Dr. Michael Linkletter, Dr. Hugh Fogarty, Dr. Charlene Shipman, and Ms. Jennifer Dukes
At Commencement on June 8, 2006, a record was achieved when no fewer than five advanced degrees – four of them PhDs – were garnered by Celtic Department scholars.
The new doctors were Hugh Fogarty, Bettina Kimpton, Michael Linkletter, and Charlene Shipman. In addition, the master's in Celtic was conferred upon Jennifer Dukes.
After the ceremonies in the Yard, a reception was held in the Kates Room of Warren House for the degree recipients, their friends and families.
Each of these scholars had exceptional student careers before beginning graduate work at Harvard, and all have distinguished themselves in their studies here. Talented, industrious, discerning, and personable, every one of them has begun to make a mark in the field, and all appreciate the generous support of the Friends of Harvard Celtic Studies.
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The Amazing Ford Legacy
Pat and Chadine Bailie Ford
On the evening of January 20, 2006, the spacious Faculty Club library was filled to capacity by friends, colleagues, and former students gathered to salute Patrick and Chadine Ford. Pat was stepping into retirement after fourteen years as the Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures, and as chair of the Celtic Department he had made those years phenomenally productive.
To generate travel funds for graduate students to attend conferences and pursue field research throughout the Celtic realms, he had founded the Friends of Harvard Celtic Studies with the enthusiastic support and assistance of co-chairs Phil Haughey and Jack Reardon. Together they recruited a Steering Committee to help in formulating and executing programs for the advancement of Friends purposes. Thanks to the Friends, our students get to where the action is, hear the latest, meet the greatest, make the friendships that enrich a career.
Pat also established and strengthened links with universities and Celtic institutions here and in Europe,
helping raise public awareness of the breadth and importance of Celtic scholarship. Typical of such connections is the scholarly
exchange program between Harvard and the University of North Wales, Bangor, which benefits both programs and emphasizes their pertinence to any doubters among the powers that be.
Mr. Philip Haughey
The man of the hour
Dr. Dorothy Africa, Prof. Barbara
Hillers, and Larry Reynolds
Ms. Kate Olson and Dr. Kathryn Chadbourne
In Memoriam, Charles W. Dunn
Professor Charles W. Dunn
A service was held in Memorial Church on November 3, 2006, in memory of Charles Dunn, the Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures Emeritus, who had passed away at the age of 90 on July 24. For more than twenty years, until his retirement in 1984, he had been chairman of the Celtic Department, and for most of that time, Master of Quincy House as well. Residents and associates of Quincy House in that era still testify to the affection and esteem in which they held Master Dunn, especially for the outlandish (which is to say, Scottish) rituals he introduced there. The annual piping of the bounds of the House, to ward off evil spirits, by a kilted and appropriately solemn-faced bagpiper provided memories for a lifetime. His importance to Celtic Studies at Harvard and in North America has been noted many times in this publication, and until quite recently Charles maintained an active involvement with the Friends of Harvard Celtic Studies, regularly present for Friends events and gatherings.
The son of a Presbyterian minister, Charles Dunn was born in Arbuthnott, Scotland, and lived as a boy in Aberdeen and Edinburgh before coming with his family to Boston and then Canada. After graduatiion from McMaster University there, he came to Harvard for graduate study, earning an A.M. in Celtic Languages and Literatures in 1939 and a Ph.D. in 1948.
The respects and sympathies of the Celtic Department and the Friends were extended to his widow, Elaine (Birnbaum) Dunn; his sons, Peter and Alexander; and his daughter, Deirdre Dunn Strachan. His smile and unfailing good spirits will continue to be missed in the Department and among the Friends. He was, as former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy Knowles has said, "a truly exceptional man."
Aled Llion Jones
Student Doings by Aled Jones, G3
Departmental Events
Matthew Knight, Jennifer Dukes, and President Mhic Ghiolla Íosa
Given the size of the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, it is of obvious benefit that the few students we have are active in a variety of areas, developing the visibility of “Celtic” both on- and off-campus. The summer saw a number of student visits to Europe for the study of Celtic languages: Matthew Knight, Jennifer Dukes and Aled Llion were in Ireland, meeting Presidents and poets (see photo: President Máire Mhic Ghiolla Íosa was guest at the Oideas Gael "language and culture week," giving Matthew and Jennifer the chance to rub shoulders and even dance with the President). Matthieu Boyd – already a fluent Breton speaker – spent time both on Skye, learning Scottish Gaelic, and in Lampeter, for Welsh. Grants from the Friends greatly facilitated the travel of these Graduate Students, and Molly Hester, an undergraduate who has previously spent time on Inis Meáin as Writer-in-Residence, was also a recipient of a Cullinane Fellowship grant to enable her to visit Ireland this summer.
In Cambridge, recent student-organized events range from the Harvard Celtic Colloquium (of which more elsewhere in this issue) to various cultural events, including of course the ever-popular university Celtic Society. This year sees the continuation of a Welsh-language film series organized with sponsorship from the Department, as well as the establishment of an advanced Modern Welsh Reading Group. Last year’s film showings (fortnightly Welsh-language feature films, subtitled in English) drew attention and regular attendance from both the University and the Boston Welsh communities, and it is expected that this year’s series will prove equally popular.
The Graduate Reading Group organised last year by Christina Chance has been taken over this year by Matthieu Boyd and Aled Llion (with Prof. C. McKenna as Faculty Advisor), and under the title of "Celtic Cultures in Context" provides a fortnightly forum for discussion, with student and Faculty presentations both from our department and contiguous fields.
For further information on events:
- Welsh Film Series: Aled Llion, ajones@fas.harvard.edu
- Welsh Reading Group: Aled Llion, ajones@fas.harvard.edu
- Graduate Reading Group: Matthieu Boyd, mboyd@fas.harvard.edu or Aled Llion, ajones@fas.harvard.edu
Students on the Move
While arguments may rage concerning the details of "waves" of early "Celtic" migration to Britain and Ireland, movements within the Celtic Department are somewhat easier to trace. Two students this year join the Harvard Celtic Diaspora, for various reasons and various degrees of permanence, and we welcome two new students.
Dr. Bettina Kimpton, who graduated last year, is now teaching Old Irish at the University of New Mexico, while revising her dissertation for publication and, she says, “irrelevantly enjoying the desert sunshine”.
Kate Olson
Kate Olson is to be found this year in Britain: having spent part of August in Wales thanks to the kind support of the Friends she is now conducting dissertation research on popular religion and society in Wales (1400-1630), in Aberystwyth, London and Kew Gardens. Kate’s success in securing a major grant from the Medieval Academy of America Richard III Society is of undoubted note for Celtic Studies.
Aled Llion Jones
More Student Doings by more Aled Jones, G3
New Graduate Students
Moving towards Harvard, we welcomed last year:
Edyta Lehmann-Shriver
Edyta Lehmann-Shriver, who completed her first MA in Polish Philology at her home University of Wroclaw, gained a second MA in the University of Cincinnati, and makes somewhat firmer the Department’s Polish connections, shakily begun last year by Aled Llion, who joined following a period lecturing in Welsh at the Catholic University of Lublin.
Sarah Zeiser
And Sarah Zeiser, from Rhode Island, completed a B.A. in Medieval Studies at Smith College in Northampton, MA, where she was introduced to Middle Welsh literature by Dr. Craig Davies.
Kassandra Conley
Finally, in fall 2007 we were joined by Kassandra Conley, who says she"is thrilled to join the Celtic Department," where she hopes to pursue her interests in medieval Welsh identity. She is a 2003 graduate of Centre College in Danville, KY where she earned a BA in English and History and a 2006 graduate of the English department at the University of Georgia where she earned her MA. So far, her research has primarily focused on Anglo-Saxon historical texts from the 9th-11th centuries and their impact on shaping notions of “Englishness” and “Welshness”; however, she looks forward to expanding her research to include contemporaneous Middle Welsh texts. In her spare time, she enjoys experimenting in her kitchen and exploring all of Boston’s nooks and crannies.
Recent Papers by Students of the Department
Matthieu Boyd:
- "L’enfant d’Ahez ou le fabuleux parcours du cont Kristof, une légende de la ville d’Is", in Littératures de Bretagne: Mélanges offerts à Yann-Ber Piriou ed. Francis Favereau and Hervé Le Bihan (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2006).
- "What’s New in the City of Is?: CSANA Conference, UCLA, March 16.
- "Dahud’s Child: Emerging Aspects of the Breton Legend of Is, the Drowned City", Kalamazoo International Congress, May 4, 2006.
Kate Izzo, "The Irish Liber Hymnorum: Antiquarian Compilation or Glossed Hymnal?" Harvard Celtic Colloquium, October 6.
Patricia Malone
Patricia Malone, "Dependent on the Kindness of Strangers: the Construction of Legitimacy in the Historia Gruffudd vab Kenan," Harvard Celtic Colloquium, October 8.
Kate Olson, "Popular Piety, Charity and the Parish, c. 1400-1550." Bangor Medieval History Colloquium October 14-15.
Professor Nagy Delivers Third Kelleher Lecture
Joseph F. Nagy
An enthusiastic audience of Celticists gathered on October 5, 2006 for our third John Kelleher Lecture, delivered by Professor Joseph F. Nagy (Dept. of English, UCLA). His talk, entitled "The Recyclable Hero in Celtic and Kindred Traditions," evaluated the literary function of a narrative figure he described as "the recyclable hero." He initially contrasted this figure with two other common literary types. In the first instance, "the necessary sacrifice," the character’s death marks a point of significant transition. Another character, the "twin," offers the narrative an alternative form of a character or course of events. Professor Nagy maintains that the recyclable hero, however, bridges differences rather than marking or personifying them. His lecture was a huge success, and his paper, "Heroic Recycling in Celtic Tradition," is scheduled for future publication in Vol. 26 of the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium.
Fourth Kelleher Lecture Raises the Roof
Richard and Helen Suggett
Richard Suggett, "Investigator of Threatened Buildings" for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, delivered the John V. Kelleher Lecture for 2007 on the evening of October 4th in the Harvard Faculty Club library. Entitled "Poets and carpenters: creating the architecture of happiness in late-medieval Wales," his lecture was tellingly illustrated with both visual and literary examples and much enjoyed by the large and attentive audience.
The Welsh countryside, particularly in the period 1450-1550, was graced with increasingly skillful carpenters and with a poetical and musical establishment that celebrated them. Poets and, down through the 16th century, vagabonds and minstrels sang the praises of the builders' art, a great house like Bryndraenog, for example, being described as "the work of an angel".
Houses of the well-to-do were designed to showcase the hospitality and generosity of their owners, the ultimately de rigeur floorplan assuming a three-bay structure -- a large central hall flanked by two wings. Eventually, prosperous famers had these hall-houses emulated by their own carpenters, and finally there was but the one house model throughout Wales.
Scale varied with wealth and status, of course, as did quality of both materials and carved wood embellishments. But this "architecture of happiness" and the encomia it engendered ensured that home-owners across the land could take pride in their digs and reputations.
Following Dr. Suggett's talk, the Friends of Harvard Celtic Studies hosted a reception at the Faculty Club, our chief event of the fall season. The Club is to be congratulated for the quality and quantity of comestibles and the grace and hospitality of the sevice staff. The Friends and their guests had a simply great time.
The next event on the Friends docket is the annual Winter Céilí, to be held in the Theater Room in the Faculty Club lower level, on February 28, 2008. Please join us, bring some additional friends and party pieces if ye are so inclined, and be prepared to twist and shout or just enjoy some really good Celtic music.
Merrily McGugan
More than Just "Drink": Irish Pubs and their Famous Grub
by Merrily E. McGugan
Any visitors to Ireland are likely to find themselves stopping by a "public house" at some point for a refreshing pint and some good old-fashioned Irish craic (sounds like "crack" and means "fun).
Today's Irish pubs, however, are far more than mere watering holes for locals and tourists. Indeed, many serve up first-rate food all day long, at significantly lower prices than neighboring restaurants.
And when it comes to a tasty and filling meal in a relaxed and enjoyable setting, hearty pub fare realy can't be beat
The menu will differ from one place to another, obviously, but there are a few traditional dishes that you’re likely to find in almost any pub in Ireland.
Homemade vegetable soup and thick soda bread are staples everywhere. Brown bread and butter is also a fantastically popular and healthy option, the brown "wheaten" bread being packed full of grains and often freshly baked right on the premises.
A more specialized menu item (and a popular breakfast choice of Irish patrons in particular) is "black pudding," a dark and tasty pork sausage preserved in the traditional natural casing.
Full Irish breakfasts are available in virtually all pubs at all hours of the day, and include eggs, black pudding, other kinds of sausage, rashers (similar to American bacon), tomatoes, and toast.
Anyone who can get through a full breakfast in the pub and still put down a pint or two must either have an incredible metabolism or been born and raised on it all in Ireland.
Guinness and beef stew is still a classic dish in many Irish pubs, and one can always expect to find excellent “chips” (French fries) or potato wedges in any decent pub with a kitchen.
In general, most pubs offer a few soups, a variety of sandwiches, and a selection of entrees for the seriously hungry. An extensive lineup of “liquid refreshments” (read: beer, whisky, cider, and wine) to help wash all that nourishment down.
A surprise to many Americans: most pubs no longer serve boiled cabbage. Patrons with changing palates are not ordering it any more, picking garlic chips or even Indian curries over the wilted greens.
In modern Ireland, pub food is ubiquitous, appetizing, inexpensive — and not always secondary to drink.
