CONFERENCE CIRCULAR
(version 2: 7/8/2016)
NINTH AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE OF CELTIC STUDIES
University of Sydney
27–30 SEPTEMBER 2016
THE Ninth Australian Conference of Celtic Studies will take place at the
University of Sydney, from Tuesday 27 to Friday 30 September 2016.
The theme of the conference is ‘Memory and Foresight in the Celtic World’
and the conference has received offers of scholarly presentations on many
aspects of this theme, as well as a range of papers on other topics in the field of
Celtic Studies. Keynote lectures are by Professor Will Christie (Australian
National University), Professor Cairns Craig (University of Aberdeen,
Scotland), Dr Tomás Ó Carragáin (University College Cork, Ireland), and
Professor Cynthia Neville (Dalhousie University, Canada). Two themedsessions are also offered. One of these concerns the theme of Penance and
Prophecy in the thought of Gildas, the notable early-British writer. A second
themed-session concerns a notable event in early Scottish history, the
Expulsion of the Columban monks by King Nechtan in AD 717.
The conference fee has been kept at the price of the previous conference: $300
dollars for regular participants and $150 dollars for students and unwaged;
payment should be made by 30 August; cheques (in Australian dollars only)
and credit cards are accepted.
This circular includes abstracts of papers and a preliminary timetable.
Presenters are encouraged to advise as soon as possible if there are any
problems presented by the scheduling of their presentations.
A registration form to accompany payment is appended to this circular. The fee
covers the reception, tea and coffee during and light lunch on each day of the
conference, but not the conference dinner. A further notice will circulate on
that shortly.
Except where otherwise indicated, all conference activities will take place in
the John Woolley Building, on the Camperdown campus of the University of
Sydney: see http://sydney.edu.au/maps/
The programme will start with an informal get-together in the Forest Lodge
Hotel (see www.forestlodgehotel.com.au) on Monday evening 26 September
and continue, with academic sessions, from Tuesday morning 27 September to
Friday afternoon 30 September.
There will be a range of activities around the event, including an exhibition in
the University Library, and an excursion on the day following the end of the
conference (1 October). A conference dinner (with dramatic interlude) is
planned for the evening of Thursday 29 September. It will take place in the
Women’s College of the University of Sydney. (Please note that the dinner is
not included in the conference fee – details of a separate booking process will
follow shortly). Those intending to attend are invited to advise the conference
secretary at the same time as submitting conference fees; payment will be
accepted on the first day of the conference.
The excursion is free of charge, owing to the generosity of donors, but
registration is essential, as soon as possible please.
Participants holding a passport issued by a government other than those of
Australia or New Zealand will need a valid visa to enter Australia. This is best
and most easily obtained electronically (see www.eta.immi.gov.au); in case of
doubt, an Australian Embassy (see www.dfat.gov.au/missions) may be able to
help.
Many airlines fly in and out of Sydney Airport; some others may offer useful
code-sharing alternatives. This list of websites is not exhaustive:
www.aa.com
www.airfrance.com
www.airnewzealand.co.nz
www.britishairways.com
www.cathaypacific.com
www.emirates.com
www.etihadairways.com
www.finnair.com
www.jetstar.com
www.klm.com
www.oneworld.com
www.qantas.com.au
www.singaporeair.com
www.skyteam.com
www.staralliance.com
www.united.com
www.vaustralia.com.au
www.virginblue.com.au
Information about public transport in Sydney (including to and from the
airport) and, more generally, how to get around in the city can be found at:
www.131500.com.au
www.airportlink.com.au
maps.google.com.au
Those receiving this circular are encouraged to copy it, recirculate it, and
generally make its contents known to anyone else who might be interested.
For further information about the conference programme, please email the
Conference Convenor:
Professor Jonathan Wooding)
School of Literature, Art and Media A20
University of Sydney AUSTRALIA 2006
[email protected]
The University of Sydney Celtic Studies website will, from time to time,
contain updated information: see:
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/celtic_studies/about/news/index.shtml
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Lorna Barrow
Sybil Jack
Suzanne Jamieson
Lynette Olson
Pamela O’Neill
Jonathan Wooding
DRAFT TIMETABLE
MAIN SESSIONS
TUESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER
0930–1000 Morning coffee
1000–1030 Conference Opening
1030–1100 Bernard Mees
1100–1130 Daniel Anlezark
1130–1200 Coffee break
1200–1300 [Plenary] Will Christie
1300–1400 Lunch
1400–1500 [Plenary] Cairns Craig
SPECIAL SESSION ON EXPULSIO FAMILIAE IAE
1500–1530 Pamela O’Neill
1530–1600 Afternoon tea
1600–1630 Kristen Erskine
1630–1730 Roundtable
1800–1930 Reception
WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER
0930–1000 Morning coffee
1000–1030 Lorna Barrow
1030–1100 Elizabeth Bonner
1100–1130 Carole Cusack
1130–1200 Coffee break
1200–1300 [Plenary] Cynthia Neville
1300–1400 Lunch
1400–1430 Katherine Spadaro
1430–1500 Jay Johnston
1500–1530 Sybil Jack
1530–1600 Afternoon tea
1600–1630 James Donaldson
1700 Launch of exhibition in Level 2 Fisher Library
1800 Public Lecture for the Scottish Antiquaries, Sydney Society for Scottish
History, and Scottish-Australian Heritage Council. Seminar room, Level 2,
Fisher Library
Dr Martin Goldberg (National Museums of Scotland)
‘The Glenmorangie Research Project on Early Medieval Scotland at National
Museums Scotland (2008-2017)’
WEDNESDAY 28 September (parallel session)
GILDAS COLLOQUIUM
1000–1045 Susan Ford
1045–1130 Stephen Joyce
1130–1200 Coffee break and break for plenary in main session.
1300–1400 Lunch
1400–1445 Constant Mews
1445–1530 Lynette Olson
1530–1600 Afternoon tea
1600–1645 Jonathan Wooding
THURSDAY 29 SEPTEMBER
0930–1000 Morning coffee
1000–1030 Timothy Causbrook
1100–1130 Roxanne Bodsworth
1130–1200 Coffee break
1200–1300 [Plenary] Tomás Ó Carraigáin
1300–1400 Lunch
1400–1430 Pamela O’Neill and Deborah Street
1430–1500 Dymphna Lonergan
1500–1530 Val Noone
1530–1600 Afternoon tea
1600–1630 Richard Reid
1630–1700 Anne-Maree Whitaker
1900– Conference dinner
FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER
0930–1000 Morning coffee
1000–1030 Martine Mussies
1030–1100 Penny Nash
1100–1130 Tessa Morrison and Christopher Hanlon
1130–1200 Coffee break
1200–1230 Mahesh Radakrishnan
1230–1300 Jeanette Mollenhauer
1300–1400 Lunch
1400–1430 John Kennedy
1430–1500 Martin Goldberg
1500–1530 Joshua Madden
1530–1600 Afternoon tea and Conference Close
SATURDAY 1 OCTOBER
900-1230 Conference Excursion ‘Celtic Sydney’ to historic sites of Celtic
interest in Sydney.
Visits are planned to (access permitting):
1) the extraordinary terrazzo mosaic floor of the crypt in St Mary’s Cathedral, with its
designs inspired by the art of the Book of Kells, intricately designed and executed by
Peter Melocco of Sydney Melocco Bros Stonemasons, a real multi-cultural Australian
story.
2) Waverley Cemetery to see the impressive monument usually known as ‘The
Waverley Monument’ (built 1898-1900, with later additions), which enshrines the
grave of the Wicklow rebel Michael Dwyer, and commemorates the 1798 Irish
Rebellion, and the Easter Rising of 1916, with a range of iconography, including an
ogham inscription.
3. South Head Cemetery Vaucluse, to see a fine Celtic-revival cross marking the
grave of a northern Irish governor of NSW (a real servant of the Empire, previously
governor of the Seychelles and Newfoundland) whose death in office in 1923 would
have been a major event at the time
4) Clement Glancey’s 1932 round tower church at Arncliffe, dedicated to St Francis
Xavier, the patron saint of Australia, a richly-decorated work inspired by HibernoRomanesque architecture.
CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS
THEMED-SESSIONS
Gildas Colloquium
Digital Gildas
SUSAN FORD (Australian National University)
Only about a third of the text of Gildas’ De Excidio is online. Though a Google search
suggests that the whole is, and refers one to apparently reliable sites, in fact the text
offered (e.g. at Tertullian.org) stops at section 37. The tendency to take notice only of
the opening historical part is natural in non-scholarly sites, but unhelpful for the study
of Gildas’ language. Stevenson’s 1838 edition is on Archive.org in page image format
only; and his edition uses recentiores Cambridge MSS, supplemented by some early
modern editions, as he apparently did not know of the (continued) existence of Cotton
Vitellius A vi. I will report on a project to put the whole text online, in a simple,
searchable format: plain text, plus some syntactic / morphological tagging, together
with some basic tools to facilitate text and topic analysis: an index verborum and a
lemmatised KWIC (keyword-in-context) concordance. The De Excidio is relatively
short, and regrettably stand-alone: disadvantages for the historian of early Britain, but
advantages for creating usable basic textual tools.
The Legacy of Gildas: Patrick, Prophecy and the Collectio Canonum
Hibernensis
STEPHEN JOYCE (Monash University)
Elements of a letter written by the monk-deacon Gildas (fl. 5th or 6th C.) to [Bishop]
Finnian (d. c. 549 or c. 579) were used in a significant collection of Irish canon law,
the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis, compiled around 700. This paper will argue that
this select use of Gildas, one drawn solely from this letter emphasising the primacy of
episcopal authority in matters of ecclesiastical discipline, was used to support
the episcopal claims to the role of speculator or watchman in the prophetic traditions
of the Old Testament. Within this specifically Irish context, the authority of
Gildas was transmuted from a critic of kings and bishops in the prophetic tradition (as
represented by his De Excidio Britanniae) to one supportive of the authority of
bishops to criticise kings, as linked to the Apostle of Ireland, Patrick.
The De XII Abusivis Saeculi and the Prophetic tradition
CONSTANT MEWS (Monash University)
This paper examines the significance of the De XII Abusivis Saeculi, written in 7th
century Ireland and widely circulated throughout the medieval period as attributed
either to Cyprian or to Augustine. It considers both what debts it may owe to earlier
patristic tradition, in particular to Gildas, as well as its significance in developing the
literary tradition of Mirrors of Princes. The paper will also explore how it may relate
to hagiographical writing about bishops as prophets, and the expectations the text
places on kingship.
The Armes Prydein as a Legacy of Gildas
LYNETTE OLSON (University of Sydney)
The Armes Prydein, The Great Prophecy of Britain, is a strongly secular work with
religious references, dating from the tenth century; Gildas’ De Excidio et Conquestu
Britanniae, On the Downfall and Conquest of Britain, is a Jeremiad with a significant
secular section, dating from the sixth or possibly late fifth century. This paper will
argue that the Armes Prydein does lie within a prophetic tradition that goes back to
Gildas: that both draw upon a common memory and that their foresight has more in
common than one might think. It will also stubbornly assert that the Armes Prydein
does express a pan-Celtic consciousness (although contemporaries would not of
course have referred to it as such), and examine to what extent this derives from
Gildas as well.
Gildas, Penance, and the Future of British Monasticism
JONATHAN WOODING (University of Sydney)
Studies of early British monasticism tend to put Gildas at the centre—naturally
enough, as he is a rare contemporary witness. Since an article by Owen Chadwick in
1954, many approaches to the writings of Gildas on monasticism have tended to
reflect, in some way or another, what I would term the ‘monastic biography’ of
Gildas—an implicit narrative found in his works in which he is seen to have moved
between secular and religious status in the course of his career. Also influential in
reading Gildas has been a broader trend in late-Antiquity studies in which asceticism
and penance are seen in terms of social leadership and reform in the Church. These
models, along with simply the power of Gildas as a personality and the expansive
character of his writings—which range across secular and religious topics—arguably
limit our perception of early British monasticism as an activity with theologies (and
teleologies) that are sometimes distinct from secular Christianity. My paper will
reflect on what Gildas says about asceticism and penance, seeking to re-contextualise
these with respect to Gildas’s own and the wider Church’s visions for monasticism.
Panel Session:
Expulsio familiae Iae trans Dorsum Brittaniae a Nectano rege
SESSION ORGANIZER: PAMELA O’NEILL
SESSION CHAIR: MURRAY-LUKE PEARD
Paper one:
What was the Expulsio familiae Iae?
PAMELA O’NEILL (University of Sydney)
The entry in the Annals of Ulster for 717 proclaiming Expulsio familiae Iae trans
Dorsum Brittaniae a Nectano rege is characteristically terse. It has formed the basis
for entire articles and large sections of books, seeking to elaborate and explicate an
event that was considered worthy of note in the chronicle underlying the Annals at the
time. This paper is yet another contribution to that mass of scholarship. Ahead of a
proposed recreation of journey of the Iona clergy resultant from the Expulsio, to be
undertaken in 2017 along a routeway devised by Simon Taylor of Oilthigh Ghlaschu,
the paper reviews scholarship on the topic and background evidence, and asks
whether there is anything further to be discussed.
Paper two:
Fortingall, on the road across Pictland
KRISTEN ERSKINE
When we imagine the movements of early medieval people in Scotland we tend to
think of the great sea roads and loch traverses. On foot, across land was far more
difficult. Thanks to the diligence of place name scholars, historians and archaeologists
we may be a little closer to discerning some of these post-Roman, pre-Industrial
Revolution pathways across Alba.
One stopping point between the great Pictish strongholds in the east and the
monastery of Iona in the west may well have been Fortingall. With a concentration of
visible remains from the Neolithic to the modern day this little settlement in the Lyon
Valley has obviously been a locus of human activity over a very long period indeed.
This paper begins by analysing the pre-Christian uses of the area along with the early
Christian activity and situating it within the early medieval Pictish framework. It
marshals and catalogues evidence from material remains, place-names and historical
documentation to extend our understanding about the movements of the Pictish
people within the valley and in the greater Pictish kingdom surrounding it. The
dedication of a church at Fortingall to the newly deceased Abbot of Iona, St Coeddi
(ob. 712), putatively within a decade or so of the apparent expulsion of the Family of
Iona from Pictland by Pictish King Nechtan Mac Derelei in 717 calls into question
some long accepted tropes of Pictish political power.
Roundtable discussion
This roundtable outlines the routeway from Dunkeld to Iona proposed for the 2017
recreation of the Expulsio familiae Iae trans Dorsum Brittaniae a Nectano rege. It
invites participation by the audience in discussion of such questions as:




Are Dunkeld and Iona historically appropriate points to start and finish such a
journey?
Is the evidence relied on to recreate the route reliable? In such an exercise,
what comparative weights should be given to evidence such as terrain, placenames, dedications, and material remains?
What considerations might have influenced the route followed in 717?
What is the scholarly value of recreating the journey?
GENERAL SESSIONS
The Irish tradition of the tres linguae sacrae in MS Bodleian Library
Hatton 20
DANIEL ANLEZARK (University of Sydney)
The New Testament reports that at the crucifixion of Jesus, Pilate had fixed at the top
of the cross an inscription ‘This is Jesus, King of the Jews’, in Hebrew, Greek and
Latin, though the exact wording varies in across the gospels. This is undoubtedly a
reference to the causa poenae normally worn around the neck of a condemned
criminal according to the Roman legal system. In the original Greek texts of the
gospels, however, only the Greek is reported, and in Latin translations, only the Latin.
Irish biblical commentators, probably from the seventh century onwards, show a
fascination with recreating the original full inscription, representing as it does the
‘three sacred languages’ of sacred scripture. The Latin they knew, the Greek they
could recover with varying degrees of accuracy, but the Hebrew presented great
difficulty. This tradition of the tres linguae sacrae was a popular one, and had a life
outside interest in the titulus of Christ’s cross. This paper will examine a hitherto
unnoticed example of the titulus in the tres linguae sacrae found on the last leaf of
MS Bodleian Library Hatton 20, where it was inserted by Koenwold, Bishop of
Worcester in the mid tenth century. I will also investigate how Koenwold came into
contact with this tradition in Irish learning.
Margaret Tudor: English Princess to Scottish Queen (1489-1503)
LORNA BARROW (Macquarie University)
Margaret Tudor (1489-1541), daughter of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of
York had been raised since infancy to undertake her role as the future Queen of
Scotland. She had been trained from an early age in the art of Queenship, where
learning, cultural pursuits and religious piety were paramount for success. Beginning
with her childhood in England, her passage to Scotland and ending with the departure
of the English wedding party following her nuptials in Edinburgh (1503), this paper
examines the life, and political and cultural significance of Margaret Tudor, Queen of
Scots during that time. Analysis of the manuscripts kept at the London College of
Arms, associated with her proxy marriage in England, overland trip to Scotland and
her entrance to Edinburgh for the marriage proper, highlights her role as a significant
political and cultural figure in Scottish History in the reign of James IV. The
documents underline the importance of the marriage between kingdoms through
pageantry, gift exchange and other cultural pursuits.
A Woman’s Fate: female self-determination in the elopement tales
(aithed) of Deirdriu and Naoise; Gráinne and Diarmaid
ROXANNE BODSWORTH (Victoria University)
In the Irish mythological tale of the elopement of Deirdriu and Naoise, a druid
foretells before her birth that Deirdriu will bring destruction to Ulster – but the king
attempts to circumvent fate by raising her to be his wife. When Deirdriu chooses her
own lover it sets in train a deadly sequence of events. There are strong parallels with
the elopement of Gráinne and Diarmaid, where the woman also chooses her own
lover in defiance of an arranged marriage. However, the two characters are portrayed
very differently in the medieval and subsequent literature, which is predominantly
written from a male perspective.
In this presentation, I compare the ways in which Deirdriu is most often
portrayed in sympathetic terms while Gráinne is cast as a villain. Thomas Kinsella
(2009) wrote that Gráinne’s “selection of Diarmuid over Fionn seems more
calculating than starry-eyed, and her appetite for manipulation is striking.” This
despite Edyta Lehmann’s analysis (2010) demonstrating that Deidriu’s culpability is
more overtly described in the text than that of Gráinne. I argue that the principal
difference in the portrayal of the women is because Deirdriu is seen as a victim of
fate, thereby evoking a protective response by male critics and writers, while Gráinne
is seeking to determine her own destiny in a way that is perceived as unattractive even
in contemporary times.
The Forgotten Scottish Diaspora
ELIZABETH BONNER (University of Sydney)
This paper seeks to examine the Scottish Diaspora into France from the early 15th
century, which has been all but ‘Forgotten’ by modern professional historians who
have neglected, except in one or two isolated cases, to give any serious academic
consideration to this subject. It certainly does not appear as part of the world-wide
studies initiated by the Centre for Diaspora Studies, which was created by the grant of
£1 million from Alan and Anne Macfarlane to The University of Edinburgh in 2008.
Paradoxically, the Scottish Diaspora into France is the best remembered in myth and
legend until those from the 18th century onwards, yet it has received the least critical
academic analysis. In discussion of the Scottish Diaspora on the Web for example,
France is ignored save for its representation on the magnificent Scottish Diaspora
Tapestry, where all the famous Franco-Scottish historical figures are presented. This
does not mean, however, that until recently mainly antiquarians of the 18th- and 19thcenturies have not made significant contributions. Therefore, an historiographical
survey of the limited modern and earlier sources will be examined as well as the
possible/probable reasons for the paucity of detailed academic accounts. Additionally,
some accounts of how French people today remember and memorialize their ancient
relationship with the Scots will be discussed. Also some consideration will be given
to their ‘Auld Alliance’ against their mutual enemy England, the first formal treaty of
which was signed by John Balliol King of Scots, and Philippe IV of France at Paris on
the 23rd October, 1295, and subsequently by every French and Scottish monarch
(with the exception of Louis XI) until the mid-16th century.
Fate as a Social Reality: A Comparative and Critical Analysis of Fate in
Njáls saga and Longes mac nUislenn
TIM CAUSBROOK (Cambridge University)
While fate has been identified as a main theme of Njáls saga (NS) and Longes mac
nUislenn (LMU), its significance has yet to be comprehensively investigated. To that
end I will offer a new critical reading of the texts, focusing on how the concept of fate
was embedded in the social realities depicted in the two narratives. I have chosen to
focus on NS and LMU due to similarities that both narratives share in structure. Both
stories are framed by a prediction concerning a beautiful woman who is doomed to
cause much evil. The fates of many of the principal characters in both narratives are
bound up in the fates of these two women in question, Hallgerð in NS and Deirdriu in
LMU. Deirdriu is marked from the beginning as a woman with a voice and a mind of
her own, a description that is equally befitting of Hallgerð, and it is just this
unwillingness to conform to the standards of behaviour that are expected of them that
drives the action in both of the narratives while also prompting questions of agency
and determinism due to the initial prophecies that frame the works. The elucidation of
the structure of the societies in NS and LMU will inform our understanding of the
belief in fate that is so prevalent in both works, a connection that has yet to be
considered in Old Irish and Old Norse scholarship.
KEYNOTE LECTURE
‘One foot in Wales and my vowels in England’: The Welshness of Dylan
Thomas’
WILL CHRISTIE (Australian National University)
KEYNOTE LECTURE
Celticism and Science
CAIRNS CRAIG (University of Aberdeen)
Esoteric Tourism in Scotland: Rosslyn Chapel, The Da Vinci Code, and
the Appeal of the ‘New Age’
CAROLE CUSACK (University of Sydney)
The Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, better known as Rosslyn Chapel, was named
‘best attraction’ in the 2015-2016 Scottish Thistle Awards, selected ahead of other
tourist attractions including the Wallace Monument, Stirling and Born in the Borders,
an artisan brewery and visitor centre in Jedburgh. Rosslyn Chapel is a small,
elaborately decorated fifteenth century church erected by William Sinclair, First Earl
of Caithness. The chapel is owned by a trust administered by the Sinclair family, and
in 2000 was in need of urgent repairs. The publication of Dan Brown’s sensationalist
novel about Robert Langdon (a ‘symbologist’) and Sophie Neveu (a ‘cryptologist’)
investigating Jesus and Mary Magdalen’s marriage and children, and the whereabouts
of the Holy Grail, The Da Vinci Code (2003), featured Rosslyn prominently. The
resulting film, starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou (2006), which filmed the
climactic sequence at the site, created a touristic audience with esoteric interests far
removed from the original Catholic function of the Chapel, and from the researches of
Medieval Studies academics. A melange of motifs from the Western Esoteric
tradition, including the Knights Templar, the Masons, Pagan ‘Green Men’, ley lines,
the Gurdjieffian Enneagram, and others, coalesced in ‘alternative’ histories of the site,
which are decried by scholars, and denied by the Trust (that nevertheless makes
skilful use of Brown’s novel as a ‘pull factor’ for their hugely lucrative tourist trade).
This ‘esoteric’ material attracts an audience that, while not self-identified ‘New
Agers’, are nevertheless attuned via popular culture (novels, films, television series
and so on) to ‘alternative’ spiritual currents, which are often explicitly anti-Christian.
This paper draws on the author’s site visits to Rosslyn between 2006 and 2015, and
charts the remarkable transformation of a once-dilapidated and scarcely-visited site to
a global attraction, with a state of the art visitor centre, sophisticated internet
presence, and a steady stream of fascinated visitors, who listen to the ‘orthodox’
historical narrative of the guides, but are attracted by the unorthodox, fictional Brown
explanation of Rosslyn Chapel.
Boat People: The Celtic Highland Emigrants from the Isle of Skye to
New South Wales on the Ship ‘Midlothian’, 1837
JAMES DONALDSON (Sydney)
The paper will consider the later lives of the 256 Gaelic-speaking migrants selected
by the Naval Surgeon, Dr David Boyter, who sailed from the Isle of Skye on the 8th of
August 1837 on the ship ‘Midlothian’ 414 tons, under Captain Morrison, for New
South Wales under this Government Assisted Scheme. This would involve the
selection, voyage and the subsequent settlement of these men, women and children, in
the Hunter River District at ‘Dunmore’ on the Paterson; and their later spread into the
Manning, Clarence and Richmond River districts in the 1850s. I will consider such
aspects as their petition to stay together on arrival; the first Gaelic Church Service in
Sydney in December 1837; their worship services in Gaelic in the Hunter; their tenant
farming activities; first trial held in the Gaelic Language at Paterson; their ongoing
migration northwards to northern New South Wales.
Ultimate La Tène? The use of different artistic heritages in Early
Medieval Britain and Ireland
MARTIN GOLDBERG (National Museums of Scotland)
Celtic art as initially defined in the 1850’s referred to Early Medieval objects,
especially Early Christian art from Ireland and Scotland. Subsequently the Celts and
their art were used to create grand narratives of Europe’s earliest history, but the Early
Medieval objects are still fundamental to how the public perceive Celtic art, largely as
a result of the Celtic revival. For much of the 20th century the Early Medieval
material was studied under the ethnically biased and art-historically derived title of
Hiberno-Saxon art reflecting a narrower geographical scope and nationalist interests.
More recently the term Insular art has been used for Early Medieval decorated objects
produced across the islands of Britain and Ireland. But Insular art so broadly defined
blurs or disguises important regional distinctions. Comparing the use of different
types of ornament on Early Medieval sculpture in Britain and Ireland highlights
certain monumental differences in the use of various artistic heritages. This has
implications for how we describe and categorise decorated objects today and our
understanding of the purpose and meaning of decoration at the time.
Memory, Foresight and Fantasy—Fable and Fiction in the Creation of
Contemporary Beliefs about the Past in Scottish Life
SYBIL JACK (University of Sydney)
Accounts of the past have been handed down mainly in oral story-telling traditions,
fact and myth blurring within. This paper look at one remote Highland parish—
Laggan—in an attempt to establish what Scots in different periods took to be the
history that gave them identity and how they incorporated the elements from the past
and the gifts, like second sight, that distinguished the Scot from other races. It will
conclude by briefly indicating how present day fantasy has reworked aspects of the
spiritual world that imbued the older stories.
Porphyry and Prophecy: The Material Culture of Second Sight in the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland
JAY JOHNSTON (University of Sydney)
This paper is concerned with the interrelationship between specific types of material
objects, in particular stone amulets and monoliths, and the extra-sensory attribute of
Second-Sight—a mode of perception that was understood to enable divination and
prophecy—in antiquarian accounts of vernacular belief traditions from 17th–19th
century Scotland. This material culture and the attendant frameworks of meaning will
be considered from the perspective of recently developed methodologies and theories,
in particular ‘aesthetics of religion’ and ‘new materialism.’ As such emphasis will be
placed on elaborating the materiality and ontology of the objects and the associated
visions and the ‘relations’ such material culture were understood to have produced.
As ‘sites’ of divine agency and efficacy the stones (including orthostats, amulets and
prehistoric flints) were imbued not only with spiritual agency, but also placed within
an invisible network of relations that linked individuals, non-human animals, the
landscape and the metaphysical realms. This panoply of relations is crucial to the
aesthetic logic guiding selection and ‘attribution’ to specific deities/spiritual beings.
The theoretical framework for this discussion explores the degree to which such
material culture can be considered aniconic and the attendant conceptualisation of
‘efficacy’ and ‘agency’ as applied to interpreting the socio-cultural function of the
stones.
Celtic Designs on Modern Coins, 1916-2016
JOHN KENNEDY (Charles Sturt University)
Since Greek and Roman antiquity, states have used their coinage as an important
means of asserting their legitimacy and influencing the ways in which their own
peoples and others regard them. When the Irish Free State issued its first coins in
1928 it used the Irish language for inscriptions. It also placed a Celtic harp on the
obverse, a practice maintained with only one exception on all coins of the Free State
and Republic since that date. (This obverse in fact continued a British tradition of
‘harp’ coinage for Ireland which prevailed strongly from the reign of Henry VIII to
the last pre-independence Irish coinage in 1823.) But otherwise ‘Celtic’ designs and
motifs have not been especially prominent on modern Irish coins, despite the strong
emphasis placed by Irish officialdom on the country’s proud Celtic heritage. This
paper will explore the use of identifiably ‘Celtic’ elements on Irish coins, and the
possible reasons why they have not prevailed more, and will also examine the limited
use of such elements in the coinages of the Isle of Man, the United Kingdom, France,
and states as diverse as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Fiji. It seems clear that
whether one has in mind ancient or more modern Celtic traditions and cultures, the
Celt (unlike. for example, the Viking) has not greatly caught the imagination of those
who have influenced modern coin design.
The Memory of Words
DYMPHNA LONERGAN (Flinders University)
The Irish language has influenced the development of the Anglo-Irish dialect of
English, and Irish writers who use Irish words in their English language novels
demonstrate a continued need to return to the native language for exact expression.
The writer may find an equivalent English language word, but the Irish language
word carries Irish connotations not available in English. Ireland may have largely
transferred to English by the nineteenth century, but Irish culture remained intact (as
did the Irish language). As with the conversion to Christianity in the fifth century that
was built on a Celtic world, the use of Irish words in the English of Ireland made that
language an acceptable form of expression for the Irish people. Isolated Irish words in
the English of Ireland continue even into the 21st century and are an ongoing reminder
that Irish, not English, is the native language of Ireland.
British ‘Oppida’ and the Urban Conundrum
JOSHUA MADDEN (University of Sydney)
The term ‘Oppida’ was first used by Roman authors in the Late Iron Age to describe
large fortified ‘urban’ settlements throughout the ‘Celtic World’ of modern day
Western Europe. This reference to urbanism throughout ‘Celtic’ mainland Western
Europe has had a significant effect on the Late Iron Age archaeology of the British
Isles. This is a result of an over reliance on the historic record and theories of ‘Celtic’
transhumance and cultural diaspora.
The concept that the British Isles’ ‘Oppida’ are urban settlements reflecting
the archaeological and social urban norms detracts from the archaeological evidence
discounting early theories of social and cultural mirroring with the mainland
European Iron Age cultures and the variable nature of ‘Oppida’ types within the Isles.
The archaeological record highlights the lack of settlement homogeneity and urban
characteristics within the ‘Oppida’ types throughout the British Isles. Recent research
highlights the need for a re-evaluation of the understanding of Iron Age settlements
across the British Isles – identified as ‘Oppida’. This paper looks to highlight new
developments in proto-urban theory and settlement pattern theory to identify new
directions of investigation and analysis to better understand the multiple ‘Oppida’
types in the Isles.
Poeninus and the Romanisation of the Celtic Alps
BERNARD MEES (RMIT University)
Recent epigraphic finds in the Val Brembana, Bergamo, and from the mountains
above Liddes, Valais, include dedications to Poeninus, the ancient god of the Great St
Bernard Pass. Known to the Romans as the summus or mons Poeninus, Livy (xxxi 38)
mentions that the pass was named after a local god, long presumed to be Celtic in
origin. The inscriptions are written in epichoric letterforms and also preserve
dedicatory verbs, one a slightly different realisation of the well-known Gaulish form
ieuru and another which seems to represent a compound verb of the type known from
Old Irish. The texts are of particular interest linguistically as they feature inflected
forms of Poeninus and two of the recorded verbs seem to represent derivatives of IE
*perh3- ‘provide’. The epigraphic finds also shed light on the process of
Romanisation in the Celtic Alps. Although a Celto-Etruscan or Lepontic text, the
Liddes inscription evidences considerable Romanisation. The processes of
Romanisation evidenced in the Liddes and neighbouring inscriptions are analysed in
light of recent approaches to linguistic and orthographic acculturation. Taken
together, the Liddes and other local Celtic texts preserve new evidence for how the
Romanisation of the Celts of the ancient Alps transpired.
Looking Back while Moving Forward:
Traditional Irish Dance in Sydney
JEANETTE MOLLENHAUER (University of Sydney)
The arrival of the First Fleet to Australia’s shores marked the genesis of a settler
society. One of the largest immigrant groups has always been those who have come
from Ireland, and throughout the entirety of their settlement timeframe, Irish settlers
have perpetuated their traditional dance and music practices. This paper employs
transnationalism theory as the lens through which practices of Irish dancing in Sydney
may be comprehended. It is based on ethnographic research, conducted over three
years, amongst three Irish dance groups in Sydney which teach step, set, céilí and
sean nós dancing. Documentary analysis provides the basis for an historical overview
of Irish dance practices during and since the colonial era. Participant observation,
supplemented by personal interviews, provides data concerning the present cohort of
immigrants. Amongst this group, dancing provides transnational nostalgic, cultural
and sensory links between the Irish diaspora in Sydney and their former homeland.
The paper explores ways in which dancing is employed as a tool of memory and an
emotional connection with family and friends across temporal and spatial boundaries.
Further, it examines the means through which Irish dancing (in all its forms) in both
Ireland and Australia has had the foresight to transform itself into a modern and
progressive genre which employs all the means offered in the digital age to further
encourage transnational connections, thus ensuring its perpetuity.
Robert Owen and Villages of Unity and Co-operation: a New Concept of
Urbanism
TESSA MORRISON AND CHRISTOPHER HANLON (University of Newcastle)
By the beginning of the eighteenth century the Industrial Revolution began to scar the
British landscape with polluting factories. This destruction of the environment is
epitomised by William Blake’s poem in Milton when he looks for Jerusalem among
these ‘dark Satanic mills.’ He wished for a transformation from the dark Satanic Mills
to Utopia – a New Jerusalem. The Industrial Revolution had caused endemic social
problems and a national housing crisis. In 1800, self-made Welsh industrialist Robert
Owen formed a partnership with the Chorlton Twist Company to purchase the cotton
mills at the village of New Lanark, Southern Scotland. Although Owen was a junior
partner he was also the manager and was able to implement many reforms in the
village of New Lanark and its society – it became a model industrial village. Although
he strode for a political solution for factory reform and conditions, his concerted
effort failed to make any real changes. In 1817 Owen was asked by the ‘Committee of
the Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor’ to give his
views of the causes of the distress. From this point, Owen turned his energies away
from factory reform, where he had had very little success, into what he perceived to
be a practical solution to the crisis—Villages of Unity and Cooperation. This paper
considers how Owen’s concept of the Villages of Unity and Cooperation was a new
concept in self-contained urbanism, which appears to be radical in its approach.
Although no Village of Unity and Cooperation was built in the manner that he had
conceived, his new urbanism concept was highly influential throughout the nineteenth
century.
Celtic Mermaids between Longing and Belonging
MARTINE MUSSIES (Netherlands)
Amidst all the subjects in the folklore of Europa and the Near East, one of the more
common mythical creatures is the mermaid. From Galatea to Undine and from Lorelei
to Rusalka, nearly every culture has its own version of the ‘water woman’. Celtic
cultures are no exception. In my presentation I will discuss the similarities and
differences that can be found in the Celtic traditions, developing further ideas from
three of my publications in the Dutch magazine for Celtology. After a comparison
between mermaid tales from Ireland and Scotland the ongoing creation of the
traditions of Celtic Mermaids will be further explored with two filmic case studies:
the 2010 movie ‘Ondine’ by Neil Jordan and the 2014 animation film ‘Song of the
sea’ by Tomm Moore. Special attention will be given to the use and useability of the
word “hiraeth” and to the (gender) political issues raised by ancient mermaid tales in
the context of the 21st century. For example in the poems of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill,
where merfolk, representing original Irish natives, are swept aside by the inexorable
tread of the colonial and post-colonial oppressor.
Carolingian and Ottonian Appropriation of Celtic Art and Literature:
Why was it Important to the Empire?
PENNY NASH (University of Sydney)
To connect Carolingian and Ottonian history with Celtic history is not difficult.
Artistic works from the third quarter of the ninth century on show how the CelticGermanic metalwork tradition was adapted to Carolingian and Ottonian art. That art
had a specific political purpose and the adoption of Celtic influences by the two
imperial dynasties was not random. However, Celtic art was not the only bequest to
the parties. Certain Carolingian and Ottonian written works show signs of Celtic
influence. For example two of the texts of the tenth-century canoness Hrotsvitha,
Gesta Ottonis and the Primordia coenobii Gandeshemensis, contain narrative patterns
and figures of speech that can be “found in insular saints’ lives, especially in texts
with strong Celtic associations, between the tenth and twelfth centuries” (Hexter,
2012, summarising Jankulak, 2005). Can the art also be considered a narrative and if
so in what way? This paper seeks to explore the politics behind the Carolingian and
Ottonian appropriation of Celtic symbols and rhetoric.
KEYNOTE LECTURE
Penitence, Reconciliation and Remission: The King’s Pardon in
Thirteenth-Century Scotland
CYNTHIA NEVILLE (Dalhousie University)
In the early years of the thirteenth century the rulers of Scotland and their advisors
developed a sophisticated theory of kingship that gave expression to new concepts of
sovereignty, among which were novel ideas about the related notions of princely
justice and mercy. From this same period come the earliest references to royal letters
of remission (Scottish versions of letters of pardon) and the earliest accounts of the
carefully staged ceremonies in which in which kings readmitted into their peace
persons who had committed the grave offences of felony and treason. Recent research
(including my own) has explored the influence of English common-law and Roman
civilian traditions on the development and maturation of the practice of royal pardon
in Scotland, but few scholars have ventured to examine closely the ways in which the
reforming church of the thirteenth century offered the kings of Scots inspiration and
models to emulate in the construction of new understandings of mercy, reconciliation,
punishment and penitence. Yet, as was the case elsewhere in contemporary Europe,
there were obvious parallels between the language of wrongdoing in the contexts of
vassalic disobedience and sin, between the remission by which the king was
reconciled with offenders and God with penitents and, more unusually, between the
conditional nature of a royal pardon at Scots common law and Christian penance.
These parallels are all the more striking given the multiethnic make-up of thirteenthcentury Scotland and the varied cultures – native Gaelic, Scandinavian, English and
European – upon which the high medieval rulers drew in shaping their claims to
power and authority. This paper explores, first, some aspects of the crown’s
appropriation of the ideas of the reforming church of the thirteenth century in the
construction of a royal theory of pardon and, second, the ways in which the several
cultures that informed this process in the later Middle Ages and well beyond.
Nicholas O’Donnell on the Northern Origin of
Munster O’Donnells
VAL NOONE (University of Melbourne)
Family historians of the O’Donnells have an inclination to enquire about possible
descent from a chain of Irish national figures from Ulster of whom the best known is
Red Hugh O’Donnell (1571-1602). The famous Australian-born Gaelic scholar Dr
Nicholas O’Donnell (1862-1920) took the matter seriously, investigating sources such
as Giraldus Cambrensis, Annals of the Four Masters, John O’Donovan, Patrick
Woulfe and John O’Hart. Drawing on letters not previously noticed by historians
from O’Donnell to litterateur Risteard Ó Foghludha (Richard Foley) and traditional
scribe Seán Seosamh Ó Fearrchallaigh (J. J. O’Farrelly), as well as on his unpublished
family-history manuscript, this paper records and analyses the genealogical and
historical methods and findings of O’Donnell in regard both to the putative northern
and heroic origins of certain Munster O’Donnells and also to the confirmed existence
of other O’Donnells in Munster from medieval times.
KEYNOTE LECTURE
Memory in the Landscapes of Ecclesiastical Estates
TOMÁS Ó CARRAGÁIN (University College Cork, Ireland)
A statistical approach to analysing the composition of Críth Gablach
PAMELA O’NEILL (University of Sydney) and DEBORAH STREET (University of
Technology, Sydney)
The early Irish status text Críth Gablach is a compilation incorporating fragments of
various texts of various ages. One section of the text can be dated by its reference to
Cáin Adomnáin, which was promulgated in 697. However, it is not incontrovertibly
clear how much of the surrounding text originates from the same composition event
or is of the same age. Furthermore, the remainder of the text lacks even this degree of
chronological signposting. Because of the text’s importance to our understanding of
early Irish social organisation, and its unusual inclusion of a firmly datable external
reference, it would be highly desirable to understand more clearly which parts of it are
likely to have derived from common, and which from different, sources. Neil McLeod
has suggested some divisions of the text into different sources according to logical
division of the legal subject matter treated. It would be helpful if these divisions could
be confirmed, and possibly even further refined, by a separate methodology. This
paper sets out to test one potential method: statistical analysis of lexical features. It
draws upon methods such as those developed in the study of the Federalist Papers
where it was demonstrated that relative frequency of function words in a text can be a
strong indicator of authorship. The paper experiments with visual depictions of
aspects of the lexicon of Críth Gablach, such as word clouds and lexical dispersion
plots, based on McLeod’s division of the text and other divisions that are suggested
by interim results. In so doing, the paper aims to identify commonalities and
variations from section to section that may point to common or different authorship or
source material. Finally, the paper evaluates the potential value of statistical analysis
of lexicon in assessing the composition of Críth Gablach.
Irish, sean-nós and the Language Ecologies of Traditional Singing
Performance
MAHESH RADHAKRISHNAN
From seisiún to ceolchoirm, classroom to cemetery, in kitchens, pubs and at random
beachside encounters, the traditional singing art of sean-nós finds a number of niches
for performance on the small island of Inis Mór in the west of Ireland. Intertwined
within this style of singing is the traditional and official national
language Irish (Gaeilge), in which many of the songs are sung, the stories behind
them told and, importantly, the lives of the people lived and celebrated. Being an
endangered language, much of the future vitality of Irish depends on its maintenance
and regular use in Gaeltachaí (Irish speaking areas) such as Inis Mór and a healthy
symbiosis with increasingly dominant English. It is somewhat useful to speak of such
situations in terms of “language ecology”, wherein languages are seen to co-exist and
the balance should not be tipped against diversity. This presentation sheds some light
on the language ecology of the island based on a short ethnographic study focusing on
people involved in the performance of singing and music. The observations will be
tied to a broader question of how singing and music are relevant to
language ecologies in the Irish context and beyond, supporting the case for the study
of ‘musicolinguistic ecology’.
Dark and rude and strange – Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran and the
1904 St Mary’s Fair
RICHARD REID (Friends of Ireland)
Dark and rude and strange … these were the words used to describe the largest single
item on display in Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran’s St Mary’s Fair of 1904 – a full
size replica of Muiredach’s High Cross from Monasterboice in County Louth, Ireland.
The Fair’s ostensible purpose, successfully achieved, was to raise the money to pay
off the cathedral’s remaining debt and allow for a proper consecration of the building.
All this is clearly outlined in Tony Cahill’s chapter on Moran as a cathedral builder in
Patrick O’Farrell’s St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 1821-1971. Missed by Cahill,
O’Farrell himself in his histories of the Catholic church and the Irish in Australia, and
the recent church commissioned biography of Moran by Philip Ayres, is the practical
way in which Moran used the 1904 Fair, and many other similar occasions, to drive
home a central message to his flock – their inheritance from Catholic Ireland and the
survival of this Catholic culture across centuries of persecution. The 1904 Fair, apart
from Muiredach’s magnificent cross, offered a range of cultural items chosen to
demonstrate this Catholic inheritance in powerful visual form. As this presentation
will attempt to demonstrate the Cardinal, while asking the faithful to put their hands
in their pockets to support the cathedral, wanted his Irish/Australian Catholics to turn
from the attractions of commemorating a figure like Michael Dwyer and the 1798
Rebellion to absorb his view of Ireland’s past.
‘To the Land of My Praise’: The Memories of Hugh Boyd Laing
KATHERINE SPADARO (University of Sydney)
The entry for Hugh Boyd Laing in the Australian Dictionary of Biography mentions
his origins in South Uist, his outstanding career in education, his brief involvement in
Australian border protection via the Dictation Test which he gave in Gaelic, and his
achievements as a poet in that language, which culminated in the award of National
Bard of Scotland in 1965. This paper will focus on his short collection of poetry and
other pieces, ‘Gu Tir Mo Luaidh’ (To the Land of My Praise), which reveals more
about memory as a source of grief, joy and amusment in the work of Laing, who
remains a significant member of the Scottish diaspora in Australia.
Easter 1916: Australian Links to the Irish Rebellion
ANNE-MAREE WHITAKER (Sydney)
The centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin is being marked by Irish government
and community events throughout 2016. The 1916 Rising was the most significant
revolt against British rule in Ireland since the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798. The
rebels took over large parts of Dublin for almost a week, and over 500 people were
killed and 2,600 injured. While Irish Republican links to America have been welldocumented, the Australian connection has remained shadowy. The availability of
Irish Military History sources and digitised newspapers online now enables new light
to be shed. Two of Commandant Ned Daly’s uncles emigrated to Australia and then
New Caledonia. James Daly returned to Ireland in the 1890s after the death of Ned’s
father to assist the family. James also conducted a three-year campaign to secure his
brother John’s release from prison where he was serving a life sentence for possessing
dynamite. The Easter Rising was significant for including women as frontline
combatants. One of them, May O’Carroll, emigrated to live in Sydney and produced a
family of ten talented musicians. She visited Ireland for the 50th anniversary of the
Rising in 1966 and died on the 72nd anniversary of its conclusion. This paper will
examine these and other Easter Rising links to Australia.
NINTH AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE OF CELTIC STUDIES
27-30 September 2016
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