Ed. Kevin Barry, Tom Dunne, Richard Kearney, Edna Longley, Clare O’Halloran

CONTENTS

Jerzy Jarniewicz, ‘‘The Unicorn Will Not Cross Our Tracks’: Polish Poetry Before and After’, pp.1-9. Offers an insight into the plight of the Polish poet both past and present, tracing the history of the social role of the poet as well as the poetry itself and the influence of communist rule, occupying powers and the free market; refers to the theories and works of Adam Mickiewicz and Czeslaw Milosz and includes an extract by Zbigniew Herbert.

Jerzy Jarniewicz, et al., ‘Five Poets from Lodz, Poland’, pp.10-15. [I] Jarniewicz, ‘X X X’; ‘The Day of Thy Wrath’; ‘Short History’; ‘Postal Service’; [II] Andrzej Strak, ‘A Story of A Sick King’; ‘X X X’. [III] Marek Czuku, ‘Politics’; ‘In Our Sanctuary’’ [IV] Edward Kolbus, ‘X X X; X X X’. [V] Zdzislaw Jaskula, For Instance.

Tom Garvin, ‘The Return of History: Collective Myths and Modern Nationalisms’, pp.16-30. Explores our contemporary understanding of ‘Nationalism’, investigating the inherent, original traditional loyalties and the modern invented traditions and covering areas such as mythical thinking, Archaic Nationalism, Religion, National Identity and Nationalism as a substitute for religion while setting these against other principles of collective identity.

Desmond Fennell, ‘Changing Political Languages’, [I] ‘Left/Right Language after Marxist-Leninism’, pp.31-36. Examines the general employment of the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ in political language offering exemplification of terms such as conservatism, liberal capitalism and socialism in both historical contexts and contemporary political language. [II] Brian Walker, ‘Ireland’s Historical Position - ‘Colonial’ or ‘European’’, pp.36-40. Disagrees with setting Irish literary criticism in either a colonial or post-colonial context as nineteenth and twentieth century Ireland cannot be contained within the narrow definition of an ordinary colonial situation, while finding a European setting less restrictive; refers to Seán O’Faolain’s interpretation of ‘the great general stream of European culture’.

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Michael O’Loughlin, ‘Two Poems’, pp.41-43. Death of a Poet; The Irony of America.

Gerard Quinn, ‘Brendan Kennelly: Victors and Victims’, pp.44-54. Analyses Kennelly’s poetry in terms of two prevailing themes, victimising and being victimised; includes extracts from several poems while highlighting his external influences such as Darwin and Nietzsche and draws comparisons with the work of Liam O’Flaherty.

Edna Longley, ‘Undermining Assumptions’, [I] The Irish Poem, pp.55-58. Castigates the literary commentary from the Republic for the omission of the Northern context and offers a juxtaposition of Northern and Southern writers. [II] The Irish Poet: Anecdotes over a Jar, pp.58-60. Analyses the varying interpretations of the title ‘Irish poet’ and the weight it carries in terms of ‘assumption and expectation’ at home and abroad, drawing attention to the consequential claustrophobic position in which the Irish poet finds him/herself.

John Wilson Foster, ‘Natural History, Science and Irish Culture’, pp.61-69. Traces the progression of the Naturalist Scientific Groups in Britain and Ireland from the establishment of the Belfast Naturalist Field Club in 1863 through to the 1985 publication ‘Some People and Places in Irish Science and Technology’; discusses the careers of many of the great naturalists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries such as John Templeton and Henry Mac Cormac and provides a breakdown of the massive achievements made by individuals in this field.

Sean Lysaght, ‘Two Poems: ‘Rook’; ‘Skylark’, pp.70.

Kieran Keohane, ‘Unifying the fragmented imaginary of the young immigrant: Making a home in the post modern with the Pogues’, pp.71-79. Theorises on the Pogues pastiche of the life of Irish people abroad and the displacement of culture; examines themes of ‘transcendence of fragmentation’ and degrees of unification which develope into a post modern identity.

Glenn Patterson, ‘Work in Progress (from Fat Lad, a novel)’, pp.80-86. [‘Goldfish …].

John Goodby, Harriet Smithson’s Juliet’ pp.87-88 [poem].

John McGrail, ‘Two Literary Tributes’: ‘At the Tomb of John O’Hara’; ‘Blizzard’, pp.89-90 [poems].

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Douglas Carson, ‘The Antiphon, the Banderol, and the Hollow Ball: Sam Hannna Bell 1909-1990’, pp.91-99. Provides a concise family history of the Bell family as a backdrop to a brief look into the life and times of Sam Hannan Bell, his work, his politics, his contemporaries and his continuing influence in the lives of his countrymen in Ulster.

Michael Allen, ‘New Anthologies for Old’, pp.100-02, review of Peter Fallon and Derek Mahon (eds), The Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry (London: Penguin Books). Compares this selection with Paul Muldoon’s ‘Faber Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry’, commending the more general selection from North and South by Fallon and Mahon which includes works by Eamonn Grennon, John Ennis, Michael Hartnett and Thomas McCarthy.

Patrick Crotty, ‘Vocal Visitations’, pp.102-06, review of Seamus Heaney, New Selected Poems (London: Faber and Faber 1990); Paul Durcan, Daddy, Daddy (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1990). Comments on the toil Heaney experienced while putting this selection together, obvious from the numerous revised readings which also serves to highlight his reservations about his technoque and procedures while also drawing attention to works excluded here; finds Durcan’s collection impressively varied and praises his treatment of society in terms of love, freedom and politics in family life.

Peter McDonald, ‘Willie Among the Rushes, O’, pp.106-09, review of W.B. Yeats, Letters to the New Island, ed. George Bernstein and Hugh Witemeyer (London: Macmillan 1989); W.B. Yeats, Prefaces and Introductions, ed. William H. O’Donnell (London: Macmillan 1989); A. Norman Jeffares, ed., Yeats the European (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1989). Stresses the significance of the indepth nature of investigation in both Letters and Prefaces which is of particular interest to specialists in this area or in the area of Irish literature of the Revival; regards Yeats the European as original and entertaining while also appreciating essays by John Kelly on Symbolist Theatre, Denis Donoghue on European Criticism and Helen Vendler on European Culture.

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Robin Wilson, ‘Swirl Before the Storm’, pp.111-13, review of Bob Purdie, Politics in the Streets: Origins of the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1990). Praises Purdie’s well researched and diverse study of the period of the Civil Rights Movement involving accounts of the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster at Westminister, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and the political and intellectual life of the student world at Queens university; also includes an account from Paul Rose of the C.D.U. regarding his reception in the North in 1967.

Steven Livingstone, ‘Lawless Islands’, pp.113-16, review of Martin Dillon, The Dirty War (London: Hutchinson 1990); Anthony Jennings, ed., Justice Under Fire: The Abuse of the Civil Liberties in Northern Ireland (London: Pluto Press 1990); Gerard Hogan and Clive Walker, Political Violence and the Law in Ireland (Manchester Univ. Press 1990); No Comment: Censorship, Secrecy and the Irish Troubles: An Article 19 Report (London: Article 19, 90 Borough High Street). Compliments Dillon’s focus on the undercover activities of the security forces and the paramilitary response; Finds Jennings book depressing as it monotonously catalogues the breaching of civil liberties although the topics are well argued; Acclaims the vigorous detail of Hogan and Walker’s informative study of the legal developments in both jurisdictions; Esteems the broad view proffered on censorship in the ‘No Comment’ article though it fails to tackle the heart of controversial topics such as the Sinn Féin policy of government by ballot and bullet.

George Watson, ‘Cultural Variety Show’, pp.116-18, review of Maurice Crozier, ed., Cultural Traditions in Northern Ireland: Varieties of Irishness (Institute of Irish Studies at Queens Univ. 1989) and Varieties of Britishness (Institute of Irish Studies at Queens Univ. 1990). Praises the coherency and organisation of these recordings of organised lectures given by well established critics such as Roy Foster and Keith Robbins, finding them refreshing and illuminating.

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Colm Tóibín, ‘Ritual and Report’, pp.119-23, review of John McGahern, Amongst Women (London: Faber 1990); Brian Moore, Lies of Silence (London: Bloomsbury 1990). Outlines the representative quality of McGahern’s novel, praising the simplistic and captivating aura pervading the pages; Moore’s new novel lacks depth of dramatisation and complexity, failing to achieve any aspect of a good thriller.

Eamonn Hughes, ‘Post-Modern Twilight’, pp.123-25, review of Vincent McDonnell, The Broken Commandment (London: Penguin Books 1990); Colm Tóibín, The South (London: Serpents Tail 1990); Aidan Mathews, Muesli at Midnight (London: Secker and Warburg 1990); Bernard Share, The Finner Faction (Dublin: Poolbeg Press in assoc. with Odell and Adair 1989); Dermot Bolger, The Journey Home (London: Viking 1990). Notes Graham Greene’s influence in McDonnell’s work; Regards Tóibín’s narrative as evocative and fast moving showing the influence of Brian Moore; Deems Mathews prose dated in the satire on priests and attitudes towards sex in the 60’s; Finds Share’s continual cross references and interruptions in his trilingual novel irritating; Commends Bolger’s offering which is fresh in perspective and presentation.

Emer Nolan, ‘A Simple Thinker’, pp.125-28, review of Derek Attridge (ed0, The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce (Cambridge Univ. Press 1990); Suzette A. Henke, James Joyce and the Politics of Desire (London: Routledge 1990). Acclaims Attridge’s editorial achievement in taking a modern theoretical approach to Joyce, appreciating the well informed historical accounts on literary criticism; Faults Henke’s feminist approach for obscurity, banality and lacking any focused argument or original intepretations.

Mary Dorcey, ‘Politics of Sexuality and Nation’, pp.129-33, review of Carol Coulter, Ireland: Between the First and Third Worlds; Ruth Riddick, The Right to Choose: Questions of Feminist Morality; Trudy Hayes, The Politics of Seduction; Edna Longley, From Cathleen to Anorexia: The Breakdown of Irelands (LIP Pamphlets, Dublin: Attic Press 1990). Welcomes these articles as open, inspirational discussions of issues concerning women today paying particular attention to the controversial nature of Riddick’s argument on the right ‘to breed or not to breed’, though condemning the brief treatment of topics such as abortion, rape, morality, nationalism, abuse and politics.

Myrtle Hill, ‘Invisible Women, Visible Woman’, pp.133-36, review of Maria Luddy and Cliona Murphy (eds), Women Surviving: Studies in Irish Women’s History in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Dublin: Poolbeg Press 1990), Margaret Ward, Maud Gonne: Ireland’s Joan of Arc (London: Pandora Press 1990). Compliments this collection of women’s experience in nineteenth and twentieth century Ireland covering their lives as polititions, paupers, nuns, wives and servants while offering a perspective of the female influence throughout history.

Geraldine Meaney, ‘One True Dress?’, pp.136-38, review of Adele M. Dalsimer, Kate O’Brien: A Critical Study (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1990). Perceives Dalsimer’s representation of O’Brien as more biographical than critical, failing to make critical comparisons with Irish female contemporaries or to investigate the influence of the ‘Big House’ genre, thus O’Brien remains marginalised and Dalsimer’s work achieves little impact in the masculine mainstream of literary criticism.

Thomas McCarthy, ‘Documents of Exclusion’, pp.138-42, review of Alan Heuser, ed., The Selected Prose of Louis MacNeice (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1990); Hubert Butler, Grandmother and Wolfe Tone (Dublin: Lilliput Press 1990). Commends both publications on their appropriate timing and compliments their chronicling of both mid-century Europe and MacNeice’s personal experiences in the Irish literary scene.

Kevin Barry, ‘Words for Music Perhaps’, pp.142-43, review of Vincent Deane, The Intellegence Park: an opera in three acts. Libretto (Oxford: Univ. Press 1990). Summerises the plot of Libretto, faulting the extravagent music which he feels, overpowers the text, though applauds the stage direction and production.

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Gerry Lyne, ‘Cracking the Penal Code’, pp.144-45, review of T.P. Power and Kevin Whelan (eds), Endurance and Emergence: catholics in Ireland in the eighteenth century (Dublin: Irish Academic Press). Commends these seven essays which include Thomas F. Bartlett on the Anglo-Irish relationship and the Catholic question, W.N. Osborough on the evolution of the Penal Code and David Dickson on trade and the question of Catholicism, appreciating the enlightening perspective from both inside and outside the social and political institutional boundaries.

Mark Patrick Hederman, ‘Coffin Nails’, pp.146-48, review of Padraig O’Malley, Biting at the Grave (Boston: Beacon Press; Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1990). Finds this book depressing but realistic as it catalogues the Maze prison hunger strike of 1981 and the consequences of the deaths, throwing light on the fanatical religious beliefs of the era and the complexity of the Irish situation while providing a moving account of the experience of the families involved.

Peter Van De Kamp, ‘The Novel and Paudeen’s Nets’, pp.149-52, review of John Cronin, The Anglo-Irish Novel, Vol. II 1900-1940 (Belfast: Appletree Press; Savage, Maryland: Barnes and Noble Books 1990); Frank O’Connor, Dutch Interior (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1990); Gregory A Schirmer, William Trevor: A Study of his fiction (London and New York: Routledge 1990). Regards Cronin’s discussion of sixteen Irish novels as a reputable critique of both Irish literature and Irish society; Criticises O’Connor;s novel for monotony and lacking coherance and style; Praises Schirmer’s informative representation of Trevor’s literary morality but unfortunately fails to grasp the magical quality of his style.

Nicholas Canny, ‘Subduing Ireland’, pp.152-53, review of Sir John Davies, A Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never Entirely Subdued...Until the Beginning of His Majesty’s Happy Reign (1612), James P.Myers Jnr. (ed) (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America Press). Welcomes this fresh edition of Davies text where the printing corrections, foreign quotation translations and modernised prose altogether make it a more accessible read.

Liam Irwin, ‘The Germano-Irish’, pp.153-55, review of Patrick J. O’Connor, People Make Places: The story of the Irish Palatines (Newcastle West: Oireacht na Mumhan Books 1989). Esteems O’Connor’s expert analysis of the administrative and political problems encountered during the plantation period, investigating whether native Irish tenents were evicted to make room for the settlers and outlining the obvious positive influence of the Palatines in Ireland.

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