Inventing Ireland (92 page)

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Authors: Declan Kiberd

11.
Ibid., 102.

12.
Ibid., 42.

13.
Ibid., 42.

14.
Harvey Cox,
Turning East,
Boston, 1987

15.
Murphy,
49.

16.
Samuel Beckett,
Watt,
London 1963, 254.

17.
On this see Theodor Adorno, "Toward an Understanding of
Endgame", Endgame: A Collection of Critical Essays,
ed. Bell Gale Chevigny, New Jersey 1971, 106 ff.

18.
Lecture to Clifden Community Arts Festival, Co Galway, September 1984.

19.
Samuel Beckett,
Proust,
New York 1970, 8.

20.
Hugh Kenner,
A Reader's Guide to Samuel Beckett,
London 1973, 134.

21.
Quoted by Bair,
Samuel Beckett,
198.

22.
Samuel Beckett,
Molloy: Malone Dies: The Unnamable,
London 1959, 152.

23.
Ibid., 170.

24.
Weber,
The Protestant Ethic,
148 ff.

25.
Samuel Beckett,
Disjecta,
74.

26.
Thomas MacGreevy,
Collected Poems,
ed. T. D. Redshaw, Dublin 1971, 17.

27.
Thomas MacGreevy, "Gloria de Carlos V",
Collected Poems,
ed. S. Schreibman, Dublin 1991, 36.

28.
Anthony Cronin,
Heritage Now: Irish Literature in the English Language,
Dingle 1982, 155.

29.
Brian Coffey, "Nightfall, Midwinter, Missouri",
Field Day Anthology 3,
158.

30.
Denis Devlin, "Lough Derg", ibid., 151.

31.
Ibid., 152.

32.
Beckett,
Disjecta,
70.

33.
Quoted by Susan Halperin,
Austin Clarke: His Life and Works,
Dublin 1974, 55.

34.
Austin Clarke,
Collected Poems,
Dublin 1974, 189.

35.
Ibid., 252.

36.
Ibid., 318.

37.
Synge,
Plays 2,
4.

38.
Beckett,
Disjecta,
68.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT: INTERCHAPTER

1.
See Terence Brown,
Ireland: A Social and Cultural History 1922–79,
141– 70.

2.
For interesting perspectives see Joseph Lee and Gearóid Ó Tuarhaigh,
The Age of de Valera,
Dublin 1982.

3.
For the general cultural climate in the war years and their aftermath see Kevin B. Nowlan and T. Desmond Williams eds.,
Ireland in the War Years and After 1939–51,
Dublin 1969; Anthony Cronin,
Dead as Doornails,
Dublin 1976 and
No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien,
London 1989; and John Ryan,
Remembering How We Stood: Bohemian Dublin at the Mid-Century,
Dublin 1975.

4.
Louis MacNeice,
Collected Poems,
London 1966.

5.
Ibid., 133. 131.

6.
Louis MacNeice,
The Strings are False,
London 1965, 17.

7.
MacNeice,
Collected Poems,
164.

8.
Letter to E. R. Dodds, quoted in
Across a Roaring Hill,
99.

9.
Quoted by Cronin,
Heritage Now.
202.

10.
For a fuller elaboration of this thesis see Raymond Crotty,
Ireland in Crisis: A Study in Capitalist Colonial Underdevelopment,
Dingle 1986; and
A Radical's Response,
Dublin 1988.

11.
Saamir Amin,
Eurocentrism,
tr. Russell Moore, London 1989. 112.

12.
For an inspiring account of one family's struggle, and of the prevailing temper of the times, see Noel Browne,
Against the Tide,
Dublin 1986.

13.
Patrick Kavanagh,
Collected Poems,
37.

14.
Ibid., 52.

15.
Patrick Kavanagh,
Collected Poems,
London 1973, 19.

16.
Kavanagh,
Collected Poems,
xiv.

17.
On Lemass, see Brian Farrell,
Sean Lemass,
Dublin 1983; and more generally J. J. Lee,
Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and Society,
Cambridge 1989, 329–410.

18.
See John Montague, "The Impact of International Poetry on Irish Writing",
Irish Poets in English,
ed. Scan Lucy, Cork 1973, 144–58.

TWENTY-SEVEN: THE PERIPHERY AND THE CENTRE

1.
Conor Cruise O'Brien,
States of Ireland,
71–2.

2.
Yeats,
Explorations,
187.

3.
Yeats,
Collected Poems,
359.

4.
Ibid., 152.

5.
Ibid., 369.

6.
John McGahern,
High Ground,
London 1985. 23.

7.
Quoted in Maurice Goldring,
Faith of Our Fathers: The Foundation of Irish National Ideology 1890–1920,
Dublin 1982, 62 ff.

8.
Synge,
Prose,
286.

9.
Yeats,
Explorations,
232. The passage was written in 1908.

10.
Quoted by Frank O'Connor,
The Big Fellow,
London 1965, 20.

11.
Tomás Ó Criomhthainn,
An tOileánach,
Dublin 1929, 51.

12.
Synge,
Prose,
95–6.

13.
Synge,
Collected Letters 2,
116–17.

14.
David Fitzpatrick,
Politics and Irish Life 1913–21,
234.

15.
Synge,
Prose,
132–3.

16.
The text has been restored by Seán Ó Coileáin of University College Cork in what promises to be a definitive edition.

17.
Yeats, Preface to
The King of the Great Clock Tower,
Dublin 1934.

18.
G. B. Shaw,
The Matter with Ireland,
156.

19.
Ibid., 136.

20.
On the phenomenon see Alexander J. Humphreys,
New Dubliners,
London 1966.

21.
John Meagher, quoted
The Irish Times,
9 December 1986, 10.

22.
Declan Kiberd, "The Moral Superiority of Rural Villages",
The Irish Times,
9 December 1986, 10.

23.
Fintan O'Toole, "Going West: The Country versus the City in Irish Writing",
The Crane Bag,
Vol. 9, No. 2, 1985, 111–16.

24.
Ellmann,
James Joyce,
169.

25.
Ibid., 170.

26.
Interview with present author, 12 November 1985 "Exhibit A", RTE Television.

TWENTY-EIGHT: FLANN O'BRIEN, MYLES, AND THE POOR MOUTH

1.
David Krause, introduction,
The Dolmen Boucicault,
Dublin 1964, 32.

2.
Quoted by Anne Clissmann,
Flann O'Brien: A Critical Introduction to His Writings,
Dublin 1975.

3.
Flann O'Brien,
At Swim-Two-Birds,
Harmondsworth 1967, 25.

4.
Jack White, "Myles, Flann and Brian",
Myles: Portraits of Brian O'Nolan,
ed. Timothy O'Keeffe, London 1973, 63.

5.
Brian O'Nolan, "De Me",
New Ireland
March 1964, 41.

6.
Clissmann, 3.

7.
Myles na gCopaleen,
An Béal Bocht,
Dublin 1964, 30; Flann O'Brien,
The Poor Mouth,
tr. Patrick Power, London 1978, 23. Hereafter
BB, PM.

8.
BB 23; PM
30–1.

9.
BB 25; PM
34.

10.
BB 42; PM
51–2.

11.
James Joyce,
Stephen Hero,
London 1966, 54.

12.
Brendan Kennelly, "An Béal Bocht",
The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature,
ed. J. Jordan, Dublin 1977.

13.
BB
10;
PM
14–15.

14.
PM
63;
BB
52.

15.
L. Perry Curtis Jnr.,
Apes and Angles: The Irishman in Victorian Caricature,
London 1971. 31.

16.
Bernard Partridge,
Punch, 1A
December 1919; 18 February 1920; 13 October 1920.

17.
PM
36;
BB
27.

18.
Curtin, 60.

19.
PM
110–11
; BB
98–9.

20.
PM 100; BB 87.

21.
PM
13;
BB
8
.

22.
PM 78; BB 67.

23.
James W. Redfield,
Comparative Physiognomy,
New York 1852, 253–8.

24.
PM 89; BB 75.

25.
Adam Smith,
The
Wealth of Nations,
1, 201–2.

26.
PM 98; BB 85.

27.
Curtis, 102.

28.
Myles na gCopaleen, "Cruiskeen Lawn",
Irish runes,
30 July 1953.

29.
Ibid., 2 March 1966.

30.
Curtis, 95.

31.
Kevin O'Connor,
The Irish in Britain,
London 1974, 22.

32.
Brian O'Nolan, "A Bash in the Tunnell",
Envoy
v, 17, May 1951, 11.

33.
Niall Sheridan, "Brian, Flann and Myles", 40.

34.
Ibid., 53.

35.
R. N. Cooke,
Centenary History of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin,
ed. J. Meenan, Kerry 1955, 242. For an extended consideration of wasted talent see Anthony Cronin,
No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien,
London 1989.

TWENTY-NINE: BRENDAN BEHAN – THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK

1.
Ted E. Boyle,
Brendan Behan,
New York 1969, 31.

2.
Ulick O'Connor,
Brendan Behan,
London 1972, 61–85.

3.
Máirtín Ó Cadhain in conversation with the present author, April 1969.

4.
Ted E. Boyle, 63.

5.
Quoted ibid.,
64.

6.
Brendan Behan,
The Quare Fellow,
London 1960, 29.

7.
Colbert Kearney,
The Writings of Brendan Behan,
Dublin 1977, 75–6.

8.
Quare Fellow,
21
.

9.
Kearney,
The Writings,
48.

10.
See Máirtín Ó Cadhain,
As an nGéibheann,
Dublin 1973, 201.

11.
Synge,
Prose,
95.

12.
Quare Fellow,
74.

13.
Ibid., 56.

14.
Ibid., 57, 58.

15.
Ted E. Boyle, 67.

16.
Quart Fellow,
86.

17.
The references in the published version of
Borstal Boy
were toned down and made much less explicit than those in earlier versions: see Boyle, 104.

18.
Brendan Behan,
Borstal Boy,
London 1961, 302–3.

19.
Barbara Harlow,
Resistance Literature,
New York 1987, 143.

20.
Quoted ibid., 152.

21.
Borstal Boy
379.

22.
Ulick O'Connor,
Brendan Behan,
193.

23.
Kearney,
The Writings,
119.

24.
Brian Behan, quoted in O'Connor, 208.

25.
Brendan Behan, "An Giall",
Poems and a Play in Irish,
Dublin 1981.

26.
Brendan Behan,
The Hostage,
London 1962, 76.

27.
For an extended contrast see Richard Wall,
"An Giall
and
The Hostage
Compared", in £. H. Mikhail ed.,
The Art of Brendan Behan,
London 1979, 138–46.

28.
Quoted in O'Connor, 207.

29.
Quoted Boyle, 86.

30.
The Hostage,
61.

31.
Ibid., 35.

32.
Ibid., 33, 34.

33.
Ibid., 5.

34.
Ibid., 89.

35.
Ibid., 61.

36.
Ibid., 58.

37.
Ibid., 52.

38.
Ibid., 58.

39.
Ibid., 51.

40.
Ibid., 78. On this element of play-acting see Paul M. Levitt, "Hostages and History: Tide as Dramatic Metaphor in
The Hostage, The Art of Brendan Behan,
146–55.

41.
The Hostage,
108, 108.

42.
On this aspect see O'Connor, 96–9.

THIRTY: BECKETT'S TEXTS OF LAUGHTER AND FORGETTING

1.
Deirdre Bair,
Samuel Beckett: A Biography, 26.

2.
Brendan Kennelly, "My Dark Fathers",
Field Day Anthology 3,
1361.

3.
Vivian Mercier,
Beckett/Beckett,
London 1977, 37.

4.
Samuel Beckett,
That Time,

5.
Beckett,
More Pricks Than Kicks,
146.

6.
Beckett,
Murphy
28.

7.
Ibid., 22.

8.
Ibid., 47, 69, 111.

9.
Ibid., 53.

10.
Bair. 212.

11.
Samuel Beckett,
All That Fall,
London 1965, 10–11.

12.
Synge,
Plays 2,
223.

13.
Murphy,
6.

14.
Bair. 241.

15.
Murphy
126.

16.
Ibid., 151.

17.
Ibid., 47, 10.

18.
Ibid., 36, 101.

19.
Dylan Thomas,
New English Weekly,
XII, 17 March 1938, 454–5.

20.
Niklaus Gessner,
Die Unzulänglichkeit der Sprache,
Zurich 1957, 32.

21.
Samuel Beckett,
Texts fir Nothing,
Collected Shorter Prose, London 1984, 74.

22.
Samuel Beckett,
Company
London 1982, 7.

23.
My sources on this are Eleanor Knott, U. Caerwyn Williams and James Carney.

24.
Company
7.

25.
Beckett,
Molloy: Malone Dies: the Unnamable,
313.

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