You are invited to an IIHSA Online Lecture on Thursday October 31, 2024 at 5.00 pm (Irish time) / 7.00 pm (Greek time)/12.00 (EST) by Sophie McGurk (Trinity College Dublin): A Certain Greek Kinship: Ireland, Ancient Greece and Hibernian Philhellenism.

Abstract
The study of Classics in Ireland, and the respect it commanded, dates back to the beginning of the Middle Ages. However, it was not until 1976, that W. B. Stanford released his seminal work, ‘Ireland and the Classical Tradition’. This was a work that was the first of its kind, in what Stanford rightly called a “neglected field”. It is essentially a catalogue of classical interaction in Ireland, providing a chronological and interdisciplinary overview. However, my paper aims to show how terms like the ‘Irish Classical Tradition’ are, in fact, lacking and do not portray the tensions that arise from the complex and unique cultural mosaic that is present in the history of Irish classicism.

This paper will illustrate how I see classicism in Ireland as three-fold: as resulting indirectly and with literature at its root yet remaining pervasive in society and civic life; as consistently philhellenic; and as characterised by non-specialists in popular opinion. For this reason, in my research, I have elected to use a new term to denote this very non-traditional tradition: ‘Hibernian Philhellenism’. Thus, my re-naming of this tradition goes beyond contributing to an established frame but, rather, works to re-define said frame.

This paper will examine the factors that have contributed to my designation of this term and offer an exploration into the unique relationship that Ireland has to Greek antiquity, a relationship that was once referred to by J. M. Synge as a “certain Greek kinship,” while also proposing a new way of thinking about 'tradition' that moves beyond the model of succession that is so readily accepted in Western thinking.