘language planning process’ which is supposed to strengthen Irish on a specifically defined spatial basis.
Dr John Walsh is a Senior Lecturer in Irish in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the National University of Ireland, Galway where he teaches sociolinguistics and media. From 2008 to 2012, he was Joint Director of a national syllabus project for Irish at third-level and from 2013 to 2017 he was an active member of the COST (European Co-operation in Science and Technology) network on ‘new speakers’ of various languages including Irish. John’s research interests include the sociolinguistics of Irish, language policy, language ideology, minority language media (particularly radio) and language and socio-economic development.
ISLAND VOICES is an annual lecture series which seeks to explore the languages, cultures and heritages of these islands with a particular emphasis on the Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions. The series is funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Good Relations Programme and delivered by Council’s Language Services in partnership with Council’s Heritage and Museum Services. Booking essential Please book your place by contacting the Tower Museum (028) 7137 2411 or email tower.reception@derrystrabane.com Lunch provided // Admission Free Please visit the Island Voices Learning Zone: www.towermuseumlearning.co.uk/island-voices This information is available upon request in a number of formats including large print, Braille, PDF, audio formats (CD, MP3, DAISY) and minority languages. For further information on alternative formats please contact Tel 028 71 253253 text phone: 028 7137 664 Further information on Irish and Ulster-Scots available from: www.derrystrabane.com/gaeilge www.derrystrabane.com/ulster-scots