Ed. Kevin Barry, Tom Dunne, Richard Kearney and Edna Longley.

CONTENTS

Roy Foster, ‘We are all revisionists now’, pp.1-5: defends Irish historical revisionism against contemporary attacks from anti-revisionists such as Raymond Crotty, Joseph Lee, Vincent Comerford and Paul Bew; summarises the argument while highlighting the necessity of getting 'behind hindsight'; argues that anti-revisionists, like revisionists, are now employing modern historical methods instead of the appeal of Irish historical myth; hence the title ‘We are all revisionists now’.

Micheal Kelly, ‘French Intellectuals under Mitterrand’, pp.6-14: reports the loss of the great French intellectuals such as Michael Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre and Roland Barthes and denigates President Mitterrand's government for its part in the diminished significance of French intellectuals on the international scene.

Derek Mahon, ‘"Orpheus Ascending": the poetry of Paul Durcan', pp.15-19: briefly outlines Durcan's private life as partial justification for what critics have described as the ‘heroic intensity’ of his self-pity, citing also Susan Sontag's description of the poet as an ‘exemplary sufferer’; looks into the precedents for Durcan's style while juxtaposing the man with the mythological persona Orpheus and his tragic backward glance; Mahon includes a 28 line parody of a typical Durcan poem, ‘Poet arrested for distributing daffodils in Castlebar ‘.

Fergus O’Ferrall, ‘Daniel O’Connell and Henry Cooke’: the conflict of civil and religious liberty in modern Ireland', pp.20-27: concerns exchanges between Daniel O’Connell and Henry Cooke in 1827-1829, with specific reference to O’Connell's intended visit to Belfast in 1828, Cooke's mass meeting of the presbyterians and Church of Ireland unionists opposing Catholic Emancipation, and the lasting alliance of these groups against Repeal of the Union; extensively quotes contemporary newspapers as well as biographies of O’Connell, Cooke and the Reverend Henry Montgomery; O’Connell's rhetorical style and ‘lack of appreciation’ of the Ulster situation triggered strong anti-catholic feeling in Ulster.

Hubert Butler, ‘Ireland in the Nuclear Age’, pp.28-33: emphasises the gulf inherent in NATO’s idea of a benefits of a nuclear age and the appalling realities of atomic warfare while defending Ireland's neutral standpoint; implies mass hypocrisy on the part of large firms such as Krupps, Siemens-Schuckert and IG Farben who, while playing a very significant role in technological progress, also made their fortunes from plants at Auschwitz; commends the anti-nuclear demonstration at Carnsore Point.

J. C. C. Mays, ‘"Esse est Percipi’: Becketts plays’, pp.34-44: follows the progression of Beckett's style from earlier works such as Waiting for Godot and Endgame through his radio dramas and later plays such as Come and Go, Not I, Footfalls and That Time; Beckett's love of classical music, including Schubert and Beethoven, evidently influenced his lyrical and dramatic style; according to Peter Hull, he has ultimately changed how we now read Shakespeare.

Dorinda Outram, ‘Negating the Natural’: or why historians deny Irish science', pp.45-49: emphasises the importance of relating Irish culture and the Irish history of science with the natural world; notes that the only contemporary explorations in this field are those conducted by John Banville on ‘the inner experience of scientific vocation’, by Delores Dooley on ‘the Catholic equation of moral theology with the control of bodily events’ and Gordon Herries Davies on ‘Irish science and its history’.

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Edna Longley, ‘Progressive Bookmen’: politics and Northern Protestant writers since the 1930's', pp.50-57: summarises the views of relations between politics and literature in Northern Ireland between the 1930's and 1960's, taking in Louis MacNeice and John Hewitt's joint convictions on the inter-relationship of art and propaganda, with comments from Sean O’Faolain in the Gaelic League editorial, 'The Bell'; also cites from 'Lagan' and the 'Autumn Journal' and includes Hewitt's 6 line poem Postscript 1984.

Michael Viney, ‘Woodcock for a farthing’: the Irish experience of nature', pp.58-64: contrasts varying ideological versions of the relationship between man and nature, pitting Sean Lemass's condemnation of the Wild Birds Act (1930) against Keith Thomas's philosophies on the notion that the world exists for Man alone and Estyn Evans's ‘pagan sense of communion with all things’; juxtaposes Sean O’Faolain's traditional ideas of Ireland with Sir John Davies's justification for the destruction of Irish countryside in the name of civilisation.

John Banville, Thaddeus O’Sullivan and Andrew Patmann, ‘"Birchwood": extracts from the screenplay’, pp.65-73: prints extracts from scene 16 through to scene 40.

Maire Mhac an tSaoi, Poems: ‘Do Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’; ‘Mutterrecht’; and ‘Do mo Bheirt Leasinion’.

Ted Hughes and Paul Muldoon, [trans,] ‘from the Romanian of Maria Sorescu’: ‘The Whistle’ [T.H.], ‘Group’ [T.H.], ‘Circuit’ [T.H.], ‘The Sentence’ [P.M.], ‘Sweet Road’ [P.M.], ‘The Teardrop’ [P.M.], ‘Seascape’ [P.M.], ‘Precautions’ [P.M.] and ‘Oblique’ [P.M.].

Ciaran Carson, ‘Calvin Klein's OBSESSION’, pp.81-83 [stanzaic].

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REVIEWS

Douglas Dunn, ‘Manoeuvres’, pp.84-90, review of Paul Muldoon, ed., The Faber Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry (London, Faber 1986). Expresses continuing importance of poetic response to the natural world as well as nationalist themes in Irish poetry; draws from the works and views of a broad range of writers such as F.R. Higgins, Louis MacNeice, Thomas Kinsella, John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan, Derek Mahon, Tom Paulin and Medbh McGuckian.

S. J.Connolly, ‘The State of Eighteenth Century Irish Studies’, pp.90-92, review of T. W. Moody and W. E. Vaughan eds., A New History of Ireland, Vol. IV, Eighteenth Century Ireland 1691-1800 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1986). Professes a disappointment with this voluminous production for the poor handling of more recent developments in contemporary views; criticises the general nature of works recorded where George Simms and J. L. McCracken focus on the political and economic agendas and avoid more specific, individual events; however, he is encouraged by Anne Crookshank's contributions on the visual arts, Brian Boydell's emphasis on music and J. C. Beckett's theories on writing in English.

Terence Brown, ‘The Music of Time’, pp.93-95, review of John Kelly, ed., and Eric Domville, assoc. ed., The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats, Vol. I, 1865-1895 (Oxford: Clarendon Press [n.d.]). Congratulates the accuracy and detail of this collection of Yeats's letters which includes new additions such as those to Douglas Hyde relating to topics of folk and fairy lore; retains dyslexic misspellings and offers insights into Yeats's personal debates of both an intimate and academic nature in letters to Ellen O’Leary, 1889, and to Katey Tynan/Hickson.

Liam Mac Coil, ‘Just Me and You and The Non-Story’, pp.95-99, review of Seamus Mac Annaidh, Mo Dha Mhici (Coisceim 1986). Acknowledges the originality of Seamus Mac Annaidh's work and collates him with the German romantic writer, Jean-Paul Leibgeber; draws attention to Mac Annaidh's atmospheric style while also warning against possible monotony; incorporates extracts from his most recent work, Mo Dha Mhici.

Ciaran Carson, ‘Hibernian Assumptions’, pp.99-102, review of Thomas Kinsella (ed. with trans.), The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse (Oxford University Press). accuses Kinsella of ‘arrogance and specious thinking’ in this book and disapproves of his misguided judgement not to use translations by renowned writers such as Kuno Meyer, Douglas Hyde and Flann O’Brien; finds fault with Kinsella's own translations which Carson deems ‘dull and one-dimensional’; contrasts Kinsella's tranlation of a stanza by O’Bruadair with Hartnett’s of Gallery Books 1985; also includes extracts from Hammer papers, No.95.

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John A. Murphy, ‘Catholicism and Politics’, pp.102-105, review of Patrick Corish, The Irish Catholic Experience: a historical survey (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan [q.d.]). Commends Professor Corish's in-depth knowledge, personal approach and his shrewd judgement and notes his fondness for such original characters as Amhlaoibh O’ Suilleabhain and Prof. Walter MacDonald of Maynooth College. Fergus O’Ferrall, Catholic Emancipation: Daniel O’Connell and the birth of Irish Democracy (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan): Traces contrasting views of Corish and O’Ferrall on Catholic Emancipation; pays tribute to O’Ferrall's account of the 1820's agitation though disheartened by the emphasis on high politics to the detriment of popular reactions to political events.

David Fitzpatrick, ‘The Politics of Temperance’, pp.105-106, review of Elizabeth Malcolm, Ireland Sober, Ireland Free: Drink and Temperance in Nineteenth Century Ireland (Dublin, Gill and Macmillan). Critically appraises Malcolm's narrow impressions of drinking habits in Irish culture as opposed to more original and enlightening studies carried out by John Dunlop and Kenneth Connell; provides insight into the political history of temperance as well as Malcolm's personal interpretations of the workings of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

Michael Laffan, ‘Cultural Models and the Free State’, pp.107-108, Jeffrey Prager, Building Democracy in Ireland: Political Order and Cultural Integration in a newly independant Nation (Cambridge University Press 1986). Examines Prager's two founding principles, Irish Enlightenment and its cosmopolitan democracy, and Gaelic Romanticism, the traditional anti-British counterpart; applies his theories to national events such as the Signing of the Treaty, drafting the new Constitution and Civil War as well as subsequent crises including the Army Mutiny in 1924, the Boundary Commision in 1925 and the assassination of Kevin O’Higgins in 1927; also acknowledges Cumann na nGaedheal's contributions however fails to involve policies on Irish language, a crucial theme in this context.

Thomas McCarthy, ‘Heroes and Nasties’, pp.108-110, review of Tom Paulin, ed., The Faber Book of Political Verse (London, Faber). Introduces Tom Paulins style of placing numerous traditions of poetry within his own Republican Socialist views; however, he ignores poets such as Austin Clarke, Thomas Kinsella, Eavan Boland and John Montague; confirms Paulin's own political views and how these affect his version of political history; includes citations from Heaney's and his own verses.

Peter McDonald, ‘Permanent Beginnings’, pp.110-113, review of Brendan Kennelly, Selected Poems (Dublin, Kerrymount Publications), and Sean Dunne, Against the Storm (Portlaoise, Dolmen Press). Kennelly's rationale is that ‘Poetry will never finally solve anything because it is the voice of new promise’; Mc Donald admires Kennelly's abstract approach and appreciates his poetic attributes of direct, simple and controlled attention; his warning to contemporary Irish poets is ‘a poet without a myth is a man confronting famine’ and he underlines this theory with references to Montague's, The Dead Kingdom or Heaney's, Station Island; criticises the orthodox neatness of Dunne's unobtrusive style.

Tom Clyde, ‘History Men’, pp.113-116, review of John Hewitt, Freehold and other poems (Belfast, Blackstaff Press), and Frank Ormsby, A Northern Spring (Dublin, Gallery Press). Claims that Hewitt, like Kavanagh , has been ‘pigeon-holed’ as a minor Irish nature poet; The Bloody Brae 1936, as in The Insurrection and The Patriot, confirms Hewitt as being too self-conscious; also notes the absence of such gaucherie in Freehold 1946; commends Ormsby's poetic philosophy which is to be read and understood; includes extracts from Othello, Hesistant Memorial and King William's Park.

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Edna Longley, ‘Out from under Ben Bulben’, pp.116-118, review of Dillon Johnston, Irish Poetry after Joyce (University of Notre Dame Press; Portlaoise, Dolmen Press). Briefly deals with Johnston's literary history and his work with poets such as Thomas Kinsella, Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon; praises his accuracy in his treatment of Irish poetic traditions; criticises his leisurely pace and lack of organisation, however this is balanced by highlighting the poets paticular ability at ‘combining concentration with range’.

Michael Allen, ‘A Corrugated Lens’, pp.119-121, review of Seamus Deane, A Short history of Irish Literature (London, Hutchinson). Indicates the theme of Deane’s book viz., ‘what’s the use of literary history?’, and refers to his argument in 1985 at IASAIL conference where he proposed that literary history should be read as from a nationalistic point of view; also criticises Deane's lack of conclusive statements and his tendency to self-contradict.

M. A. G[earóid] O’Tuathaigh, ‘Emigrant Perspectives’, pp.121-122, review of Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (Oxford University Press 1985). Endorses the claim that this is ‘the fullest account yet of one of the most important emigration movements since the discovery of the New World’ while praising the organisation, presentation and quality of this production; impressed by the original aspect of the work which includes some 5,000 letters and memoirs along with the application of relevant Irish material.

Angela Wilcox, ‘Briefings’, pp.123-124, review of Graham Reid, Ties of Blood (London, Faber). Affirms the strength of Reid’s work as being his ability to represent the intrinsic realities of intense emotions; admires his depiction of the intimate and severe pressure of life , both in and around Northern Ireland, while also appreciating his art of not remaining on a completely pessimistic note; remarks particularly on his intermittent black humour as well as his focused eye for the brutal ironies of life in Northern Ireland.

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