Trio of Books from St Mary’s Academics Launched at Irish Embassy

Three new books by academics from the Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham were officially launched at a reception hosted by the Embassy of Ireland in London this week (Wednesday 5^th March). The evening, which was hosted by Irish Ambassador and literary enthusiast His Excellency Dan Mulhall, saw the official launch of three new publications which collectively explore Irish theatre, fiction and film in the twentieth century, pushing the boundaries of national canons in these disciplines and tracking the global dispersal of Irish culture. More than 100 invited guests including representatives from the Embassy of Brazil's cinema and theatre division attended the evening, which opened with a talk from St Mary’s Professorial Research Fellow Prof Shaun Richards, who introduced his new book Mapping Irish Theatre: Theories of Space and Place (Cambridge University Press, 2013), which was co-authored with Prof Chris Morash (Professor of Irish Writing, Trinity College Dublin). St Mary’s Research Fellow Dr Keith Hopper followed with an explanation of the research behind his publication The Short Fiction of Flann O’Brien (Dublin, Dalkey Archive Press, 2013), which was co-edited with Prof Neil Murphy (Associated Dean, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore). The book features a selection of O’Brien’s most important short stories, as well as the text of his last unfinished novel, Slattery’s Sago Saga. The evening continued with the launch of The Woman Who Married Clark Gable (Sao Paulo, Humanitas, 2013) by St Mary’s Head of the School of Arts and Humanities and Centre for Irish Studies Director Prof Lance Pettitt and co-editor Prof Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos (University of São Paulo). The book is the second volume of the bi-lingual book and DVD series Ireland into Film: Screenplays and Critical Contexts and is based on the short story by Sean O’Faolain’s and subsequent 1985 BAFTA-nominated screen adaptation by Director Thaddeus O’Sullivan. The publication features a new, digitally re-mastered DVD of the film with Portuguese subtitles, opening up the film to non-English speaking viewers. The evening concluded with a reading by Thaddeus O’Sullivan from his memoir essay Dreaming in Black and White / Sonhando em Preto e Branco, which prefaces the published screenplay. About the evening Prof Pettitt said, “The evening demonstrates the transnational dimension of Irish Studies research that St Mary’s Centre for Irish Studies promotes through its MA programme, PhD supervision and its ongoing research projects."