Island Voices 2018

DERRY CITY & STRABANE
DISTRICT COUNCIL
AUTUMN LECTURE SERIES
TOWER MUSEUM, DERRY
ISLAND
VOICES
2018
BORDER CROSSINGS
Navigating the frontiers of
language, culture and identity
DERRYSTRABANE.COM/ MUSEUMS
DERRYSTRABANE.COM/ GAEILGE
ULSTERSCOTS
TO BOOK YOUR PLACE,
contact the Tower Museum on tel: 028 7137 2411 or
email: tower.reception@derrystrabane.com.

DERRY CITY & STRABANE
DISTRICT COUNCIL
AUTUMN LECTURE SERIES
TOWER MUSEUM, DERRY
ISLAND
VOICES
BORDER CROSSINGS
Navigating the frontiers of
language, culture and identity
2018
Borders are never far from our minds. Both literal and
figurative, they serve to compartmentalise our world.
Borders mark out territories, they create, for some, a
sense of nationhood and belonging, but they also serve
to create a symbolic frontier in the mind separating ‘us’
from ‘them’, and ‘ourselves’ from the ‘other’. Despite
globalisation we remain defined by national, social and
cultural borders. And never has space and place seemed
more contested than now, as we contemplate a new
post-Brexit landscape which challenges us to rethink
our traditional understanding of national, cultural and
linguistic identity.
Derry City and Strabane District Council presents
Island Voices 2018 - a series of free lunchtime lectures
exploring the role of borders within our shared heritage,
and reflecting on borders in our contemporary
understanding of ourselves and others.

Being Irish, Being British:
Difference, similarity, and the work of
imagining group boundaries
Dr Dominic Bryan, Queen’s University Belfast
// Thursday 20th September 2018, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
// Tower Museum, Derry
This talk will examine the
construction of identities in our
society. It will start from the
premise that, broadly speaking,
the peoples of our islands share
the same culture. Nevertheless,
particular differences in social
identity come to dominate political
processes. By examining group
identities, the marking of
ethno-national boundaries and the
use of symbols and rituals, we can
better understand how the work
of imaging communities takes
place. How is it that people with
such similar life experiences come
to view themselves as an ‘us’ and
a ‘them’? By looking at examples
such as the attachment to symbols,
the use of historical narratives, and
the practices of ‘telling’ in everyday
life the talk will explore similarity,
difference, conflict and peace.
Dr Dominic Bryan
Dr. Dominic Bryan is a Reader in Social
Anthropology at Queen’s University
Belfast. From 2002-2014 he was
Director of the Institute of Irish Studies.
Research interests include political
rituals, symbols, commemoration,
public space and identity in Northern
Ireland. He is author of ‘Orange
Parades: The Politics of Ritual Tradition
and Control’. In 2014 he was co-author
of ‘The Flag Dispute: Anatomy of a
Protest’ and recently was co-author of
‘Flags: Towards a New Understanding’.
Dominic is also the Chair of Diversity
Challenges and co-Chair of the
Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture
and Tradition.

The Anglo-Scottish Borders and
the Plantation of Ulster
Robert Bell
// Thursday 18th October 2018, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
// Tower Museum, Derry
Our history defines us, as do our
borders. For three hundred years
until the end of the sixteenth
century, the lawless Scots-English
borders shaped a society of great
marauding families that were a
plague to both governments. In
one of history’s great coincidences,
the end of the Nine Years War in
Ireland in 1603 coincided with
the death of Elizabeth I, and the
English crown passed to James
VI of Scotland. He then ruthlessly
pacified his ‘Middle Shires’ and in a
few years the Riding Clan culture
was utterly destroyed. Meanwhile,
the colonisation of Ulster was
being imposed. Untold numbers of
Scots borderers fled persecution
for Ulster. Despite going largely
undocumented they came in great
numbers and helped to shape
and influence the character of the
planter population.
Robert Bell
Robert Bell was born in Belfast in
1953. He left school at 16 and worked
in a variety of jobs in Ireland and
England for 10 years before studying
Modern History at Queens University
in Belfast. He was Supervisor of the NI
Political Collection at the Linen Hall
Library from 1984 to 1994, when he
also published ‘The Book of Ulster
Surnames’. He then worked as a
freelance writer for the UN in Bangkok
and as a programme developer for the
International Organisation for Migration
in Sarajevo. He worked for 15 years
as a writer and editor for UNICEF in
Copenhagen before retiring there
in 2015.

Changing spaces:
the new geographies of the Gaeltacht
and Irish language networks
Dr John Walsh, NUI Galway
// Friday 30th November 2018, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
// Tower Museum, Derry
Space and place are probably
the most fundamental concepts
in geography, yet despite the
obvious spatial manifestations of
so much of the world, including
the linguistic, space is not widely
employed beyond the confines of
geography. Although languages
and their speakers are deeply
bound up with issues of space
and place, sociolinguistics itself
is poorly engaged with these
concepts. This talk explores why
sociolinguists need to pay much
more attention to space and
explains how it can redefine our
understandings of the current
spatiality of the Irish language both
within the Gaeltacht and elsewhere
in Ireland. The talk will also examine
the mapping of the Gaeltacht and
more lately the ‘language planning
process’ which is supposed to
strengthen Irish on a specifically
defined spatial basis.
Dr John Walsh
Dr John Walsh is a Senior Lecturer
in Irish in the School of Languages,
Literatures and Cultures at the National
University of Ireland, Galway where he
teaches sociolinguistics and media.
From 2008 to 2012, he was Joint
Director of a national syllabus project
for Irish at third-level and from 2013
to 2017 he was an active member of
the COST (European Co-operation in
Science and Technology) network on
‘new speakers’ of various languages
including Irish. John’s research interests
include the sociolinguistics of Irish,
language policy, language ideology,
minority language media (particularly
radio) and language and
socio-economic development.

ISLAND VOICES is an annual lecture series which seeks to explore the
languages, cultures and heritages of these islands with a particular
emphasis on the Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions.
The series is funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council’s
Good Relations Programme and delivered by Council’s Language
Services in partnership with Council’s Heritage and Museum Services.
Booking essential
Please book your place by contacting
the Tower Museum (028) 7137 2411 or
email tower.reception@derrystrabane.com
Lunch provided // Admission Free
Please visit the Island Voices Learning Zone:
www.towermuseumlearning.co.uk/island-voices
This information is available upon request in a number of
formats including large print, Braille, PDF, audio formats
(CD, MP3, DAISY) and minority languages.
For further information on alternative formats please contact
Tel 028 71 253253 text phone: 028 7137 664
Further information on Irish and
Ulster-Scots available from:
www.derrystrabane.com/gaeilge
www.derrystrabane.com/ulster-scots