Last edited: 14 March 2012

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PRESS RELEASE

'Judging Eliza: La Reina del Paraguay' - The Lyric Feature Friday 16th March 2012

How did a young woman from Charleville in Cork become notorious as one of the most wicked women in the world?

In 'Judging Eliza: La Reina del Paraguay' documentary maker Susan Cahill tells the incredible story of 'Madama Lynch' the Cork born first lady of Paraguay. This unique documentary brings listeners on a fascinating journey through the life and legacy of one of the most infamous women in history featuring unique on-location interviews with Irish, French and Paraguayan historians and commentators.

This colourful Irish Paraguayan documentary explores some of the many monstrous myths on the great Eliza Lynch and explains how a beautiful 19th century Irish courtesan became the largest female landowner in South American history.

'Judging Eliza: La Reina del Paraguay' was produced and researched by Susan Cahill with the support of the BAI Sound & Vision Funding Scheme. This documentary will be broadcast on The Lyric Feature, RTE Lyric fm on Friday the 16th of March from 7pm to 8pm to celebrate St Patrick's Day & the Irish Diaspora in Latin America .

Key Documentary Contributors

• Ambassador Miguel A Solano López, (Great grandson of Eliza Lynch & Marshal Francisco Solano Lopez) & the current Paraguayan Ambassador to London
• Guido Rodriguez Alcala, Paraguayan Historian, Poet & Commentator
• Milda Rivarola , Paraguayan Sociologist, Writer & Feminist
• Martin Romano Paraguayan Genealogist & Historian
• Ronan Fanning, Professor Emeritus of Modern History and Director of Archives Acquisitions at UCD & Co Author with Michael Lillis of 'The Lives of Eliza Lynch – Scandal & Courage' 2009 Gill & Macmillan
• Bertrand Fonck, Military Archivist & Historian, Château de Vincennes, Paris , France
• Philip O Connell, Local Historian & Chairman of Charleville History Society
• Dr Mary McAuliffe, Lecturer, Women's Studies Programme, Department of Social Justice, UCD & President of the Women's History Association of Ireland
• Kieran Burke, Local Studies Librarian, Cork City Library, Cork

For Further Information, Please contact: Susan Cahill , Producer on smccahill@hotmail.com or 087-9793732

Eoin Kelly/Olga Buckley, The Lyric Feature, RTE Lyric fm on features.lyricfm@rte.ie or Phone: 061-207300

Mario Vargas Llosa: Nobel Prize and Interview

SILAS welcomes the news that Peruvian-born Spanish citizen Mario Vargas Llosa has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2010 in Stockholm. An interview with Vargas Llosa on his upcoming novel El Sueño del Celta/Celtic Dream, based on the life of Roger Casement, was published in the July 2009 issue of Irish Migration Studies in Latin America and is available here. In the forthcoming edition of the same journal, we will be publishing the translation of an article written by the Nobel Laureate on Galgorm Castle in Ballymena, County Antrim, originally published in Spain’s El País newspaper. As Vargas Llosa stated in his interview with Angus Mitchell: "I believe in the unity of the human kind, I think literature is the best demonstration of the universal experiences that can be understood and shared among people of very different extractions and very different identities".

SILAS expresses its regret at the death of human rights advocate Patricio Rice

SILAS is very sad to learn of the death of human rights advocate Patricio Rice. Patricio had been editing a special edition of our on-line journal 'Irish Migration Studies in Latin America' on the topic of human rights, which was due to be published later this year.

Patricio was a survivor of torture and imprisonment under the military dictatorship in Argentina during the 1970s On his release he devoted his life to campaigning for human rights. He was founding chair-person for the Committee for Human Rights in Argentina and helped organise the US congress hearing on the ‘Disappeared’ in Argentina. He went to found FEDEFAM (the Latin American Federation of Association of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees) and served as its Executive Secretary from 1981 to 1987 and acted as senior advisor to its Executive Committee from 1999 to 2010. He was recently appointed as Coordinator of the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances.

He will be deeply missed by all at SILAS, who had the pleasure of working with him. We at SILAS wish to extend our sympathies to Patricio's wife Fatima and their three children, Carlos, Amie and Blanco.

Local Group Remembers the Kilrane Boys

In July 2009, a group met in Kilrane, County Wexford to “clink” glasses and remember the Kilrane Boys. Stories were exchanged about “The Boys” and they pondered making a trip to Murphy in the Province of Buenos Aires.

Pictured here are:

Back Row: Diarmuid Anglim, Phil Berry, Paul Ironside, Liam McCormack, Tom Stafford

Middle Row: Marian Murphy, Paddy Berry, Derek Murphy, John Lambert, Bridie Stafford, Pat Sills, Larry Doyle

Front Row: Aileen Ironside, Fran Doyle, Mary Anglim, Margaret Lambert, Christine McCormack

The Society for Irish Latin American Studies, 2005