Hannigan for 1-day conference

Éamon de Valera. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

By Irish Echo Staff

Eamon de Valera’s high-profile return to the city of his birth will be one of the topics up for discussion at the 42nd Annual American Irish Teachers Association Conference on Saturday, April 14,

Irish Echo sports columnist Dave Hannigan, author of “De Valera in America: The Rebel President and the Making of Irish Independence,” will be among the speakers at the event entitled “Irish Profiles in the History of New York City.”

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(Mentioning the Echo at the door of N.Y. Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Ave., Long Island City, one stop away from Grand Central Stationon the #7 train, will get a two-for-one ticket for the day-long conference.)

Registration and breakfast will begin at 9 a.m.

After opening remarks by AITA president Doris Marie Meyer, New York University’s Dr. Hilary Sweeney will give a paper at 10:15 entitled “Pastures to Pavement: Parallels and Intersections in the Lives of Working Class Irish and Urban Work Horses in 19th Century NYC.”

Dr. Sweeney will trace the role of horses in Irish culture and how the lives of the living four-legged machines of New York City and those of poor Irish immigrants whose labor was central to the development of the city revolved around one another.

The prolific author and Suffolk Community College history professor Hannigan will give his paper at 11:30.

John Butler Yeats.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS / ALICE BOUGHTON

After lunch at the center, the founder and president of the W.B. Yeats Society of NY Andrew McGowan will address the subject of the Nobel laureate’s painter father with “John Butler Yeats, A New Yorker.” Yeats, whose other son Jack followed him into an artistic career, moved to the city at age 69 and spent the last 12 years of his life there.

At 3:00 p.m., the Northern Ireland-born, award-winning writer, director, and producer of documentary films and theater productions Macdara Vallely will address the topic “The Rise of Mike Quill: NYC Hero of Labor” and present a segment from “Quill,” his film that charts the rise of the County Kerry-born labor leader.

The concluding part of the conference, a wine & cheese reception and raffle, will start at 3:45.

Tickets for the day-long conference are $40 per person, payable at the door, (half price with student I.D.), includes breakfast of coffee, tea, juice, soda bread and reception at the end of the day. Email Doris Marie Meyer, dorismeyer@aol.com, or call 917-691-2883, for information about the buffet lunch, advance $35 tickets or other details.

 

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