CAI Newsletter November 2015

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

NEWSLETTER Community Classics at Cambridge

ISSUE NOVEMBER 2015 ISSUE 2, 2, NOVEMBER 2013

7-­‐8 Animating Ancient Greece

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The CAI Presidential Address 2015: Prof. John A. Madden

2 An update on Classics at second level

by Ian Maguire, Chairperson, CAI-Teachers

Dublin Branch Expedition to Trim

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3–4 The CAI Summer School, 2015, Maynooth University

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From the Editor Welcome to this bumper, 16-page bulletin, packed with news and a roundup of some of the CAI’s 2015 activities!

It has been another busy year for the Association. Highly anticipated annual events have taken place as usual, such as the Presidential Address (p. 2) and Summer School (pp. 5-6), but members have also been going to new places (‘Community Classics at Cambridge’, pp. 7-8) and bringing Classics to audiences in new ways (‘Animating Ancient Greece’, p. 9).

Branch and University News; Obituaries; CAI Central Council 2015

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Plans for 2016 are already well underway at each of our Branches, and Andrew Smith and Joan Wright have scouted out the best Greek and Roman sites in Bulgaria for the popular CAI biannual tour abroad (p. 6).

Finally, we are honoured that the Hon. Ms Justice Caroline Costello, Judge of the High Court, has agreed to be CAI President for 2016; Judge Costello obtained a BA in Classics and History at UCD before turning to her career in the law.

With best wishes to all our members for a very happy New Year, Dr Selga Medenieks

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

November 2015

CAI Presidential Address 2015 Prof. John A. Madden

Hon. President Prof. John A. Madden (far left) and Chairperson Damhlaic mag Shamhráin (second right) with Michael McNulty of Gonzaga College, winner of the 2015 Jack Henderson Medal, and his family (Photo: Isabella Bolger)

This year’s Address was given on 6 November in Theatre NT1 on the UCD campus (for which many thanks to Dr Alexander Thein). Our Honorary President, Emeritus Professor John A. Madden, spoke on the subject of the Royal Library of Alexandria.

From the Poetics we learn that “the fact that the experience of learning (“manthanein”) is the most pleasurable thing for all humans” (1448b 12-15). Dr Madden gave a most pleasurable discourse that evening. He outlined the origins of the great Library and the sources of the wealth which endowed its collections and scholars. This was the fabulous prosperity of the successor Macedonian kings of Egypt. The Ptolemaic dynasty patronised the operation for centuries, roughly 300 BCE to perhaps 300 CE. The Library contained about 500,000 papyrus rolls stored in bins grouped by specialism, eventually identified by labels and so classified by subject and sub-subject. As the Library was part of the great Mouseion it was obviously the fact that each Muse had her pet subject that led to this systematic classification and the development of the Catalogue.

Eratosthenes of Cyrene began the Tetagmenos epi teis megaleis bibliothekeis in 235 BCE. This “scheme of the great bookshelves” was complementary to the Pinakes of Callimachus. The Pinakes were a collection of tablets (originally votives in temples) which made identification of rolls much easier.

Among the more glorious names associated with the Library is Demetrius of Phaleron, who arrived from Athens in 297 BCE. Demetrius certainly was a polymath - his works 2

deal with politics (he had been Administrator of Athens), history and rhetoric.

Rival libraries existed in Ephesus and Pergamum. Eagerness to compete and to complete collections provided careers to plagiarists and forgers, who helped with the supply of “new” works. The most famous piece of forgery is the “Letter of Aristeas” (c 200BCE).

The document purports to tell how the “Seventy-two” (or Septuagint) translators of the Jews’ holy books were enlisted in the service of the Library and whose work constitutes the “Old Testament” of the Christian religion.

After six centuries of service to learning the Library went into decline, especially as its patrons’ wealth went instead to provide bread and circus for the wastrels of Rome. The Library was almost forgotten, despite its role in preserving the works of antiquity. Its scrolls were lost or burned or dispersed. But of course the idea and the ideal of the collection lived.

The Library of Congress is a worthy successor.

And now, nearly two thousand years later, a revival of that idea is taking place. The Bibliotheka Alexandrina is built and is amassing a collection. In the entrance lobby stands a statue of Demetrius of Phaleron. Thank you, Dr Madden, for rekindling our interest in one of humanity’s greatest projects.

A very pleasant reception took place at the end of the evening, courtesy of our generous sponsor, Jason O’Brien of Odaios Foods. It was an opportunity to meet friends and discuss our reactions to the paper.

Damhlaic mag Shamhráin

November 2015

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

An update on Classics at second level

by Ian Maguire

Chairperson, CAI-Teachers The CAI-T is currently engaged in talks with the NCCA planning the introduction of new syllabi for Classical Studies, Latin and Greek for the Leaving Certificate. Representatives from the CAI-T met with the NCCA in early November to agree the next stages of the plan.

Temporary measures have been put in place to address the fact that some required texts are out of print, and the NCCA have assured us that a syllabus review group will be formed to address all three subjects no later than the start of the 2017/18 academic year.

The CAI-T committee is currently working on drafting descriptions for both the Greek and Roman Art & Architecture topics. At the moment both topics are still tied to prescribed texts which are out of print. The new topic descriptions will replace the old prescribed texts and should be in place in time for students entering fifth year in 2016. This is a positive development, as the CAI-T has been asking for this change for some time. Also, Plato’s letters 7 and 8, which are currently required for study as part of topic nine, will be removed from the syllabus. Aside from the fact that the Penguin Classics version of these letters is out of print, there is a very large question mark over their authenticity.

The CAI-T has been actively pursuing these changes as there is urgent need for reform of the subjects at second level. In the twenty years since 1995 the number taking Leaving Certificate Classical Studies has more than halved, from approximately 1500 to 600; Latin, too, has fallen to a little over 100, and a handful of students present for Greek each year. The syllabi and the entwined rubrics of the exams are key contributors to this decline. While we would all love to think students choose subjects based on interest, aptitude and passion, the fact remains that the CAO system has revolutionised how students select subjects for the Leaving Certificate. A highly competitive and ruthless points race encourages strategic choices and cold calculations. Although these may be skills in themselves, they have adversely affected our subjects.

While there was a slight improvement this year, the ABC rate for HL Classical Studies has hovered stubbornly around the 67% mark in recent years. In light of this it makes far more sense for a student to pick history or one of the other humanities subjects where the ABC rate is typically between 77 and 80%. Similarly, subjects with research projects, oral examinations and field work provide much more attractive options for students who (rightly) assess that it is risky indeed to rely on one exam for 100% of a grade, particularly one with six essay questions, as in the case of Classical Studies. Such calculations may seem crass or beside the point to those of us who love the subjects, but amidst fierce competition for third level places they are the basis on which decisions are made. Dated syllabi with references to film strips, out of print texts and reliance on hard-copy rather than digital images only exacerbate the problem.

If, because of the strategic decisionmaking mentioned above, something less than a critical mass of students entering fifth year chooses Classical Studies, the school’s principal, operating with limited resources, may choose not to form a class that year. When this happens two years in a row the subject can disappear from the school’s senior cycle curriculum. This has happened in a number of schools over the past few years. Added to this is the fact that only a minority of schools are in a position to offer more than one of the classical subjects. The new Junior Certificate, due to be rolled out in 2019, will amalgamate all three subjects into one. It remains to be seen how this will affect uptake of the subjects for Leaving Certificate, but it is certain to reduce the number of teaching hours: the combined subject will now have fewer hours than any of the three originally had. The reduction of teaching hours runs the risk of further marginalising the subject in schools. This makes it even more imperative that we ensure the Leaving Certificate offerings are more attractive and the exams more manageable. The amalgamation of the three subjects at junior cycle is also likely to 3

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND make things more difficult for students who wish to study Latin or Greek for the Leaving Certificate, as they will have studied relatively little of the language for the Junior Certificate.

All evidence suggests that the decline in numbers taking the classical subjects in the UK led to a decline in numbers at third level. We must avoid replicating this in Ireland at all costs, and we simply cannot afford to lose another University Classics department.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the substantial drop in student numbers at second level in Northern Ireland contributed to the drop in the number of students choosing to study Classics at Queen’s University Belfast.

The result of this was the closure of the Classics Department in QUB. Even for those who do not go on to take the subject at third level, a grounding in classical subjects is rewarding and beneficial.

The CAI-T remains committed to encouraging students to choose and engage with the classical subjects in secondary school.

This year’s events will continue to build on last year’s successes of the Schools Speech Competition, with junior and senior divisions in Classical Studies, Latin and Greek, the Junior Cert fun activities day, the annual Latin day, the Leaving Cert lectures day (run in conjunction with UCD and Trinity), and the Vase Animation Project. We will work for policy change at the highest level and continue to advocate for the subjects, as well as encouraging a love for, and excellence in, the subjects with all our students.

November 2015

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

BY CAI MEMBERS

Studies in Colluthus’ Abduction of Helen Cosetta Cadau (Brill; €126) This first monograph in English on Colluthus situates this late antique author within his cultural context and offers a new appraisal of his hexameter poem The Abduction of Helen, the endpoint of the pagan Greek epic tradition, which was composed in the Christianised Egyptian Thebaid.

Early Medieval Ireland and Europe: Chronology, Contacts, Scholarship: A Festschrift for Dábhí Ó Cróinín Pádraic Moran and Immo Warntjes, eds (Brepols; €150) A collection of 27 articles on cultural interactions between Ireland, Britain and the Continent during the early Middle Ages.

A 1916 Fingallian Rebel Tom Seaver (Garranbane Press, €20 avail. from Hampton’s bookshop, Donnybrook, Dublin) The story of the author’s father, Tommie, who served under Commandant Thomas Ashe in Fingal during the Easter Week Rising.

Left, top: standing room only at the launch of A 1916 Fingallian Rebel in Murroe.

Left, bottom: Tom Holmes (President of Murroe Historical Society); the author, Tom Seaver; Fr Brian Murphy OSB (Glenstal Abbey), who launched the book; and Dr Edward Walsh (former President of the University of Limerick).

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November 2015

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

CAI Annual Summer School: NUI Maynooth 14-16 August 2015

The 2015 Summer School took place from 14 to 16 August in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and was opened by David Scourfield, Professor of Classics at NUIM. The lectures ably reflected the theme of drama in the Greek and Roman worlds and admirably complemented each other, considering the aspects of literary texts, performance and playing spaces, as well as the continuum of reception through the ages.

Fiona Macintosh, Professor of Classical Reception and Fellow of St Hilda’s College at the University of Oxford, delivered the keynote lecture entitled Euripides our contemporary: Dialogues between Shakespeare and the Greeks. The following morning her second lecture focused on the rediscovery of Greek tragedy in the nineteenth century and introduced us to the work of the actress Helen Frazer, who performed roles from Greek tragedy in Dublin.

Next, Dr Eoghan Moloney of NUIM spoke about the performance of Greek tragedy in the royal court of Macedonia at the time of Phillip 11 and Alexander the Great.

Professor Michael Lloyd of UCD then discussed characterisation in Sophocles. The postgraduate lecture was given by Bethany Flanders of TCD, who took us on a quest for a ‘real’ Medea and indicated how to recognize her when we found her. Finally, Dr Hugh Denard of TCD gave us a guided tour of the lost playing spaces of Greek and Rome using 3D digital modelling to bring

Left: Keynote speaker Prof. Fiona Macintosh, St Hilda’s College, Oxford; above, with Prof. David Scourfield, NUIM (Photos: Selga Medenieks) Below: Vera Murtagh and speaker Hugh Denard (Photo: Joan Wright)

them to life before our eyes.

On Saturday evening the Association Dinner, preceded by a wine reception, was a very pleasant social occasion, which provided the opportunity for conversation and catching up with fellow members, as well as for further informal discussion of the theme of the summer school.

Left: Patrick Ryan, Pauline O’Donovan, Roy Hession and Fiona Macintosh; Right: Gerry Murphy and Andrew Smith (Photos: Joan Wright)

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CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND On Sunday a smaller group participated in the outing to Belvedere House where we had a very enjoyable guided tour of the house before lunch and afterwards a ramble in the beautiful and extensive gardens. On the return journey we called in at Carton House and saw the

November 2015 wonderful plasterwork in the main hall as we mingled with a wedding party. Back in Maynooth we had time for a quick visit to the new historical exhibition in Maynooth Castle before making our way homeward.

Joan Wright

Belvedere House.

Top, left: dining room; Middle: the Jealous Wall; Right and below: in the gardens.

Left: the organ in the Gold Salon, Carton House.

Right: Maynooth Castle ruins (Photos: Joan Wright)

Join us on the 2016 CAI Tour to Bulgaria!

The next CAI tour will take place from 1 to 14 May to Bulgaria. We’ll start and end the tour in Sofia, making an elliptical journey eastwards to Plovdiv and Stara Zagora and southwards as far as Ivaylograd on the Greek border, before heading to Burgas and Varna on the Black Sea coast.

We’ll return to Sofia via Veliko Tarnovo, our furthermost northern point being the Roman town of Nikopolis ad Istrum. On the way we’ll see the amazing remains of the Roman town of Philipopolis (modern Plovdiv – pictured above, the theatre), excellent archaeological museums, many full of the fabled Thracian gold.

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We’ll visit a variety of Thracian tombs, both painted and with interesting architectural features, dating from the 6th century BC to the 3rd century AD. Down in the south there’ll be a striking Roman villa while in the north there is a Roman ceramics factory attached to an army veteran’s villa. On the Black Sea Coast we’ll visit the Greek town and harbour of Sozopol as well as a museum of mosaics. There will be lunch and wine-tasting at a winery as well as a visit to a rosewater distillery and an ethnographic complex. In Veliko Tarnovo we’ll see a medieval fortress lit up by a sound and light show. Contact: wright.joan8@gmail.com.

November 2015

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

Community Classics at Cambridge We met Mai Musie and Arlene HolmesHenderson from Classics in Communities at our 2014 Conference in Belfast, and subsequent contacts resulted in my being invited to present a talk at their conference, ‘Access to Classics in Schools and Communities – Two Years On’, which took place at Cambridge on 19 September, 2015. The Classics in Communities project is a UK initiative which, as described in its website (classicsincommunities.org), aims to “promote and encourage the teaching of Latin and Ancient Greek at primary and early secondary level (and beyond) in UK state schools, and to bring together primary, secondary, and HE level teachers and allow for sustainable links to be created and developed”. The project partners are the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the Iris Project (irisproject.org.uk), which is itself an educational charity founded in 2006 by Dr Lorna Robinson in order to bring ancient languages and culture to inner city state schools and communities.

I considered it an honour to be invited to their conference and to have the opportunity to spread the message of our efforts in Limerick to the wider audience, particularly in the inspiring surroundings of Cambridge. During my visit, I was delighted to reside for the first day at St. John’s College (founded in 1511), and for a further two at Sidney Sussex (1594).

Our host was Prof. Tim Whitmarsh, Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge, who gave the keynote lecture on “Death to the Gatekeepers! Classics for the Masses, From Antiquity to the Present Day”.

Following a talk by Xavier Murray-Pollock entitled “The East End Classics Centre: Government Funding, Teacher Training, and Pupil Enrichment”, I had the opportunity to close the morning session with “Μακρὺς ὁ δρόµος* ... from Ithaca to the Orchard Yard”.

The title was taken from Constantine Cavafy’s poem “Ithaca”, which we read recently in the Advanced Greek group in Limerick: When you set out for Ithaca, ask that your journey be a long one, full of adventure, full of knowledge…

I spoke of the classes in Latin and Greek at Limerick Education Centre, now in their sixth year, and the Classical play-readings at The Orchard Yard, and was most pleased with the level of interest evident from the questions and discussion which followed. It was also gratifying to hear from the other speakers about similar initiatives taking place under the auspices of Classics in Communities in the UK. The afternoon session included papers from Nicola Neto (Latin Teacher, Sidney Stringer Academy, Coventry) under the title “I Want What They're Having”. Nicola explained why inner-city school children in Coventry want a similar education to that of their peers in local independent and private schools, and was followed by Jane Maguire (Primary Latin Project committee member and regional advisor for Classics for All), who spoke on “The Primary Latin Project in Norfolk”. The final speaker was Tom Holland, the celebrated British novelist and ancient historian: his intriguing title was “Whores and the House of Caesar”. A copy of Mr Holland’s recently published book, Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar, was presented to each visiting speaker.

Conference sessions took place at the Classics Faculty building on Sidgwick Avenue, with lunch in the magnificent St. John’s College Hall, above, where by ancient tradition the 7

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND principal annual feast on 29 May (Oak-Apple Day) celebrates the defeat of Cromwellian forces who laid siege to the College in 1654. On that day, the Hall is decorated with oaken boughs.

A most convivial post-Conference reception took place in the appropriate surroundings of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, pictured below, upstairs from the conference hall.

November 2015

Language Classes BEGINNERS’ AND ADVANCED CLASSES IN LATIN AND GREEK Limerick Education Centre Marshal House, Dooradoyle Classes take place 7.30-9.30pm Resuming in 2016: Latin Beginners Monday, 4 January Latin Advanced Monday, 11 January Greek Beginners Tuesday, 5 January Greek Advanced Tuesday, 12 January No previous knowledge required; classes are free of charge to participants.

Further encounters with the Lord Protector awaited us at Sidney Sussex, the College in which he became a student, coincidentally on the day of William Shakespeare’s death, 23 April, 1616. Cromwell’s own death was followed by events which ensured that he was not destined to rest in peace for long, and a skull believed to be his came into the possession of a family named Wilkinson, who eventually donated it to Sidney Sussex to mark the 300th anniversary of his exhumation. The skull, having been authenticated as far as was practicable at that time, was buried in a secret location in the antechapel of the College in 1960, with only the Master and two professors in attendance. The subsequent availability of DNA analysis might settle the question once and for all, since living relatives are known, but the authorities of Sidney Sussex have decided that, this time at least, the burial is final and not to be disturbed.

This was an outstanding experience: I was delighted to participate, and look forward to building on the contacts made with Classics in Communities, contacts which we all hope will lead to further developments in the effort to bring the Classical world to a wider audience.

Patrick J. Ryan Secretary, CAI 8

For further information, please contact Patrick J. Ryan, Course Tutor, on 087 239 1862.

8-WEEK INTENSIVE GREEK AND LATIN SUMMER SCHOOL University College Cork June 20th – August 11th 2016 For the 17th year running, the Department of Classics at UCC offers an intensive 8-week summer school for beginners with parallel courses in Latin and Ancient Greek. The courses are primarily aimed at postgraduate students in diverse disciplines who need to acquire a knowledge of either of the languages for further study and research, and at teachers whose schools would like to reintroduce Latin and Greek into their curriculum. Undergraduate students are more than welcome to apply as well.

The basic grammar will be covered in the first 6 weeks and a further 2 weeks will be spent reading original texts.

The tuition fee (including text books) for the 8-week course is €1900.

For further information and an application form see our website: http://www.ucc.ie/en/classics/summerschool/ or contact the Director of the Summer School: Ms Vicky Janssens, Department of Classics, UCC tel.: +353 21 4903618/2359; or e-mail: v.janssens@ucc.ie

November 2015

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

Animating Ancient Greece

CLICK TO WATCH the winning animation! www.panoply.org.uk/nike.html

Athletes depicted on a Greek vase came to life in UCD Classical Museum in September! The event was the launch of a new animation by Panoply (www.panoply.org.uk), who create animations of scenes from ancient Greek vases for educational uses. The launch was the culmination of a national competition held in collaboration with the Classical Association of Ireland Teachers. School students were asked to submit a storyboard for an animation based on a Red Figure krater held by the museum. The scene on the vase shows Nike, a bull, and two athletes – students had to imagine what happened prior to the moment frozen in time by the vase painter. The winners were Frank O'Grady and Eamonn O'Broin from Gonzaga College; their Latin class, taught by Dr Lucy Corcoran, received a visit from animator Steve Simons and museum curator Dr Jo Day before the summer. The resulting animation, called "Bad Karma", shows athletes cheating in a race before getting their come-uppance from Nike!

From the Panoply team, Steve Simons and Sonya Nevin; competition winners Frank O’Grady and Eamonn O’Broin; UCD Classical Museum curator Jo Day, and Ian Maguire of the CAI-T. (Photos: Classical Museum, UCD)

This is actually the second animation based on the same krater scene. In autumn 2014, the class taking the Ancient Materialities module as part of the MA in Classics in UCD, taught

by Dr Day, produced a pilot animation, "The Procession", and a related museum display.

Funding for this pilot project was awarded by UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies, to support the increasing digital and online presence of the Classical Museum. Both animations and related information are available in the museum on an iPad, right beside the vase itself. This juxtaposition of ancient and modern encourages the visitor to engage with issues such as how we interpret ancient imagery and the choices made by ancient painters. The launch was well-attended by students past and present, staff, UCD Registrar Prof. Mark Rogers, college principal Maeve Conrick, CAI-T members, the Panoply team, and, of course, the winners and their families. Both animations, and accompanying information, can be viewed at: http://www.panoply.org.uk/nike.html#about karma Dr Jo Day Joanna.day@ucd.ie 9

 CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

November 2015

Dublin Branch Expedition to Trim On Saturday, 16 May, eighteen intrepid explorers set out from the campus at Belfield.

The aim was to explore the seven monasteries and three hospitals surrounding the magnificent medieval castle at Trim.

Trim was originally a small Irish settlement built at a ford on the River Boyne.

The Irish name Baile atha Dtruim means the town on the ford of the Elder trees. In 1172 Henry II granted the whole of north Leinster from the Shannon to the Irish sea to Hugh de Lacy. He did this to counteract Strongbow, who ruled south Leinster.

De Lacy built a wooden castle, which was burnt by the Irish. His son Walter built a stone Keep. This protected the English lordship (the Pale) from the north-west. Sometimes the Lord Lieutenant (Viceroy of Ireland) resided there. Several parliaments held their sessions in the castle. After 1350 the castle was abandoned as a family home and after 1649 as a military base. It was sold by Lord Dunsany to the Irish State in 1993 and, after renovation, was opened to the public in 2000.

On arrival at the visitor centre in Trim, the group had tea, coffee and scones to fortify themselves ahead of a visit to the armoury.

There we were treated to a fascinating talk on medieval armour, including swords, chainmail and helmets. Samples of these were passed around. We also found out about cavalry and human attitudes during battle.

Following this, the adventurers visited Bective Abbey. This was founded by the Cistercian Order in 1147 on land donated by Murchad Maelseachlainn, king of Meath. It was the daughter house of Mellifont and the second Cistercian house in Ireland. The cloisters were particularly interesting.

Above: Trim Castle. (Photo: Joan Wright) Below: The cloisters, Bective Abbey. (Photo: Selga Medenieks)

Trim Castle. (Photo: Joan Wright)

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November 2015 On the way back to Trim, the group visited Newtown. Here was the second oldest bridge in Ireland – St Peter’s Bridge over the River Boyne – and an extraordinary tomb in the tiny parish church, that of Sir Lucas Dillon and his wife Lady Jane Bathe. Sir Lucas was Attorney General and Speaker of the House of Commons to Queen Elizabeth I. The locals call this “the tomb of the jealous man and woman”, as a sword lies between them.

Also seen were the remains of an enormous Gothic cathedral built by the first Anglo-Norman bishop of Meath, Simon de Rochfort, in 1206. His own cathedral at Clonard had been burnt down by an Irish army. His statue is set in the wall of the cathedral; his body and that of one of his successors, William Sherwood, lie buried under the High Altar.

Beyond the cathedral is a monastery of Augustinian canons founded to administer the cathedral.

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND storeys high. Here there was a pilgrimage to a wooden statue of Our Lady of Trim.

We also saw “Talbot’s Castle”. This was built in 1415 on the foundations of the monastery. It later became a diocesan school attended by the Duke of Wellington and William Rowas Hamilton, the discoverer of Quaternions. The building was owned for some time by Jonathan Swift.

We then visited the Catholic church of St Patrick, where we viewed two beautiful windows – one showing Our Lady of Trim with pilgrims coming to worship and also Cromwell’s soldiers battering the Yellow Steeple. Opposite was St Patrick speaking to the High King at Tara. We also admired the mosaics in the choir based on drawings from the Books of Kells. Not far away we saw a tall Corinthian column, 23 metres high, built in 1817 to honour the Duke of Wellington. The statue at the top was designed by Thomas Kirk, who also designed the statue of Nelson on Nelson’s pillar.

Left: The “Yellow Steeple”.

Above: View from the Keep, Trim Castle.

(Photos: Joan Wright)

The group had a delicious lunch in the Trim Castle Hotel, sitting at tables facing the castle. Afterwards we walked across a footbridge over the Boyne and viewed the “yellow steeple”. This consists of the remains of a watchtower built at the gable end of the Augustinian monastery of St Mary. It is seven

We then toured the Keep at Trim Castle, looking over the Great Hall and chapel, and seeing a magnificent view from the rooftop.

Then the happy troupe returned to base, arriving at 6pm, after a successful visit to the historic town and replete with knowledge of 13th-century Trim.

Brian O’Connell 11

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

November 2015

CAI BRANCH & UNIVERSITY NEWS CAI CORK The Cork Branch took their annual stand at the Adult Education Exhibition in the City Hall, and while we felt that footfall was lower this year, we still gained a few new members from it.

Our season started in October with a lecture from Dr Jennifer O’Reilly, of the Department of Art History, UCC. Jennifer spoke on “Images of Jerusalem in Late Antiquity and their influences”. The lecture was illustrated and the large audience was transported back in time to when Jerusalem was the centre of the universe. We learned that Jerusalem meant different things to different groups of people and that when Christianity became established, it took the bits of Jewish history which suited. On your next trip to Rome, be sure to call into the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and view Abraham, Isaac and Jacob on a mosaic going down the nave. The other main connections were that the twelve tribes of Israel equaled the twelve apostles.

Many links were traced in the Codex Amiatinus, Origen’s Contra Celsum and even as far as Bede in De tabernaculo.

In November, we welcomed Dr Alan Ross from UCD who spoke on panegyrics and praising the emperor. Again, this was a very well attended lecture and was held with the kind support of Dr David Woods and the 12

Department of Classics, UCC. Dr Ross spoke about the form and function of the Imperial panegyric. It seems that speech writers were just as confined by what they could write back then as they are now! The set structure was: one spoke in praise about the emperor, told the audience about his native country, greatly enhanced the story of his birth, made him out to be a super hero by the time he was a teenager, then eulogised about his deeds in war and in peace-time and, finally, concluded with all the good fortune he would bring to the state by being emperor. The whole speech was an ideal way for the emperor to communicate to his people and, on occasion, for the people to get their message across to their emperor. It was all about how you said it and, then as now, those in the know understood and those who were not took the message literally.

By the time you receive this newsletter, we will have welcomed another UCD member of staff to speak to us, this time Dr Daniele Miano, who will be speaking on “Fortuna in Archaic Rome”. This lecture will once again be in part sponsored by the Department of Classics, UCC. At the time of writing, the Cork Branch are busy preparing their Spring 2016 programme and we are pleased to inform you that our February speaker will be Dr Maeve O’Brien from the Department of Classics, Maynooth. Further details may be found on the association website.

Finally, the Cork branch would like to welcome Dr Catherine Ware to the teaching staff in the Classics Department in UCC. We hope she will have a long and happy association with the branch, the organisation and the university.

A bit early perhaps, but Happy New Year to all the Cork Branch members and all our readers.

Jennifer O’Donoghue

November 2015

CAI GALWAY

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND lecture focused on the attempts of some Irish scholars to study ancient Greek dialects, leading some to make a sustained argument that the Irish language was itself derived from Greek dialects. The lecture situated this claim within a long tradition of comparative thinking about language, going back at least to Varro in the 1st century BC. The relaunched Galway Branch of CAI is looking for committee members and volunteers: if you would like to get involved, please e-mail classicalassociationgalway@gmail.com

The Galway branch of the CAI was relaunched on the 24th of March at the Hardiman Research building with an enjoyable lecture by Dr Padraic Moran of NUIG. The title of Dr Moran’s lecture was “The survival of Greek learning in early medieval Ireland”. He began by surveying the decline of knowledge of the Greek language in the Western Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and beyond. After Christianity brought Roman culture to Ireland in the 5th century AD, Irish scholars began to Gary Haverty enjoy a reputation abroad for high learning, both among contemporaries and right down to the present day, where a vague idea of an ‘island of saints and scholars’ still persists. One element of this reputation was an apparently prodigious knowledge of the Greek language. Dr Moran showed that the resources available for learning Greek were in actual fact very limited indeed, but that surviving manuscripts attest to a very intense engagement (if limited) with the language. The last part of the Prof. Brian Arkins, Dr Ann Mohr, Dr Padraic Moran (Guest Lecturer), Roy Hession, and Gary Haverty (Photo: Eóin O Donoghue)

CAI LIMERICK

Intermediate Greek and Latin continued under the guidance of tutor Patrick Ryan. These courses have proved very popular and it is hoped they will be continue in the coming year under the aegis of Limerick V.E.C., in the Limerick Education Centre. Our committee would like to thank the director and staff there for making the excellent premises and back-up services available to us over the past year.

Last term’s programme ended in style, with a soirée hosted by Patrick Ryan, branch vice-chairman, in the grounds of his beautifully situated North Tipperary estate, known to connoisseurs as ’The Orchard Yard’. The occasion was enhanced by the presentation of Euripides’ Hekabe (left), produced by our host and excellently presented by the Orchard Yard Players.

The Limerick Branch continues to shine as a beacon of the Classics in North Munster, with our programme of lectures and with adult classes in Greek and Latin.

The Spring term turned out to be a busy one, with a programme of five lectures. These were delivered by our own Patrick Ryan, on “The Collections from Pompeii and Herculaneum in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples”; Dr Matthew Potter, on “The Ptolemies: 305-30 B.C.”; Dr Rachel Finnegan, on“The eastern and ‘curious’ collections of Richard Pococke”; Prof.

George Huxley, on “War and Exile in the poetry of Alcaeus”; and Dr John Curran, on “The Roman Right of Life and Death”.

Adult courses in both Beginners’ and (Photo: Gerry McCarthy)

Tom Seaver 13

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY A former student in the Maynooth University Department of Ancient Classics, Theresa Ryder, is the eighteenth winner of the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award, run by the Waterford Arts Office with support from the Arts Council. She read out her winning entry ‘Becoming Free’ at a presentation ceremony during the IMMRAMA Festival, Lismore, at which she was presented with prize money of €500 and a commemorative scroll.

Theresa graduated from Maynooth with a B.A. (Hons) in History and Greek and Roman Civilization in 2010, and continued on to complete a two-year M.A. in Classics, receiving First Class Honours for her dissertation on ancient political history. She was previously PA to the author, artist and playwright J.P. Donleavy for six years until 2007 when she began her full-time degree. She is currently working on a novel based on the topic of her dissertation, and has also been accepted to study for a H.Dip. in Further Education at Maynooth University. She will begin her teacher training in September 2015.

On 9 October 2015, Dr Benedict Lowe (Maynooth University) regaled us with his “Pretiosa malorum piscium sanies: The Taste of Fish in the Roman World”, complete with samples of some very ‘fishy matter’ to try!

Maynooth Classics Seminar Discussion Group will host several other speakers this semester who will lecture on a variety of topics, including “The Collection of Moral Maxims Associated with the Mimographer Publilius” (Dr Costas Panayotakis , University of Glasgow, 20 November 2015); “Some Problems in Demosthenes 57, Against Euboulides” by our own Kerry Phelan on 4 December, and on 5 December “Stesichorus as an Epic Poet”, a special lecture by Professor George Huxley (Maynooth University/Trinity College Dublin).

Seminars are held in John Hume Lecture Theatre 7 at 4pm. Professor Huxley’s lecture will be at 5pm.

In June 2015 Professor David Scourfield spoke at a conference at University College London on ‘The Poetics of War: Remembering Conflict from Ancient Greece to the Great War’.

David’s paper was entitled “Acts of Misremembrance: Forgetting the Classical Past in Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End” (a tetralogy 14

November 2015 of novels from the 1920s recently given some prominence by a five-part BBC TV adaptation, with screenplay by Tom Stoppard and Benedict Cumberbatch in the central role).

One of our colleagues, Dr Gordon Campbell, works on ancient ideas of prehistory, evolution, and anthropology. He has recently edited the Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life (Oxford, 2014), the first comprehensive guide to animals in the ancient world in all their aspects. The book was launched in May 2015 in Maynooth.

Congratulations, Gordon.

Another initiative by members of the Department of Ancient Classics at Maynooth University, to explore the importance of peace in its own right across antiquity, is underway.

For many with a general interest in Classics, tales of war are central to their engagement with ancient Greece and Rome. From the sack of Troy to the fall of the ‘Eternal city’ itself, conflict and combat dominate the ancient past.

But take a closer look and you will see that, while the ancients did accept war as a necessary part of life, they knew it too well to idealise it; marked by real experience, the Greeks and Romans were keenly aware of the virtues and value of peace. As Herodotus, the father of history, noted: “No one is so foolish as to choose war over peace. In peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons.”

Directed by Dr Eoghan Moloney and Dr Michael Williams, with contributions from colleagues Dr William Desmond and Dr Gordon Campbell, this peace project has grown steadily and now forms the basis of a new book, Peace and Reconciliation in the Classical World, a collection that explores the variety of ancient attitudes and approaches to key themes. The book, edited by Moloney and Williams, will be published by Ashgate in 2016.

Dr Maeve O’Brien Department of Ancient Classics

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Numerous academic and social events made the previous term particularly enjoyable. In addition to a full and exciting series of research seminars, which saw speakers from Trinity College, the University of Edinburgh, and University College London, the Department of

November 2015 Classics hosted in January an event in honour of John Dillon, Emeritus (and formerly Regius) Professor of Greek at TCD. An intimate ceremony in the Long Room Hub saw talks and speeches in John’s honour along with the official unveiling of a portrait, which will soon adorn the Classics Department in TCD.

Above: Prof. Emeritus John Dillon and Prof. Brian McGing.

Below: With members of the Department of Classics, TCD.

In addition, the Department also hosted in March the latest instalment in our Sanford Lecture Series, which saw Dr Myles Lavan from the University of St Andrews deliver three excellent talks on the topic of “Enfranchisement and Empire: Roman citizenship from Augustus to Caracalla”. The talks were both well-received and well-attended. In May, Dr Christine Morris and Dr Giorgos Papantoniou organised an international conference entitled “Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean”.

Finally, a number of outreach events in March saw the Department engage with students from local Dublin schools. First, the Schools Speech Competition took place in the Department with Classics undergraduate students judging speeches and recitations by Junior and Leaving Certificate students. Later in the month, students from local schools visited TCD to engage in a series of workshops on Greek and Latin script, Roman coins, and ancient drama. All in all, a full and thoroughly enjoyable term!

Dr Shane Wallace

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Classical Museum News Many of the recent activities of the Classical Museum have focused on increasing our online and digital presence. The digitisation of the coin collection continued during 2015, and the Roman Republican coins are available to view via the UCD Digital Library (http://dx.doi.org/10.7925/drs1.ucdclm_10).

Next up to go online is a batch of Imperials that when analysed by numismatist Dr Nicholas Wright proved to be mainly from Alexandria; conservation on these, as well as cataloguing and digitisation was supported by a Heritage Council grant. Thanks to a benefactor, the museum now has two iPads that provide digital support to exhibits; they currently feature the Republican coins and the Panoply vase animation (see page 9 of this Newsletter). This adds an exciting new way of providing further information to visitors as well as incorporating video and sound into displays. Other digital projects recently completed include producing 3D models of some of our cups using photogrammetry, contributing to the British Museum’s Naukratis: Greeks in Egypt online catalogue, and to the Iris Project’s Objects I Love project. Visitor numbers have been good, and each year brings new schools coming to the museum for the first time (e.g. St Columba’s and Holy Faith Clontarf in 2015). Ongoing collaboration with CAI-T will hopefully continue to broaden access amongst the schools.

Heritage Week in August was a resounding success too, with over 100 visitors recorded during our three days of opening! This is a 50% increase on 2014 and attests to the public’s appetite for all things Classical - good news indeed. Our loan of 29 vases from the National Museum of Ireland was renewed for another five years and we’re very grateful to them for allowing us to showcase these fine pieces, including the magnificent krater with a symposium scene, which is always popular with visitors. Finally, the museum curator, Dr Jo Day, is on maternity leave from July 2015 January 2016 but two UCD postgraduate students, Declan Clear and Aoife Walshe, are keeping the museum open for business!

Dr Jo Day and Aoife Walshe 15

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND

November 2015

Obituaries

Professor Niall Rudd, 5 October 2015

We very much regret to announce the sad news of the death at the age of 88 of Professor Emeritus Niall Rudd, who after teaching at Toronto successively held the Chairs of Latin at the University of Liverpool (1968 to 1973) and the University of Bristol (1973 to 1989). An outstanding Latinist, who worked on a wide range of texts and was especially noted for his work on Horace, Professor Rudd was awarded an honorary Litt.D. in 1998 by Trinity College, Dublin, where he had been a Foundation Scholar as an undergraduate, and was more recently also an Honorary Research Fellow of the English Department of the University of Liverpool, reflecting his enduring commitment to the study of the classical tradition in English literature.

Professor Rudd was Honorary President of the Classical Association of Ireland for the year 2008.

(Photos: above, Dept of Classics, University of Bristol; above right, Joan Wright)

Margaret Sargent, 13 October 2015 It is with sadness that we record the death of Margaret Sargent. Margaret was a long-standing member of the Association and is remembered affectionately by all who travelled with her on the CAI tours. She is pictured here with her niece Sue during the 2010 CAI tour of Turkey.

Ann Buchanan, 15 April 2015 Ann Buchanan will be sorely missed especially by all those who participated in the CAI tours, with which she travelled for the best part of thirty years along with her great friend Tanya Blyth. Always cheerful, she not only added life and fun to the group but also had a vast knowledge of botany and was able to identify any plant or flower that came her way. When necessary too, she put her nursing skills to good use, especially on one memorable occasion when a member broke her ankle on a remote site in Apamaea, Syria. Ann is pictured above in characteristic pose in Spain in 2002.

Classical Association of Ireland Cumann Clasaiceach na hÉireann Central Council 2015 Hon. President: Chairperson: Vice-Chairperson: Secretary: Treasurer: Membership Sec.: Public Relations: Elected Committee: CAI-T Rep: IIHSA Rep: 16

John A. Madden Damhlaic mag Shamhráin Isabella Bolger Patrick J. Ryan Alexander Thein Andrew Smith vacant Cosetta Cadau; Peter Crawford; Daniel O’Connor; Joan Wright Ian Maguire Andrew Smith

Branch Representatives: Belfast Raoul McLaughlin Cork Jennifer O’Donoghue Dublin Brian O’Connell Galway/Sth East vacant Limerick Tony O’Sullivan Sligo Kathleen Conlon University Representatives: Maynooth Maeve O’Brien NUI Galway Edward Herring QUB John Curran TCD Shane Wallace UCC David Woods UCD Alexander Thein Student Rep Oliver O’Sullivan Publications: Andrew Smith Editors, Classics Ireland Brian Sheridan; Shane Wallace Editor, CAI Newsletter Selga Medenieks Editor, CAI Website Isabella Bolger