Parker column: ECU professor to celebrate St. Patrick and Irish roots

 

On Tuesday, March 23, area residents have to opportunity to learn a bit about Ireland’s patron saint, as well as garner other information about the Emerald Isle when Professor C.W. “Chip” Sullivan III cooks up his version of Irish stew at the Kinston-Lenoir Public Library. The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Schechter Auditorium.

“When I come to Kinston on the March 23rd, the focus of my talk will be Saint Patrick, Shamrocks, Leprechauns, Guinness, and All Things Irish,” Sullivan said.

“What I plan to do is set what we know about Ireland within the larger context of things we should know about Ireland.  And I promise I will do St. Paddy justice.”

Sullivan is certainly the person to give St. Paddy and all things Irish their just due. Sullivan is one of East Carolina’s Distinguished Research Professors and a full member of the Welsh Academy.

He is the author of Welsh Celtic Myth in Modern Fantasy (1989) and served as editor of The Mabinogi: A Book of Essays (1996). He also has edited six other books of essays, as well as the on-line journal Celtic Cultural Studies.

Sullivan is a past president of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.  His articles on mythology, folklore, fantasy, and science fiction have appeared in a variety of anthologies and journals.

Our library is fortunate to have a scholar of his insight and knowledge present a program for our community.

But please do not let his academic credentials put you off. While Sullivan is a scholar of the highest caliber, he serves up his insights with a healthy dose of down-home humor.

His students at ECU praise his clarity, insight, and passion. He consistently receives high marks for his teaching despite the fact that students find his work load and grading standards among the toughest they have faced.

And Sullivan’s interests do not end in some ivy-covered tower. His interest in folklore has led him to research traditional methods of tobacco farming in eastern North Carolina.

He has more than 400 photographs of “old-timey” tobacco planting and harvesting. He even published an article on tobacco as an herbal medicine. 

Since 1982, his interest in Medieval Welsh Celtic literature and culture has won him several grants to travel and study in Wales, where he has researched at the National Library in Aberystwyth. That research led to various publications on Welsh Celtic literature and culture in a variety of anthologies and journals in Britain and the United States.

In 1998, he spent April and May researching Denis B. Cashman and Fenianism in Ireland on grants from the Irish American Cultural Institute and East Carolina University. In 2001 published the results of that study as Fenian Diary: Denis B. Cashman on board the Hougoumont, 1867-1868 (Dublin: Wolfhound Press). 

In the spring of 2008, Dr. Sullivan was Fulbright Senior Lecturer at Debrecen University, Debrecen, Hungary.

If you have the slightest interest in Ireland and all things Irish, do not miss Dr. Sullivan and his excellent program. You are sure to leave with new knowledge and insights woven together with good humor and common sense.

Mike Parker is a columnist for The Free Press. You can reach him at mparker16@suddenlink.net of in care of this newspaper.