Classical Association of Ireland Newsletter June 2024

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

NEWSLETTER

Dear CAI Members,

It was a pleasure to see so many members and guests at the annual CAI Presidential Address at UCD in April, and lovely to meet the students who achieved the highest possible marks in Classical subjects in their Junior and Leaving Certificate exams (pictured above, with CAI Hon. President Christopher Dillon OSB).

Among other highlights of recent Branch and University activities was our visit to Marsh's Library in Dublin (at left, a sixteenthcentury manuscript from the Library's collection). The day proved so successful that a second visit is being planned for those who weren't able to attend this time – look out for notifications of this and other forthcoming Branch activities via email and social media!

We hope to see you all in August at our annual Summer School conference, hosted by Limerick Branch this year – see the last page of this newsletter for further information. Until then, wishing you an enjoyable summer, Selga Medenieks

A text from Marsh's Library: Demosthenes, O kata Androtionos; Kata Aristogeitonos, logos protos , 1595.

(Photo (c) Liam Bairéad, courtesy of Amy Boylan.)

Photo (c) Selga Medenieks

Classical Association of Ireland

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 2024

By JOAN WRIGHT and ANDREW SMITH

The 29th annual Presidential Address of the Classical Association of Ireland and the presentation of medals and awards to the outstanding students of the Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations took place on Friday, 19 April 2024, in the auditorium at UCD Village, Belfield.

The Presidential Address was launched in 1993 when the Classical Association of Ireland was refounded. There has been an unbroken series of Addresses for the past thirty years, except for the two Covid years of 2020 and 2021. The first Address was given by Professor Tom Mitchell, then Provost of TCD, on the subject of ‘The Classics in the Age of Technology and Enterprise’. This was held in what was then the Industry Centre in UCD and began with music from UCD’s Newman String Quartet and concluded with harp music from Sarah Swan. Since then there have been a wonderful variety of Addresses delivered by a succession of illustrious Honorary Presidents, both professional Classicists and well-known public figures, such as the poets Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland and the dramatist Frank McGuinness.

Our Honorary President for 2024 is Father Christopher Dillon OSB of Glenstal Abbey. Father Dillon served two terms as Abbot of Glenstal, from 1993 for a total of sixteen years. Now in very active retirement he is guest-master, looking after visitors to Glenstal in the guest house that he was instrumental in developing; he also cares for the orchard and teaches ‘a bit of Latin’ both to the monks and to students of Glenstal School, including the student who gained the highest mark for Latin in the Leaving Certificate in 2022. Father Christopher’s Presidential Address for 2024 was entitled, appropriately for a man who has spent the last fifty years as a monk: ‘Did monastic culture save the Latin classics?’

Fr Dillon described in fascinating detail the engaging role of early medieval monastic communities in preserving Classical Latin texts, and particularly the role of Cassiodorus whose collection of texts spread throughout Europe after his death in 590. Fundamental was the translation of the Greek scriptures into Latin (by St Jerome), which established Latin as the liturgical and intellectual language of the western

Above : CAI Hon. President Christopher Dillon OSB giving his Address.

Below : A Vote of Thanks was proposed by Father Bruce Bradley SJ.

Photos (c) Selga Medenieks

church. It is difficult to appreciate today the expense in materials such as the supply of vellum as well as of time and skill needed in the copying of manuscripts. Celtic and Anglo-Saxon monasteries also made an important contribution not only in the copying of manuscripts but also in the re-introduction to continental Europe of a purer and more classical Latin style, the result of learning Latin as a second language rather than as a version of the developing romance languages of southern Europe. The role of monasteries in maintaining continuity and diffusion of texts was critical in these early years and contributed to its ultimate success with the arrival of the printed book.

The Vote of Thanks was proposed by Father Bruce Bradley SJ.

The second part of the evening was devoted to the presentation of medals and awards to the students who gained the highest marks in Classical subjects in the Irish Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations for 2023. The Jack Henderson Memorial Medal is awarded to the student with the highest mark in the Junior Certificate for a Classical Subject (since 2022 including the new amalgamated subject of Classics). It was first awarded in 1994 in memory of a learned and inspirational Inspector for Classics in the Department of Education, who sadly died far too young. The winner for 2022 was Eanna Brady of Holy Child Killiney, who was taught by Olivia Duggan. In 2023 the medal winner was Zahra Nassiri of Saint Andrew’s College, Dublin, whose teacher was Jack Fairbairn.

The Centennial Medal is awarded to the student with the highest mark in the Leaving Certificate for a Classical subject. It was first awarded in 2008 to celebrate the centenary of the original Classical Association of Ireland, founded in 1908 by the Rev. Henry Browne, Professor of Greek at UCD. In 2023 an unprecedented number of eleven outstanding students of Latin, Greek, and Classical Studies gained the highest possible mark in the examinations and so each of these students was awarded a beautiful certificate, designed by the ViceChairperson of the CAI, Bridget Martin.

The six winners for Latin were:

• Eamonn James Barry of Presentation College, Mardyke, Cork, taught by Ronan O’Mahony;

• Sean Hallissey of Clongowes Wood College, taught by Adam Conry;

• Anna Holloway of Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green, taught by Daniel O’Connor;

• Ben Kieran-Glennon of Blackrock College, taught by Louise Maguire;

• Calum McDonald of Belvedere College, taught by Paul Corcoran;

• Riccardo Rasini of Sandford Park School, taught by Charlie Latvis of St Conleth’s College.

Left : Zahra Nassiri and Eanna Brady, winners of the Jack Henderson memorial medals, presented by Hon. President Christopher Dillon. Below : Nine of the eleven students who achieved perfect scores in 2023 Leaving Certificate Classical subjects.

The winner for Greek was Sam O’Rourke of Gonzaga College, taught by Lucy Corcoran.

The four winners for Classical Studies were:

• Tom Cosgrove of Ashfield College, taught by Seamus O’Sullivan;

• Hazel Goddard of Stratford College, taught by Delia Donohoe;

• Sinéad O’Reilly of Loreto Secondary School, Wexford, who studied at Gorey Community School;

• Oscar Randles of Sandford Park School, taught by Niamh Bradshaw.

The evening concluded with a reception on the Balcony Foyer above the Auditorium. Our thanks are due to Professors Martin Brady and Alexander Thein and to the School of Classics at UCD, who very generously sponsored the event.

The Classical Association of Ireland Cumann Clasaiceach na hÉireann

Notice of Annual General Meeting

The Secretary notifies members that the Annual General Meeting of the Association will take place at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, on Friday, 16 August 2024, at 6.15pm.

The Council at its meeting on 20 April 2024 made nominations under Article 12 as follows:

Chair: Joan Wright

Vice-Chair: Bridget Martin

Secretary: Patrick J. Ryan

Treasurer: Alexander Thein

Members by Election:

1. Helen McVeigh

2. Adam Conry

3. Cosetta Cadau

4. Geraldine FitzGerald

Branches may make further nominations not later than 2 August. All such nominations should be signed by the Branch Chair or Acting Chair and returned to me by post or email.

Article 14 Special Motions and proposals for amendment of the Association’s Constitution should also be notified to me by the same date.

The draft Agenda and Minutes of the 2023 AGM will be circulated by the Membership Secretary. Members may submit amendments to these up to the closing date.

Patrick J. Ryan, Secretary.

Contacts:

Post: The Orchard Yard, Newport, Co. Tipperary, V94 N28N.

E-mail: p.strepsiades@gmail.com

Classical Association of Ireland

Latin Summer School 2024

Join us this summer for a full immersion in all things Roman!

Beginners welcome!

Join in person (Trinity College Dublin) or on Zoom

• Three classes per day for two weeks

• Minimum age: 12

• Course fee: €200

17 - 28 JUNE 2024

Information and registration: cosetta.cadau@mu.ie

Follow us on

My first encounter with the poetry of Seamus Heaney

By JACKIE MURPHY

My first encounter with a poem by Seamus Heaney was in Dublin in December 1984, when I heard him reading from Hailstones, a limited edition of poems written after Faber’s Station Island and published by Peter Fallon’s Gallery Press.

Twenty-four printed pages in a blue cover, costing £3 for the paperback and £10 for the signed clothbound edition – the latter sadly unaffordable for me at that time. If memory serves, I think that he read ‘Alphabets’ first, so that was my first introduction to a poem by Seamus Heaney. It was certainly the most promoted of this collection, because I still have the accompanying commissioned card of the capital letters of the alphabet by Michael Kane. I later discovered that Heaney had written it as the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa poem at Harvard.

As a teacher of Latin, I appreciated the stanza in section two extolling the part that the learning of Latin played in a child’s education:

Declensions sang on air like a hosannah As, column after stratified column, Book one of Elementa Latina, Marbled and minatory, rose up in him.

Seamus was indeed true to his profession of love of Latin when in 1993 he generously agreed to be the guest of honour at the launch of Carpe Viam (below) , a new anthology of Latin poetry published by members of the Classical Association of Ireland (of which I was one) for pupils studying Latin for the Junior Certificate. This had been imaginatively illustrated by pupils who responded to the text in an art competition. Seamus congratulated and presented the winners with a copy of the book and spoke about his love of Latin to all present. A treasured memory of an unforgettable encounter with Seamus Heaney.

The reminiscence reprinted here was one of only five submissions chosen by Faber Members for publication in connection with the release of The Letters of Seamus Heaney: www.faber.co.uk

Seamus Heaney at the launch of Carpe Viam

(Photo courtesy of J. Wright)

CORK

CAI Branch & University News

The Cork Branch greeted the New Year, albeit a bit late, in February with our first lecture of the spring 2024 term. First up, on 19 February, was Branch member Gavin O’Brien who spoke on ‘Trajan’s Imperial Alimenta: an analysis of the values attached to children in Roman society in the alimenta of Trajan.’

In this very interesting talk, we learned that children in the Imperial age were very visible in society even if literature does not reflect this. We also heard that death was a constant calamity and that a sense of moral decline was equated with a collapse in society. The harsh side of society saw many abandoned children, or their sale into slavery. Two thirds of children were fatherless by the age of fifteen.

Children who were fortunate to get on the alimenta (subsistence payments) scheme were likely chosen by subsortitio (lottery). It was specific to both girls and boys aged between twelve and fourteen years old. Trajan sought to standardise the scheme and, in the time-honoured code of one good deed deserving another, by his fostering of the alimenta sought to gain the allegiance of his citizens.

4 March saw us welcome Dr Fiachra Long of UCC who spoke on ‘Augustine of Hippo: pilgrim through heresies’. Augustine had a fairly varied existence, moving around to Thagaste, Cartage, Rome, Milan and finally Hippo. Before he was a Christian, he was a Manichean and he converted to Christianity in 386 AD. North Africa was never very comfortable under the aegis of Rome, and the early Christian splinter group the Donatists became known as the "Church of the Martyrs" because of their opposition to Rome. In 313 AD, a split occurred in the Christian Church in North Africa on ‘theological’ grounds. Dr Long spoke of the Donatists and also the Manichean beliefs.

We might be old-school in Cork, but we embraced technology for our April and May talks from the estimable Patrick Ryan of the Limerick Branch. No torch was needed as Selene herself lit up the skies for Pat’s talk. ‘Selene: the moon in ancient Greece’ was conducted through the marvels of Zoom and was a two-part affair.

Part one, ‘Greek lore and mythology’, was presented on 8 April. We have to go back to the start of the universe for the origins of Selene. Patrick made the point that the usual pantheon of gods – Zeus, Hera, and all the others in the band – are relative newcomers. Selene’s place in lore and mythology are well documented from the Homeric Hymn 32 to Selene, to the Sculpture of the Horse of Selene, part of the

Parthenon marbles in the British Museum. Plato’s Cratylus 409 also has a mention of the moon, and no museum collection of Greek vases is complete unless Selene is seen with her billowing cape in the shape of a crescent moon. Endymion is almost synonymous with Selene; and the poet Sappho and the more ‘modern’ Keats both wrote about her. We got a great insight into Selene’s place in Greek mythology from Patrick in this part of his talk.

Part two, ‘Greek astronomy and science’ on Monday, 13 May, was our final talk of the term and Patrick focused on the ancient and modern place of the moon in astronomy. Astronomy was all to do with timekeeping and religious uses of the moon for deciding the dates of Easter and Ramadan. We were introduced to a synod of philosophers – Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Claudius Ptolemy – in all, almost seven hundred years of philosophical thinking on the moon. Patrick gave us a wealth of information during this very interesting talk. Lunar eclipses occur every eighteen years following a Saros cycle. All the philosophers mentioned above have their own craters named after them on the moon and each had his own theories about the sun and the moon. Anaxagoras was imprisoned for heresy because he claimed the sun and the moon were objects, not deities. What was truly fascinating was that all of these men were working with very basic instruments and yet they could write so well about science. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Islamic astronomers continued the study until the Renaissance arrived with Copernicus and Kepler to further our understanding. To date, only twelve people have landed on the moon and only four are extant today. So, the next time there is a lunar eclipse or just a full moon, look up and appreciate the work all those ancient scholars did to further our understanding of the Earth’s only natural satellite. Who knows, you might even see Selene and her white horses!

The Cork Branch had a good year, and we thank all those who unfailingly turned up on the Monday nights to support the speakers; we will be back in October with the autumn programme. Until then, we look forward to catching up with other Branch members at the Summer School which will be held in Limerick this year and we wish the hosts and participants a successful conference.

Jennifer O'Donoghue

DUBLIN

Marsh’s Library, Dublin, was opened to the public in 1707 and is Ireland’s oldest public library. Governed by Jonathan Swift in its early days and later visited by literary greats such as Bram Stoker and James Joyce, the library opened its doors to CAI members on 17 February for a private tour led by librarian Amy Boylan. We were introduced to the fascinating history of the library as we were guided around the Reading Rooms. We saw such details as the bullet holes left by British machine gunning of the library (mistaken for Jacob’s Biscuit Factory) during the 1916 Rising, and the cages readers were once locked into in an attempt to stem the then rampant theft of books which left the library bereft of some 1,000 volumes. We heard of an Egyptian mummy once kept in one of the cupboards, and of the haunting atmosphere in the library produced by the often waterlogged cemetery in St Patrick’s Close. We capped off the tour with a viewing of some Greek and Latin texts and illustrated volumes from the collection. These included one of the earliest printed Greek texts (a volume of speeches of Demosthenes in the Stillingfleet collection); a beautiful illustrated volume of the ruins at Baalbek; Onofrio Panvinio’s De ludis circensibus libri II; and Marcus Calvus’ Antiquae urbis Romae cum regionibus simulachrum, a stunning representation of Rome’s major ancient landmarks (which you can view here: https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi2/exhibits/show/maps/ item/441). Great thanks are owed to Amy and the other staff at Marsh’s Library for a truly special experience.

Mnemosyne Rice

Above , the Reading Room, Marsh's Library (photo (c) Mnemosyne Rice) Below , an illustration from Robert Wood's The ruins of Balbec , London, 1757 (photo (c) Liam Bairéad) . Photographs courtesy of Amy Boylan.

LIMERICK

With the 2024 Summer School fixed for Limerick and considering the depth of preparation needed to tackle its organisation, the committee decided to confine the Branch lecture programme to two lectures.

The first of these, ‘Classical features in the architecture of Limerick, the western-most Renaissance city in Europe’, was given by Dr Paul O’Brien of the History Department of Mary Immaculate College. Paul spoke about various buildings past and present in Limerick city and their Classical architecture, most notably of a building called ‘Le Mont de Piété’ – students of historic buildings of Paris, please note! The Barrington family had this pile built adjacent to their famous hospital. It served, strange to say, as a pawn-broker’s. It had an authentic Greek front in the Ionic style, though without a pediment, but with a dome, St. Peter’s style, over its main central section. Sadly, it no longer survives.

The second lecture, ‘The phenomenon of hacksilber hoards and the Balline Hoard from County Limerick, was presented by our own Clodagh Lynch, who is

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND

A major focus of the CANI programme of 2024 so far has been building on our outreach, both in terms of education and location.

Our burgeoning relationship with the Linen Hall Library in central Belfast has continued to grow, with it hosting two CANI-organised events – a talk by Peter Crawford on the Roman presence in Ireland (January) and a screening of the award-winning documentary Being an Islander, complete with a conversation with one of its producers, Anastasia Christophilopoulou (May). This relationship will continue to grow into the 2024/25 programme of events.

CANI4Schools also spread its wings a bit further in the spring/summer terms, reaching various age groups and locations. John Curran kicked things off by talking to Religious Studies students at Larne Grammar and then joined Peter Crawford in giving curriculum-supporting talks to Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies students at Dalriada School, Ballymoney (April); Lynn Gordon (pictured with students, top right) returned to RBAI to provide help with Classics exam preparation (May); and a Greek theatre workshop by Helen McVeigh visited St Joseph’s Primary School in Belfast (May) (pupils pictured, bottom right).

Closer to home in QUB, events included Amber Taylor giving a presentation about her Masters dissertation

currently a PhD candidate with NUIG. Here, Clodagh treated of the silver traces found in hoards of ingots and items that are the subject of discussion in the U.K. and in Europe. The Balline Hoard, which she has spoken to us about on previous occasions, is situated in the Kilmallock area of County Limerick.

Lectures aside, Patrick Ryan assembled a Latin reading group which tackled the 1962 Apostolic Constitution of Pope John XXIII. This document strongly recommended that Latin should remain an integral part of scholarship in the future. Members also took part in other reading groups, the most recent of which took Cicero’s De Senectute as their text.

With most of the arrangements for the 2024 Summer School in place, members are looking forward to our annual outing to The Orchard Yard, Patrick Ryan’s idyllic residence, on Saturday, 8 June. A reading of a new translation of Euripides’ Medea, by Ian Johnston, will add to the pleasures of what’s sure to be a very enjoyable occasion.

Tom Seaver (Hon. Secretary)

on Ovid’s perception of the heroine and its modern depictions (April), while Anastasia Christophilopoulou spoke on the creation of island communities in the Mediterranean (May).

CANI also continued to grow its online presence, posting videos of many of its talks and its ongoing shorts series on Roman emperors, while its website blog hosts articles on a variety of ancient historical and classical subjects – as a taster, 2024 so far has seen pieces on Aeneas in the Iliad, other survivors of the Odyssey, heretical Islamic statelets, and a Roman emperor with too many wives...

Amber Taylor

MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY

It is with great regret that the Department of Ancient Classics at Maynooth announces the retirement of Dr Maeve O’Brien (pictured, right). Maeve has been a pillar of the Classics community here and throughout Ireland for well over 30 years. She has in many ways been the heart and soul of this department. Primarily a Latinist, she has taught across a wide range of Latin literature and, of course, she has taught the language itself at all levels. Her lectures were warmly received by her students. She prepared thoroughly and her enthusiasm for the subject was infectious. Her teaching earned her many heartfelt plaudits. She was not only a fine teacher but also zealous in the exercise of her pastoral care. Many Access and mature students, in particular, found a happy home here thanks to her efforts. Her teaching was combined with solid scholarship and careful administration. Many lecturers now show great concern for improving their CVs, understandably so, but Maeve’s driving force was always to do service to the Department and Maynooth University first. In her busiest of times, she always put her own priorities aside in order that the Department could present the best version of itself. For that we are grateful. Maeve’s dedication to Classics extended also to the outside world where she represented us for many years on the Classical Association of Ireland, and on other institutions like the IIHSA (Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens). For her efforts there, we are also grateful. We wish Maeve a long and happy retirement.

Our sadness at losing Maeve though must be tempered by our happiness at welcoming Maeve’s replacement, Dr Leah O’Hearn. Leah has come to us from Australia, where she completed her PhD at La Trobe University in 2020. She is a broadly trained Classicist, who specialises predominantly in Latin literature and is interested in gender, the emotions, and ecocritical approaches to ancient texts. Leah is already becoming an integral part of our Department and we wish her success and happiness in the future.

In other news, Dr William Desmond has been on sabbatical for 2023–2024. He is Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Classics in Oxford for the Trinity Term in 2024. In his stead, we have had the great pleasure of welcoming back Dr Carl O’Brien, most recently of Department of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. Aside from his many teaching and research activities, Dr O’Brien kindly organised the Maynooth Classics Seminar Series; we welcomed Dr Max Rohstock (Heidelberg), Dr Roberto Vinco (Heidelberg), Professor Istvan Czachesz (UiT) , Dr Nicoletta Bruno (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro), as well as Dr Leah O’Hearn and Muditha Dharmasiri, our PhD candidate, who spoke on her fascinating research,

seeking to recover the lives of Roman mime actresses through their funerary inscriptions.

And finally, we were proud to see our students chosen to represent Maynooth University in the Best Society category at the Board of Irish College Societies Awards this year. The Classics Society has been flourishing and livening up campus with a series of events, such as a recent wellattended Olympic sports day in aid of Amnesty International.

Kieran McGroarty and Leah O’Hearn

CHECK OUT THE ARCTIC ANSWERS PODCAST

featuring Maynooth University's Dr Carl O'Brien, co-producer/presenter of the videocast (Aurora Dialogues), in association with colleagues at the Arctic University of Norway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrRqU7AprYE

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

The Department of Classics at TCD continues to foster a vibrant teaching and research culture. Our Wednesday afternoon Research Seminars continued throughout the year in a hybrid form, attracting a great number of national and international participants.

We welcomed three new Postdoctoral Fellows this year: Dr Francesca Econimo, working on an one-year IRC-funded project: 'Ovid in Thebes. Reading the Thebaid of Statius through the Metamorphoses'; Dr Leon Walsh working on a two-year IRC-funded project: '"Rhyme" in ancient Greek hexametric and elegiac poetry'; and Dr Boris Kayachev who holds a four-year SFI-IRC Pathway award for his project on 'Enjambement in Latin poetry: prosody, pragmatics and word order'.

The Department was delighted to organise a one-day event 'Encounters with the Minoan Snake Goddess' on 9 March 2024, in partnership with the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens (Figure 1). The event was part of the larger project, 'The Many Lives of a Snake Goddess', directed by Prof. Christine Morris (TCD), Dr Ellen Adams (Kings College London), and Prof. Nicoletta Momigliano (University of Bristol) with research assistant Mnemosyne Rice (TCD). Taking a diachronic, multicultural, and multisensory perspective on the iconic Snake Goddess figurines excavated at Knossos in 1903, we enjoyed a lively day of talks and poster displays on their discovery, reconstruction, display, and modern receptions. Participants also engaged with new work on communicating the figures through multi-sensory approaches (audio-description, sign language, and mindful looking) and the day ended with Ruth Padel reading her set of fifteen short poems, commissioned as part of the project.

Following an Award by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Cyprus for the project ‘Fostering Cypriot and Greek Studies in Ireland’, Dr Giorgos Papantoniou was able to initiate a new museum project in Cyprus, training our students in processing unpublished material (Figure 2). In particular, the project aims to study and publish the terracotta figurines from Pegeia-Kambos tis Maas at Paphos, a sanctuary site that came to light during rescue excavations in the 1980s by Emeritus Prof. Demetrios Michaelides (University of Cyprus).

1. Left : Speakers at the 'Encounters with the Minoan Snake Goddess' workshop.

2. Above : TCD Students cataloguing terracotta figurines in the Paphos District Archaeological Museum.

3. Opposite page, top : Prof. Brian McGing measuring papyri in the Chester Beatty Museum.

4. Opposite page, centre : Dr Martine Cuypers delivering her lecture during the annual CAI-T Schools Lecture Day.

Dr Shane Wallace in collaboration with Emeritus Prof. Brian McGing, ran a two-day workshop on 10-11 April 2024, studying the Narmouthis papyri in the Chester Beatty Museum (Figure 3). The first day was spent examining and measuring the papyri in the Chester Beatty, while the second day was dedicated to discussions held in the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute. In addition, for a third year, on 25 April 2024 Dr Wallace gathered colleagues in TCD Classics for the (by now) annual workshop 'Approaching the Hellenistic World' which showcased research on Hellenistic literature, history, and archaeology by our staff, postgraduate researchers, and postdoctoral Fellows.

On 13 April 2024 we welcomed over 200 Leaving Certificate students and their teachers to the annual CAI-T Schools Lecture Day (Figure 4). Students heard lectures on the four strands of their curriculum from Dr Martine Cuypers, Dr Charlie Kerrigan, Dr Rebecca Usherwood, Dr Giorgos Papantoniou, and Prof, Christine Morris. Many thanks to all involved!

Finally, on 23-24 May 2024, led by our Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postodoctoral Fellow Dr Francesco Ripanti, and in the context of his 'Linking community archaeology and wellbeing in the Mediterranean' (LOGGIA) project, we held the 'Connecting threads: collaborative approaches to archaeology, heritage and community wellbeing' workshop covering two main topics: the role of classics and archaeology in enhancing community wellbeing and stakeholders’ involvement; and how working on wellbeing with communities may foster transdisciplinary approaches between classics, archaeology and the other heritage sectors.

Giorgos Papantoniou