DETAILS
Tuesday 1st December, 2020 at 6:30pm (AEDT) on Zoom
Dr Robert Lindsey
“An example some of us in Ireland might advantageously copy”: Vincent Hearnes and the cultural landscape of Irish Australia
ABSTRACT
This seminar will focus on the life of an exceptional yet little-known Irish-Australian, Vincent Joseph Hearnes (1903-1986). A talented artist, engineer and writer, Hearnes spent much of his life studying the Irish language, and creating illuminated manuscripts that drew inspiration from sources such as the Book of Kells. Nevertheless, he never set foot in Ireland. While entirely unique in so many ways, Hearnes’ life story serves to illustrate how some Irish-Australians engaged deeply with the cultural legacy of their ancestors. This seminar also provides an excellent opportunity to review his major artistic works, placing them in the appropriate political and cultural context of Ireland’s revolutionary period.
SPEAKER
Robert Lindsey works in the fields of cultural history, transnational history, as well as Celtic Studies more generally. His more recent work has focussed on the history of the Celtic languages, with a special interest in Irish Gaelic and Welsh. This research tends to deal with inter-ethnic relationships, language preservation and language revival. Robert’s PhD thesis was entitled “A Model for Ireland: The Welsh language revival, and its impact on Irish language reform in the twentieth century”.
The seminar will start at 6:30pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time (Melbourne); 8.30pm New Zealand Daylight Time (Wellington); 7:30am Greenwich Mean Time (Dublin)
For zoom details RSVP: melbirishstudies [at] gmail.com.
For queries contact: melbirishstudies [at] gmail.com or dianne.hall [at] vu.edu.au
RECORDING – Video
RECORDING – Audio