Representations of Purgatory in Irish Literature and Culture

The international conference, Representations of Purgatory in Irish Literature and Culture, took place in St Patrick’s College in late 2010, organised by the Department of English and l’Institut du Monde Anglophone, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3. Participants from the US, Europe and Japan presented papers that addressed contemporary issues of political and cultural importance and explored a wide cross-section of Irish literature from medieval to the present times. Plenary speaker, Fintan O’Toole, combined literature and cultural commentary in his talk; he continued this discourse in his column in the Irish Times on the following Saturday. Dr Derek Hand (English Department, St Patrick's College) delivered a keynote address on Yeats’s Purgatory and plenary speaker, Professor Andrew Carpenter, spoke on the ‘Purgatorium Hibernicum’ (1670). Beckett actor, Barry McGovern, brought the conference to a close with a reading from Beckett’s “Dante and the Lobster”.

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: Wednesday January 05 2011