June 2002 Germaine Greer to lead International Line-up at Centre for Irish Studies Confere

'Ned Kelly and the Irish Inheritance' is the provocative title of a talk to be delivered by Germaine Greer at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI, Galway on Wednesday 19 June. Professor Greer will deliver the keynote address at the Twelfth Irish Australian Conference, 'From Youghal Harbour to Moreton Bay: Remembered Nations, Imagined Republics', 19-22 June, which brings together many of the most eminent scholars in Irish Australian studies from Ireland, Australia, Britain, South Africa and New Zealand. With more than fifty papers scheduled for presentation, the Galway conference is set to be the largest to date with papers presented on a broad range of issues including migration, ethnic identities, multiculturalism, health and gender, Irish-aboriginal relations, industrial relations, republicanism, language, literature and the efforts of Irish missionaries in Australia.

'We are particularly pleased with the diversity of the material which will have considerable appeal to a general audience and will greatly extend considerably the scope of future research in Irish-Australian studies,' says Louis de Paor, Director of the Centre for Irish Studies. 'The timing of the conference is also auspicious given the recent and unprecedented development in of Irish Studies in the antipodes which has seen the establishment of centres for Irish Studies at some of Australia's most prestigious universities in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and elsewhere. It also confirms our commitment to a more outward looking inclusive definition of Irish Studies.'

Among the more intriguing titles in the conference programme are Ann McVeigh's talk on child migration which has been the subject of recent television documentaries such as 'The Leaving of Liverpool' and 'The Lost Children'; Rosemary Sheehan's comparison of the treatment of women prisoners in Mountjoy and Melbourne jails; and Chris Eipper's 'Virgin Worship, Desire, Sex and Gender' which is part of a work in progress provisionally titled Virgin Mothers, Bad Girls and Murdered Babies.

Chris Whittington's study of Haemochromatosis, a hereditary condition, involving iron deficiency, which has its highest incidence among Irish people and their descendants, will provide interesting insights into this little-known condition. 'Free Women on a Savage Frontier' is a title of Pat Jacobs' talk, which looks at the work of a group of Irish nuns among Aboriginal and Asian people in Broome, Beagle Bay and Lombadina, one of the most violent frontiers in Australia, when the pearling industry was at its height.

Other highlights include a reading on Thursday, 20 June, by John McGahern from his acclaimed new novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun, which has just been awarded the Irish Fiction Award at Listowel Writers Festival and on Friday, 21 June, there will be an evening of songs, poems and ballads from Irish-Australia with Seán Tyrell, Shane Howard and Vincent Woods.

A new collection of Australian Landscape Studies by Connemara artist, Mary Donnelly, will be exhibited throughout the four days of the conference.

Everyone is welcome to attend the conference and a daily registration fee includes access to all events as well as lunch and coffee.

All the conference proceedings will take place in the Ó Tnúthail Theatre, AM150, Arts Millennium Building, NUI, Galway. The evening events will commence at 8.00 p.m. in AM250, Arts Millennium Building. Admission to the evening presentations by Germaine Greer, John McGahern, Evelyn Conlon, Seán Tyrell, Vincent Woods and Shane Howard, is by ticket only and is free of charge. Tickets are available in advance from Áras Fáilte, the University's Information Centre. (Tel. 091 750418).

Full details of the conference programme are available on the Centre for Irish Studies website at www.irishstudies.ie or from Conference Director Dr Louis de Paor, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI, Galway. Tel: 353+91+512198 Email: louis.depaor@nuigalway.ie

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Information from:Máire Mhic Uidhir, Press Officer, NUI, Galway.Tel. 091 750418