Events

Details of upcoming and recent events may be found on this page. If you know of an event that may be of interest to ISAANZ members and supporters please complete this form.

For information on upcoming MISS seminars, and recordings of previous speakers go to the MISS Page or click on the button below.

Melbourne Irish Studies Seminars

UPCOMING EVENTS

Any upcoming events will be listed immediately below. Past events are in the next section.

Irish Texts in SLV Rare Books

29 July 2026. State Library Victoria houses a range of important Irish works that document the history of printing in Latin, Irish and English. This viewing will explore a range of unusual historical, linguistic and literary works, the debates they generated, and their representation of continuing literary traditions. Featured will be texts from the seventeenth to the twentieth century by authors such as Roderic O’Flaherty (1629-1718) and Thomas Carve (1590-1672), the Paris works of Hugh MacCurtin (1680-1755) and James Joyce, through to the migrant fiction of Mary Ann Sadlier and literary texts of the Celtic Revival.

Winter Lecture Series

4 August 2026. Conradh na Gaeilge Aotearoa will be running a free Winter lecture series over the coming weeks, looking at various aspects of Irish. Everyone is welcome. There will be some Irish language content but the talks will be suitable for all, including those with no Irish!

Diasporic Reconstruction of Narrative Traditions

12 August 2026. Diasporic literature comprises works composed away from authors’ homelands. Many such texts grapple with identity negotiation, cultural hybridity, nostalgia and alienation; other diasporic writers centre indigenous cultural heritage to reach international readers. James Joyce (1882–1942) represents the former tendency, while Lin Yutang (1895–1976) exemplifies the latter. Both spent decades living abroad and produced major works in English, drawing core motifs from their respective national storytelling traditions.

Great Irish Famine Commemoration 2026

12 September 2026. 11:00am – 1:00pm. Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney. Come together at this free event to remember and honour Ireland and her history of an Gorta Mor, and the arrival of thousands from Ireland to Australia as a consequence. Guest speaker is Dr Anne Casey, with music and song by McMolly and harpist Cliona Molins. Lay flowers as a tribute at the memorial wall during the commemoration. This is a heartfelt gathering to reflect on and celebrate Irish heritage and Australian history. Explore the barracks, first home to many Irish in the early colony including the Irish Orphan Girls…

PAST EVENTS

Bloomsday in Melbourne

21 June 2026. Bloomsday in Melbourne has been celebrating 16th June for more than thirty years with staged productions of his work. This year they bring a brand new play to the stage, Between The Lines: The James Joyce/Groucho Marx Letters. A young female academic makes the find of a lifetime – and has to negotiate her way through the patriarchal world of academe in the mid-1980s. Bloomsday in Melbourne is also presenting their annual Bloomsday Seminar and Lunch on Sunday 21st June at The Wild Geese in Brunswick, where a panel will discuss, among other things, the repercussions of Helen Garner’s 1995 book The…

Anti-Irish Home Rule Movement

5 March 2026. As the third Irish Home Rule crisis grew more threatening from 1911 onwards, Ulster Unionists began searching for allies across the British Empire, including in Australia. This research highlights the role and influence of the Australian anti-Home Rule movement from 1911 to 1914, investigating why the Loyal Orange Institution in Australia published resolutions sympathetic to the Unionist cause. The research also investigates who the supporters were, who donated thousands of pounds in aid, or who enlisted in an Australian Ulster volunteer contingent. Most importantly, it considers how widespread and organised these Ulster sympathisers were, particularly by 1914…

Women Immigrants from Irish workhouses

3 February 2026. Historian Perry McIntyre explores the immigration scheme to bring young destitute single women to Australia during the years 1848–50. Destitute families found refuge in workhouses in Ireland before the Great Famine of 1845. Australia offered young single women with little prospect of employment in Ireland a totally free passage to Sydney, Port Phillip and Adelaide. Who devised this scheme and why? Who were the key players and what were the outcomes for these young women and the colonies? Hear about a project that untangles the lives of the 4114 girls who participated in this immigration scheme.

Na Trí Céilithe

23 November 2025. Join us for a screening of Na Trí Céilithe (The Three Concerts), a short dance film that blends memory and movement to reimagine the vibrant Gaelic concerts held by Melbourne’s Irish diaspora in the early twentieth century. In the absence of archival footage, the film takes a bold leap – reinterpreting céilí dances through a contemporary lens to explore how tradition can live and breathe in the present. Perfect for lovers of film, Irish dance, and stories that connect past and present!

David McWilliams in conversation

21 October 2025. Following David’s upcoming October 2025 Australian & New Zealand tour, he will be joined on stage by Prof. Ronan McDonald for an entertaining evening and discussion on growth trends, geo-politics, currencies, financial markets and the link between economics, along with his unique sense of humour and objective to make economics digestible and engaging for all.

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