Living With My Century
Living With My Century
Edited by
Author: Eda SagarraCouldn't load pickup availability
Professor Eda Sagarra, born in 1933, has been a significant and influential figure in Irish and European academic policy-making, contributing to the early development of the Erasmus scheme. Now, aged nearly 88, this memoir gives striking evidence of her self-discipline and formidable energy. This substantial memoir by one of the foremost female academics in Ireland starts with Sagarra’s own perspective on committing her life story to history during the pandemic lockdown of 2020.
A south Dublin convent girl, Sagarra probes childhood and family, schooling, and UCD — with a perceptive commentary on the Ireland of the 1930s and 1940s. Her remarkable memory and shrewd eye for detail present at times a painfully honest account of family and in the upper middle-class world of Catholic south Dublin, revealing the profound influence of Europe during her postgraduate years in post-war Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Running through this forensic account of her academic life is a keen awareness of the constant if subtle barriers to female advancement.
For contemporary critics reconstructing the history of gender equality in Ireland and for readers of feminist history, this makes for essential reading. Her description of retirement since 1998 is colourful, poignant and revealing, and her reflections on old age and youth resonate.
Details
Details
ISBN: 9781843518358
Extent: 400
Published:
Share
Praise and Reviews
-
‘Professor Eda Sagarra has written a fascinating memoir stretching over her almost ninety years of life constitutionally interested in a positive sense in the lives of other people, she shows herself to be an acute and shrewd observer of the political scene and human nature.’ – Senator David Norris
-
‘An absorbing account of a life well-lived over the last eight decades, offering keen observations on critical events in Irish and European history along the way – with great flashes of wry humour, particularly when reflecting on the many barriers faced by those women of Eda’s generation who boldly sought to build an academic career. Happily, much has changed!’ – Ivana Bacik, TD
-
‘A warm-hearted, witty and scholarly remembrance of a life well-lived … A book and a character to treasure.’ – Lelia Doolan
About the Author
Professor Eda Sagarra has had an illustrious academic career. Currently emeritus Professor of German at Trinity College Dublin, she was also the first female Registrar in any university between Ireland and Great Britain from 1981 to 1986 and held the position of Professor of German from 1975 to 1998. Author of a number of key books on German history and literature, she has also written about Irish history in the form of a biography of her father, the Irish Volunteer Kevin O’Shiel, and her grandfather T.A. Smiddy.