Past Talks

On 2 February the Aisling Society marked St Brigid’s Day with a special one-day symposium at the State Library of NSW celebrating the historical and cultural contribution of Irish Australian women.

After the Annual General Meeting Dr Mary O’Connell spoke about her latest book The Country of Our Dreams, a novel set in 19th-century Ireland and 21st-century Australia, exploring the Irish Land War of 1879 -1882

The Aisling St Patrick’s Day dinner was cancelled due to COVID-19 epidemic

This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software. Dr Jeff Kildea had posted to YouTube a video podcast entitled ‘Archbishop Kelly and the Quarantine Station incident of 1918’. Members, who had been invited to view the video before the meeting, discussed the content of the video.

Dr Pamela O’Neill spoke on ‘Lost infants in the Irish psyche’. Her talk contextualised the infamous Kerry Babies case within Irish culture from the early medieval period to the present day, by looking at literature, archaeology, news reports and other sources. This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software.

Caitlin Erbacher gave a talk entitled ‘”Guns and Chiffon”: Negotiating Gender and Violence in the Easter Rising’ on Irish republican women’s participation in nationalist violence during the Easter Rising of 1916. This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software.

In a talk entitled ‘The Great Irish Famine debate in America: Was the Famine genocide?’, Siobhán Ryan spoke about the debate in the United States on the use of the term ‘genocide’ in reference to the Great Irish Famine. This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software.

Irish-Australian actor, director and raconteur Maelíosa Stafford gave a ‘seriously humorous’ talk entitled ‘Minister O’Connor…What an Honour’ based on his childhood memories of growing up in Ireland and hearing stories told to him by his grandfather about the early days of the Irish state.

Erin Mollenhauer, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Moore College, gave a talk entitled ‘The Loyal Orange Institution and the Anglican Church in Sydney’ that looked at Irish Anglican clergy in mid-20^th century Sydney who had close connections with the LOI.

Professor Emeritus Peter Kuch gave a talk entitled ‘Hail and Farewell: Reminisces about 13 years in New Zealand’ in which he will speak about the challenges and delights of establishing a Centre for Irish Studies at the University of Otago — the students taught; the courses offered; the guests who were invited; the events held; and some of the conference presentations and publications that were produced.

Adjunct Professor Pam Sharpe gave a talk on her finding of ‘archive gold’ in the form of an anonymous, damaged journal in the National Library of Ireland which provided a detailed account of the daily life in the British Army of Private Robert McNally in Ireland, England, New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land and India in the 1820s and 1830s.

In place of the usual Christmas Party, the society celebrated the festive season with a virtual Christmas party at which the Irish Consul-General Owen Feeney spoke and members entertained each other with music, stories, and talks on their research activities.