Nottingham Irish Studies Group present

An 11 week

IRISH STUDIES COURSE

Tuesday evenings Oct 5th - Dec 14th 1999

7.30pm - 9.30pm

Friends Meeting House, Clarendon Street, Nottingham

£3.50 per session

Concessions £2 per session (OAPs not in receipt of Council Tax rebate)

50p per session

(unemployed, students under 19, OAPs not in receipt of Council Tax rebate)

WHO WE ARE

The Nottingham Irish Studies Group was formed in March 1991 with the aim of providing an educational, cultural and social focus for the Irish community in Nottingham. Since then we have run Irish Studies courses, Irish language classes, and two very successful St Patrick’s Day celebrations. We are a non-party political, non-sectarian group, and we have received funding from Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council. We hold regular meetings so if you are interested in the Irish community in Nottingham, get in touch.
The last ten years have seen an increasing sense of identity and assertion on the part of the Irish community in Britain. The development of Irish Studies around the country has played a central part in this revival by offering courses that reflect the diversity and richness of Irish culture and the importance of this culture and sense of identity to those generations of emigrants who define themselves as Irish.

This is the third Irish Studies Course organised by the Nottingham Irish Studies Group in conjunction with Clarendon College, and will be of interest to all those with a genuine interest in Irish culture. Previous knowledge of Irish studies is not assumed, and formal education background is not important. Classes will take the form of a presentation by a guest speaker and then a discussion. The atmosphere will be friendly and informal, and tea and coffee at minimal cost will be available in the short break. The topics chosen cover a wide spectrum of interests and we hope that this mix of serious and more lighthearted evenings will attract people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Oct 5th: Focusing on the Invisible Minority

Emigration has been a way of life for a large majority of the Irish population for almost 200 years. Many of the Irish who came to Britain found employment and hospitality, others racism and poverty. Seán Hutton of the Federation of Irish Societies will look at the historical context of Irish immigration to Britain, and will examine the contemporary experience of the Irish here: Britain’s largest ethnic minority, but also its most invisible.

Oct 12th: Ireland and the Media

Grenville Williams, founder member of the Campaign for Press/Broadcasting Freedom, will focus on the media and its treatment of Ireland, and how the broadcasting ban has affected this.

Oct 19th: Poverty and Lace: Irish Settlement in Nottingham 1832 - 1852

The first Irish immigrants to Nottingham came at the most turbulent time in its history. Patrick Murphy will present the first historical research to look at these migrants, where they lived, worked and their impact on their adopted city. He will also lool at the stormy career of Feargus O’Connor, Irish nationalist and elected MP for Nottingham in 1847.

Oct 26th: Innocent Until Proven Irish

There has always been a question mark under the quality of justice meted out to Irish people in this country. The recent miscarriage of justice cases such as the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, and the Maguires have highlighted the difficulties of being Irish in the British criminal justice system.  Fr Paddy Smith of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas has been an ardent campaigner for Irish people in prison in Britain. Tonight he will share his experiences, and examine whether anything has really changed for the Irish in British courts.

Nov 2nd: Pillars of the House: the Place of Contemporary Irish Women Poets

 The exclusion of women in the recent Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing reflects the invisibility of women in Irish art. Tonight Belfast poet Catherine Byron, who has recently published the much-acclaimed Out of Step: Pursuing Seamus Heaney to Purgatory, will redress the balance by focusing on the work of contemporary Irish women poets and their contribution to Irish literature. She will also read some recent poetry by Eavan Boland, Medbh McGuckian and Anne le Marquand Hartigan.