Wider Europe - News

Polish-Irish Encounters in the New and Old Europe

Published: Mon 19th May

After a long history of emigration, Ireland's economic boom during the last two decades has transformed it into a country of immigration. For the first time in its modern history, it has been experiencing a significant inflow of migrants. According to the 2006 census, most of these are Polish migrant workers, as well as a smaller number of workers from other Central and Eastern European countries. Following EU-enlargement in 2004 and the increasing demands of the Irish construction sector, Ireland has been granting access to its labour markets to citizens of the new member states. However, this has not been the only reason for young Poles to choose Ireland as a key work and living destination. Many perceive that there are common cultural links between Poland and Ireland which seem to make the latter feel closer to home than other European destinations: both are Catholic countries where religion is closely linked with national identity; both had a history of occupation by bigger neighbours; both countries experienced mass emigration to America. Despite such similarities, the growing migrant worker community has meant a first experience of multiculturalism for a largely monocultural Ireland, including Polish bread in Irish bakeries, the discussion of employment rights for migrant workers and the adaptation of a Polish soap opera on the national state broadcaster RTE.

This conference seeks to explore the cultural and social dimension of Polish-Irish relations in the present and the past from a variety of angles. Culture is understood here in its broadest sense, as informing concepts of individual and collective identities, thus of social belonging. This is based on the assumption that human beings collectively construct their social and cultural reality, that literature, art, music, film and other media as well as language itself are manifestations of cultures.

Keynote speakers:

Papers are invited on, but not restricted to, the following themes:

Papers on any related theme will be considered. 300 word abstracts in English should be submitted on or before 30 July 2008

Abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, PDF or RTF formats. If you do not receive an acknowledgement of receipt within a week, you should assume that your proposal was not received and contact the organisers.

The publication of selected papers in a themed volume by Peter Lang has been negotiated. The book will be part of the Reimagining Ireland series.

A discretionary fund to assist in the delivery of papers by participants from Central and Eastern European is envisaged.

For further details about the conference, hosted in co-operation with the Centre for Irish-German Studies (University of Limerick), please visit: http://www.polishirishencounters.mic.ul.ie/

Degree Courses

A number of degree courses related to the study of wider Europe are available at NUI Maynooth, including:



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