Shakespeare and the Modern Irish Theatre

Staging Anglo-Irish Relations from the Easter Rising to Brexit (Spring 2019 Burns Lecture, Boston College)

Earlier this year, I had the great privilege of acting as the 2019 Burns Visiting Scholar at Boston College. As part of my visit I gave a public lecture on Shakespeare and the Modern Irish Theatre – my suggestion being that performances of Shakespeare have been used throughout our history as a way of thinking about the relationships between England and Ireland. It’s a wide ranging lecture that includes references to everyone from Yeats and Gregory to Orson Welles to Fiona Shaw and beyond.

Thanks to the Burns Library for posting the lecture online – as below:

Lecture about Synge and Galway

I recently came across a Soundcloud recording of a lecture I gave at Galway City Museum about JM Synge and Galway a few years ago.

I’m talking about that theme from three points of view – his links with the Aran Islands, with Galway city, and with Connemara – and looking at famous plays like The Playboy of the Western World but also his travel writing.  The whole lecture is about 45 minutes’ long.

More here: https://soundcloud.com/galwaycitymuseum/episode-8-j-m-synge-galway