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Copyright

Eileen Kearney;

Published On

2025-04-07

Page Range

pp. 41–56

Language

  • English

Print Length

16 pages

1. ‘Why Would Anyone Be Interested in My Old Aunt Teresa?’

Illuminating Teresa Deevy’s Legacy

  • Eileen Kearney (author)
Chapter of: Active Speech: Critical Perspectives on Teresa Deevy(pp. 41–56)
‘‘Why Would Anyone be Interested in my Old Aunt Teresa?’: Illuminating Teresa Deevy’s Legacy’ chronicles Eileen Kearney’s experiences as a young researcher in the 1980s interested in Irish theatre studies and Irish women playwrights and how her determination to light up the shadows of Irish theatre history resulted in a life-long commitment to feminist theatre scholarship that focused on the work of Teresa Deevy. The chapter exemplifies how the tenacity and generosity of a network of researchers can create and progress a trail that leads to important discoveries and recovery of neglected work. The testament that Kearney eloquently pays to the friendship, generosity, and collegiality of Seán Dunne and his family and John Jordan brings to the fore the value of research collaboration and conveys the energy, dynamism, and undaunted persistence that is also characteristic of Deevy’s attitude towards her work, her friendships, and her professional networks. The result is an essay that negotiates the liminal space between academic formality, intellectual rigour, and accessibility, and is relevant to scholars of Irish theatre, researchers at all stages of their career, feminist scholars, and scholars of Irish theatre history.

Contributors

Eileen Kearney

(author)

Eileen Kearney is a leading Irish theatre scholar and director. In the 1980s, her re-discovering of playwright Teresa Deevy prompted her to devote many years of her career to bringing Irish women playwrights to critical notice. She has directed productions and taught university theatre all over the United States, including Pomona College, Santa Clara University, Gonzaga University, Webster University, University of Texas in Austin, Texas A&M University, and University of Colorado Denver. At the playwright Patricia Burke-Brogan’s request, she directed the 2013 American premiere of Stained Glass at Samhain, which addresses the atrocities of the Magdalene Laundries. She acted in New York and Los Angeles before university teaching. She has published numerous articles in Irish and theatre journals, focusing on women’s contributions to the field. Her book, Irish Women Playwrights, 1908–2001 (co-edited with Charlotte Headrick), was published by Syracuse University Press in 2014, and is now in its second printing. She has been a member of American Conference for Irish Studies since 1985.