May 2018
CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND Celebrating Classics Education: a Day for Schools An event organised by the Classical Association in Northern Ireland in partnership with Advocating Classics Education (ACE) was held on Friday, 9 February 2018, in the Ulster Museum, Belfast. ACE is an AHRC-funded project, managed at Kings College London by Prof. Edith Hall and Dr Arlene Holmes Henderson. The project seeks to promote the study of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History throughout the UK with the assistance of its partner organisations, which in Northern Ireland is Queen’s University Belfast. The event was aimed at primary and post-primary schools, and ACE brought writer, broadcaster and Classics advocate Natalie Haynes as our guest speaker. The day began early for Natalie and CANI board members Dr John Curran and Helen McVeigh. We were joined at the Ulster Museum by Eve Rosato from BBC Radio Ulster’s morning news programme and were interviewed on live radio, answering questions on the importance of studying Classics and what our event involved. The morning session was attended by P5 and P7 pupils from Belfast schools Our Lady’s Girls Primary School and Inchmarlo. Students from the QUB drama department performed excerpts from Colin Teevan’s Iphigenia in Aulis, causing much excitement among the children. During a short break, the girls and boys had the opportunity to handle ancient objects provided by University College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast. They also met members of Legion Ireland, a society dedicated to portraying the Roman Army in the first century AD. Legion Ireland brought with them a large amount of equipment and spoke knowledgeably to the children and indeed the adults who passed by their tables during the day. Next, the children learned more about Greek drama and made their own masks, organised by a number of students from Stranmillis University College. The girls from Our Lady’s Girls School in Belfast kindly wrote letters of thanks to CANI and we were thrilled that they enjoyed their morning at the museum. After a quick sandwich, we welcomed 230 post-primary students, the majority
studying at GCSE and A level. These young people came from as far afield as Dublin to the south and Ballymoney to the north, and I am delighted to report that there was standing room only in the lecture theatre! The afternoon session began with some more drama: the QUB students performed excerpts from Sophocles’ Antigone and invited the audience to compare translations by Seamus Heaney, Tom Paulin and Owen McCafferty. Following a break during which the young people examined the ancient artefacts on the object-handling table and chatted with Legion Ireland, Dr John Curran delivered an interesting and informative lecture in which he answered the question “What is the Aeneid really about?” The day concluded with an address by Natalie Haynes, known for being a comedian, novelist, and from her Radio 4 programme 7