AE Society Summer School Dublin - 2026

THEME:

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

WEDNESDAY 1st JULY

10am

Group visit to the exhibition: William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy

12.30 - 1.30pm Lunch in the National Gallery of Ireland.

1.45 - 3pm

Group visit to the William Butler Yeats exhibition at the National Library

7pm - 8pm Social gathering and Summer School launch of ‘The Sage: The Journal of AE Studies’

8pm - 9pm AE and James Connolly: Lockouts, Cooperatives, and Irish Self-Rule (Dr. Conor McCabe)

THURSDAY 2nd JULY

11am - 12.30pm AE and the Strangest Genius: AE and Harry Clarke’s masterpiece ‘The Geneva Window’ Part 1: The Literary Revival in The Strange Glass of Genius (Talk by Dr. Patrick O’Donnell) Part 2: A Song Cycle on ‘The Geneva Window’ (3 songs presented by Remco)

12.30pm - 1.30pm Lunch

1.30pm - 2.30pm AE in the Light of Asia: The Importance of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) in Ireland (Talk by Réamonn Ó Ciaráin)

2.30pm - 3pm Break

3pm - 4pm AE’s Vision: Rural Civilisation and The Democratisation of Art (Professor Joan Navarre)

FRIDAY 3rd JULY

11.30am Phantom Footsteps of AE: Walking Tour of Mount Jerome Cemetery (led by Professor Joan Navarre)

National Gallery of Ireland

National Gallery of Ireland

National Library of Ireland

Gael Linn

Gael Linn

Gael Linn

1.30pm Lunch in the city

7pm - 9pm Cooperative AE: Susan Mitchell, AE, and the Cooperative Movement (Various speakers/performers) Invitation only to Society members and their guests

Gael Linn

Gael Linn

Gael Linn

Mount Jerome Cemetery (Bus from Gael Linn at 11am

Plunkett House, 84 Merrion Sq.

AE SOCIETY SUMMER SCHOOL 2026: AT

SATURDAY 4th JULY

11 - 11.50am AGM (AE Society Members only) United Arts Club

12 - 1pm Lunch

1pm - 2pm Keynote Speech: Merrion Square Mystics (and Misfits): AE and Sheridan Le Fanu in the light of Swedenborg and Blake (Dr. Patrick O’Donnell)

2.30pm - 3.30pm AE and a Feast of Voices: Reading the poetry of AE, William Blake, Rabindranath Tagore, W.B. Yeats, Susan Mitchell, and Le Fanu (Led by Michael McKernan)

7.30pm - 9pm Windswept Mind: The Merrion Square Madness of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Performed by Jack Walsh)

United Arts Club

United Arts Club

United Arts Club

United Arts Club

SUNDAY 5th JULY

11 - 12.30pm AE and Dublin’s Latin Quarter: Golden Age Walking Tour (Led by Réamonn Ó Ciaráin and Patrick O’Donnell) Free and open to the public

12.30 - 1.30pm AE and Al Fresco Yoga by the Rabindranath Tagore Bust in St. Stephen’s Green. Led by Cathy Addis Free and open to the public

Meeting at Plunkett House, 84 Merrion Sq.

St. Stephen’s Green

1.30 - 2.30pm Lunch at Doheny and Nesbitt’s Pub Doheny & Nesbitt’s

3pm - 4pm Franco-Irish AE: Simone Téry and W.B. Yeats - with new exerpts from the French study of the Irish Literary Revival - The Isle of Bards (1925) (Laura Ostertag) Free and open to the public, but space will be limited Gael Linn

Professor Henry Summerfield

OUR PATRONS

We would like to acknowledge the support of our esteemed Patrons: AE’s Biographer, Professor Henry Summerfield, and former Irish Ambassador and Author, Daniel Mulhall.

Daniel Mulhall

WELCOME TO AE SOCIETY SUMMER SCHOOL 2026

Supported by a grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Shared Island Civic Society fund, our Summer School’s theme this year is ‘Flights of Spiritual Genius’, and our schedule incorporates links to William Blake, James Connolly, W.B. Yeats, Harry Clarke, Rabindranath Tagore, Susan Mitchell, Simone Téry, Emanuel Swedenborg, James Stephens, Sheridan Le Fanu, and many others in our celebration of the “myriadminded” AE as we explore the cultural variety of Dublin through gatherings

in myriad locations: the National Gallery, the National Library, Gael Linn, Mount Jerome Cemetery, Plunkett House, United Arts Club, Merrion Square, and St. Stephen’s Green.

Co-Directors, Dr. Patrick O’Donnell, (Director and Chair AE Summer School), Réamonn O Ciaráin (PRO/Treasurer), Torlach Denihan (Vice Treasurer/ Membership Officer) and Joan Navarre.

All events in the Summer School are free to paid-up AE Society members. See individual events for ticket prices (either €10/€20, depending on ability to pay). Paying for a single event automatically enrolls you in an annual Society membership and free access to all other events in the Summer School. You can sign up as a member at any event by cash or cheque (no cards accepted). For membership fee options, see Membership section. All events listed on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings and on Sunday afternoon are free and open to non-members.

WEDNESDAY 1st JULY

GROUP VISIT: WILLIAM BLAKE EXHIBITION

VENUE: National Gallery of Ireland 10am

Group visit to the exhibition: William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy (free but booking is essential through National Gallery itself).

William Blake, The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy c. 1795. Tate

LUNCH AT NATIONAL GALLERY 12.30PM - 1.30PM

GROUP VISIT: WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS EXHIBITION

VENUE: National Library of Ireland 1.45pm - 3pm

Group visit to the The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats exhibition at the National Library (free and no booking is necessary at the National Library).

There are only 12 places available for the Gael Linn talks on Wednesday 1st July (see below) and Thursday 2nd July, so registration is essential as it will be first come first served. To register for those dates please email Mary McCormick mary@mccormickintl.com

LECTURE: AE AND JAMES CONNOLLY: LOCKOUTS, COOPERATIVES, AND IRISH SELF-RULE

VENUE: Gael Linn 8pm - 9pm

In October 1913 AE wrote an open letter berating Dublin’s master class for its treatment of the city’s working class, later republished by James Connolly in The Reconquest of Ireland. Yet the ideals they shared ran much deeper

LAUNCH THE SAGE: THE JOURNAL OF AE STUDIES

VENUE: Gael Linn 7pm - 8pm

Social gathering and launch of ‘The Sage: The Journal of AE Studies’. Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

than the treatment of organised labour. This talk will explore those links, in particular with regard to the cooperative movement and the issue of socioeconomic rights. It will place both men within the small but influential “avantgarde” in Irish intellectual life at the time, which held up a vision of self-rule that was decidedly at odds with the conservative nationalist mainstream.

Dr. Conor McCabe, researcher at DCU and editor of The Lost and Early Writings of James Connolly, 1889-1898.

Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

THURSDAY 2nd JULY

AE AND THE STRANGEST

GENIUS: AE AND HARRY CLARKE’S MASTERPIECE ‘THE GENEVA WINDOW’

VENUE: Gael Linn 11am - 12.30pm

A two-part presentation:

1. The Literary Revival in The Strange Glass of Genius - a talk on the life, work, and deep connections to the Literary Revival of Dublin-born stained-glass artistic genius, Harry Clarke (1889-1931) by Patrick O’Donnell.

2. A Song Cycle on ‘The Geneva Window’ by Dutch Composer/Musician/Tour guide, Remco. In a world premiere, Remco will present three original songs inspired by depictions of the work of AE, James Stephens, and James Joyce in the stainedglass masterpiece, The Geneva Window. Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

12.30 - 1.30PM: LUNCH BREAK

Réamonn Ó Ciaráin

LECTURE: AE IN THE LIGHT OF ASIA: THE IMPORTANCE OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE (1861-1941) IN IRELAND

VENUE: Gael Linn 1.30pm -2.30pm

Réamonn Ó Ciaráin and others will present on the work and connections to Ireland of India’s great Bengali Nobel-prize winning Poet, Artist, Polymath, and Sage. Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

STAY IN TOUCH! Follow us on social media:

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

Professor Joan Navarre will discuss AE’s Vision of Art

Did you know that AE was the innovative force behind the first Artist-in-Residence program at an educational institution in the United States of America? Did you know that this first American Artist-inResidence was appointed to the College of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin?

Join Professor Joan Navarre to learn more about the impact of AE’s 1935 visit

The walking tour of Mount Jerome Cemetery will be led by Professor Joan Navarre and a variety of speakers. Map included to contextualise important denizens from Irish cultural history in Mount Jerome Cemetery: Sir William Wilde, Thomas Davis, Susan Langstaff

THURSDAY 2nd JULY

LECTURE AE’S VISION: RURAL CIVILISATION AND THE DEMOCRATISATION OF ART

VENUE: Gael Linn 3pm - 4pm

to the White House and his Vision of Art as the key to creating a vibrant rural civilisation. Learn the story of American Regionalist Painter John Steuart Curry, and the progressive plan to cultivate all citizens (not just the privileged few). Uncover the roots of “The Wisconsin Idea” and a university without boundaries. Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

FRIDAY 3rd JULY

PHANTOM FOOTSTEPS OF AE: WALKING TOUR OF MOUNT JEROME CEMETERY

MEETING POINT: Gael Linn at 11am 11.30am (tour begins)

Mitchell, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, John Millington Synge, Robert Andrew Anderson, AE and Violet Russell. Meet at Gael Linn by 11:00am and take the bus with our group to Mount Jerome in Harold’s Cross.

1.30PM: LUNCH IN THE CITY

FRIDAY 3rd JULY

COOPERATIVE AE: SUSAN MITCHELL, AE, AND THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT

VENUE: Plunkett House, 84 Merrion Sq. 7pm - 9pm

Denis Conway as AE, musician Remco, Torlach Denihan, Arthur Russell, and Hilary Pyle, biographer of Susan Mitchell, and a variety of speakers will bring to life the legacy of Susan Mitchell (18661926) on her centenary, celebrating her sharp-eyed poetry, satirical wit, and deep friendship with her colleague and fellow poet, AE in the heart of Plunkett House. Invitation only to Society members and their guests. No payment needed.

MEMBERSHIP

We are asking existing members and potential members to pay their 2026 membership fees (if not done already). We call on all existing members to renew their membership at the reasonable cost of €20 for 1 year (OAPs & students pay €10) or €100 for 5 years which can be done by making a credit transfer.

Please consider demonstrating your support for and confidence in the future of the AE George Russell Society by taking a five year membership for €100.

Account Name AE George Russell Society

Account Number 23459682

IBAN: IE14 BOFI 9014 9023 4596 82

Swift/BIC Code: BOFIIE2D

Please write membership and your name in the narrative for credit transfer. This is essential otherwise we have no way of knowing who the payment is from.

AGM - AE GEORGE RUSSELL SOCIETY

VENUE: United Arts Club 11am - 11.50am

AE Society members only (free).

SATURDAY 4th JULY

United Arts Club, 3 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2

NOON - 1PM: LUNCH IN UNITED ARTS CLUB

Dr. Patrick O’Donnell will discuss the great Swedish Author and mystic visionary Emanuel Swedenborg and the English Poet and mystic Artist William Blake, providing contrasting frameworks for understanding the Merrion Square Protestant Authors,

POETRY: AE AND A FEAST OF VOICES: READING THE POETRY OF AE, WILLIAM BLAKE, RABINDRANATH TAGORE, W.B. YEATS, SUSAN MITCHELL AND LE FANU

VENUE: United Arts Club 2.30pm - 3.30pm

KEYNOTE SPEECH: MERRION SQUARE MYSTICS (& MISFITS): AE AND SHERIDAN LE FANU IN THE LIGHT OF SWEDENBORG & BLAKE

VENUE: United Arts Club 1pm - 2pm

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), Gothic Novelist and master of creeping terror and practical mystic, George ‘AE’ Russell (1867-1935).

Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

Led by Michael McKernan. A wide variety of speakers will read and perform.

Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

SATURDAY 4th JULY

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

VENUE: United Arts Club

7.30pm -9pm

The dramatic reading of a work in progress of an original one-man play performed by celebrated Irish Actor, Jack Walsh as Sheridan Le Fanu, written by AE Society Chair, Dr. Patrick O’Donnell. The one-man play, set on the night of Le Fanu’s death, will bring to the fore the mystic anxieties of Le Fanu (1814-1873), a Dublin Victorian Protestant master of the ghost story,

Gothic novel, and obsessed student of Swedenborgian mysticism in the very same milieu occupied by AE a few short years after Le Fanu’s death in 1873. Free to Society members or €10/€20 depending on ability to pay.

Pre-register by emailing Mary McCormick, as space is limited: mary@mccormickintl.com

SUNDAY 5th JULY

AE

AND DUBLIN’S LATIN QUARTER: GOLDEN AGE WALKING TOUR

MEET AT: Plunkett House, 84 Merrion Sq. 11am - 12.30pm

Led by Réamonn Ó Ciaráin and Patrick O’Donnell, the walking tour will begin with a humorous group reenactment of the famous ‘Chin Angles’ cartoon by the entire group. The tour will encompass sites in Ireland’s literary and cultural history in Merrion

Square and St. Stephen’s Green. Our annual ‘Shannonippi’ ritual blessing from combined source waters of the Mississippi and the Shannon rivers will occur before AE’s statue.

Free and open to the public.

Cathy Addis (inset) will lead mindful yoga at the Rabindranath Tagore bust in St. Stephen’s Green

LUNCH AT DOHENY & NESBITT’S PUB

VENUE: Doheny & Nesbitt’s 1.30pm - 2.30pm

SUNDAY 5th JULY

AE AND AL FRESCO YOGA BY THE RABINDRANATH TAGORE BUST IN ST. STEPHEN’S GREEN

VENUE: St. Stephen’s Green 12.30pm - 1.15pm

Before the statue of Rabindranath Tagore, our walking tour will engage in gentle, mindful yoga led by experienced instructor, Cathy Addis. Bring own mat if possible. Free and open to the public.

FRANCO-IRISH AE: SIMONE TÉRY & WB YEATS - WITH NEW EXCERPTS

VENUE: Gael Linn 3pm - 4pm

Laura Ostertag will read excerpts from Simone Téry’s French study of the Irish Literary Revival - The Isle of Bards (1925). Free and open to the public.

Stepping into Big Ideas at the International AE Russell Summer School,

1st - 5th July 2026

“George William Russell was the egoless behindthe-scenes engine of the Irish literary revival and cultural renaissancethe Celtic Twilight movement that helped fuel Irish liberation from colonist rule,” observed Adrienne Murphy in The Irish Times. A figure of world importance, this Lurganborn practical mystic, polymath, artist, poet, cooperative organiser, social philosopher, dynamic literary intellectual and pacifist is currently undergoing an expanding revival of interest.

Awakening as an adolescent along Armagh’s country roads in the 1880s to an older mystical core to his personality, George ‘AE’ Russell (1867-1935) consciously developed his will and cultivated his personality through spiritual study and meditative discipline to incarnate the myth of AEON, or the spiritual emanation from the Godhead, comically shortened by a printer’s

error to AE which he willingly adopted. In the 1890s, he became initially akin to an Irish William Blake. However, in contrast to Blake, who was largely neglected during most of his life, AE in subsequent decades became a celebrated sage, a personage of national and international importance and significance, the model of the Philosopher in James Stephens’ The Crock of Gold (1912) and a living presence in James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). AE found his widest scope as a passionate advocate after 1897 for the Cooperative Movement led by Sir Horace Plunkett’s Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. He widened his impact as a poet, dramatist, novelist, essayist, and editor acting as a friend, mentor, and catalyst for the Irish Literary Renaissance through hosting his weekly Sunday night salon in Rathgar (1906-1933) and acting as editor in Plunkett House to the weekly journals, the Irish Homestead (1905-1923) and the Irish Statesman (1923-1930).

A Celtic yogi and great soul, AE was prodigiously ahead of his time in his

OFFICERS’ CONTACT INFORMATION

Chair: Patrick O’Donnell patrick.o’donnell@normandale.edu

Secretary: Mary McCormick mary@mccormickintl.com

Vice Treasurer/Membership Officer: Torlach Denihan torlachd@gmail.com

PRO/Treasurer: Réamonn Ó Ciaráin reamonn@gael-linn.ie

openness to studying a wide breadth of the world’s religions and esoteric traditions and curiously international in his reading, particularly in a lifelong devotion to Hindu classics (particularly The Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras, and The Upanishads) and the works of H.P. Blavatsky (particularly The Secret Doctrine), yet he remained mystically nationalistic in his appreciation of Standish O’Grady’s retellings of Irish heroic tales and was “the oldest friend and collaborator,” of W. B. Yeats according to the Nobel Prizewinning poet’s biographer, Roy Foster. If Yeats was the mage, then AE was the sage. Termed the “conscience of the nation,” by his biographer, Henry Summerfield, and noted for his generosity, his intellectual energy, his phenomenal memory, his capacity for friendship, and his innate goodness, AE continues to amaze.

Pictured: AE George Russell, Sir Horace Plunkett, James Stephens, 17 Rathgar Avenue and W.B. Yeats.

FUNDING

The AE Society gratefully acknowledges the receipt of significant support from the Department of Foreign Affairs Shared Island Fund which allows us to produce events on both sides of the border in 2026.