Audio

Performed by Therese Plummer.

New York Times bestselling author Mary Jane Clark whips up a savory and suspenseful confection, filled with murder, mystery, history, and voodoo, in which Piper Donovan must unmask a devious killer striking in New Orleans's legendary French Quarter 

That old black magic 

Aspiring actress and wedding-cake decorator Piper Donovan has barely arrived in New Orleans to perfect her pastry skills at the renowned French Quarter bakery Boulangerie Bertrand when a ghastly murder rocks the magical city. 

Intrigued by the case, Piper can't help but look for the "Hoodoo Killer" among the faces around her. Could it be the handsome guide eager to give her special private tours? Or the inscrutable jazz musician who plays on historic Royal Street? What about the ratings-starved radio talk-show host? Or even the amiable owner of the local Gris-Gris Bar? 

Though Piper has a full plate decorating cakes for upcoming wedding celebrations, she's also landed an exciting but unnerving role in a movie being shot in the Big Easy. When the murderer strikes again, leaving macabre clues, she thinks she can unmask the killer. But Piper will have to conjure up some old black magic of her own if she hopes to live long enough to reveal the truth. 


That Old Black Magic by Mary Jane Clark

Inaugural Lecture - Professor Axel Körner

Verdi’s hugely popular American opera Un ballo in maschera (1859) was completed during the final stages of the Unification of Italy. Why did Italy’s compositore nazionale celebrate Unification with an opera set in Boston? Verdi depicts an altogether rather dark and disconcerting image of life in the New World. When president elect Abraham Lincoln attended one of the opera’s first performances in New York, he left the theatre shortly before the final act, allegedly fearing an assassination attempt. Did anybody remember this scene when Lincoln was shot in a theatre four years later? The lecture explores ideas about social and political change in transnational perspective, demonstrating how cultural developments inform our understanding of political events.

Axel Körner is Professor of Modern History and Director of the UCL Centre for Transnational History. He has been teaching at UCL since 1996. His publications include Politics of Culture in Liberal Italy (2009); America Imagined (with N.Miller and A.I.P.Smith, 2012); 1848 – A European Revolution? (ed., 2000); and Das Lied von einer anderen Welt (1997). He has held visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; the École Normale Supérieure, Paris; and the Remarque Centre of New York University.

Unveiling Modernity: Verdi’s America & Unification of Italy – Professor Axel Körner (UCL History)

The Holding Room follows Attendant Muriel Hill, facing a quandary when her patient refuses to have her image captured by the asylum photographer. 

This is the first episode of the Flighty Creatures trilogy of short stories for podcast by Wexford-based writer, Sylvia Cullen. Inspired by women who dwelt in the Grangegorman Asylum, Penitentiary and Workhouse, these stories are set in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Flighty Creatures is a project of Grangegorman Histories' ⁠public call⁠. 
Find out more about Grangegorman Histories on grangegormanhistories.ie
Illustration by Fidelma Slattery.

The Holding Room

By the Spider's Bed is the story of an older inmate of the Women’s Penitentiary, awaiting transportation to Van Diemen’s Land.

This is the second episode of the Flighty Creatures trilogy of short stories for podcast by Wexford-based writer, Sylvia Cullen. Inspired by women who dwelt in the Grangegorman Asylum, Penitentiary and Workhouse, these stories are set in the 18th and 19th centuries. Listen back to episode one, The Holding Room, which follows Asylum Attendant Muriel Hill facing a quandary when her patient refuses to have her image captured by the asylum photographer.

Flighty Creatures is a project of Grangegorman Histories' ⁠public call⁠. 
Find out more about Grangegorman Histories on grangegormanhistories.ie
Illustration by Fidelma Slattery.

By the Spider's Bed

In this month’s ARINS podcast, Professor Brendan O’Leary (UPenn), Professor John McGarry (QUB), Dr Dawn Walsh (UCD) and Dr James Pow (QUB) together with host Rory Montgomery MRIA discuss the recently published results of surveys conducted in 2024. The discussion covers opinions on membership of NATO and the Commonwealth, attitudes towards immigration, the role of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and emotional responses to potential constitutional change.  

More information on the surveys, including links to all recent publications and booking links for upcoming public discussions (Dublin 10 March, Belfast 13 March) can be found here: https://www.ria.ie/research-programmes/arins/arins-the-irish-times-north-and-south-surveys-2024-results/

ARINS podcast 42: ARINS/Irish Times survey results discussion

Held on 21 January 2025, and jointly organised by the Royal Irish Academy and the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, this seminar looked to add impetus to the implementation of the national policy approach being advanced by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Evidence for Policy and University Structures

A Walnut Wound is set in July 1795. A young girl is brought to the Grangegorman House of Industry when her family becomes homeless following their eviction.

This is the third episode of the Flighty Creatures trilogy of short stories for podcast by Wexford-based writer, Sylvia Cullen. Inspired by women who dwelt in the Grangegorman Asylum, Penitentiary and Workhouse, these stories are set in the 18th and 19th centuries. Listen back to episode one, The Holding Room, which follows Asylum Attendant Muriel Hill facing a quandary when her patient refuses to have her image captured by the asylum photographer. Episode two, By the Spider's Bed, tells the story of an older inmate of the Women’s Penitentiary, awaiting transportation to Van Diemen’s Land.

Flighty Creatures is a project of Grangegorman Histories' ⁠public call⁠.
Find out more about Grangegorman Histories on grangegormanhistories.ie
Illustration by Fidelma Slattery.

A Walnut Wound

In the third episode of ‘My Identity’ Professor Colin Graham (Maynooth) is in conversation with Manchán Magan. This episode is a recording of a public conversation which took place in Dublin on 4 February 2025.

Manchán Magan has written books on his travels in Africa, India and South America. He writes occasionally for The Irish Times, and presents the Almanac of Ireland podcast for RTÉ. He has made dozens of documentaries on issues of world culture for TG4, RTÉ, & Travel Channel. His books include Thirty-Two Words For Field, Listen to the Land Speak, Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Words For Nature, and Wolf-Men and Water Hounds. With Antic-Ham, he’s collaborated on two art books for Redfoxpress. www.manchan.com

In this episode he discusses his identity and background as well as his work.
Read more about this public event: https://www.ria.ie/blog/you-need-to-walk-the-land-to-feel-the-stories/

About the Series

This is episode 3 of the My Identity podcast series hosted by Professor Colin Graham, Maynooth. In this series, Colin is in conversation with a range of people whose ideas, work and life experiences shed light on the topic of identity on the Island of Ireland. My Identity is part of the ARINS project. 

Colin Graham is Professor English and formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Maynooth University. His books include Northern Ireland: Thirty Years of Photography, Deconstructing Ireland and Ideologies of Epic. He was editor of The Irish Review from 2004 to 2020. During the Brexit negotiations he created the Twitter account @borderirish and wrote the book I am the Border, so I am, published by HarperCollins.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at WWW.ARINSPROJECT.COM

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

My Identity is hosted by Professor Colin Graham. Podcast management and production by Dr Susie Deedigan. Audio design and editing by Conor Patterson and Morgan Blain-Crehan, The Spinner’s Mill, Belfast.

ARINS My Identity: Episode 3 with Manchán Magan

In this month’s ARINS podcast, former Deputy First Minister and leader of the SDLP, Mark Durkan discusses his political career with host Rory Montgomery. The conversation focuses on the recent book by Professor Graham Spencer, The SDLP, Politics and Peace: the Mark Durkan interviews which was published in 2024 by Peter Lang.


This is episode 43 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com


ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

ARINS podcast 43: The SDLP, Politics and Peace

This is episode 4 of the My Identity podcast series hosted by Professor Colin Graham, Maynooth. In this series, Colin is in conversation with a range of people whose ideas, work and life experiences shed light on the topic of identity on the Island of Ireland. My Identity is part of the ARINS project.  

Colin Graham is Professor English and formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Maynooth University. His books include Northern Ireland: Thirty Years of Photography, Deconstructing Ireland and Ideologies of Epic. He was editor of The Irish Review from 2004 to 2020. During the Brexit negotiations he created the Twitter account @borderirish and wrote the book I am the Border, so I am, published by HarperCollins. 

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com 

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs. 

My Identity is hosted by Professor Colin Graham. 

Podcast management and production by Dr Susie Deedigan (University of Notre Dame). Audio design and editing by Conor Patterson and Morgan Blain-Crehan, The Spinner’s Mill, Belfast.

ARINS My Identily: Episode 4 with Lata Sharma

In this month’s ARINS podcast, host Rory Montgomery discusses the recent UCL Constitution Unit report ‘Reform of Stormont: Options for Discussion’ with its authors, Conor Kelly, Alan Renwick and Alan Whysall.

This is episode 44 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. 

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research. 

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com 


ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

ARINS podcast 44 :  Reform of Stormont, Options for Discussion

Lecture: 'Alan Turing, a broken heart and the invention of the computer' 
Dr Jon Agar (UCL Science and Technology Studies)
with an introduction from Sir Stephen Wall, Chair of UCL Council

This event is being held to commemorate the centenary of Alan Turing's birth and celebrate LGBT History Month. The talk will explore biographer Andrew Hodges' argument that Turing's feelings for his friend Christopher Morcom and the trauma of Morcom's premature death were pivotal in the development of Turing's ideas about the human spirit, the nature of consciousness and, ultimately, the development of the computer.

Date, Time and Venue:
16 February, 1-2pm, J Z Young lecture theatre, Wilkins building, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Dr Jon Agar: Alan Turing, a broken heart & the invention of the computer

Speaker: Dr Elizabeth Duncan, Department of Celtic & Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh
Chair: An tOll. Pádraig Ó Macháin, Dept. of Modern Irish, UCC
Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/theroyalirishacademy/the-palaeography-of-lebor-na-h-uidre-dr-elizabeth-duncan-dept-of-celtic-and-scottish-studies-univ-of-edinburgh?qid=c8dd02a6-f249-4842-b1cb-a8ec9d9e7c5d&v=&b=&from_search=1
Handout: https://www.slideshare.net/theroyalirishacademy/accompanying-handout-for-the-palaeography-of-lebor-na-h-uidre-dr-elizabeth-duncan-dept-of-celtic-and-scottish-studies-univ-of-edinburgh?qid=c8dd02a6-f249-4842-b1cb-a8ec9d9e7c5d&v=&b=&from_search=2

Lebor na hUidre (LU) is the oldest manuscript we have that is written entirely in the Irish language. It contains the earliest versions to have been transmitted to us of some of the  most celebrated Old Irish sagas: Táin Bó Cuailnge, Togail Bruidne Da Derga, Fled Bricrenn, Mesca Ulad, Tochmarc Emere and several others, in addition to much material of a historical or religious nature. Included in the latter is Amra Choluim Chille, believed by many to have been written shortly after the saint’s death and therefore it would be the oldest continuous text we have in  Irish. 

Given LU’s unique position, it is not surprising that aspects of its content and composition have been the subject of research and discussion. One of the most important studies to be carried out was that of R.I. Best ‘Notes on the script of Lebor na hUidre’, which appeared in volume 6 of the Royal Irish Academy’s journal Ériu a hundred years ago. In this paper Best identified three separate scribal hands that were involved in writing the manuscript and his important findings were incorporated in the diplomatic edition of the text that he and O.J. Bergin published for the Academy in 1929. 

As there have been few thorough studies of LU as a whole since that time, it was thought timely to look again at this important manuscript and it was felt that this would best be achieved through a conference.

The conference, organised jointly by the Library of the Academy and by NUI Maynooth, took place 22-3 November and proved to be an outstanding success with over 110 delegates in attendance. Several of those who attended travelled from institutes as far afield as Switzerland, The Netherlands, Germany and Russia.  The conference was opened by Academy President, Luke O’Connor Drury. 

Papers were read by 10 speakers representing 7 institutes of higher learning in Ireland and the UK: Cambridge, Edinburgh, UCC, NUIG, DIAS, QUB and NUI Maynooth, and they addressed issues such as the hands found in LU, the language of some of the texts, the background to its compilation and aspects of its later history.  As a result of the conference, it can be stated with confidence that our thinking in relation to LU has undergone fundamental change – especially with regard to the hands identified in the MS, the objectives of its scribes, its date and its later history.  
The book Codices Hibernenses Eximii I: Lebor na hUidre is available to buy here: www.ria.ie/codices-hibernenses…i-i-lebor-na-huidre

Location: Academy House
Date: 22 November, 2012

Disclaimer:
The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

The Palaeography of Lebor na hUidre

John Searle at the University of Cologne
American Philosopher accepts Albertus Magnus Professorship 2013

John Searle is one of the most important philosophers of language of our time. As Albertus Magnus Professor, he will be holding lectures and a seminar on the themes of "Language and Social Ontology", "Mind and Brain" as well as "Perception and Intentionality" from 6th till 8th May, 2013 at the University of Cologne.

More on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/UniversitaetzuKoeln

John Searle // Lecture 1: "Language and Social Ontology"

The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hEireann is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is the principal learned society in Ireland and has over 420 members who are elected in recognition of their academic achievements.

The Royal Irish Academy, the academy for the sciences and humanities for the whole of Ireland will vigorously promote excellence in scholarship, recognise achievements in learning, direct research programmes and undertake its own research projects, particularly in areas relating to Ireland and its heritage.

The Palaeography of Lebor na hUidre

The Royal Irish Academy

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