It has been a week when identities and Irish identities in particular have been the subject of much comment consideration-at home and abroad-and also a cause thankfully of celebration. It has been uplifting in a way which we have not seen in Ireland for a while and in UCC we had a small piece of that with the Queen’s visit to Tyndall, as we will have an ongoing connection with the visit of President Obama through the ongoing Frederick Douglass project. The connection of identities with many of our disciplines in CACSSS and the recent development of the exciting link in Irish Studies with Notre Dame and opportunities of exchange of our postgraduates, leads to the question of how we should best mark our College’s engagement with this issue. Here the College owes a great deal to Dr Jean Van Sindern Law who brokered the deal with Notre Dame identifying both a potential sponsor and the partner College; the President of UCC who championed the issue as part of his NYC visit and Prof Pat Coughlan who ably represented the College on that visit, articulating the case for Irish Studies eloquently as you might expect; but as you may not appreciate along the way (at the Ireland fund dinner no less) meeting both Mohammad Ali & Enda Kenny!! -All in a day's work for an English Prof.!
Next week will also see the celebration of the honorary conferring in UCC which will in part mark the generous support of scholarship within the University and the College. It is therefore timely and appropriate to reflect on the engagement of people on a worldwide scale with Irish identities and its themes, and ponder how they might best be connected with what happens in our College and made aware of our scholarship and expertise. (Also I confess that Jean asked me about this, and I do feel we owe her!)
I think what is exciting about the project of Irish identities in UCC is the opportunity it offers for people to appreciate what we offer in this area in UCC (particularly -but not exclusively- in CACSSS). It will facilitate first an engagement with these issues initially on line, perhaps leading some to later follow up with a visit to our campus while on holiday; then progressing to take a taster course or attend a summer school; resulting in someone sending a student-or enrolling themselves in a MA. The potential is huge. Our audience is literally anyone who wishes to engage with the issues we are researching and studying-and here it is significant that we remember, as Bill Clinton reminded us recently on St Patrick’s Day, what we are good at.- In our case as a University it is research and education- manifest in learning, thinking and our engagement with ideas. The UCC Irish identities project can and should showcase our expertise-the books we author; the projects we research; the conferences we host;- but it should also do more and allow that engagement to develop by facilitating a living dialogue or conversation if you will on Irish identities with academics working in the area at its core. Making that connection between the academics researching and exploring the issue –which is what we are about as a University- and the interested public, should be central to all our endeavours and at the heart of the public face of the University. -Whether this is manifest through engaging with our archives; our collections; interpreting for others and communicating what we have discovered-and what we are about-what we possess (digitisation of our collections here is key)-what we write and have written and are writing-what collective seminars and dialogues we might publicise-it will all further flourish through creating a ‘live’ intellectual space through which people find out about Irish identities, and engage with the scholars at its core. This is a golden opportunity to bring the atmosphere and excitement of the lecture theatre and seminar room in UCC onto a global stage.
To give a concrete example of how this might happen. Those teaching on the MA in Irish Studies might decide to offer a forum around the themes being explored as part of that programme whereby students on the MA reflect on and articulate what they are doing and why; explore what they are learning, and academics comment and opine. It could both serve to highlight the fact that interested people can further engage with issues such as these through the MA, as well as act as a ‘live’ learning journal for those students. There may be other and much better ideas-but common to them should be an engagement in a dialogue that is current and living. So to answer Jean's question, that is what I think we need and what CACSSS will be happy in co-operation with you and others to provide.
