Professor Michael Cronin of Trinity College Dublin
Boluisce Press, the new imprint from the Journal of Music dedicated to culture and ideas, has announced that Professor Michael Cronin will launch its forthcoming title, The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell.
The new volume, edited by Journal of Music editor Toner Quinn and Professor Jerry White of the University of Saskatchewan, is a curated selection of writings by the Irish thinker Desmond Fennell. A writer, essayist and public intellectual, Fennell brought a fresh perspective to debates on Irish identity, language, media, politics and the wider world. He also contributed to the Journal of Music in its early years.
The book will be launched by Professor Cronin as part of the 2025 Desmond Fennell Summer Seminar, which takes place on 6 June at the Sandymount Hotel in Dublin.
Professor Cronin is Chair of French at Trinity College Dublin and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He previously co-edited the cultural magazine Graph, which published work by Fennell, and he is the author of many books including Translation and Identity, Eco-Travel: Journeying in the Age of the Anthropocene, An Ghaeilge san Aois Nua/Irish in the New Century and An Ghaeilge agus an Éirceolaíocht – Irish and Ecology. He also co-edited Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy.
Commenting on the new book, Toner Quinn said:
We established Boluisce Press to encourage a deeper discussion about our society, not only in music but across culture and ideas more broadly. Fennell’s writing is a brilliant stimulus for discussion. Why is his work relevant today? Because it compels us to think more deeply about our society, to question why we think the way we do, and to consider how our thinking is shaped by historical and contemporary influences. More than that, his work is empowering: it demonstrates that we are not passive observers of the world but participants who can rethink and reshape it.
Previous books from Boluisce Press include What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music and Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn.
The publication of The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell is made possible through the generous support of the Fennell family, Finbarr Bradley and Gerard O’Neill.
The launch will take place at 11.30am on 6 June at the Sandymount Hotel. To attend, please email info [at] journalofmusic.com. For the full schedule of the Desmond Fennell Summer Seminar, see here.
For more on Boluisce Press and to pre-order The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell, visit https://journalofmusic.com/boluisce.
