What is Irish Romanticism and when did Ireland become romantic? Using the familiar image of the heavy overcoat that clothed ordinary Irish people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this talk considers the extraordinary achievements of Irish authors including Maria Edgeworth, Sydney Owenson and Thomas Moore, all of whom wrote under the shadow of hunger, death, and disease.

Professor Claire Connolly FLSW MRIA IntFRSE is Professor of Modern English at University College Cork. She is the author of the award-winning A Cultural History of the Irish Novel, 1790-1829, as well as many essays on eighteenth and nineteenth-century Irish culture.

Image: Daniel Macdonald (1820-1853), ‘Sidhe Gaoithe / The Fairy Blast’ (1842). Reproduced courtesy of the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin.

This is the first of three specially commissioned talks that explore in various ways the impact and legacy of Thomas Moore (1779-1852): Irish-born poet, songwriter, and close friend and biographer of Lord Byron. For many years, he maintained a close association with the library of Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne at Bowood House, engaging with and making use of its collections; he was also among the three poets who spoke at the inaugural banquet of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution in January 1825. This series has been organised by Professor Jane Moore and is supported by Bath Spa University.