Began the day with an excellent session.
William H. Mulligan from Murray State University in Kentucky
spoke about opportunity, discrimination, and Irish Miners in Michigan's Copper Country.
Some of the Irish did very well there in the 19th century, but over time, their descendants began to leave the area for more appealing work. Brian Walker from Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland Irish Identity and the Irish in America. He said that there were great discrepancies in the reporting over ancestry that people gave in their census data. In particular, few people reported being of Scots Irish ancestry, even though there were massive numbers of people in the 1700s. Afterwards, we had a spirited discussion with those in the audience. I pointed out that most Americans wouldn't know anything about their 19th Century ancestors, much less those before. Also, when you are going back to the 18th century, you are dealing with hundreds of ancestors, and you can pretty well assume that there is a bit of everything to pick from, including the inevitable Cherokee on your grandmother's side.
We then headed for the Tara Feis - a family-oriented Irish festival at a park near the river. We began wit
h a series of step dancing acts from the local children. Some of the costumes here were outstanding, and the dancing was excellent. We dropped down to the river for lunch at one of the riverfront cafes - got my classic dish that I always find in the South - fried green tomatoes. Then it was back up to the grandstand for the headline act - Altan. I could have listened to this wonderful traditional band all day, but we had to leave and get ready for my presentation.
Since this was the last session on the last day, I was apprehensive that there would be any kind of audience, but not to worry. I had hoped that we could go live and look at the Great Hunger online, but the wireless network was not working, due to lingering problems after the tornado. The first session was deliver by Megan Noojin, who is actually a scholar studying the Famine, who delivered an interesting account of Britain's response to the crisis.
Paul Fox from Zayed University in Abu Dhabi spoke about Oscar Wilde and Forms of History.
The idea was that things that Wilde had written are reflected in the current situation in Northern Ireland. Then I got started with the presentation. I have a funny thing about sp
eaking - if I am talking about something that interests me, I don't care if I'm speaking to 1 person or 200. Once we got into the Irish visuals, things went fine. The audience was appreciative and asked good questions. Mission accomplished.
On the last day, we had one last thing on our agenda before we flew out - we wanted to see the Bonaventure cemetery that was so important to the book. The people at The Book Store had a lead on a guide who specialized in taking people to Bonaventure, so we set up a Sunday morning pickup. Kathy from Classic Car Tours of Savannah (
http://www.classiccartoursofsavannah.com/) was a gem. She had gown up in Savannah in a room over Mrs. Wilkes, and she was a walking encyclopedi
a of Savannah and Bonaventure lore. She drove us out to Bonaventure and showed us the key places such as the Johnny Mercer plot, The Aikens' and Danny's grave. We drank martinis and poured the extra liquid over the mortal remai
ns of Conrad Aikens' parents, as we were instructed to do in the book. Hours later, with our heads spinning, we were dropped off at Clary's for a late breakfast. We left for the airport knowing that we'd done everything
we'd set out to do except eat at Paula Deen's. You always have to have one reason to go back when you love a city.
