IX Events and Commemorations

IX EVENTS AND COMMEMORATIONS

25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ADMISSION OF WOMEN. On Saturday 9 November 2013 a Dinner was held in Hall to celebrate the anniversary of the admission of women to Magdalene. The celebration started in the late afternoon with a panel discussion in the Sir Humphrey Cripps Theatre, ‘Women pioneers of Magdalene’, chaired by Professor Cooper, and featuring Ms Kate James, Ms Lateh Dubash, Judge Kyrie James, and Ms Katie Derham (all 1988). Baroness Kennedy, QC, FRSA, gave the after-dinner speech.

PARNELL LECTURE. This year’s Parnell lecture was given by Professor Clair Wills in the Sir Humphrey Cripps Theatre on 25 February 2014. Her title was Late Irish Style: contemporary Irish poetry and the problem of belatedness.

SEAMUS HEANEY: A COMMEMORATION AND CELEBRATION. Magdalene celebrated Heaney’s writing and association with the College on 5 March 2014. Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at Oxford and the biographer of W B Yeats, launched the day with a magisterial lecture on ‘Seamus Heaney in his times’, in which he developed the parallels and contrasts with Yeats. A panel of distinguished critics, which included two former Parnell Fellows, Professors Declan Kiberd and Edna Longley, reflected on key aspects of Heaney’s work. A group of poets – the Master, taking the chair but also in his own right as a poet, Bernard O’Donoghue, Leontia Flynn, Don Paterson, and Heaney’s life-long friend and colleague, Michael Longley – each introduced and read from Heaney’s work. The day ended with a round-table discussion, rendered especially memorable by Michael Longley’s affectionately hilarious reminiscences. During the proceedings, a recently-acquired charcoal portrait of Heaney by the painter Peter Edwards was unveiled (see p 11). The quality of all the contributions, and the participation of Seamus’s widow Marie and their daughter Catherine, made for an unforgettable occasion.

SOUTHWOLD READING PARTY FOR HISTORIANS. In late March the Historians’ Reading Week relocated from its former venue in Clay, to the College’s spacious and luxurious modern house in Southwold, Suffolk, the munificent gift of our Honorary Fellow, Robert Cripps. A party of undergraduates (historians and one theologian) was led by Professor Duffy and Dr Atkins, their wives, and supervised by the red border collies Molly and Jess. Studious silence prevailed in the mornings and late afternoons, as members of the group toiled on topics ranging from the medieval world cult of St Foi to the British social housing policy between the World Wars.

Study was relieved by invigorating walks on the beaches, marshes and reedbeds of Southwold and Walberswick, for which the sun shone obligingly. Trips

further afield included a church-crawl to the fascinating neighbouring churches of Blythburgh, Westhall, Wenhaston and Bramfield, where Mrs Duffy and Mrs Atkins shed a sisterly tear over the 18th-century grave of Bridget Applewaithe who, as her tombstone informed them, endured ‘the Fatigues of a Married Life, Born by her with Incredible Patience, For four Years and three Quarters, bating [less] three weeks’. Sadly, an expedition to Orford found the Castle locked and barred against us: but the party consoled themselves with a visit to the splendid parish church, scene of the first performance of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, The Burning Fiery Furnace, and Curlew River, where Dr Atkins played the organ while Professor Duffy sang. After dinner each evening the College’s merciless version of Hearts was played, stories by M R James and Arthur Conan Doyle read aloud, and the week was rounded off with a fish supper from the excellent chippy two doors along from George Orwell’s house, followed by an evening of Adnams in the snug of the Admiral Nelson.

Other subject-groups are urged to take advantage of this marvellous new College facility, and the congenial setting it provides for work, friendship, and relaxation.

MAGDALENE TRIENNIAL FESTIVAL 2014–15: SOUND. The College is delighted to announce that the fourth Magdalene Festival takes place from October 2014 to June 2015. Following on from the previous themes, Literature, Landscape, and The Image, the topic of Soundhas been chosen. We draw on expertise both from within the College and from the wider international academic community to present a programme of lectures, symposia and performances. Members of the College and their guests are very welcome to attend events, which take place on most Thursdays of Full Term (Michaelmas and Lent Terms) at 5.00 pm, in the Sir Humphrey Cripps Theatre and are followed by receptions in the Denis Murphy Gallery; there are afternoon events on certain Saturdays as well. Details are available on www.magd.cam.ac.uk or from the Festival Directors, Dr Jane Hughes and Ms Silke Mentchen, litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk.

Cripps Court