03/19/2008

Oxford Professor Lectures on Irish History

 

In recognition of St. Patrick's Day Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford, will deliver a lecture on "The Strange Death of Romantic Ireland" at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, in the Great Hall (2nd floor) of the King Library. The lecture, sponsored by the UK College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School, the Department of English and the Department of History, is free and open to the public. An open reception will follow the presentation.

Foster's lecture will concern the political, economic and cultural changes in Ireland and in Anglo-Irish relations during the last 30 years, and is based on his latest book, "Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change from 1970 to 2000" (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Roy Foster has written widely on Irish history, society and politics in the modern period, as well as on Victorian high politics and culture; he has also written the authorized biography of William Butler Yeats and was co-curator of the 2005 exhibition "‘Conquering England’: Ireland in Victorian London" at the National Portrait Gallery, London. His publications include:  "Charles Stewart Parnell: the Man and his Family" (1976), "Lord Randolph Churchill: a Political Life" (1981), "Modern Ireland 1600-1972" (1988), "Paddy and Mr. Punch: Connections in Irish and English History" (1993), "W.B. Yeats, A Life, Volume I: The Apprentice Mage, 1865-1914" (1997), "The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making it up in Ireland" (2001), and "W.B. Yeats, A Life, II: The Arch-Poet 1915-1939" (2003).

"Roy Foster is the most celebrated living historian of Ireland and this is a great opportunity for people in central Kentucky to hear an authoritative account of the social and economic changes that Ireland has witnessed during the last 30 years, in the wake of what is known as the 'Celtic Tiger' economy -- the fastest growing economy in Europe at the present time. Foster is equally at home talking about the artistic and literary developments of the last 30 or 40 years as he is talking about economic and political change," said Jonathan Allison, associate professor of English at UK.

Allison Elliott -- UK Public Relations