The journal is aimed at scholars, independent researchers and postgraduate students specialising in Irish studies. ABEI Journal – The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies is indexed by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA), Maryland, USA and Modern Language Association (MLA), EBSCO, Directory of Open Acess Journals (<a href="https://doaj.org/toc/2595-8127?source=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22filtered%22%3A%7B%22filter%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22terms%22%3A%7B%22index.issn.exact%22%3A%5B%221518-0581%22%2C%222595-8127%22%5D%7D%7D%2C%7B%22term%22%3A%7B%22_type%22%3A%22article%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%2C%22query%22%3A%7B%22match_all%22%3A%7B%7D%7D%7D%7D%2C%22size%22%3A100%2C%22_source%22%3A%7B%7D%7D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOAJ), Diretório de Políticas Editoriais das revistas científicas brasileiras (Diadorim), Latindex and Google Scholar. It is published twice a year, in June and December, by Associação Brasileira de Estudos Irlandeses and University of São Paulo with the support of the Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo.
Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas
Introduction to the ABEI Journal 28.1.
“More Torture than Literature”: The 175 Censorship Files and the Reception of Samuel Beckett in Francoist Spain (1950s–1978)
This article explores the impact of Francoist censorship on the reception of Samuel Beckett during the second half of twentieth-century Spain. The issue has been partially addressed by several works, which focused on stage censorship but left the reception of Beckett’s fiction unexplored, thus offering a necessary but incomplete overview. Through an analysis of 175 censorship files concerning the staging of Beckett’s plays and the publication of his drama and fiction, this study offers a wider scope. It reveals how the Spanish state’s ideological and moral apparatus limited Beckett’s exposure in the public sphere, particularly on the stage, while paradoxically allowing greater tolerance in book-form translations. Although censorship of Beckett’s work was not unique to Spain, the findings prove that the delayed and sometimes distorted Spanish reception of Beckett was not due to the alleged obscurity of his works, but to a cultural policy aimed at controlling meaning, morality, and access to dissident aesthetics.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nuria Fernández Quesada https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Echoes of Culture: Music, Language, and Critique of Universality in Brian Friel’s Performances
This article examines Brian Friel’s Performances (2003) as a sustained critique of the notion that music functions as a universal, transcendental language. Through the fictionalized encounter between the Czech composer Leoš Janáček and a modern graduate student, Friel stages a debate about whether music “speaks feeling” beyond cultural, historical, and biographical mediation. While Janáček asserts that music communicates emotion more directly than words, the play persistently complicates this claim by foregrounding interpretation, context, and reception. Drawing on ethnomusicology, cultural theory, and philosophy, the paper argues that both emotion and musical meaning are socially learned and culturally situated rather than immediate or self-evident. Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2, far from operating as a pure emotional language, is shown to be inseparable from his linguistic background, folk traditions, political positioning, and personal relationship with Kamila Stösslová. Friel’s dramaturgy exposes the tension between artistic autonomy and historical embeddedness, aligning Irish modernist concerns with broader European debates about nationalism, identity, and universality in art. Ultimately, Performances rejects the fantasy of music as a neutral or universally intelligible medium and instead affirms it as a culturally coded practice whose meanings arise through shared traditions, memory, and interpretation.
An Updated Account on the life of Irish Entrepreneur William Scully in Nineteenth-century Brazil (1854-1885)
This is the fourth article in which I have addressed questions posed by the publication of an English-language newspaper in Brazil during the second half of the nineteenth century. It is a distinctive aspect of the endeavour that an Irish entrepreneur, William Scully (1819-1885), was the owner and editor of that paper, ‘The Anglo-Brazilian Times.’ Not only did Scully take a prominent part in political and diplomatic controversies surrounding the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), but he also used his paper to influence the public opinion in favour of the liberalization of Brazil's immigration policies. In this exposition, I have attempted to present evidence establishing a connection between Scully and prominent figures within the Liberal movement of nineteenth-century British politics. This might support my contention that he worked in a semi-official capacity, as a journalist, with the Foreign Office. I also seek to clarify the main aspects involving Scully's early life in Brazil, between his arrival, in 1854, and 1865.
The Irish in Nineteenth Century (180-1900) Brazil
A Poet in Prison: Conversations between Oscar Wilde and Thomas Martin at Reading Gaol
This study examines the circumstances that led Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) to imprisonment for the crime of gross indecency and provides the translation of a collection of materials related to his stay at Reading Gaol (1895-97). These materials comprise five messages that Wilde secretly exchanged with Thomas Martin, a prison warder with whom he formed a friendship during his incarceration, as well as a lengthy essay by Martin himself recounting his experience with the writer. These messages, preserved as fragments of paper at the University of California and at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in Los Angeles, are translated here into Portuguese for the first time, with the authorisation of Merlin Holland, Wilde’s grandson and literary executor. Martin’s essay, in turn, is a contribution he made to Robert Sherard’s (1861-1943) biographical works on Wilde, and, to the best of my knowledge, is also translated into Portuguese here for the first time. The aim of this study and of the selected materials is to provide a renewed perspective in Brazil on Oscar Wilde and on his life between 1895 and 1897, the years in which he experienced both familial and public ruin and a bleak existence within the confines of a prison cell.
Copyright (c) 2026 Fabio Waki https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Echoes of the Banshee in Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat
Death occupies a significant place in Irish cultural anxiety. In Ireland, the expression of grief and lamentation holds an important place in mourning rituals. In this context, symbolic figures such as the supernatural death-messenger Banshee and the historic keening women embody both belief and tradition, offering essential ways to confront the pain of death. In A Ghost in the Throat (2021), by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a new perspective on lamentation emerges, while it is still linked to the folkloric and historical traditions of Ireland. From a comparative perspective, this study examines how the folkloric belief in the banshee and the performances of the keening women resonate in Ní Ghríofa’s narrative, focusing on the role of lamentation in contexts of death. To this end, a qualitative and bibliographic approach was employed. It draws on Lysaght’s (1986) work on the supernatural folkloric Banshee, Bourke's (2002) and Ó Coileáin’s (1988) discussions of the keening tradition and the keening women, and close readings of A Ghost in the Throat (2021).
Copyright (c) 2026 Adão Lopes da Fonseca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
CARR, Marina. Bodas de sangre: en una adaptación de Marina Carr
CARR, Marina. Bodas de sangre: en una adaptación de Marina Carr. Translation and introduction by Melania Terrazas Gallego and Salma Errami Fennane. Logroño: Universidad de La Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2025, pp. 134. ISBN 978-84-126376-4-9 (rústica); 978-84-126376-5-6 (epub).
Copyright (c) 2025 Priscila Borges Rodrigues https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
An Unpublished Letter by Oscar Wilde Found in Brazil
When Oscar Wilde accepted Wemyss Reid’s offer to serve as editor-in-chief of The Woman’s World in 1887, one of his first initiatives was to write a series of letters to eminent women of the period inviting them to contribute essays reflecting on modern society. Among the women he approached was Dame Millicent Fawcett, a prominent advocate for women’s rights who would later become one of the most influential figures in the British suffrage movement. During a recent visit to the Biblioteca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, I was able to confirm in its Manuscripts Section the existence of an unpublished letter that Wilde wrote to Dame Fawcett as part of this project. This article, originally published in The Wildean 67 (2025), examines the form and content of this message and provides a brief perspective on Dame Fawcett’s activities in the social and cultural landscapes of late nineteenth-century Britain.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fábio Waki https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Fábio Waki, Eleanor Fitzsimons, Jarlath Killeen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Celebrando uma história entrelaçada: 50 anos de Brasil-Irlanda e 23 anos de uma jornada pessoal
Copyright (c) 2025 Alice Madruga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Erica Meirelles https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Remembering Ireland: A Few Stories by a Brazilian Ambassador to Dublin
Copyright (c) 2025 Stelio Marcos Amarante https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Brazil and Ireland
Copyright (c) 2025 Frank Sheridan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Relações bilaterais e um herói de 3 mundos
Copyright (c) 2025 Afonso José Sena Cardoso https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcel Fortuna Biato https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Celebrating 50 Years of Diplomacy – Reflections on Irish Studies in Brazil
Copyright (c) 2025 Eoin Bennis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Séan Hoy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Flávio Helmond Macieira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Fiona Flood, Maurice Nolan, Sophie Mc Guirk, Robert Jackson, Niamh Casey https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Patrick Edward Joseph Dillon (1841-1889), more commonly known as Dean Dillon, was a significant, albeit controversial, figure in the history of the Irish in South America. Despite being known for a severe and unsympathetic behaviour, which was much criticised, Dean Dillon left a legacy of undeniable importance through his work as a Catholic priest and missionary, mostly in Argentina. The chapter is titled after its specific focus on the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of one of Dillon’s most ambitious projects: The Southern Cross, an English-language catholic paper focused on the Irish Argentines. Through letters, the chapter covers Dillon’s initial career, his involvement with the Irish Catholic population in Argentina and the upbringing of what would become the TSC as it is known today.
Copyright (c) 2025 Edward Walsh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Historical and Intellectual Presence (Works in Translation) of the Irish in Brazil
This research investigates the historical and intellectual presence of the Irish in Brazil, drawing on documents from the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional and the W. B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies at USP. It highlights the Irish influence across various fields, including cartography, independence movements, the Carioca Carnival, Celtic heritage, and the establishment of colonies in different Brazilian states, as well as their participation in historical events such as the 1828 mercenary rebellion. The research details ancient maps of Ireland, features biographies of translated Irish authors, and profiles historical figures. It also examines Dom Pedro II’s visit to Ireland in 1877. This article serves as a valuable resource for researchers interested in the connections between Ireland and Brazil.
Copyright (c) 2025 Peter O’Neill https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Un canto a la memoria: La proyección de “Secretos del Putumayo” en FICAMAZONÍA 2021
En la cálida noche de octubre de 2021, la plaza pública de Mocoa, en el corazón del Putumayo, Colombia, se transformó en un santuario de memoria y reflexión. La tercera edición del Festival Internacional de Cine y Ambiente Itinerante de la Amazonía, FICAMAZONÍA, reunió a unas 400 almas bajo un cielo estrellado, entre ellas, autoridades ancestrales de los pueblos amazónicos: el Taita Querubín Queta Alvarado, la abuela María Toikema Reikeruma, el abuelo Berito Kuwaru’wa y el abuelo Marcelino Guerrero Jecone. Sus rostros, surcados por la sabiduría de generaciones, aguardaban expectantes la proyección de Secretos del Putumayo, una obra del cineasta brasileño Aurelio Michiles que prometía desenterrar verdades silenciadas.
Copyright (c) 2025 Amanda Quijano https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Munira H. Mutran (org.), A Infância no Conto Irlandês
Munira H. Mutran (org.), A Infância no Conto Irlandês [Childhood in the Irish Short Story], São Paulo: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas/USP, 2025, 290 p.
Copyright (c) 2025 Teresa Casal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
It can be argued that one of the most recurring themes in film, literature, and journalism is the Amazon. However, the Brazilian cinematography still had not had a film that brought to light questions on the “rubber boom” within the world’s geopolitical trade. The film Secrets from Putumayo is an opportunity for a wider audience to get to know this relevant historical figure and this episode of the Brazilian, Colombian and Peruvian Amazon.
Copyright (c) 2025 Aurélio Michiles; Thiago Moyanno https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A “stage matrimony” with a Happy Ending: My Work as a Producer with the “Círculo de Atores”
This article aims to share my experience with the theatre company “Círculo de Atores” and the four plays in which we worked together, namely Mrs. Warren’s Profession (2018), The Doctor’s Dilemma (2023), Hedda Gabler (2024), and The Doctor (2025). While all of them were well received by the audience and the critics, it is not my intention to further elaborate on the marketing of those plays, but to portray my experience as a theatre producer.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rosalie R. Haddad https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Irish Poetry and Some Translations, a Personal Approach
This article explores the process of translating to Portuguese modern Irish poetry across nearly thirty years, stemming from the lifelong experience as a poet and informed by a personal approach to the role of poetry and the practice of translation. Its motto is the need to remember the past, or the claim not to forget in order to avoid the repetition of bad and undesired things. Thus the selected poems by Paul Durcan, Desmond Egan, Eavan Boland, John Montague, and Seamus Heaney address sensitive and resonant subjects such as Gaelicness and Englishness, Catholicism and Protestantism, freedom and oppression, colonialism and independence, post-colonialism, emigration, identity, and representation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Heleno Godoy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“A right to happiness”: the Appropriation of Joyce’s “Eveline” in Mary O’Donnell’s “Mrs Ward’s Diary” and Sara Benvenuto’s Válvula
This article aims to explore how two contemporary artistic works – Mary O’Donnell’s short story “Mrs Ward’s Diary” and Sara Benvenuto’s short film Válvula – appropriate and subvert one of the most renowned stories in James Joyce’s Dubliners: “Eveline”. O’Donnell and Benvenuto present fictional narratives that echo and at the same time disrupt themes and characters from Joyce’s emblematic short story, delving into analogous marks of peripheral realities and simultaneously proposing new solutions for shared forms of oppression.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tarso do Amaral de Souza Cruz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The poetic universe created by the Irish writer James Joyce (1882–1941) has been keenly studied in and out of universities. It has been the subject of academic and artistic works (documentaries, movies, plays etc.). The question that serves as motto to this paper is “how to talk about Joyce’s universe?”. The rationale behind the present discussion lies in the assumption according to which treating Joyce’s universe in a non-linear, non-chronological way allows for a creative way of reading, one that dialogues more intimately with its openness, both inter- and intratextually. Throughout the text, quotes from Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Exiles (1918), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939) will be presented in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese.
Copyright (c) 2025 Vitor Alevato do Amaral https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
This article retraces the enduring history of Bloomsday celebrations in São Paulo, initiated in 1988 by Munira Hamud Mutran and Haroldo de Campos alongside the foundation of the Brazilian Association of Friends of James Joyce—later to become the Brazilian Association of Irish Studies (ABEI)—at the University of São Paulo (USP). These recollections revisit the numerous activities that have shaped this literary, academic, multilingual, polyphonic, and cross-cultural festivity, from its beginning at Finnegans Pub to its development at USP and São Paulo’s house-museums—Casa das Rosas and Casa Guilherme de Almeida. The text pays tribute to the speakers, readers, performers, writers, actors, scholars, musicians, and translators who, over nearly four decades, have shared in this long-lived collective deed of devotion to James Joyce’s work.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcelo Tápia; Priscila Borges Rodrigues https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The presence of the Haddad Foundation in Ireland
This text recounts key moments in the decade-long cooperation between the Haddad Foundation and Trinity College Dublin, with the establishment of scholarship programmes fostering the Humanities and, more recently, a professorship at the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation. Reference is made to the diversity of people and ideas that are a hallmark of the scholarship programmes sponsored by the Haddad Foundation, and how they have attracted students mostly of Literature and Theatre over the years, always in close connection with academic institutions such as the Brazilian Association of Irish Studies (ABEI) and the University of São Paulo.
Copyright (c) 2025 Eduardo Boheme Kumamoto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0