Dr Séamas Ó Síocháin

Anthropology

Gaeilge agus fáilte

Senior Lecturer Emeritus

Rowan House
1st Floor
AN1.13
(01) 708 3724

About

Emeritus Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University.

Publications include:

  • Exhibit Ireland: Ethnographic Collections in Irish Museums (editor with Pauline Garvey and Adam Drazin), Dublin: Wordwell Press, 2012;
  • Social Thought and the Irish Question in the Nineteenth Century (editor and contributor), Dublin: UCD Press, 2009.
  • Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary (Lilliput Press, 2008 and Amazon e-book, 2012).

Founder member of the Anthropological Association of Ireland and editor for five years of the Irish Journal of Anthropology.
 
Current Research
I have embarked on a research project in historical ethnography, focussed on rural Ireland from c1750–1850, with an area in north-west County Waterford as a field-site. The aim is to provide as full a picture as possible of rural life during the period, drawing on a wide range of source materials, including estate papers, traveller accounts, government and government-initiated reports, and Irish language sources, including folklore. Among the subjects covered will be the social structure and dynamics of the land system, including peasant social movements. The work will draw on interdisciplinary studies on rural societies, including the anthropological tradition of peasant studies.
 
Recent Publications

  • Séamas Ó Síocháin, Eamonn Slater, Liam Downey (eds), 2015. Rundale: Settlement, Society, and Farming, special issue of Ulster Folklife, Vol. 58.
  • Séamas Ó Síocháin, 2015. ‘Rundale: the Social and Economic Context’, in Séamas Ó Síocháin, Eamonn Slater, Liam Downey (eds), Rundale: Settlement, Society, and Farming, special issue of Ulster Folklife, Vol. 58. 1–11.
  • Séamas Ó Síocháin and Liam Downey, 2015, ‘A Note on Beara Naming Patterns’, Béascna: Iris Bhéaloideasa agus Eitneolaíochta/ Journal of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork. 9. 130–37.
  • Séamas Ó Síocháin, 2014. ‘Sir Roger Casement’, in 1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War. www.1914-1918-online.net

 
[In 2014, on the centenary marking the start of the First World War, “1914-1918-online” will present the academic community and general public with a virtual, open-access, English-language handbook and encyclopedia on the First World War. The multi-perspective, refereed reference work will be the result of an international collaborative project overseen by Freie Universität Berlin (Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Center for Digital Systems) in cooperation with the Bavarian State Library and is funded by the German Research Foundation. “1914-1918-online” is edited by General Editors Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, in association with more than 30 thematic and regional section editors and 20 encyclopedic entries editors.]

Public Lectures

  • Séamas Ó Síocháin, 2015. ‘“This Awful Calamity in Europe”: Casement in Germany in 1915’, Lecture given in Glasnevin Cemetery Museum (series organized by Glasnevin Trust and Department of History, TCD), 19 March 2015.
  • Séamas Ó Síocháin, 2014. ‘Towards a Historical Ethnography of Pre-Famine Ireland: a Framework’, Seminar Presentation, Winter School (Writing the State), Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University, 9 December 2014.
  • Séamas Ó Síocháin, 2014. ‘“Don’t let me lie in this dreadful place”: The Death and Life of Roger Casement’, Lecture given in Glasnevin Cemetery Museum (Glasnevin Trust), 17 August 2014.
  • Séamas Ó Síocháin and Etaín Ó Síocháin, 2014. ‘A Hidden Ireland, An Béaloideas agus Pádraig Ó Miléadha’, Lecture given at  Éigse Uí Mhaolchatha (Oidhreacht an Chaisleáin Nua), 28 June 2014.
  • Séamas Ó Síocháin, 2013. ‘Economy and Society in Pre-Famine Ireland: a Sketch’, Lecture given at the National Gallery of Ireland, in association with the exhibition of watercolours by William Evans of Eton (‘From Galway to Leenane: Perceptions of Landscape’), 15 September 2013.

 
Television
Séamas Ó Síocháin, 2015. Tríd an Lionsa (Through the Lens). Six-part television series on history of photography in Ireland. Contributor, especially to Programme 4: Fiagaí na gCeann/ Headhunters. Browne and the Ethnographic Survey of the West Coast 1891–1900. Sibéal Teoranta for TG4/BAI. Autumn 2015 transmission.