Summary – The talk will explore the sources of the Irish Revival in ideas of ‘self-help‘, many rooted in the Protestant tradition. It will consider the ways in which key thinkers and artists of the period were  futurologists but also people activated by a rediscovered sense of Ireland’s past. The talk will also review our current Decade of Commemorations, looking for continuities and discontinuities.

Speaker – Declan Kiberd is Keough Professor of Irish studies at the University of Notre Dame. He taught for many years at UCD. Among his books are ‘Synge and the Irish Language’ (1979), ‘Idir Dhá Chultúr’ (1991), ‘Inventing Ireland’ (1995), ‘Irish Classics’ (2000), ‘The Irish writer and the World’ (2005) and ‘Ulysses and Us’ (2009). Recently, he co-edited the ‘Handbook of the Irish Revival’ (2014), whose texts are at the core of his talk to the society.