CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
May 2019
CAI BRANCH & UNIVERSITY NEWS CAI CORK The spring programme began for the Cork Branch on February 4 with Dr Meredith Cutrer from the Dept of History at UCD. Dr Cutrer spoke on ‘From Secular to Sacred: The transformation of the Peregrinus from Augustus to Augustine’. The talk centred on why the clergy adopted the term peregrinus, which means perpetual foreigner, and how Augustine and the Irish peregrini after him understood their role. The term showed no respect of class or religion and in 212AD Caracalla’s Edict granted to all those in the Roman world the citizenship of the Romans. In the Epistle to Diognetus the term peregrinus is used over eight hundred times and in St Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God the term has over a thousand mentions. Patrick, Columba, Columbanus, and Brendan were all peregrini and, indeed, St Augustine says all Christians are peregrini. March 4 saw us welcome Dr Christopher Farrell from the Dept of Classics, UCD. Dr Farrell spoke on ‘Democracy and Athenian Imperialism’. This talk traced Athenian democracy from Archaic times through two invasions by Darius and the Persians. We were made familiar with the workings of the Greek state, the Boule, the writings of Xenophon and Thucydides, and tyranny under Peisistratos. Archaeological and numismatic sources were also looked at for references. April 1 was a rather inauspicious day but not if you count it as Otto Von Bismarck’s birthday or the day the Presidential Address came to the banks of the Lee! It saw the Cork Branch welcome old friends in the guise of the President of the Classical Association, Tom Seaver and his wife, Mary. It is always nice when the presidential address is made available to the Branches, considering that not everyone has the ability to travel to the ‘main event’ in Dublin on a November night. 8
The title of the talk was ‘A Century of Classics in Ireland, 1908-2018’. Tom is well-placed to speak on such a topic having been associated with the CAI for a long, long time in a variety of roles. Classics have been an integral part of the Irish education system for a really long time. We should be grateful to those Hedge School teachers for whom Latin and Greek were a staple and to the monks before them for preserving the literature of the time. The Intermediate Education Act of 1878 introduced a curriculum for Latin and Greek. A slew of interesting details were raised in this talk. In 1907 Henry Browne first mooted the notion of setting up a classical association of Ireland, as one already existed in England. The first meeting was held in Earlsfort Terrace and seventeen people were present; the membership fee was a mere five shillings. It seemed a hiatus occurred and in 1958 a revitalisation of the CAI and classics teachers occurred. Today the association is not just limited to teachers, neither Latin nor Greek are needed for entry to university, and both subjects are in great decline in Irish schools. However, though the Classical Association of Ireland and all who sail and steer her ship, the legacy started by those monks of old and hedge school masters, not forgetting Henry Browne and John Thompson, still bravely continues. Perhaps in 2108 a new president will speak on the bicentenary of the association and there will be something still to talk about! May 13 will see us welcome members’ papers. The account will be too late for the deadline of the newsletter, but the two speakers for the night will be Nora Comerford (Hedge Schools in Ireland and their links to the Classics) and Jennifer O’Donoghue (Trajan and his legacy). The Branch would like to take this opportunity to thank the Dept of Classics at UCC, Dr David Woods, and Dr Catherine Ware for their unfailing support, financial and academic, throughout the year. Their help makes the Branch so much easier to run.