AE Society Spring School 2026 (Armagh)

10TH - 11TH APRIL 2026

AE SOCIETY SPRING SCHOOL 2026: AT A GLANCE ...

FRIDAY 10th APRIL

7pm - 7.30pm Event Launch. Reception: Celebration of AE’s birthday

Aonach Mhacha

7.30pm - 8.30pm Celebrating the Legacy of AE George Russell with various guest speakers Aonach Mhacha

9.30pm -10.30pm Candlelit procession with Poetry Recitation Led by Jim Conway and Michael McKernan

SATURDAY 11th APRIL

10.30am - 11am Performance by Jack Walsh: ‘Windswept Mind: The Merrion Square Madness of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.’

11am - Noon Panel: ‘Franco-Irish AE: Paris Sketchbook: AE, James Stephens, Simone Téry and France.’ With Laura Ostertag and Patrick O’Donnell

12 - 12.30pm Lunch

12.30pm - 1.15pm Discussion Circle: ‘AE’s ‘The Hero in Man’ Facilitated by Réamonn Ó Ciaráin

Navan Fort (Bus from Aonach Mhacha)

Aonach Mhacha

Aonach Mhacha

Aonach Mhacha

Aonach Mhacha

2pm - 2.15pm Performance by Denis Conway: ‘Maimed Mystics: AEIOU. AE Explains Himself’ Armagh County Museum

2.15pm - 3.15pm Keynote speech: ‘Æ and the Spirit of Co-operation: Rethinking the Irish Moral Economy.’ Presented by Dr. Patrick Doyle

7.30pm - 8.30pm Performance: ‘Afro-Irish AE Drumming Collaboration’ Keur Gu Rutmo with Fergal O’Brien and TAP

8.30pm - 9pm Céilí: Music and Community Dance by Traditional Arts Partnership (TAP)

Armagh County Museum

Aonach Mhacha

Aonach Mhacha

For more information, email info@aegeorgerussell.ie or visit our website www.aegeorgerussell.ie

We would like to thank Shared Island Initiative and Aonach Mhacha for their kind support

STEP INTO BIG IDEAS WITH THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL AE SOCIETY SPRING SCHOOL 2026

Supported by grant funding from the Shared Island Civic Society Fund, this 2nd International Spring School celebrates AE’s many facets and his myriad-minded contributions to Irish cultural and economic life with presentations across three primary locations: Aonach Mhacha, Navan Fort, and the Armagh County Museum. The highlights of the second Spring School will be the launch of “The Sage: The Journal of AE Studies”; two new performances of one-man plays depicting two different Dublin Protestant students of mysticism and literature: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and George “AE”

Russell; a Franco-Irish discussion of a new translation of French journalist Simone Tery’s assessment of the work of AE’s friend, James Stephens; a discussion of AE’s mystical classic, “The

Hero in Man;” and, the world premiere of the international collaboration “Afro-Irish AE

Drumming Collaboration

Across the Oceans: Senegal, Armagh, and Minnesota - bodhráns and Senegalese drumming surround AE’s poem “Carrowmore” in both French and English.”

The three Co-Directors of the Spring School are Dr. Patrick O’Donnell (Chair AE Society), Réamonn Ó Ciaráin, (CEO of Gael Linn, Treasurer and PRO of the AE Society), and Fergal O’Brien (Traditional Arts Partnership (TAP) tutor in South Armagh).

BECOME A MEMBER

Annual membership costs €20 €10 for students and OAPs

5-year membership is available for €100

Please make a bank transfer to:

Account Name: AE George Russell Society

Account Number: 23459682

IBAN: IE14 BOFI 9014 9023 4596 82

Swift/BIC Code: BOFIIE2D

Essential: Please write Membership and your name in the narrative for credit transfer.

AE SOCIETY SPRING SCHOOL LAUNCH

VENUE: Aonach Mhacha

PART ONE: RECEPTION

Celebrate AE’s birthday (April 10th, 1867) in style in Aonach Mhacha (7pm - 7.30pm)

PART TWO:

Celebrate the enduring legacy of AE George Russell (7.30pm - 8.30pm)

SPEAKERS:

g The Chair of Aonach Mhacha and Treasurer of the AE George Russell Society, Réamonn Ó Ciaráin.

g The Chair of the AE Society, Dr. Patrick O’Donnell discusses “The Sage: The Journal of AE Studies.”

g Franco-Irish scholar and translator of Simone Téry, Laura Ostertag.

g Frank Ferguson, Chair of the John Hewitt Society.

g Professional actor, Denis Conway (portraying AE himself).

g Professional actor, Jack Walsh (portraying Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu).

g Artist, Jonathan Hackett.

g Organiser of the Susan

Mitchell Centenary Commemoration & AE Society Membership Officer/ Vice-Treasurer, Torlach Denihan.

g Former Chair of AE Society, and Media Director of AE Society, Marianne McGee.

g Curator Armagh County Museum, Sean Barden.

g AE Society board member and Lecturer in Politics (University of Limerick), Patrick Doyle.

Pictured: Some of the guest speakers on Friday evening. From top: Laura Ostertag, Frank Ferguson, Denis Conway, Patrick Doyle and Sean Barden. Below: Jonathan Hackett and Torlach Denihan.

PART THREE: INTO THE MYSTIC

VENUE: Navan Fort (9.30pm - 10.30pm)

Bus from Aonach Mhacha to Navan Fort. Candlelight procession and readings of the poetry of AE by various speakers (led by Jim Conway and Michael McKernan).

STAY IN TOUCH! Follow us on social media:

Visit our website www.aegeorgerussell.ie or email us info@aegeorgerussell.ie

SATURDAY 11th APRIL - AONACH MHACHA, ARMAGH

PERFORMANCE: WINDSWEPT MIND: THE MERRION SQUARE MADNESS OF JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU

VENUE: Aonach Mhacha, Armagh City 10.30am - 11am

The world premiere of a new script performed by celebrated actor Jack Walsh, written by AE Society Chair, Dr. Patrick O’Donnell. This one-man play will bring to life the mystic anxieties of Le Fanu (1814-1873), a Dublin Protestant master of the ghost story and the Gothic novel and student of Swedenborgian mysticism in the very same milieu later occupied by AE a few short years after Le Fanu’s death in 1873.

PANEL: FRANCO-IRISH AEPARIS SKETCHBOOK: AE, JAMES STEPHENS, SIMONE TÉRY & FRANCE

VENUE: Aonach Mhacha, Armagh City 11am - Noon

Co-presented by Laura Ostertag and Patrick O’Donnell, this panel examines the important Franco-Irish connections between AE, who briefly visited Paris in 1928, and his two friends James Stephens (1880-1950) who lived and wrote in Paris for a significant portion of his career, and the brilliant French journalist and literary critic, Simone Téry (18971967), author of The Isle of Bards (1925).

Excerpts from Téry’s French account of the significance of the work of James Stephens will be shared in English.

12 - 12.30PM: LUNCH BREAK

DISCUSSION CIRCLE: AE’s “THE HERO IN MAN”

VENUE: Aonach Mhacha, Armagh City 12.30pm - 1.15pm

During this discussion, facilitated by Réamonn Ó Ciaráin, attendees will be encouraged to listen to and discuss one of AE’s core mystical writings from the collection: The Descent of the Gods: The Mystical Writings of AE.

KEYNOTE SPEECH: Æ AND THE SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION: RETHINKING THE IRISH MORAL ECONOMY

VENUE: Armagh County Museum 2.15pm - 3.15pm

Æ contained multitudes, but one of the most public and abiding of the causes in which he directed his energy was the Irish co-operative movement. At the time of his death in 1935, Æ possessed a reputation of international stature as a noted and sought after political economist. But the object of economic development was not only to enhance farm productivity or improve the quality of dairy articles, but it was also to help perfect the spiritual and moral condition of the Irish people. Nor was Æ alone in

PERFORMANCE: “MAIMED MYSTICS: AEIOU,” - AE EXPLAINS

HIMSELF

VENUE: Armagh County Museum 2pm - 2.15pm

Denis Conway performs as AE himself in a one-man script written by Patrick O’Donnell to give voice to the core insights and mystical philosophy of this great cultural figure.

viewing the economy in such a way. Dr. Patrick Doyle is a Lecturer in Politics and Community Research, University of Limerick. His talk will examine the rationale of economic modernisation as understood by Æ and those people engaged in other such efforts across in his milieu. And it will attempt to start answering the still relevant question that preoccupied the minds of these heterodox political economists – what is the point of economic development?

PERFORMANCE: AFROIRISH AE DRUMMING COLLABORATION ACROSS THE OCEANS: SENEGAL, ARMAGH & MINNESOTA

VENUE: Aonach Mhacha, Armagh City 7.30pm - 8.30pm

Fergal O’Brien and TAP (Traditional Arts Partnership, South Armagh) bodhrán players in collaboration with the Keur Gu Rutmo, (a Senegalese drumming group from Dakar, Senegal) present this world premiere via both pre-recorded video and live video link. Bohráns and Senegalese drumming will surround AE’s poem “Carrowmore” in both French and English. This unique artistic exchange demonstrates how poetry, rhythm, and shared creative vision can transcend geography, language, and tradition - building meaningful cultural bridges between Ireland, Senegal, and beyond.

CÉILÍ - MUSIC AND COMMUNITY DANCE BY TRADITIONAL ARTS PARTNERSHIP

VENUE: Aonach Mhacha, Armagh City 8.30pm - 9.30pm

A figure of world importance, the practical mystic, poet, artist, essayist, editor, playwright, cooperative economist, and shrewd mentor, George “AE”

Russell (1867-1935) was the luminous heart of the Irish Literary Renaissance. From his youth in the 1880s over fifty dynamic years until he passed away in the 1930s, he was the sage animating and encouraging the creation of new Irish writing and art and, most importantly, poetry. Appropriately enough it was his lifelong friend, the poet, Oliver St. John Gogarty who memorably summed him up as “a human being in whom goodness was innate and radiantly active.”

Another friend, the great short story writer and Irish language translator, Frank O’Connor, giving

AE’s funeral oration in Mount Jerome cemetery in 1935, asserted: “The greatest service AE did for Ireland was to help in the creation of new modes of life, to stand apart as the symbol of a more complex and comprehensive existence, to represent through a lifetime the Ireland in the heart, the empire in the womb of time.”

Born in Lurgan, County Armagh, his family moved to Dublin in 1878, but he always retained deep roots to his formative background, his extended family, and the mythic landscape of Armagh. Indeed, Armagh was at his core. It was the country roads and hills of Armagh where he had his first profound mystical awakenings that later inspired him throughout his exceptionally active and prolific life.

Pictured: George Russell, Oliver St. John Gogarty and Frank O’Connor

DATES FOR THE DIARY

LAUNCH OF JOURNAL OF AE STUDIES

FIRST DRAFTS OF PROPOSED ARTICLES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY EMAIL TO PATRICK.O’DONNELL@NORMANDALE.EDU BY 31ST MARCH 2026

1ST - 5TH JULY 2026

LAUNCH: JULY 2026