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 gCarr16.30-16:45
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