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Irish Emigrant Book Review, No.97 (Aug 2003)
An
Unconsidered People - Catherine Dunne
It has been rightly claimed that Ireland would have been in an even worse
state in the 1950s, both economically and sociologically, without the
safety valve of emigration, much of it to Britain. In this study of the
Irish in London Catherine Dunne has conducted ten interviews with men
and women who “took the boat” in the search for a better life. Two things
emerge through almost all the interviews, the importance of the clubs
and dancehalls as a social outlet, and the frequency with which loneliness
led to drunkenness among single men. Not only did the dancehalls provide
a place to meet fellow Irishmen and women, and thus future partners, it
was also a networking centre. According to Galway woman Kathleen Morrissey,
who moved to England at the age of fourteen, “If you needed a plumber
or an electrician we’d always find one at the Galty!” Those who already
had family members in London, like Phyllis Izzard, were somewhat cushioned
against the feelings of loneliness and fear that the strangeness of city
life produced in others, though Phyllis had her independence curtailed
by a strict older sister. Those who suffered most were the young men who
came over to work in construction, who followed the work from site to
site and who never entered the tax system. These men had nothing but Spartan
lodgings to return to after work and the pub became an attractive alternative,
a place for company and conviviality. Such emigrants, ith no success stories
to tell, are those who are now the target of the Aisling Project and Dr
Jerry Cowley’s St Brendan’s Village Project. The prospects of employment,
the difficulties in finding accommodation when an accent might betray
your Irish origins, and the exploitation of their fellow countrymen by
contractors are familiar themes throughout the book. The question of the
“heart” home and the “made” home is addressed, with very few of the ten
interviewees wishing to return home and those who made the transition
not always being successful. Many of them expressed gratitude to their
adopted home for providing the life that Ireland could not and these,
like Ennis man Kevin Casey, expressed anger at the circumstances which
forced them to emigrate. A view of emigration from a slightly different
perspective is given by Fr Seamus Fullam who has been ministering to the
Irish in London for almost fifty years. It is his belief that the greatest
challenge experienced was that of culture shock. He also draws attention
to the weekly postal orders crossing the Irish Sea which in 1961 amounted
to IR13.5m; in the same year the total cost to the Irish State for first
and second level education amounted to IR14m. All of those interviewed
are in their sixties and seventies and can look back on lives of quiet
success brought about by hard work, a belief in family and, in most cases,
a reliance on the Church for both spiritual and practical help in times
of difficulty. In her introduction the author gives her reasons for not
having included those emigrants who “by their own definition, had led
lives of failure” but the omission of such stories has led to a sense
of imbalance, a certain “sameness” about the interviews. This can partly
be explained by the similarity of the questions posed, but one can’t help
feeling that the inclusion of some of those who didn’t find steady work,
who didn’t manage to buy their own houses, might have given a truer picture
of the emigrant experience in the mid-20th century.
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Stella’s
Story - Eugene McEldowney
The story of Stella Maguire, christened Estelle and the apple of her father’s
eye, mirrors that of many women who had to suffer the isolation, enforced
secrecy and increasingly complex web of lies brought about by an unplanned
pregnancy. When Stella moves to Belfast after the death of a much-loved
brother, her burgeoning social life is enhanced by the arrival of American
troops on their way to war in Europe. In a depressingly repetitive scenario
the heightened passions of wartime, fuelled by an unfamiliarity with the
effects of alcohol, leave Stella to bear a son by a man she knows only
as Bud. This anonymity, and the shame it engenders, plays a pivotal role
in Stella’s life, a life she reviews in retrospect through the course
of the narrative. Eugene McEldowney has captured with remarkable sensitivity
the thoughts and feelings of a pregnant unmarried woman in Ireland of
the 1940s, the friends she can rely on, the fiction she maintains to her
family and the path she takes to solve her problems. However the second
part of the book, when Stella meets both success and failure in the US,
was marred by an unresolved problem in the earlier chapters. Stella stayed
away from her Fermanagh home for four years, first in Belfast and then
in Dublin, and the plot fails when it neglects to include efforts by her
mother to visit her or at least find out what is going on. Transport,
especially during wartime, might have been difficult, but the omission
of any effort by the mother to investigate her daughter’s long silence
is a flaw in an otherwise well-conceived story. The final chapters, blessedly
free of mawkish scenes of reunion, reprise the secrecy and shame of the
early chapters but these are surmounted and Stella finally stops running
from her past.
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Changing
the Times - ed. Elgy Gillespie
Some time in the late 1960s and early 1970s there emerged a group of women
journalists who were no longer content with writing about homemaking,
recipes to feed the family or the best way to keep one’s hands smooth.
Known collectively as the Foley Babes, for they were brought into the
Irish Times by Waterford man Donal Foley, the group branched out into
more controversial topics, though they were still confined to a “Women’s
Page”. Elgy Gillespie, who was one of this select band, has gathered together
a number of pieces representing the work of Irish women journalists from
1969 to 1981. Not all of the pieces appeared in the Irish Times; the editor’s
own account of her first foray into the life of New York City appeared
in the Sunday Times Magazine. Some pieces set out to entertain, such as
Maeve Binchy’s description of her first evening dress, while others, like
Geraldine Kennedy’s only contribution, dwell on the horror of death and
disease. Overall the selection gives a taste of Irish life as it affected
women in the years when they were beginning to assert their independence
from the establishment. Nell McCafferty is particularly vocal on conditions
in her own native Derry and gives a chilling account of Bloody Sunday
from the inside. Mary Holland, writing for the New Statesmen and the Observer,
provides an analysis of the contemporary state of Northern politics, and
Renagh Holohan describes what it was like to be caught up in a Belfast
bombing. But the 1970s above all brought to the fore the notion of a woman’s
rights over her body, and articles on contraception, abortion and single
mothers are well represented. Mary Cummins, Mary Leland and Mary Maher
address a number of problems in this area while Christina Murphy takes
a lighter look at some of the difficulties encountered, including the
enigma of the Forty Foot. Interviews with Seamus Heaney, Edna O’Brien
and Iris Murdoch add a literary flavour, with the Irish Times’ current
literary editor, Caroline Walsh, conducting the first two. There is also
a profile of the then Senator Mary Robinson, a force for much change at
that time, by the late Christina Murphy. In all there are contributions
from fifteen journalists though the selection is a bit uneven, giving
only one sample from Theodora Fitzgibbon, Maev Kennedy, Rose Doyle, Eileen
O’Brien and Geraldine Kennedy while others, including the editor and Nell
McCafferty, have their say on a number of different topics. However the
book succeeds as a barometer of Ireland in the 1970s and the changes wrought
in the lives of women from all walks of life.
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The
Last Chapter - Edmund Power
In his second thriller Edmund Power has moved from the typical Irish village
to the capital, though the ethos of the village, where everyone knows
everyone’s business, seems as prevalent. As with his earlier novel, “No
Christian Grave”, the story develops too slowly at first and it requires
perseverance to continue. However the perseverance is rewarded when the
apparent hero becomes the villain of the piece in a startling twist in
the plot. The story revolves around the discovery by Brendan Stokes, an
unsuccessful writer, of a manuscript written by a recently deceased neighbour,
Andrew Whitty, which he decides to claim as his own. Urged on by an overweening
ambition to be published under any circumstances, he sets his creative
mind to work on the logistics of passing the work off as his own to family,
friends and publishers. A philandering wife and a small son of doubtful
paternity impinge little on his conscience once he is set on the course
of having “Fair Eleanore” published as his own work; not even the arrival
of the true author’s niece with her revelations about the provenance of
the story can deflect him from his singleminded purpose, though he does
ensure her loyalty and support in the time-honoured fashion. From being
a sympathetic character struggling to be a successful writer, and encumbered
with an unfaithful wife, Brendan’s determination to succeed at all costs
brings him to carry out previously unimagined acts of violence and reveals
a man who cares for nobody but who is willing to use anybody, even his
son, to gain his own ends. Told in the first person, the narrative gradually
reveals the change in Brendan’s character, and the reader may believe
he or she has learnt how important his writing is to him. However the
depth of that importance is only revealed when an old friend of Andrew
Whitty, and a prominent character in the book within a book, turns up
with a startling claim. The ever-quickening downward spiral leads to the
events of the last chapter in which the author has introduced an ironic
twist. For Brendan’s fate almost exactly mirrors that of Andrew Whitty
in the final chapter of the book which he was preparing to steal. “The
Last Chapter” is not without its shortcomings, Edmund Power is less sure
of his female characters, but the first person narrative throws an interesting
light on the motivation and thought processes of a murderer.
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The
Truth About The Irish - Terry Eagleton
Brought out in paperback last year, Terry Eagleton’s take on the Irish
is a little dated in that the Celtic Tiger had not lost its roar when
the book was first published four years ago. However so much remains unchanged
that the majority of his observations still ring true. In describing Ireland
at the end of the twentieth century, with its still predominantly rural
society, he comments on the way we promote our Irishness, with the country
becoming “a kind of Celtic Disneyland with Queen Maeve standing in for
Mickey Mouse”. Most of his topics, listed in alphabetical order, are aimed
at debunking much of the myth of Irishry, though he is gentler on some
than on others. Seamus Heaney is described as manufacturing “delectable
morsels known as poems” in his Dublin workshop. On the other hand his
initial take on W.B. Yeats describes him as believing in “fairies, leprechauns,
magic, spiritualism, aristocrats, astral bodies, reincarnation, violence,
elitism, dictatorship, and forcibly stopping the poor from breeding”.
He does redeem himself in the final sentence, however, when he declares
that “despite all this, he is one of the greatest poets of the English
language”. Some of his debunking sprees glide effortlessly from one topic
to another; the section on driving (and he is pretty scathing about the
slaughter on our roads) segues into a diatribe against bad planning and
the destruction of many fine buildings. The Irish and alcohol, Easter
1916, the Giant’s Causeway and Travellers are among the topics examined
by the author in the tongue-in-cheek but informed volume.
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Foilsiu
- The Grian Association
This diverse collection which includes a photographic essay and a bibliography
of children’s books, is published by the Grian Association, a New York-based
organisation which encourages collaboration between the worlds of academia
and the arts. James P. Byrne examines, through the medium of James Farrell’s
“Studs Lonigan”, the concept of “gaelachas” the Irish-American label which
the ethnic group gradually dropped in favour of seeing themselves as totally
American. Also included is poetry by Eamonn Wall and Greg Delanty and
an examination by Brian Cliff of the place of community in the work of
Frank McGuinness. The photographic work by Christina Cahill focuses on
the children of Derry and Belfast from 1993 to 2000, while Karen Hill
McNamara’s contribution is a comprehensive listing of books for children
dealing with the Famine.
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Prodigal
Father Revisited - ed. Janis Londraville
The “prodigal father” of the title is John B. Yeats, best known as the
father of W.B. and Jack B., but the subtitle throws more light on the
subject matter contained therein. “Artists and Writers in the World of
John Butler Yeats” presents an array of writers and artists with whom
the elder Yeats was associated, mainly after he moved to the United States,
and in doing so also throws light on the character and lifestyle of the
man himself. Contributions by academics and others explore the lives of
Jeanne Foster, Florence Farr, Paul Swan and Van Wyck Brooks as they impinged
on the life of John B. Yeats, revealing his appreciation of the arts,
his attitude to his own paintings and drawings, and his reputation as
a great conversationalist. Also documented are the meals at which he held
court in Petipas, the house in which he lived in New York. Unfamiliar
with a number of the subjects mentioned, I found an imbalance in the focus
on the artists and writers which left one hungry for more information
on the “prodigal father”. However this is more than compensated for by
the inclusion of art collector and lawyer John Quinn’s description of
the last days of his protege which he sent to W.B. Yeats. Here is an affectionate
portrait by the man who had provided for Yeats during his ten years in
the US, who declared, “He was one of the most brilliant talkers I have
ever listened to”. In assuring the son of the ease of his father’s death,
Quinn shares anecdotes about their friendship with insights into Yeats
senior’s outlook on both life and death. “Prodigal Father Revisited” has
been the means of introduction to a number of American artists and writers
hitherto unfamiliar to this reader, and that alone should negate any disappointment
at the paucity of direct information about John B. Yeats.
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Miscarriage
& Stillbirth - Bruce Pierce
Primarily aimed at those who are charged with the care of parents who
have experienced the death of their baby, Bruce Pierce’s book looks at
the way in which feelings of loss and bereavement were ignored in past
years and the gradual development of an awareness of the importance of
grieving. He gives due attention to the part played in the healing process
by self-help groups, mostly set up by bereaved mothers, in the increased
understanding of the enormous effect of both early and late miscarriages,
and of neonatal death. A hospital chaplain himself, he addresses the question
of baptism for those who don’t survive birth, and offers ways in which
clergyman can handle the request in the most sensitive manner. The book
has an extensive bibliography, a list of associated websites and a series
of prayers, reflections and liturgies for use by people of many different
denominations.
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Ireland
and Postcolonial Theory ed. Clare Carroll and Patricia King
This groundbreaking study examines what Edward Said describes as “the
crucial question of whether or not Ireland was a colony, and whether its
history is therefore in large measure a colonial and subsequently a postcolonial
one”. The question, Said asserts, puts at stake “nothing less than the
whole question of Irish identity, the present course of Irish culture
and politics, and above all the interpretation of Ireland, its people,
and the course of its history”. Editors Clare Carroll and Patricia King
have gathered an impressive collection of a dozen scholars and critics
to examine Ireland’s history, literature, and society through a postcolonial
perspective. The wide-ranging contributions draw on comparisons with other,
less contested postcolonial nations to assess what Dr Kevin Whelan refers
to as Ireland’s “uneasy anchorage in postcolonial studies”. This global
insight is one of the strengths of the collection: Gauri Viswanathan offers
an illuminating discussion of James Cousins, the “Irish Poet from India”,
and Edward Said draws parallels between the Irish and the Palestinian
experience, for example, while Joseph Lennon offers a thorough overview
of Irish Orientalism, placing Ireland in context with other marginalized
cultures. Other volume highlights include Dr Whelan’s fascinating discussion
of Irish postcolonial memory, myth and historiography, Seamus Deane’s
stimulating essay examining the Irish use of language, and Luke Gibbons’
consideration of the impact of their historical perspective on the United
Irishmen’s unusually inclusive version of Enlightenment thinking. This
is a volume that will excite academics in any of the fields related to
Irish Studies, and firmly demonstrates the importance – and illuminating
power - of postcolonial questioning. (Reviewer: Noreen Bowden)
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Tragedy
at Tuskar Rock - Mike Reynolds
This is an enlightening and compelling account of an investigation into
the 1968 crash of Aer Lingus flight EI712, which was flying from Cork
to London when it crashed into the sea near Tuskar Rock, off the coast
of County Wexford; four crew and fifty-seven passengers lost their lives.
An initial investigation into the tragedy was inconclusive, leading to
persistent rumours that the plane may have been accidentally shot down
by the British military, during a training exercise. Three independent
investigators, two French and one Australian, were assigned to the investigation;
the author was their Irish assistant, and the power of this factual account
is greatly enhanced by the author’s status as an insider in the investigation.
The book details the investigators’ attempts to formulate a theory that
would take into account the sometimes-contradictory evidence of eyewitness
accounts and flight records. They thoroughly investigated several hypotheses,
including the rumours of accidental British military strike, and the possibilities
of ice on the wings, flaws in the aircraft design and maintenance, or
damage from a bird strike. They discovered errors in conclusion in the
original report, which had gone unnoticed. Although the most suspicious
of the conspiracy theorists were proved wrong, the story of the search
for the truth is intriguing, and a little bit of mystery remains. (Reviewer
Eric van der Zee)
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