IRELLAS

project

IRELLAS

The Greek Connection: Irish Poets and Contemporary Greece is an interdisciplinary project exploring the relations between contemporary Greece and Ireland.

Spanning the domains of ecocriticism, translation studies, postcolonial theory and reception, the project reaches out into the disciplines of ecology, history, politics, sociology, and anthropology. Via literature it focuses on landscape, myth, tourism and travel, as well as historical and political issues in both countries.

author of the project

Prof. Joanna Kruczkowska

Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellow, worked on the IRELLAS project at the University of Athens (2015-2016). The activities of the project are still going on.

She is also Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies, University of Lodz, Poland.

The project has been hosted by Prof. Evangelia Sakelliou, Head of the English Department of the University of Athens.
Prof. Sakelliou has also contributed to the work plan of the project.

Living / Writing poetry symposium

activities

LIVING/
WRITING

LIVING / WRITING

INNER AND OUTER LANDSCAPES

OF IRISH AND GREEK POETS

University of Athens, Greece

& University of Lodz, Poland

4-5 December 2015

British School at Athens

Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens

PROGRAMME & PHOTOS

LIVING/
WRITING

IRISH POETRY

5 Dec 2015

Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies

at Athens

12-2 p.m.

British School at Athens

6-9 p.m.

LIVING/
WRITING

ACADEMIC SESSION

4 Dec 2015

British School at Athens

9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

5 Dec 2015

Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies

at Athens

10-11.30 a.m.

LIVING/
WRITING

GREEK POETRY

4 Dec 2015

British School at Athens

6-9 p.m.

5 Dec 2015

Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies

at Athens

2-3 p.m

PUBLICATIONS

CONNECTED WITH THE PROJECT

1. Heaney / Mahon / modern Greece

2. Modern Greek and Irish poets

3. Heaney / Mahon / Seferis / politics, landscape

4. Mahon / Seferis / irony

5. Mahon / Greece and Ireland / myth, tourism / Elytis

6. Mahon / Longley / Cyclades

7. Mahon / tourism

8. Paula Meehan / Greece / landscape

RELATED TO THE PROJECT

9. Seferis / Eliot / Auden / Cyprus: politics, landscape

10. Cavafy / translation / Poland

12. Modern Greek anthologies / Poland

12. Herbert / myth / Crete

INTERVIEW

in ENGLISH

Jeffrey Carson

Yiorgos Chouliaras

Harry Clifton

Theo Dorgan

Konstantina Georganta

Jerzy Jarniewicz

Stella Lubsen

Paula Meehan

Caitriona O'Reilly

Richard Pine

David Ricks

Liana Sakelliou

Haris Vlavianos

INTERVIEW

in FRENCH and GREEK

[FRENCH]

Maria Tsoutsoura

[GREEK]

Άννα Γρίβα (Anna Griva)

Νάσος Βαγενάς (Nasos Vayenas)

CONFERENCE
PAPERS

IRISH POETS ON PAROS: DESMOND O’GRADY, DEREK MAHON AND MICHAEL LONGLEY

POETRY SYMPOSIUM

Living / Writing:

Inner and Outer Landscapes of Irish and Greek Poets

Athens, 4-5 December 2015

CONFERENCE
PAPERS

DEREK MAHON'S CAVAFY: TRANSLATION, ADAPTATION, POLITICS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Translation in Exile

Brussels, 9-11 December 2015

CONFERENCE
PAPERS

DECADENT TOURISM IN DEREK MAHON'S THE YELLOW BOOK

10th EFACIS CONFERENCE

Beyond Ireland: Boundaries, Passages, Transitions

Palermo, 3-6 June 2015

CONFERENCE
PAPERS

COMMUNICATION IN THE LAND OF GODS: SEAMUS HEANEY IN GREECE

ICA CONFERENCE

Expanding Communication: Old Boundaries and New Frontiers

Lodz, 9-11 April 2015

GUEST
LECTURE

SEAMUS HEANEY

AND THE LINGUISTIC TRADITION

This lecture was delivered during Prof. Evangelia Sakelliou's Creative Writing Seminar at the University of Athens on 7 May 2015.

GUEST
LECTURE

DEREK MAHON'S TRANSLATIONS OF CAVAFY: BETWEEN ALEXANDRIA AND BELFAST

Problematics series lecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 18 Nov 2015

CAVAFY OF THE TROUBLES

Translation seminar lecture, Ionian University, 11 Jan 2016

GUEST
LECTURE

MODERN GREEK POETRY TRANSLATION IN POLAND

Two lectures delivered at the University of Athens (16 Dec 2015) and the Ionian University (11 Jan 2016).

PHOTO
PROJECT

DEREK MAHON: ACHILL (IRE)

This part of the photo project illustrates Irish landscapes of Derek Mahon's poem "Achill". It was a real adventure. The trip to Achill in search of the view of Croagh Patrick consisted of six stages...

PHOTO
PROJECT

DEREK MAHON: ACHILL (GR)

The Greek frame of reference for Mahon's poem "Achill": the Cycladic islands of Naxos and Paros as evoked in the poem.

PHOTO
PROJECT

DEREK MAHON: CHRISTMAS IN KINSALE (IRE)

Mahon's poem "Christmas in Kinsale," though set in the universal perspective, led me to the south of Ireland steeped in the beautiful May light.

PHOTO
PROJECT

DEREK MAHON: CHRISTMAS IN KINSALE (GR)

At the end of this poem, an image of the essential Cycladic landscape counterbalances all the chaos of the modern world.

PHOTO
PROJECT

DEREK MAHON: BANISHED GODS (GR)

This poem has two different versions: the first one is about "Delos," the second about "Paros". This photo project was conducted on Delos.

PHOTO
PROJECT

MICHAEL LONGLEY: A HUNDRED DOORS (GR)

This poem is set in the Cycladic island of Paros, in one of the oldest Byzantine churches: Our Lady of a Hundred Doors (Εκατονταπυλιανή).

PHOTO
PROJECT

LOUIS MACNEICE: THE STRAND

Louis MacNeice, another poet from the North, one of Mahon's favourite and his predecessor in poeticising Achill. While on the Strand, I could not stop thinking of his poem.

PHOTO
PROJECT

HARRY CLIFTON: WICKLOW

Fond of the Wicklow landscape, Harry Clifton has developed a special connection with it. The eponymous poem of his Winter Sleep of Captain Lemass is also located in this spacious scenery.

PHOTO
PROJECT

HARRY CLIFTON: BLASKETS

"The Year of the Yellow Meal" features one of the most mythologised and at the same time researched parts of the Gaeltacht: Blasket Islands and Teeraght, the last lighthouse before America...