Past Talks
Since its foundation in 1955 the Society’s principal activity has been the presentation of talks by members or invited guests on topics relating to Ireland and Irish heritage in Australia. In that time several hundred talks have been given. From 1974 many of those talks were audio recorded and we hold copies of those recordings from 1974 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2017, numbering in all 198 talks of variable quality. Since 2020, when during Covid we began to livestream our meetings via Zoom, the talks given to the Society have been video recorded, accumulating at the rate of about seven per year. In addition, we hold copies of manuscripts of some 56 talks, some dating back to the 1950s and 1960s. Access to these recordings is available to members and to researchers upon application to the Honorary Secretary. A list of recorded talks held by the Society is available here.
Summaries of talks and events back to 2011 can be viewed below.
2015 TALKS
February
After the Annual General Meeting Dr Jeff Kildea, spoke on his time as Keith Cameron professor of Australian History at University College Dublin in 2014.
March
At the St Patrick’s Day Dinner at Parliament House on 20 March Billy Cantwell spoke about his experiences publishing The Irish Echo for more than a quarter century.
April
In a talk entitled “Embodied emotion and The Hibernian Father” Professor Peter Kuch gave an audio/visual presentation on the stage play The Hibernian Father, which opened on 6 May 1844 at the Royal Victoria Theatre. It was the first play written by an Irish convict to be performed on the colonial Sydney stage.
May
Irish author John Connell, in a talk entitled “Writing The Ghost Estate”, spoke about his recently published novel of that name. The novel deals with the impact of the GFC on Ireland, from the perspective of those at the pit-face of the busted building industry. He also spoke about the craft of writing, and about how a 28-year-old Irish novelist found himself living in Australia.
June
Dr Matthew McGuire, a senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney, spoke on “Literature in the wake of the Northern Irish Troubles”.
July
The annual Mid-year Luncheon was held in the Grand Dining Room at the former St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly (now International College of Management, Sydney). Anne Stevens gave a wonderful talk in which she reflected on the 60th anniversary of the Aisling Society.
August
Dr Eddie Jackson gave a very stimulating talk on the social policy mechanisms that have been attempted over the past few decades in order to address sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland.
September
Dr Jeff Kildea, Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies at UNSW and a vice-president of the Society, gave a talk entitled “The Irish at Gallipoli” in which he outlined the part played by Irish soldiers during the Gallipoli campaign, often alongside the Anzacs.
October
Susannah Fullerton spoke about the life and works of Oscar Wilde in a fascinating talk entitled “The Importance of Being Oscar”.