What’s On at the Celtic Club Melbourne
The Celtic Club is an organization that celebrates and supports pride in Irish heritage and culture, as well as the broader Celtic community. We provide opportunities for our members and guests to benefit from, learn about, and enjoy Gaelic language, Irish music, art, culture, and more.
For further information please visit us here:https://www.celticclub.com.au/whats-on
Ceoltóirí Naarm
This group of very young and very talented musicians are worth supporting.
Irish Films in Australian Cinemas
‘Small Things Like These’ finally hits Australian cinemas
Cinema lovers around Australia have impatiently been waiting for Cillian Murphy’s new film ‘Small Things Like These’ to make it’s way into our cinemas. The great news is that it will hit cinemas April 10! Check out your local cinema for showtimes as many have advance screenings, some cinemas have already started their screenings. The film is based on the prize winning novella by Claire Keegan. The story follows Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, in the weeks leading up to Christmas in 1985. Furlong faces his busiest season and as he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a small community controlled by the Church.
MIX TAPE – an Irish Australian mashup
Highly anticipated romantic drama MIX TAPE has more than a few Irish connections. Premiering on Binge on 12 June 2025, this Australia / Ireland co-production won the prestigious TV award at SXSW earlier this year.
Sharp-eyed viewers may recognise locations in Dublin used as stand-ins for UK’s ‘grim-up-North’ Sheffield. Irish film nerds may also spot actors Mark O’Halloran and Siobhán O’Kelly in the cast. And the series’ art director is none other than Sydney-sider and Clonbur, County Mayo stalwart Loretta Cosgrove.
MIX TAPE follows Daniel (Jim Sturgess) and Alison (Teresa Palmer), now living on opposite sides of the world, and moves between their teenage romance in Sheffield, England in 1989 and the modern-day reality of their adult relationships, as they reconnect through a song from their shared past, and explore their burning curiosity to understand if this is the love – and life – they were meant to have.
Thanks to the Irish Film Festival, Enda Murray and team, for these notices.
Gaeilge Brisbane agus Preab Ghaeltacht Brisbane
Gach coicís, tagann grúpa díograiseach le chéile chun gaeilge a labhairt agus ceangal a dhéanamh leis an gcultúr i gciorcal comhrá in Indooroopilly, Brisbane. Is ciorcal é seo ina bhfuil neart léibhéil agus tá fáilte roimh éinne ina bhfuil suim acu sa teanga agus a bhfuil fonn orthu an méid gaeilge atá acu a úsáid. Ciorcal sóisialta, cairdiúil, neamhfhoirmiúil atá ann agus tá béim ar an labhairt ach go háirid.
Chomh maith leis sin, tá Preab Ghaeltacht ar siúl i Gilhooley’s Bar ar gach Domhnach deireannach den mhí. Buail isteach agus usáid an méid geailge atá agat!
Breis eolais le fáil anseo.
Each fortnight, a committed and enthusiastic group convene at Indooroopilly, Brisbane, to connect with the Irish language and culture. The group consists of many levels of fluency and all who are interested in the language and wish to speak are very welcome. It is an informal, friendly, social group with an emphasis on connection and on using the language.
Furthermore, a Pop-Up Gaeltacht convene on the last Sunday of the month at Gilhooley’s Bar, Brisbane for the same purpose. Come and join and put your Irish language to work!
See here for more information.
July Deadline Call for Papers
Conference ISAANZ 27 | HEALTH, WELLNESS and CARE
20-22 November 2025
University of Otago / Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Aotearoa / New Zealand
Keynote lectures:
- Dr Paul Fagan (LMU Munich), lead researcher of ‘Celibacy in Irish Women’s Writing, 1860-1950s’
- Dr Ida Milne (Carlow College), author of Stacking the Coffins: Influenza, War and Revolution in Ireland
- Dr Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu, Irish; Massey), author of Hopurangi―Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka
Guest writer: Dr Emma Donoghue, author of The Wonder and The Pull of the Stars
As the emergency measures of the pandemic fade into memory, but the virus transitions into an endemic part of our medical landscape, we invite scholars and community members to use the vantage point of this new ecosystem – viral, social, political, economic, environmental – to consider what health, wellness and care mean for Ireland and Irish communities worldwide. What understandings of the well-being or disorders of Irish peoples can we gain through the interdisciplinary framework of Irish Studies? From the impact of medical metaphors over time to the movement of medical practitioners over seas, from the slow construction of hospitals to the rapid rise of patients in corridors, from the responsibilities of domestic carers to the glamour of wellness influencers, how can our varied disciplines come together to take the temperature of Irish societies and Irish studies?
We invite papers addressing the conference themes through topics that might include:
- Historical and contemporary expressions of community care and public health provision in Irish societies
- The role of the extended family and the diaspora in fostering transnational networks of medical support and solidarity
- Wellness as an industry in Ireland and for the Irish diaspora
- Representations of health and care providers, from institutional care to family carers
- Literary, political, and structural responses to physical and mental health crises
- Considerations of the metaphorical resonances of discourses of health, such as the moral or spiritual health of the nation
- Narratives of health and illness within academia and the discipline of Irish Studies
- The intersections of gender, class, race, and disability within Irish experiences of sickness and care
- Digital health communities and the impact of new technologies, from genetics to improved imaging, on health, family histories and identity
- Environmental health challenges and sustainable futures
- The complexities of discourses of health and illness, vulnerability and resistance, diagnosis and recovery
For those whose research does not touch on areas of health, wellness or care, we also welcome papers on any aspect of Ireland, Irish Australia, Irish New Zealand, Irish Pacific or the Irish diaspora generally.
Individual Papers or Creative Contributions: submit a 250-word abstract and a short bio (100 words).
Panels and Roundtables: submit a short panel/roundtable description, along with 250-word abstracts and bios for each participant. We hope that conference participants will join us in beautiful Dunedin, but there is also the option to present papers online.
Proposals should be emailed to maebh.long@otago.ac.nz. We have now moved to a rolling deadline for submissions. Please submit your abstract when ready and we will respond every fortnight. The rolling deadline will remain until 31 July 2025.
Ulysses For Everyone: A Friendly Introduction
Presented by Bloomsday in Melbourne’s Dr Steve Carey Ph.D. and Associate Professor Frances Devlin-Glass (Ph.D., ANU)
When: 10am-4.30pm Sunday 24th August 2025
Where: 3ZZZ Community Radio, 309 Albert St, Brunswick
Ulysses was published in Paris on James Joyce’s 40th birthday, 2nd February 1922. When presented with the first reviews, Joyce asked, rather sadly, ‘Did no-one think it was funny?’ We do. We think Ulysses is the funniest, the wisest and the most human book, and on this day together we want to hand you the keys to unlock it, share with you the best bits and invite your own responses to the text.
But always remember the Bloomsday in Melbourne promise: you are NEVER put under pressure to speak up! If you’d rather sit quietly and absorb what we’re offering, that’s absolutely fine.
This interactive course, a mix of presentation and discussion of text, assumes no prior knowledge of Ulysses, although having read the extracts we recommend (or as many as you can manage – do what you can), anything you do know will certainly help to make your day a richer reading experience. Spending the day with us will help get you over the obstacles to reading, to put Joyce in a rich literary and historical context, and make clearer his innovations as a writer and thinker.
We’re firmly of the view that Ulysses is potentially for every kind of reader and that most readers need only minor assistance over the obstacles it represents. And also that it is a treasury for life, to be enjoyed almost as a different text as one is exposed to life’s exigencies. We’d love to welcome you to an ever-expanding community of readers of Ulysses. It may have turned 100 years old, but it still very much our contemporary and still unfolding for those who love it.
But above, all: relax. We’ll have time to answer your questions, and we’ll be inviting your input, but if you’d prefer to sit quietly and just soak it all up, that’ll be fine. We’ll build in breaks so you can escape the screen, grab a coffee or a bite, or maybe link up with other course participants over a cuppa. At the end, please BYO for a social wind-down and a chat.
Here’s what we’ll be covering on the day:-
- Why is Ulysses supposedly a ‘classic’? What does that mean, anyway?
- Why is a book set in Dublin 1904 called Ulysses?
- Is the book truly obscene? How did it get banned even before it was published?
- What is Joyce’s ‘Stream of Consciousness’ technique and why is it so important?
- Bits of the book seem really, really difficult to understand. Is Joyce just being wilfully obscure, or is there some point to all this?
- And much, much more…
This event is a fundraiser for Bloomsday in Melbourne, enabling us to pay our Director, actors and staff for our Bloomsday theatrical productions. Every cent is going straight to them!
Tinteán 