Date & Time 28 April 2013 4pm – 6pm
Venue: Cnoic Suain, Connemara
Join Cuirt 2013 for a special afternoon of music, history and literature in the atmospheric surroundings of Connemara
Contributors to The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (published by Cork University Press, 2012) will speak and give presentations on their work. They will be joined by singer Áine Ní Dhroighneáin in the wonderful hill village of Cnoic Suain. Attendees on the day will have the opportunity to walk around the village. A bus will leave Galway city from the Cathedral at 3:15pm on the day (transport is included in the ticket price).
William J. Smyth
William J. Smyth is Professor Emeritus of Geography at University College Cork, where he held the Chair of Geography since 1977. He has lectured at many universities, including Syracuse University, N.Y., California State at San Fernando, Los Angeles and University College Dublin . He was elected a member of The Royal Irish Academy in 1999.
A former editor of Irish Geography and co-editor of Common Ground: Essays on the Historical Geography of Ireland (1988), he has published widely on Ireland’s social and cultural geography. His prize-winning book Mapmaking, Landscape and Memory: A Geography of Colonial and Early Modern Ireland c. 1530-1750 was published in 2006. He is co-editor of The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (University College Press, Cork) with John Crowley and Mike Murphy.
Cathal Póirtéir
Cathal Póirtéir is a broadcaster and writer. He was a Senior Radio Producer with RTE Radio 1 and RTE Raidió na Gaeltachta for 30 years, working on a wide range of programmes, including a number of series on the Great Irish Famine. He is the editor of several books in Irish and English on folklore, social history and literary topics. He has produced a number of features, documentaries and radio dramas for RTE, now available on CD.
He holds an MA in Folklore for UCD and now works as an independent researcher and writer on folklore. In 2012 Oireachtas na Gaeilge awarded him their Buaic-ghradam Cumarsáide or Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won Gold and Silver in the annual PPI Media Awards.
Áine Ní Dhroighneáin
Áine Ní Dhroighneáin is from An Spidéal, Co. Galway. She began singing sean-nós from an early age, being taught local songs from local singers such as Pat Phádraig Tom, Máire Pheitir Uí Dhroighneáin and Peaitsí Ó Ceannabháin. At the age of nine, she was asked to sing for the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, during her visit to the area. She has appeared at many traditional music festivals at home and abroad, including Feile Cois Cuain, Mayo, and the Pan-Celtic Festival in Lorient.
Áine was appointed Sean-Nós singer in residence in NUIG from 2004-2005. She has also performed with other artists, including Máirtín O’Connor, Steve Cooney and The Keane Sisters. She took part in a televised singing contest in 2006, where she sang a variety of songs and styles; she finished second and raised €75,000 for charity.
The View from The DJ booth 