17:00
László Borhi (Indiana University, Bloomington/MTA), The United States and the Cold War in East Central Europe
The American Studies Guest Speaker Series of the School of English and American Studies, Eötvös Loránd University cordially invites you to a
PUBLIC LECTURE
by LÁSZLÓ BORHI
Associate Professor, Peter A. Kadas Chair
Department of Central Eurasian Studies,
Institute for European Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
Scientific Advisor, Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The United States and the Cold War in East Central Europe
Date and time: Thursday, October 3, 2019, 17.00 p.m.
Venue: ELTE BTK, School of English and American Studies, Rákóczi út 5., Room 356
All welcome!
18:00
Seamus Heaney memorial lecture
The Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts and the Department of English Studies, Eötvös Loránd University cordially invites you to this year’s
SEAMUS HEANEY
MEMORIAL LECTURE
DECLAN DOWNEY
Professor
University College Dublin
Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of History
From Galway to Győr: the Irish presence in the Hungarian Crownlands, c.1630 – c.1919.
Opening speech by
H.E. Ronan Gargan
Ambassador of Ireland to Hungary
Date and time: Thursday 3rd October 2019, 6 p.m.
Venue: 2nd floor Lecture Hall, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1051 Budapest, Széchenyi tér 9.)
Professor Declan Downey
The event has been supported by the Embassy of Ireland, Hungary
This is an English language programme A belépés ingyenes, de regisztrációhoz kötött
szima@titkarsag.mta.hu
+36 1 331 4117 www.szechenyiakademia.hu
From Galway to Győr: the Irish presence in the Hungarian Crownlands, c.1630 – c.1919.
Declan M. Downey
Abstract
‘Their embassies, he said, were everywhere but operated independently and no ambassador would ever be relieved.’ These lines from Seamus Heaney’s poem, From the Republic of Conscience, encapsulate so much of the experience and mentality of thousands of Irish émigrés. In particular, they had a profound sense of their identity and of the obligation on them, indeed the necessity for them to represent the best of their national spirit and culture abroad. Characteristically, they strove for greater opportunities and achievements for themselves, and proved themselves as good and reliable citizens in their host societies. While this was observed of the Irish diaspora in the USA, in Australia and in Britain since the mid-nineteenth century, such qualities equally characterized earlier generations of Irish émigrés to Continental Europe, and especially so in the Habsburg realms of Spain, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Flanders from 1529 onwards. This illustrated presentation will explore the centuries-old links between Ireland and Hungary as represented by the experiences of Irish émigrés in the DonauMonarchie from the mid-seventeenth to the early-twentieth centuries. The factors that facilitated their success in integration and assimilation with their host society while maintaining a sense of their own ancestral identity will be analysed, and hopefully lessons for our own times may be learned.
Brief Biographical Detail
Declan M. Downey, was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Legal & Diplomatic History from the University of Cambridge in 1994. For the past twenty-four years he has been lecturing as Assistant Professor in Modern European and Japanese Diplomatic History at University College Dublin. He is co-director of the BCL Law with History degree programme. His research interests include the history of diplomacy and international law; Japanese-European relations and Irish émigrés in Habsburg Europe (1600-1800). His extensive publications and leading roles in major international research projects have been recognized with national and international honours, distinctions and awards including Austria’s Verdienstkreuz (2003), and Spain’s Order of Isabel la Católica (2008), and Japan’s Ambassadorial Commendation (2010). On 4 December 2009, he became the first Irish citizen to be elected to membership of the Spanish Royal Academy of History. Also, he has served as a Trustee of the Chester Beatty Library from 2012 to 2017.