Press Releases
IRISH RECONCILIATION STORY FOR THE UNITED STATES
Royal Roots - Republican Inheritance
American Lecture Tour
by Dr Susan Hood, Assistant Archivist,
Church of Ireland’s Representative Church Body Library
 In October 2003, Dr Susan Hood of the Church of Ireland's Representative Church Body Library will embark on a lecture tour in the United States that includes Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago and New York. Dr Hood will be the guest speaker of the Éire Society at the John J. Burns Library in Boston College where she will speak about her book Royal Roots - Republican Inheritance: the Survival of the Office of Arms which tells the remarkable survival story of the Irish heraldic authority - the last office in Dublin to pass from British to Irish control as recently as 1943. The invitation came about following the joint launch of the book in Belfast by Alex Maskey, first Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast, and David Ervine, Leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, at a unique ceremony of reconciliation in Belfast earlier this year. Throughout its history, the Office of Arms [now the Genealogical Office] has embodied an all-Ireland culture that has transcended political barriers. Shared culture and reconciliation are the principal themes of the lecture tour. In Boston, Dr Hood will also speak to several other Irish-American groups and formally launch the book at the Coop Bookstore on Harvard Campus on Saturday 11 October at 7pm. Her tour continues to Minneapolis, where she will be the guest of the Irish Genealogical Research Society International, the largest genealogical research society in the US. As well as promoting her book, Dr Hood has also been invited to speak about her work for the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. This holds over 800 parish register collections from all over Ireland with a far greater outreach in the wider world. Dr Hood's other areas of expertise include the impact of the Irish Famine and the estate archive based at the Irish Famine Museum in Strokestown, County Roscommon. At engagements in Minnesota University, the Irish Cultural Center in Chicago and the historic New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, East 58th Street, Manhattan, Dr Hood will present illustrated seminars on the Church of Ireland; the Irish Famine and Using Estate Records for Research. For further information about the tour and the topics covered, contact Susan HoodEmail:Royal Roots or the American Distributor: Irish Books and Media Email:Irish Books Website to view book: www.woodfield-press.com |