Thuente...
World-renowned expert on Irish movement of 1790s

Mary Helen Thuente (third from right) with Seamus Brennan (second from right), Irish Government chief whip, a minister of state and chair of the 1798 commemoration committee, which hosted last summer's anniversary conference at Dublin Castle.

Mary Helen Thuente is just as comfortable traveling the streets of Dublin, Ireland, as she is traveling the streets of Fort Wayne. In fact, she says she is more likely to run into someone she knows while in Dublin.

Since 1971, Thuente, IPFW professor of English and linguistics, and chair of the Department of English and Linguistics, has made numerous trips to Ireland. Her first trip was for the purpose of completing research in Dublin libraries for her Ph.D. dissertation.

"My Irish ancestry, growing up among Irish-Americans in Chicago, and studying the poetry of William Butler Yeats at a Catholic women's college founded by nuns from Dublin in the 19th century influenced my decision to focus my graduate studies in English on Irish literature and culture," said Thuente. "My initial focus on Irish literature expanded into the study of Irish history and culture, and recently, into the visual arts."

Thuente's research and publications on the literary and cultural dimensions of the United Irish movement of the 1790s, the crucial decade in the development of modern Irish nationalism, have made her a world renowned expert.

"The United Irishmen in the 1790s popularized literary and visual images that transmitted their political ideology and became the basis for the construction of Irish national identity in the past two centuries," said Thuente. "When the United Irishmen were formed in Belfast 200 years ago, largely by Protestants, their goals were political reform and religious toleration."

"I enjoy my research so much that it also could be described as my favorite hobby." Mary Helen Thuente IPFW professor of English and linguistics and chair of the Department of English and Linguistics

Because of her expertise, Thuente received several invitations in 1998 to speak in Ireland about the cultural and literary dimensions of the United Irish movement. In May, she was one of 36 invited speakers at the 1798 Bicentenary Conference, a conference designed to discuss the many causes, contexts, circumstances and consequences of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The conference commemorated the 200th anniversary of the United Irish movement, which founded modern Irish nationalism. It was sponsored by the governments of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Britain and was held at the Ulster Museum in Belfast and at Dublin Castle. She also presented a paper at Dublin Castle, "The United Irish Iconography of Women."

In July, Thuente presented a plenary address, accompanied with 75 slides illustrating Irish nationalist iconography, entitled "United Irish Ideology, Images, and Identity, 1798-1998: The Angel Harp" at the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures at the University of Limerick.

After the July conference, Thuente spent time serving as tour guide to family members and observing 1798 commemorative exhibits and events at places associated with the 1798 Rebellion. She also photographed many 19th-century public statues in honor of the United Irishmen, because the nationalist iconography of women and harps is one of her current research interests.

Thuente's books chart the course of her developing interests in Irish studies. Her first book, W. B. Yeats and Irish Folklore, explored the relationship between literature and folklore. The second book, The Harp Re-Strung: The United Irishmen and the Development of Irish Literary Nationalism, studied the literary dimensions of Irish politics and nationalism. And the third book will explore the visual politics of Irish national identity.

Thuente never really gets away from her research work. "I enjoy my research so much that it also could be described as my favorite hobby," Thuente said. "Touring Ireland with friends who are also poets or world renowned scholars of Irish literature, culture and history blends work and fun. Conferences in Ireland always include lovely receptions at castles and government buildings and late evenings at Irish pubs. People are surprised when I say I go to Belfast to relax, but it's true."

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