November 2016
MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY Newly minted PhD Dr Kerry Phelan has recently been conferred with her PhD. A student in the Department of Ancient Classics at Maynooth, both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student, Kerry’s thesis entitled A Social and Historical Commentary on Demosthenes’ Against Euboulides, written under the direction of Dr Kieran McGroarty, has earned her a PhD. All her Maynooth friends are delighted to wish Kerry the very best in her academic career as a newly minted PhD. Bene vertat, quod agis.
Dr Kerry Phelan pictured with her supervisor, Dr Kieran McGroarty, at the conferring ceremony. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy)
Dr H. H. Stewart Prize in Latin 2016 Congratulations to Charlie Harding who won third prize for his results in First Arts Latin Examination. The award was presented at a special ceremony on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, by the Chancellor of the University, Dr Maurice Manning (pictured below). This is an outstanding achievement for the recipient and for the Department of Ancient Classics, NUI Maynooth.
CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND Department hosted seminars We have had a super calendar year of wonderful seminars starting February this year when Professor Douglas Cairns (University of Edinburgh) spoke on ‘Word and Deed: Brendan Kennelly’s Antigone’, especially auspicious in this year when the most beloved of our poets, Professor Brendan Kennelly, reached his eightieth birthday. The interaction between Ireland and the Classical tradition was again amply illustrated by Dr Elizabeth Boyle (Maynooth University, Department of Early Irish) in her contribution, ‘The Six Ages of the World and the Succession of World Empires: Conceptualising Greek and Roman History in Medieval Ireland’. Mathematical and political logic informed entertaining and erudite talks by Dr Ciarán Mac an Bhaird (Maynooth University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics), ‘Eudoxus of Cnidus: The Forgotten (?) Master of Classical Greek Mathematics’, and Dr Alexander Thein (University College Dublin), ‘The Logic of the Proscriptions of 82 and 43 B.C.’ Dr Clifford Robinson (Maynooth University), visiting Government of Ireland Scholarship Fellow from the USA, finished the academic year on ‘Gender Dynamics and the Power of Speech in the Classical Consolatory Tradition’. This academic year to date, one of our own, Dr Michael Williams, spoke about ‘Felix of Nola: The Unmaking of a Martyr in Late Antiquity’. Michael was awarded a Humboldt scholarship last year and has just returned from Germany to our Department. Professor George Huxley (Maynooth University/Trinity College Dublin) delivered a very special lecture, ‘Alcman and Sparta’, on October 19 to a packed audience. Undergraduates outnumbered us ‘oldies’ and they responded warmly to Professor Huxley’s unique mix of high scholarship and unassuming erudition. We were regaled by Professor Richard Rutherford (Christ Church, Oxford) about how we might interpret the famous shield of Achilles in Iliad 18 in ‘Viewing the shield of Achilles’, and we look forward to our Christmas celebration seminar, rounding off the year in perfect ring composition, with ‘Ancient Ideals and 1916’ by Dr Eoghan Moloney (The University of Winchester) on December 2, 2016, in Lecture Theatre 7, John Hume Building. All welcome. Dr Maeve O’Brien Department of Ancient Classics 11