40th Anniversary Conference Programme 5-6 June 2025 at TCD

The Society’s 40th annual conference takes place on 5-6 June in the Trinity Long Room Hub at TCD. This conference marks an important milestone in the society’s history and we have a superb programme of speakers to encourage as many new and existing members as possible to attend

REGISTRATION

Conference attendees can register via Eventbrite at this link. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eighteenth-century-ireland-society-conference-2025-tickets-1349142745269?aff=oddtdtcreator

ECIS Annual Conference Programme 

Trinity College Dublin 

5–6 June 2025 

Thursday 5 June 

11.00am – Coffee and Registration 

11.30 – Welcome 

11.45–13.15 Session 1 

1a Improvement 

Colm Murray (TUD/Grangegorman)  

Comfort and ‘welfare’ in the House of Industry, Dublin. Evidence from pamphlets and reports  

Jason McElligott (Marsh’s Library) 

 ‘The Women of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham’  

Harrie Neale (University of York)  

‘Wastes, which steam poison to the skies’: Irish Atmospherics, Bog Improvement, and Catholic Rights to Life 

1b Texts, Transmission and Circulation 

Keirán Morrissey-Fernández (University of Limerick)   

The Availability of Works by Miguel de Cervantes in Eighteenth-Century Ireland  

Moyra Haslett (Queen’s University Belfast)  

Printed song in eighteenth-century Ireland: The Ladies Amusement (c.1748) and The Honest Fellow (c.1793-97)  

Nina Cnockaert-Guillou (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)  

Tadhg Ó Neachtain and Seón Mac Solaidh’s Agallamh na Seanórach  

13.15–14.00 Lunch 

14.00–15.00 

Léacht Alan Harrison – Alan Harrison Lecture 

Professor Marc Caball (UCD) 

Daniel Corkery’s The Hidden Ireland  (1924) and the case of Aogán Ó Rathaille (c.1670-1729) 

15.00–16.30 Session 2 

2a European Connections  

Maria Zukovs (St Andrews)  

Revolutionary Refugees: Dublin as a city of refuge for French émigrés, 1789-1794 

Liam Chambers (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick)  

Reading Rousseau? Assessing the library of the Irish College, Bordeaux, 1794 

Clíona Ó Gallchoir (UCC) 

“‘Un Dictionnaire néologique’: French Contexts for Maria Edgeworth’s Views on Language and Linguistic Change” 

2b Caiticeasmaí, filíocht agus an dialann: Éagsúlacht seánraí i dtraidisiún na Gaeilge san 18ú Aois 

Ciarán MacMurchaidh (DCU)  

‘Ó Raghallaigh agus de Buitléar: Foilsiú agus gluaiseacht caiticeasmaí Gaeilge agus Gaeilge-Béarla in Éirinn san ochtú haois déag’ 

Máire Ní Íceadha (UCC)  

Léas eile ar shaothar an fhile Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1748-1784)  

Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh, (University of Edinburgh)  

[M]undane diary entries in Irish’? Cathal Ó Conchúir agus Annála Beaga Bhéal Átha na gCarr   

16.30-16:45 

Short Break

16.45–17:30 

Reflections on 40 years of ECIS with Society founders Ian Campbell Ross and Andrew Carpenter in conversation with ECIS President Ivar McGrath 

17:30-18:30

Reception in the TCD Senior Common Room/PGR Bursary announcement.

19.00 Conference Dinner 

Dunne & Crescenzi, 14–16 South Frederick Street, Dublin 2 

Friday 6 June 

9.30–11.00 Session 3 

3a Echoes and Re-imaginings: Eighteenth-Century Literature Now 

David Clare (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick) 

Swiftian Echoes in the Work of Stewart Parker 

Conrad Brunström (Maynooth University)  

‘Darkness and Confusion’:  whose eighteenth-century is it anyway? Perspectives on teaching eighteenth-century material in an Irish university setting.  

Lydia Freire Gargamala (University of Vigo) 

Between Sanctuary and Subjugation: Reimagining Irishness in the Novels of Elizabeth Griffith and Regina Maria Roche 

3b Social and Economic History  

Brendan Twomey (Trinity College Dublin)  

From Office-holding to Civil Service – the eighteenth-century Ireland experience   

Paul Kelly (London School of Economics)  

Market Failure in a Booming Economy  

Sean Moore (Trinity College Dublin)  

‘Village Statesmen’ as Local Freemasons in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village: 18th-Century ‘Fake News’ as Produced by the Secret Service 

11.00-11.30 Coffee 

11.30-12.30  

Plenary 

Professor Christina Morin (University of Limerick) 

‘Ordered to America’: Irish Gothic in/and the Early American Republic 

12.30-14.00 Lunch & AGM 

14.00-15.30 Session 4 

4a Contested Identities  

Claire O’Nuallain (Courthald Institute)   

‘Rescuing from oblivion the antiquities of Ireland’: Reading agendas in antiquarian watercolours, 1770-1792 

Henry Swords (Trinity College Dublin)    

‘Supporting the national character to future ages’: heroes, great men, and the development of Irish identities in war and revolution, 1756-1783.  

Caitriona Kennedy (University of York)  

Domestic servants as linguistic and cultural intermediaries in eighteenth-century Ireland 

4b Staging Ireland in London: adaptation, patriotism, and finance  

David O’Shaughnessy and Jenny Buckley (University of Galway)  

Introduction to the Theatronomics digital resource (beta) 

Jenny Buckley (University of Galway) 

‘Extra! Extra! Play All About it!’ – The American Revolution and the War of the Afterpiece 

David O’Shaughnessy (University of Galway) 

Gulliver on Stage 

15.30-16.00 Coffee 

16.00-17.00 

Plenary 

Professor James Kelly (DCU) 

An intermittent mirror: Irish political caricature 1775-1825 

Conference close 

The Society would like to thank Marsh’s Library for their continuing generous sponsorship of Postgraduate bursaries. 

Posted on behalf of the Conference Organising Committee: Aileen Douglas, Amy Prendergast and Patrick Walsh