• Centre of Irish Studies

The Centre aims to study and research Irish literature and culture in European and global contexts. Our focus is chiefly on modern Irish writing in English, Irish theatre and film, and contemporary critical theory. This framework is further extended by teaching courses of the Irish language and comparative courses on modern and contemporary Irish-language writing. Conferences organised by the Centre include IASIL 2005, the 2010 James Joyce Symposium, the 2014 Irish Theatrical Diaspora conference, the Third International Flann O’Brien conference (2015), and a bi-annual graduate students’ conference in Irish Studies.

Members:

  • Director: Ondřej Pilný
  • Members: Clare Wallace, Radvan Markus, Justin Quinn, David Vichnar, Louis Armand, Daniela Theinová, Einat Adar
  • Associate Members: Pádraig Ó Liatháin (St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra), Síle Ní Bhroin (Graffiti Theatre, Cork), Maciej Ruczaj (Polish Institute in Prague)
  • PhD Students: Galina Kiryushina, Ronan McNabb, Markéta Pospíšilová

Research interests:

Irish theatre and drama in comparative contexts, Irish poetry in English and Irish, Irish modernist writing, cultural relations between Ireland and Continental Europe, James Joyce and technology, the work of Samuel Beckett.

Publications:

Publications associated with the Centre include books on modern and contemporary Irish drama, James Joyce and technology, Irish poetry, Czech-Irish cultural relations, and a white paper on the future of Irish Studies (Report of the Irish Forum, Florence). The Centre manages an extensive bibliography of translations from Irish literature into Czech and Slovak and reflections of Czech authors and intellectuals on Irish culture and politics, hosts the Hypermedia Joyce Studies journal and the online archive of the poetry journal Metre.

PhD Projects:

The Centre welcomes doctoral projects in any area of its expertise. Current and previous projects supervised by its staff have included work on literary reflections of the 1798 Rising, contemporary women’s poetry, James Joyce, Patrick Pearse and European nationalism, British and Irish monodrama, Samuel Beckett, and W.B. Yeats.

Courses taught:

Most courses comprise a separate Irish Studies MA track within a degree in Anglophone Literatures and Cultures. The MA track consists of 4 basic courses offered each year (3 survey courses on Irish literature and a course on Irish culture and politics) and of a number of one-semester optional courses, ranging from early Anglo-Irish writing, through the work of James Joyce and Irish modernism, to contemporary poetry, drama, fiction and film, and courses of the Irish language on three levels. We also teach Irish at Palacký University, Olomouc.