Dr Katrina Goldstone (Independent Scholar), 'Loyal and Cosmopolitan Irishmen? Leslie Daiken and Michael Sayers, Irish Jewish writers negotiating identity and politics in the 1930s and 1940s'

The paper will focus on the lives and literary engagement of two Irish Jewish writers, Leslie Daiken and Michael Sayers, who were part of broader anti fascist alliances in the 1930s and 1940s, and through the course of the paper, describe their activism and writings, exploring some of the consequences of their engagement with anti fascist politics in the 1930s, as part of shifting diasporic political communities on the Left in London and in New York. For both Daiken and Sayers their anti fascist writing, negotiations with Irish Jewish identity and the impact of anti Semitism, wrought long standing changes in their lives and writings, with Sayers being blacklisted in the 1950s and Daiken, encouraged by Samuel Beckett and Austin Clarke, attempting to write a semi biographical novel about his childhood in Dublin.

This event will be held both in person in the Irish Studies Seminar Room (27 University Square, 01/003) and online via MS Teams.

Please indicate when you register via Eventbrite whether you want to attend in person or online.