Barra Ó Donnabháin Lecture: Dr. Margo Griffin-Wilson

Join us for the Annual Barra Ó Donnabháin Lecture, featuring Dr. Margo Griffin-Wilson.

“Poets, Patrons, and Prized Possessions”

Within the large corpus of Irish bardic poetry composed from about 1200 to 1650, there are a relatively small number of poems which praise a patron’s prized possessions, such as a drinking goblet (cuach), a harp (cruit, cláirseach), a dagger (sgian). The bardic poets usually extol the patron, celebrating his noble lineage, prowess in battle, beauty and generosity. Instead, these poems confer praise on a valued object, whether a possession of extraordinary beauty suggesting origins in the Otherworld, or a cherished gift bestowed upon the poet by his patron. This lecture will explore the creative redirection of praise, which conveys both the bond of affection between poet and patron and the exquisite artistry of the object.

Dr. Margo Griffin-Wilson earned her Ph.D. in Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. She is presently an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, where she taught Modern Irish classes, lectured in Early Modern Irish and organized Irish language cultural events (2010-2024). Throughout her career, she has promoted the study of Modern Irish in various institutions. She initiated Modern Irish language and literature classes at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and introduced ‘Irish language and film’ classes at the Harvard Summer School. She taught as a Visiting Lecturer in Old Irish at Harvard University and a Visiting Lecturer in Modern Irish at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. Her monograph, The Wedding Poems of Dáibhí Ó Bruadair, was published by the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, where she was awarded a prestigious O’Donovan Scholarship to complete the edition, translation and analysis of these unique occasional poems. Her articles on Ó Bruadair’s verse and works by other poets have been published in the Irish Texts Society Subsidiary Series, the Dictionary of Irish Biography, the Irish journals Celtica and Éigse, various Festschrifts and the forthcoming Cambridge History of Irish Poetry. She is interested in editing bardic poetry, the language of praise and the performance of the poem.

Dr. Griffin-Wilson grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts with many siblings and has an adult son and daughter. She is presently living in Worcester, Massachusetts.Subsidiary Series, the Dictionary of Irish Biography, the Irish journals Celtica and Éigse, various Festschrifts and the forthcoming Cambridge History of Irish Poetry. She is interested in editing bardic poetry, the language of praise and the performance of the poem. Dr. Griffin-Wilson grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts with many siblings and has an adult son and daughter. She is presently living in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The Barra Ó Donnabháin Lecture was established in 2006 in honor of the beloved and influential teacher and language advocate, originally from Leap, Co. Cork. He emigrated in 1963 after graduating with a degree in Irish and Latin from University College Cork. He was, for many years, a columnist with the Irish Echo.

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