A congregation of philosophers is expected at the inaugural Berkeley Summer School which will be held early in September at Barnabrow House in Cloyne, Co Cork. The restored 17th-century farmhouse is set on a small hill overlooking the fertile plains of Shanagarry and Ballycotton, which Bishop Berkeley described as "this serene corner of Munster".
Dr Ian Tipton, president of the International Berkeley Society, and Dr Maureen Lapan, of Rhode Island College in the United States, will be among the lecturers. Papers will also be presented by Prof Ray Houghton, of TCD, and Dr Muriel McCarthy, of Marsh's Library, Dublin. Selected doctorates on aspects of Berkeley, Swift, American academic evolution and British utopian visions will be discussed.
The summer school will be opened on Thursday, September 3rd, by Ms Maureen Gaffney. The opening will be followed by a concert in Cloyne Cathedral, where Bishop Berkeley spent the last 20 years of his life. There will be a banquet at the Mor Cluana restaurant in Barnabrow on the Thursday evening and the proceedings will conclude with Evensong in the cathedral on Sunday, September 6th.
It will not be all beer and skittles: there are those who believe that Berkeley should never have accepted his unexpected bequest from Dean Swift's Vanessa (Hester van Homrigh) because he was unable to fulfil its conditions, which required the publication of a probably libellous poem - about his friend Swift.
There are other disputes about the bishop (who was earlier Dean of Derry and earlier still a luminary of TCD, where the library bears his name) and his work - his Querist was so admired by Arthur Griffith that he referred to it as his "breviary".
As summer schools go, this one, despite its September dateline, has all the promise of being as lively a scholarly weekend as Ireland has seen so far. Registration is at Barnabrow House, Cloyne, Co Cork (021-652534).