The cover of the Booklet and CD produced to compliment the Joyce Presentation.

In 2012 Seamus Carmichael presented an illustrated lecture on the place of folk song in the work of the Irish Author, James Joyce. This was first performed at Mid-Town Scholar in Harrisburg on Bloomsday, June 16th 2012 and in a late for Bloomsday celebration in Lancaster at Tellus360. A booklet and recording were created to accompany the event which has been performed at local colleges including HACC in Lebanon, PA, Penn State Main and as part of the Mount Gretna “College for a Day” program. Carmichael later remade the seven songs in a studio recording with accompaniment from Matt Miskie.

In 2013 he created an event showcasing the music contained in Joyce’s most famous short story “The Dead” which he presented to an audience in the Hershey Medical Center. This took the form of a Christmas Dinner Party with an after dinner menu as described in the story. Songs included Tom Moore’s “Oh Ye Dead”, “Let Me Like A Soldier Fall” and “The Lass of Aughrim”

A Victorian style invitation to the Dinner Party described in the Joyce Short Story “The Dead”

In April 2014 working with the Lancaster Literary Guild Carmichael created a biographical lecture on the life of Seamus Heaney – Ireland’s most recent Nobel Laureate in Literature.

This included songs with which Heaney had a personal connection such as “Slieve Gallion Brae”- sung at his wedding, and “The Voyage of the Calabar” which was Heaney’s “Party Piece”. This presentation has since been repeated for the Humanities Department at Penn State Hershey and both are available online.