Captain Somhairle and His Books Revisited

A study of the career of Somhairle Mac Domhnaill, for whom the Book of the O'Conor Don was compiled, and the political and cultural context of its compilation

On the Old Irish Figura Etymologica

Abstract included in text

Creolisation in Music Traditions: South Connemara, the Scottish Western Isles and Francophone Louisiana

Why do people mix musics? What causes them to break down the boundaries between music genres and produce new genres that are a mix of others, and what does a melody migrating between cultures have to do to conform to a new music culture? Researchers such as Bruno Nettl, John Blacking, George List and Mark Slobin have over the past eighty years or more, attempted to look at the issue of music mixing under the headings of diffusion, acculturation and globalisation. This thesis seeks to further the understanding of this phenomenon, by examining three cases of cultures that are known to have mixed musics and whose particular blending of musics can be demonstrated. The cases in question are the music of French-speaking south Louisiana, Scots Gaelic Protestant psalm singing, and a new type of country music and sean-nós singing mix from south Connemara in Ireland. Examples of the music genres that mixed (the ‘parents’) in each case are analysed to demonstrate characteristics of their genre. Examples of the music mix (‘the child’) are then analysed to demonstrate how the characteristics of the parents can be observed in the child, albeit in a new context. The difference between individual musicians blending musics experimentally and music mixes that have acquired their own names and conventions, are compared to the concepts of pidgin and creole languages. The three case studies take account of the historical, social, linguistic and religious conditions that may have played a part in creating a new music. The study cross-compares the three cases to find common factors, as well as distinguishing differences, between them. The validity of comparisons with sociolinguistics, in particular various modes of code mixing, is assessed in relation to the cases. Finally, the researcher uses the information and music-mixing strategies demonstrated in the three case studies to arrange and compose several newly-recorded pieces. The conclusions point to the importance of individual performers in making the innovations leading to new mixed music genres. They also emphasise how changing social and cultural environments, and the presence of a bi-musical community in the years leading up to the mix, are also an influencing factor. In concluding the study, the researcher finds a deeper affinity with comparisons between creole languages and their creation and the process of creolisation in music

On the Old Irish Figura Etymologica

Abstract included in text

Éireannaigh, Fir Éireann, Gaeil agus Gaill

Scrúdú ar fhorás agus ar úsáid an téarma 'Éireannach' agus téarmaí gaolmhara i litríocht na Gaeilge anuas go dtí an seachtú haois déag (An examination of the development and use of the term 'Éireannach' and related terms in Irish literature down to the seventeenth century

Ollscoil na hAoise Seo.

Is trdthuil an uain f seo le breathnu ar roinnt forbairti atd tarlaithe cheana no atd d gcur i bhfeidhm faoi ldthair san oideachas triu leibhdal in £irinn. Duine ar bith atd ag teagasc in ollscoil no i bhforas eile oideachais da leitheid le deich n6 cuig bliana ddag anuas beidh se tugtha faoi deara aige no aici go bhfuil athruithe m6ra tagtha ar an eamdil sin frd chdile. Td na hathmithe seo le sonru, cuir i gcds, i Hon agus i gcaighdedn na mac Idinn atd ag tarraingt anois ar an ollscoil; sa chdras modulach seimeastrach atd curtha i bhfeidhm i mdran gach ollscoil; san athstruchturu o bhonn atd imithe ar roinnt de na forais Idinn; agus sna sdla air sin ar fad, sa mhdadu cdatach atd tagtha ar ualach an riarachdin. Nuair a chuirtear leo seo an rachmas atd sa Hr de bharr fheabhas na heacnamaiochta agus an rdabhldid theicneolalochta a bhfuil tioncbar aige ar gach gnd de shaol an Idinn gan trdcht ar an saol m6r i gcoitinne, nior thdgtha ar dhuine a cheapadh gur institiuid de chineal eile atd san ollscoil seachas mar a bhiodh

Writing in Britain and Ireland, c. 400 to c. 800

No abstract available

Creating and curating an archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon past

This contribution explores the mechanisms by which the Benedictine foundation of Bury St Edmunds sought to legitimise and preserve their spurious pre-Conquest privileges and holdings throughout the Middle Ages. The archive is extraordinary in terms of the large number of surviving registers and cartularies which contain copies of Anglo-Saxon charters, many of which are wholly or partly in Old English. The essay charts the changing use to which these ancient documents were put in response to threats to the foundation's continued enjoyment of its liberties. The focus throughout the essay is to demonstrate how pragmatic considerations at every stage affects the development of the archive and the ways in which these linguistically challenging texts were presented, re-presented, and represented during the Abbey’s history

Complementation in Early Irish: the verba dicendi

The formation and structure of subordinate clauses is a field of study that has frequently claimed the attention of linguists. One area of particular interest concerns the syntax of what are referred to in traditional grammars as 'noun clauses' or in a more modern terminology as 'complement clauses'. Noun or complement clauses may follow a wide range of main-clause expressions. They may be governed by finite verbal phrases, may stand in apposition to nouns or pronouns or may otherwise be dependent on adjectival or adverbial expressions. An alternative designation for these structures derives from conjunctions that are sometimes used to introduce them; hence the term 'that-clause' has a certain currency in English, while the same can be said of German 'daBSatz', Swedish 'att-sats' etc