Manchán Magan

Come and learn some special effects makeup techniques using household items in the library.

Manchan and author Greg Dinner will be launching a book in the Edna O'Brien Library on Thursday the 29th at 6.30pm.

The book is called Geometry of Snowflakes, a book of parallel journeys taken into Ukraine, past and present, and into Czechoslovakia in 1939.

A new hybrid work of memoir and fiction.

He, he was-

He was our friend.

Yeah

... a, a close friend of yours, and-

Yeah

...

... his, his, his illness.

Mm.

So there are some really great measures being taken internationally, um, by filmmakers like Eilithe a' Rohainn, who I research, um, as well as in kind of national conversations in Ireland.

Um, um, but also thinking about the figure, uh, Manchan Magan, who many of you might know, who arrived with, I think, Michael Cronin, who works here at the college, with this idea that y- the Irish language and nature have similar issues in terms of what we wish happened, what our ideal action is on the individual and the collective level, and how our policy is actually operating, and whether we can make results.

Um, and I think Manchan Magan has really highlighted the fact that when we speak of crisis and catra- catastrophe, excuse me, exclusively, oftentimes we stay in inactivity, and we do bow down to these social pressures, to these manipulations, and we do believe in our inability to act.

And that often in investing in cultural identities, not in a fixed way, but often in an, a very open way that accepts alternative languages for instance, by focusing on things like joy, positive practices, benefits, um, things like, um, place connection, land connection, memory.

Um, these things that have been central to eco-criticism and that really started in the '70s and were part of these global movements, you know, in India, um, first of all, for saving nature, for having the ability to protect it, that these grassroots movements often come from the positive aspects of these things.