|
Irish Emigrant Book Review, No. 37 (August 1998)
The Great Irish Rebellion of
1798 :- Thomas Davis Lecture Series
A collection of thirteen essays in the Thomas Davis Lecture Series by
leading historians and writers, serves to bring together and clarify the
contents of the many books on the 1798 Rebellion already published in
this bicentenary year. Each contributor focuses on an aspect of the period
with which he or she has specialist knowledge; thus A.T.Q. Stewart, former
Reader in Irish History at Queen’s University in Belfast, writes of the
year in Antrim and Down, asserting that the United Irish Society can only
be understood if it is accepted that it grew out of the Belfast Volunteer
movement; Hugh Gough, Professor of Modern History at University College,
Dublin gives the three factors which, in his view, led to the failure
of the French expeditions in 1798; and Mary Cullen, who is a research
associate at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Trinity College, Dublin,
deals with the role of women during the rebellion, not least the supportive
role given by such as Matilda Tone in taking on total responsibility for
the home in order to free her husband for his political mission.
Many of the essays refer to people or events with which we are familiar
from books reviewed earlier this year; Tommy Graham, currently completing
a PhD on Dublin’s United Irishmen, refers in his essay to the whole textile
industry being in recession, “but silk weaving, in particular, was very
badly hit and unemployment was highest in that sector”; Daire Keogh, lecturer
in History at St Patrick’s College (Drumcondra), Dublin City University,
in focusing on the involvement of the clergy of all denominations in the
Rebellion, quotes the memoirs of Carlowman William Farrell. Two personalities
are highlighted, Theobald Wolf Tone by Marianne Elliott, Professor of
Modern History and Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool
University, and the informer Francis Higgins, the “Sham Squire”, whose
infamous biography is the subject of Professor Thomas Bartlett’s contribution.
With an introduction by editor Colm Porteir, this series of lectures covers
the conditions which led to the inevitability of a rebellion against the
established order, as well as detailing many of the events of that turbulent
year, and in doing so succeeds in consolidating the disparate threads
of conflict and unrest. The final essay, by Tom Munnelly of the Department
of Irish Folklore, looks at the ballads which have been handed down to
us both from 1798 and from its centenary year.
[ top
]
Four Letters of Love by Niall
Williams
- Writing with a lyrical beauty which complements the air of mystery and
magic pervading the plot of “Four Letters of Love”, author Niall Williams
has created a tale of romantic love, which twists and turns and entwines
the lives of Irishmen and women from the east to the west of the country.
The stories of Isabel in Galway, and Nicholas in Dublin run separately
for much of the narrative, until chance, or what the author prefers to
call an act of God, brings them together. Underpinning the story of their
love are the twin stories of the courtship and marriage of their parents;
both fathers are ultimately failed artists, one a poet and the other a
painter, both mothers have to bear their husbands’ and their own disappointments,
each reacting in her own way. Isabel’s mother Margaret, marooned on her
island in the west, grimly faces the difficulties of a wayward daughter
and an invalid son, and a husband who buries his sense of failure in the
whiskey bottle; Bette, the mother of Nicholas, doesn’t possess the same
strength, and her husband’s abandonment of a steady job to spend extended
periods away from home painting, begins a spiral of tragedy which inexorably
leads her son west to touch and be drawn into the life of Isabel.
The author describes with great feeling the variants of love both romantic
and familial, with the torment suffered by Nicholas in his love for Isabel
having an almost Heathcliffean aura. For all its tragedy, however, “Four
Letters of Love” is also a story of joy and fulfilment, when “the plots
of God and Love came together” and we leave the characters on a note of
hope for the future.
The Brandon Book of Irish Short
Stories by Steve MacDonagh
- Steve MacDonagh has gathered together a varied and thought-provoking
collection of the works of a number of Irish writers who have published
short stories, novels, poems and plays over the past 20 years. Though
not all of the 20 writers included are Irish-born, those born overseas
have spent a considerable time in this country and their inclusion is
thus well-justified. Into this category falls Jennifer Cornell, who was
born in the United States but spent most of the 1980s studying and working
with a cross-community group in Belfast. Her story, “Wax”, reflects this
experience in its setting, and its atmosphere of insecurity and confusion
felt by the young girl in trying to look after her father is strongly
contrasted in her mind with the ordered and secure lives of the bees which
the father is asked to look after by a joyrider fleeing retribution. In
“Roaches”, Glenn Patterson has a delightful story of the revenge carried
out by Aine, whose wanderlust caused the breaking of her engagement, a
fact much resented by her fiance’s mother. Desmond Hogan has contributed
“Afternoon”, the story of Eileen Ward, a matriarch of the travelling community
whose long life had included three husbands and numerous children, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren. The story is a chronicle of the differing hardships
faced by the community from the early part of this century to the present,
but is also a testament of survival. Laois man Tom Phelan’s “In the Vatican
Museum” is one radical priest’s answer to the strictures on birth control
set by the Catholic Church, while “The Lip” by Dubliner Roddy Doyle shows
us the workings of a man’s mind beset by panic when his wife has an accident
on the first day of a family holiday. Other contributors include Dermot
Bolger, Marina Carr, Ursula de Brun and Bernard MacLaverty, whose “A Legacy
and Some Gunks” gives us what he claims is the true story of a short-lived
time of great expectations in his life.
[ top
]
After the Ball by Breda O’Sullivan
- It sometimes happens that a collection of poetry strikes an immediate
chord, and this is so for me with Breda O’Sullivan’s latest publication,
“After the Ball”. It is the directness and simplicity of language that
appeals in poems such as “What I Remember...” in which the poet recalls
the death of a baby and the life-affirming actions of her mother. Similarly
in “Retirement” Ms O’Sullivan longs for the security of childhood to be
repeated in old age when she would see
“six bowls of porridge on the table
and six wisps of steam rise.”
Her poems range from the stark tragedy of “Cathal” and “First Steps” to
the affectionate humour of “Armchair Travel”, in which she describes how
her grandmother
“...paddled in the Atlantic wide though she never saw the sea.”
Westland Row- introduction by
Gerald Dawe
- The venue for TCD’s innovative Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing
is the Oscar Wilde Centre in Westland Row, thus giving the name to the
first collection of work from the participating graduates. “Westland Row”
is described in the introduction, by poet Gerald Dawe, as “a mark of work
done” by the international group of fifteen. Some, such as New York playwright
Julia Jordan, have already published quite extensively while those new
to writing are also included. In “Everything Under the Sun”, Chris Binchy,
born in Scotland but now living in Dublin, describes a decision to give
a formal dinner party which is unsuccessful since his guests did not appreciate
his efforts, for them it was “still pubs and pints”. Orfhlaith Ni Chonaill,
a member of the Markievicz Writers’ Group in Sligo, draws on her four
years in Kenya for “The Laughing God”, the story of an African woman’s
abandonment by her husband, who has moved to the city to work. As well
as a number of prose pieces, “Westland Row” also includes poems by Aine
Miller and Conor O’Callaghan.
[ top
]
The Williamite War in Ireland
by Richard Doherty
- An historical account of the battles which took place in Ireland during
the years 1688-1691. Although providing the background to the conflict
between the two monarchs, the author stresses that he is not writing from
any particular perspective, rather is he detailing its effects on both
military and civilian life in Ireland. It is Doherty’s contention that
the Williamite wars in this country were part of a larger European discord;
in essence that for three years Ireland was the centre of the struggle
between Britain and France which continued until 1815. Although not actively
involved in the hostilities, Louis XVI was an important factor in the
eventual defeat of the Jacobite army. The author takes us through the
various battle sites, Derry, the Boyne, Athlone and Limerick, and evaluates
the military leaders on each side. His book will be of particular interest
to those interested in military history, in that he includes sections
on the composition of regiments, the derivation of ranks and the different
weapons used by the opposing armies of King William and King James.
Mary, Mary by Julie Parsons
her first novel, Julie Parsons has taken a theme that is regrettably becoming
more common in our country, the sexual assault and murder of a young girl.
Mary’s mother, Margaret, has brought her daughter home to Ireland from
New Zealand in response to a cry for help from her own ailing mother,
and the tangled relationships between mothers and daughters, and unseen
fathers, take up much of the storyline. Unwittingly Margaret has brought
her daughter home to die at the hands of a man who has also had severe
problems adjusting to the tortuous relationships in his own family, with
both victims and killer looking desperately for a reassurance that they
are loved.
The solving of the crime brings into the scenario McLoughlin, the detective
on the verge of ending a loveless marriage, and it comes as something
of a surprise when the killer is caught and charged with false imprisonment,
rape and murder. It seems that the narrative has reached its climax a
little over half way through the book, but it is at this point that Ms
Parsons’ skill in creating a psychological thriller becomes apparent.
Without giving away the plot, the courtroom procedures produce a twist
which forces Margaret to take matters into her own hands, and with the
help of two men who are inextricably bound up in her past and in her future,
she gains revenge on her daughter’s murderer.
This is a powerful book in which the author takes us into the minds of
both killer and victims in such a way that we are drawn into the physical
tragedy and the emotional processes through which Margaret works to resolve
her anger and grief. If I have a reservation it is in the rather confusing
journeying towards the end, when we are told Margaret has returned from
New Zealand and London though we do not appear to have been told of her
departure to either of these destinations.
[ top ]
|