Showing papers in "Journal of Irish Studies in 2008"

From Idealised Moral Community to Real Tiger Society. The Catholic Church in Secular Ireland

Abstract: espanolDe los anos 1960 a los anos 1980, un periodo "de gestion de la tension" entre "la vieja hegemonia del catolicismo y el nacionalismo y la aparicion del liberalismo y materialismo" (Fogarty 1984: 102), la autoimagen de Irlanda en tanto que comunidad moral se vio influenciada por un proceso de secularizacion. La secularizacion del pais se acelero con la adopcion de nuevas tecnologias y el consiguiente exito economico a principios de los anos 1990, cuyos resultados para el catolicismo en Irlanda fueron la visible, y al parecer irreversible, debilitacion de la institucion. Mi argumento en este articulo es que, mientras que en una Irlanda que muchos veian como una nacion religiosa tradicional y bien integrada, para los catolicos irlandeses era posible vivir su fe de una manera institucionalizada a traves de la comunidad moral idealizada y deseada tanto por la Iglesia como por el Estado, el exito economico y la creciente internacionalizacion hicieron esta idea de comunidad menos sostenible. Ciertamente, en lo que ahora es una "sociedad red" (Castells 1996: 469), ha surgido una nueva generacion de catolicos que ya no viven su religion como una herencia trascendente, sino como una opcion inmanente, y que, en consecuencia, parecen tener una "conexion" con su religion mas que una comunion con ella. EnglishFrom the 1960s to the 1980s, a time of tension management between the old hegemony of Catholicism and nationalism and the emergence of liberalism and materialism (Fogarty 1984:102), Ireland`s self-image as a moral community came under the influence of secularisation. The country`s secularisation process speeded up when it decided to embrace new technologies and consequently met with huge economic success in the early 1990s, the results of which for Catholicism in Ireland were the visible and apparently irreversible undermining of the institution. My argument in this article is that, whereas in an Ireland which many viewed as a traditional, wellintegrated religious nation, it was possible for Irish Catholics to live their faith in an institutionalised manner through the idealised moral community desirable both to Church and State, economic success and increased internationalisation made this idea of community less sustainable. Indeed, in what has now become a network society (Castells 1996: 469), there has emerged a new breed of Catholics who no longer live their religion as a transcendent inheritance but as an immanent choice, and who, therefore, seem to connect to their religion more than they commune with it.

Code-Mixing in Biliterate and Multiliterate Irish Literary Texts

Abstract: Code-mixing and code-switching are common and well-documented processes in the speech of multilingual persons Where multilingual persons are also literate in each language, code-mixing is also possible in writing Despite conservative pressures which tend to deem only one of the languages in a linguistic repertoire the prestige variety, and therefore the primary choice for written expression, multiliterate authors who are able to assume a multiliterate readership may use two or more languages in their texts Some theories of code-mixing are here summarized, along with a review of code-mixing in spoken Irish Examination of code-mixing in modern and contemporary Irish literary texts shows that, structurally, written code-mixing is for the most part similar to what is observed in spoken language Functionally, however, written mixing often has wider aims Because writing is a planned and conscious form of language, multilingual writers utilize their greater linguistic repertoires strategically by imbuing different languages with different symbolic meanings A full appreciation of such texts requires an understanding not just of the languages involved, but also of their functions in the cultural environment and the historical, political, and cultural associations with the other languages

"Green World": The Mock-Pastoral of The Irish R.M.

Abstract: As the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy` s hold on the land of Ireland was being loosened in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Somerville and Ross turned to the mode of comic pastoral. William Empson defines the literary mode of pastoral as writing about the common people, but not by or for them. The popular short stories about the experiences of Major Sinclair Yeates, the Irish R.M., depict for a modern readership his encounter with a pre-modern society in rural Ireland which is wild and uncouth compared to the metropolitan world, but at the same time more open, generous, and free from moral strictures. The stories conform to a number of pastoral conventions, including nostalgia for a rural golden age in the recent past, and a thorough-going mixture of high and low elements (e.g., nobility and crudity, kindliness and knavery, etc.).

Fathers in a Coma: Father-Son Relationships in Neil Jordan's Fiction

Abstract: This paper will analyze father-son relationships in some of Neil Jordan`s novels and short stories. His writing often deals with this theme, as well as with the gap between old and young generations. His works are often built around the contrast between tradition and modernity, such as de Valera`s idealised concept of Nation and contemporary, global Ireland. Thus following a consistent trend in contemporary Irish literature, Jordan develops new narratives of the Nation. What do fathers do? What do sons do? How do fathers respond to their sons actions and behaviours, and vice versa? These questions will be addressed and, possibly, be answered. In Neil Jordan`s work, father-son struggles have their counterpart in the process of the revision of ideologies and norms of tradition (patriarchy and the Catholic Church). At the same time, they are accompanied by a strong feeling of belonging to Ireland as a Nation.

William Butler Yeats's "The Symbolic System" of William Blake

Abstract: The theosophical systems formulated by great poets, such as William Blake and William Butler Yeats, represent a personal idiosyncratic actualization of an ancient repertoire of magical symbols and occult visions. This study wants to focus the attention on the philosophical, mythical, and esoteric syncretism that W. B. Yeats drew from William Blake`s symbolical system. A fundamental step of Yeats`s deep investigation into the Blakean vision was given by his monumental work, written together with Edwin John Ellis, on Blake`s poetic and pictorial production, completed in 1893 with a three-volume edition entitled The Works of William Blake, Poetic, Symbolic, and Critical. This work, published in London by Bernard Quaritch, deeply influenced Yeats`s symbolical and imaginary system, determining its subsequent development up to its codification in the volume of A Vision. With WWB, Yeats was able to systematize for the first time his own thought, giving unity to his Weltanschauung and his poetry. Following this hypothesis, I concentrated on Yeats`s and Ellis`s numerous analyses dedicated to Blake`s mythological and symbolical corpus and, in particular, I examined the last chapter of the first volume of the Quaritch edition. This chapter, entitled The Symbolic System, constitutes an unquestionable link between Yeats the reader and scholar of Blake, and Yeats the poet and follower of Blake.

Daughters on Hunger Strike: The Irish Mother-Daughter Resistance Plot in the Stories of Edna O'Brien, Mary Lavin, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Mary Leland

Abstract: . This essay explores the embattled interactions between mothers and daughters in the stories by Edna O'Brien, Mary Lavin, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Mary Leland. This conflict involves an underlying distorted intimacy between women within a patriarchal Irish context. The daughter in the stories seeks to rebel against the 'choking love' of the tyrannical 'patriarchal mother' through a symbolic anorexia, in which the daughter rejects the mother's food or the food associated with the mother. The mother is also shown to feel ambivalent and resistant towards the daughter's attempt to break from her dependence upon the mother. The conflict and resistance between mothers and daughters in these stories can be evaluated against the framework of the patriarchal context in which women as mothers are silenced and made powerless in front of the 'Father,' and therefore, this resistance can be interpreted as a reaction to this patriarchal ideology and its framework in Irish society. The lost bond between older and younger women needs to be rediscovered and restored by a realisation of patriarchal ideology and furthermore, identification with female subjectivity. This identification between women seems to act as a source of redemption for women of different generations, which results in both liberating themselves from the patriarchal dogma. Keywords. Anorexia, hunger, starving, revulsion for food, mother and daughter relationship, patriarchy, choking love, motherhood. Resumen. El articulo explora las combativas interacciones entre madres e hijas en los relatos de Edna O'Brien, Mary Lavin, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne y Mary Leland. Dicho conflicto comporta una intimidad distorsionada entre mujeres en un contexto patriarcal irlandEs. En los relatos la hija intenta rebelarse ante el 'amor asfixiante' de la tiranica 'madre patriarcal' por medio de una anorexia simbolica, en la cual la hija rechaza la comida de la madre, o la comida asociada con la madre. Asimismo, la madre se muestra ambivalente y reticente ante los intentos de la hija de escapar de su dependencia. El conflicto y la resistencia entre madres e hijas en estos relatos se puede analizar en funcion del ambito patriarcal en el que las mujeres, en tanto que madres, son silenciadas y desprovistas de poder frente al 'Padre', por lo que dicha resistencia puede interpretarse como reaccion a esa ideologia patriarcal en el marco de la sociedad irlandesa. El lazo perdido entre mujeres jovenes y mayores debe ser redescubierto y restaurado con el reconocimiento de la existencia de una ideologia patriarcal y con la identificacion de una subjetividad femenina. Dicha identificacion entre mujeres parece actuar como fuente de redencion para mujeres de diferentes generaciones, conducente a que ambas se liberen del dogma patriarcal. Palabras clave. Anorexia, hambre, pasar hambre, revulsion a la comida, relacion entre madre e hija, patriarcado, amor asfixiante, maternidad. Introduction: A Lost Tradition This essay aims to examine and evaluate the fictional representations in the stories by Edna O'Brien, Mary Lavin, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Mary Leland of embattled relationships between mothers and daughters. It attempts to decode this conflicting mother-daughter knot against a background which defines and confines the social norms and roles for women existing in an Irish patriarchal context. The motif dealing with aspects of conflicts and alienation in these stories is signified by a revulsion towards food. In most cases, daughters are shown as symbolically anorexic or resistant to their 'devouring' mothers within the context of a 'matriphobic' culture. It is important to demonstrate how contemporary Irish female writers, who have emerged since the second wave of feminism in the 1960s both with a focus on women's issues as well as with a feminist awareness, explore the symbolism of eating disorders such as anorexia or revulsion for food in their short stories. …

Memory and Forgetting in a Time of Violence: Brian Friel’s Meta-History Plays

Abstract: In the 1980s, Brian Friel, one of Ireland's most successful twentieth century dramatists, authored two plays - Translations and Making History - which were concerned with major events in colonial history. Given the context in which the plays were written - Northern Ireland was in a state of war at the time - the playwright's choice of topics (the introduction of the National Schools and the Ordnance Survey in the nineteenth century and the failed Gaelic revolt against English rule and the Flight of the Earls in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) was both pointed and politically contentious. Yet, the argument of this essay is that rather than presenting versions of the past which conform to the ideological imperatives of a particular political stance, Friel's plays are much more interesting and significant in that they provoke a whole series of questions around the issue of historical representation. One of the most important of those questions is the applicability of the criteria truth and falsity in historical and other modes of interpretation. The essay concludes with a consideration of the politics of memory and forgetting in contemporary Northern Ireland.

Interview with Lenny Abrahamson

Abstract: Lenny Abrahamson is the director of the 2007 film Garage, starring Pat Shortt as a lonely garage attendant in rural Ireland who begins a tentative friendship with his young assistant David, only for events to take a tragic turn. The film develops the focus on marginal characters within contemporary Ireland which was evident in Abrahamson's previous feature, Adam and Paul. Garage is notable for its lyrical style, minimalist approach to dialogue and action, and the impressive central performances by Shortt and Conor Ryan. Along with Adam and Paul, it marks Abrahamson, and writer Mark O'Halloran, as distinctive voices within the current generation of Irish filmmakers. How did the making of Garage compare to that of Adam and Paul? In a way there's a particular excitement associated with making something under the radar in the way that we did with Adam and Paul. I felt extremely free in making the film. Nobody knew that we were doing it, and this gives you an impetus to make something great because nothing is expected of you. With Garage there was that fear that we would do something and it would fall flat on its face and everybody would think that Adam and Paul was a one off thing. I think once we got into the process of talking about it and preparing it the momentum of the project itself took over. Does the first film become a limiting thing? There's no way you can approach every project as if it was your first, but I think there's something quite good in that challenge, which is 'can you develop what you've done?'. I was able quite quickly to let go any anxiety I had with regards to how the film would compare to Adam and Paul. We talked about doing a number of things, but once we started talking about Garage, there was something in the idea that made it feel like this was the project we should do next. When you think about an idea, there's an immediate gut feeling about whether that is the one or not. You can kid yourself about ideas for a while, they usually kind of fade away, but some just stick, and that one really stuck. Was there any pressure in terms of finding a market for the film? I was working with very good people on both films, such as Ed Guiney and Jony Speers, who are driven by their love of cinema. I don't think anybody was thinking about Garage in terms of commercial success, in any big way. The expectations were fairly modest. Garage would be on the left end of the spectrum in terms of films which Film Four might finance. They knew that they were financing something which was a very lyrical kind of film, very arthouse, and not an easy one to market. Film Four were very clear that they were interested in having a long term relationship as opposed to looking at it in terms of a one-off project. In fact, Garage has sold pretty well. Everybody has talked about Pat Shortt's performance in the film, but that of Conor Ryan as David is quite striking. His acting is so naturalistic; you don't get any sense that he is performing for the camera. I'm quite rigorous about casting and I have a good nose for something which is not real, not right. I'm very conscious when I work with people, especially young people, that I'm good at taking away the feeling that they are performing. You might get somebody in for an audition who has a little bit of that, but if you can see something underneath then it's often quite liberating for them if you can remove the need to perform. I use exercises to free actors from that over-meant, over-played, projected kind of acting. When I'm rehearsing, I play the scene so many times, in a rhythmic kind of way, that you get into this profoundly non-naturalistic thing. But what you're doing is, you're making the scene so familiar that it becomes invisible. That repetitive method is something which I got a hint of from Bresson's films. I don't have the luxury, like him, of doing take after take, but I do it beforehand in rehearsal. …

Horslips in Irish Musical and Literary Culture

Abstract: espanolEn este trabajo se examina el impacto literario de un grupo musical de folk electrico. Horslips combinaba rock duro y psicodelico con motivos tradicionales irlandeses y temas de la narrativa celta. Su exito, que abarca de 1970 a 1980, y su declive siguieron la trayectoria del movimiento contracultural que llego a Irlanda tardiamente. Al llevar a cabo un renacimiento de los caracteres miticos y los sucesos historicos del pasado irlandes, el grupo atrajo seguidores de todas partes de la isla, asi como de la diaspora; muchos jovenes llegaron a apreciar su herencia irlandesa por primera vez. Horslips se convirtio en el primer grupo de rock folk electrico que fusiono generos muy dispares, que alcanzo el exito como un colectivo independiente asentado en Irlanda y que consiguio controlar los graficos, el marketing, la distribucion y la promocion de su musica. Fueron la inspiracion y los predecesores de, entre otros, U2, el punk irlandes y los musicos del rock new-wave. Sin el trabajo pionero de Horslips la musica irlandesa y su cultura no habrian alcanzado, tres decadas mas tarde, el exito del que gozan en la actualidad. EnglishThis essay examines the literary impact of a musical electric-folk band. Horslips combined psychedelic, and hard rock with Irish traditional motifs and Celtic narrative themes. Spanning the decade from 1970 to 1980, their success and decline followed the trajectory of the countercultural movement, which came late to Ireland. The band`s revival of mythic characters and historical events drawn from the Irish past attracted fans from all over the island, as well as the diaspora; many young people gained an appreciation of their Irish heritage for the first time, as Horslips became the first electric folk-rock band to fuse disparate genres, and to succeed as an Irish-based independent collective who controlled the graphics, marketing, distribution, and promotion of their music. They inspired the likes of U2 and the Irish punk and new-wave rock musicians who followed them, and without the pioneering efforts of Horslips, Irish music and culture today may never have reached its current success, three decades later.

Interview with Simon Perry

Abstract: Bord Scannan na hEireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) is Ireland's national film agency. Reconstituted by Minister Michael D Higgins in 1992, the day to day operations of the IFB are directed and managed by the Chief Executive who reports to the board. This position was held by Rod Stoneman from 1992-2002 and Mark Woods 2003-2005. Simon Perry became the third CEO of the Film Board upon his widely welcomed appointment in November 2005. Tony Tracy met him in his Galway office in February, 2008. TT: Since you are not likely to be well known to the majority of readers of Estudios Irlandeses, let's start by hearing a bit about you; where you came from, and the expertise you've accumulated--and how that's relevant to your current job. SP: Fundamentally I'm a producer and in the 1970s I started being an independent film maker / would-be producer. I did a bit of film journalism for Variety, which is where I learnt how the business works. But I always really wanted to produce. I did try directing but I didn't enjoy it. At the start of the 1980s I set up my own film company and through the 1980s I made a number of independent British films mainly, but also a number of French films. I worked with Michael Radcliff; we made three films together Another Time Another Place, 1984 and White Mischief. The films were getting bigger as we went along. I also made a couple of films in France as I wanted to understand more about the rest of Europe and in particular the French way of making films. That started a whole conviction in me that for the future of independent cinema in Britain, and I now believe it to be true of Ireland as well; that if we want to make the films we want to make, we need very good allies in the rest of Europe, we need to be part of that network for financing films. This came out of a context of growing up in Britain where cinema was for many decades dependent on Hollywood. I fundamentally thought that that was unhealthy. In the 1990s, I ran an organisation called British Screen for 10 years which was the national film fund for new British feature films. During my 10 years we made more than 140 films possible, including The Crying Game as well as films by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. Those particular films would not have been possible without funding from the rest of Europe. The British filmmakers who I think are the most interesting have always have had a large audience in the rest of the world. I feel in those 10 years we dragged Britain into Europe and showed them the possibilities of co-production. We also were co-producers of other films that came from the rest of Europe. It was an interesting strategy and it was very different for Britain to be involved in films in that way and not simply a small player in English language cinema which was what it had always been condemned to be. British Screen was then taken over by the Film Council which was a new institution set up by the New Labour. I didn't really agree with that because I didn't think that was what Britain needed, I still don't, so I took it as an opportunity to teach and to consult for film festivals and to do other things until this job came up here. TT: What's the attraction of a job like this? SP: I find it very interesting to use public money to try to make a difference to the way the capitalist market wants to make things happen. You need public money to nudge the boat in different directions. That's what I'm trying to do here. I still believe in the benefits of European partners. There is a long dependence of Irish Cinema on the British which needs to be broken --we need to get over the post-colonial relationship. I believe that Irish film makers will be better equipped to make their films if they have partners elsewhere in Europe as well in the UK and the US of course. TT: I have to smile when I hear the 2nd British Chief Executive of the Irish Film Board saying that we have to get over our post-colonial relationship with Britain! …

Prodigals' Dreams: John McGahern's "That They May Face the Rising Sun"

Abstract: In this article I focus primarily on Irish writer John McGahern's last novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun (2002) and develop the argument that the parable of the Prodigal Son from the New Testament gospel of Luke offers a way to read McGahern's novels, an approach secured with his last novel To give Rising Sun the necessary context for the prodigal discussion, I review the author's first five novels and briefly point out the journey motif in them The longer discussion of That They May Face the Rising Sun then examines the various ways the parable offers us a lens through which to understand the return to Ireland of McGahern's protagonists The article addresses recent scholarship, in particular Eamonn Hughes's study of Rising Sun in the Spring/Summer 2005 special edition of The Irish University Review dedicated to McGahern Keywords John McGahern, Irish fiction, That They May Face the Rising Sun, parable of the Prodigal Son, community, identity, journey, homecoming, tradition Resumen En este articulo me centro principalmente en la ultima novela del autor irlandes John McGahern, That They May Face the Rising Sun (2002) y propongo que la parabola del hijo prodigo del evangelio de Lucas del Nuevo Testamento da al lector las herramientas necesarias para acercarse a las novelas de McGahern, aproximacion que se confirma en su ultima novela Con el fin de contextualizar el tema del hijo prodigo en Rising Sun reseno las primeras cinco novelas y destaco el tema del viaje en ellas En el analisis detallado de That They May Face the Rising Sun se examinan las varias maneras en las que la parabola nos brinda un criterio a traves del cual podemos entender el regreso a Irlanda de los protagonistas de McGahern El articulo se hace eco de investigaciones recientes, en particular el estudio de Eamonn Hughes en el volumen especial dedicado a McGahern de The Irish University Review en 2005 Palabras clave John McGahern, narrativa irlandesa, That They May Face the Rising Sun, parabola del Hijo Prodigo, comunidad, identidad, viaje, regreso a casa, tradicion John McGahern (1934-2006) was by many estimations one of Ireland's finest writers His death from cancer in 2006 has left an artistic void world wide His novels and short stories bridge the traditional and the experimental, and, taken as a whole, offer both a social portrait of 20th century Ireland from the early deValera years to the onset of the late century economic boom, and, as this paper will discuss, enact the archetypal prodigal journeys of human life His sixth novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun (2002) (1), takes on a weightier position in the author's canon now that we see it as his last That They May Face the Rising Sun offers a curious twist on twentieth-century Irish emigration literature Many twentieth-century Irish writers, even if primarily concerned with other issues, have sent characters into exile, choosing emigration, as Seamus Deane wrote, "as the only solution in a country where the problems, and the ambiguities, seemed insolvable" (1986: 172) Joyce's Stephen, Friel's Gareth, O'Flaherty's Michael and Mary Feeney, and Moore's Alice Barton serve as prime examples Even the personal victory of Synge's Christie (2) is placed beside his departure McGahern himself has portrayed an Ireland stagnant, closed, lonely, and depopulated where the urge to leave is prompted not so much by wanderlust as by self-preservation from suffocation by a "joyless and humiliating conformity" (Deane 1986: 180) This portrayal, writes Denis Sampson, offers an honest picture of the Ireland in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s (1991: 5) While That They May Face the Rising Sun is about the Irish wanderer's pursuit of dreams and about emigration in the 20th century, McGahern has come full circle in his thematic journey, for here the immigrants, Joe and Kate Ruttledge, move to Ireland, not away from it, and for Joe it is a move back home …

Daughters on Hunger Strike

Abstract: This essay explores the embattled interactions between mothers and daughters in the stories by Edna O Brien, Mary Lavin, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Mary Leland. This conflict involves an underlying distorted intimacy between women within a patriarchal Irish context. The daughter in the stories seeks to rebel against the choking love of the tyrannical patriarchal mother through a symbolic anorexia, in which the daughter rejects the mother`s food or the food associated with the mother. The mother is also shown to feel ambivalent and resistant towards the daughter`s attempt to break from her dependence upon the mother. The conflict and resistance between mothers and daughters in these stories can be evaluated against the framework of the patriarchal context in which women as mothers are silenced and made powerless in front of the Father, and therefore, this resistance can be interpreted as a reaction to this patriarchal ideology and its framework in Irish society. The lost bond between older and younger women needs to be rediscovered and restored by a realisation of patriarchal ideology and furthermore, identification with female subjectivity. This identification between women seems to act as a source of redemption for women of different generations, which results in both liberating themselves from the patriarchal dogma.

La primera escansión poética de la obra teatral Waiting for Godot

Abstract: Although the play Waiting for Godot is obviously dramatic art written in prose, my original hypothesis is that it contains certain poetical and rhythmical facets. A play is to be listened to - even more so than poetry, and the sound and rhythm are of first importance. Therefore, attention needs to be drawn to the metrical aspect of Godot. The originality of my hypothesis was confirmed recently by an international expert in Beckett who in response to my question replied that the field was wide open to scansion of any of Beckett`s plays. Others have described linguistic facets of the play, but no analysis of the metre seems to have taken place at all. There has been no systematic examination of this point as far as I am aware. In this article, I have tried to rectify that disregard by carrying out my own original scansion of part of Beckett's play. The passage I have used is that which refers to the dead voices (Beckett, 1977: 62 - 63). Consequently, I describe the conclusions arrived at after having carried out the said analysis through poetic scansion of this play.

"Cautela, seguir mudo". Madrid's Diplomatic Response to the Emergence of the Irish Free State 1918-1931

Abstract: This paper will primarily seek to examine the official response of the Spanish Restoration and Primo de Rivera governments to the events in Ireland during the time of the Irish Civil War and Partition, as well as giving some insights on the reaction within Spanish society. The quotation, attributed to US Ambassador Juan Riano, was in response to the Provisional Government of Ireland`s request for official Spanish recognition of Ireland in post war international institutions. The paper will analyse the extremely cautious response of the Spanish authorities to the emergence of the Irish state, as exemplified by Riano`s quote, which, within the echelons of the Spanish diplomatic service, was viewed as the apparent victory of separatism in Ireland. The paper will also touch on the influential role of the Spanish Ambassador in London, Alfonso Merry del Val, and how his pro-British establishment view coloured the efforts of Dublin to establish diplomatic ties with a country it believed to be a natural historical ally. It will chart the difficulties which prevailed in the setting up of limited diplomatic ties in 1924 and the formal establishment of a Spanish consulate in Dublin in 1927 and examine how the links between Republican Ireland and Monarchical Spain developed until 1931.

"Between That World and This": A Reading of Breaking News by Ciaran Carson

Abstract: Ciaran Carson, in the forty poems that constitute Breaking News published in 2003, has used extraneous documents, i.e. the narration by an Anglo-Irish journalist of some of the best-known 19-th century military campaigns, but also the paintings by Francisco Goya, Theodore Gericault, Edward Hopper, or still the poetry of William Carlos Williams. This paper aims at showing how Carson`s poetry is given wider scope and deeper resonance through this uncommonly diverse historical, literary and cultural context. The uncanny coexists with reality or gets substituted for it and poetry becomes the ultimate recourse against the unnameable.

"They can't wipe us out, they can't lick us. We'll go on forever pa, 'cause we're the people": Misrepresenting Death in Jim Sheridan's In America (2003)

Abstract: This paper will examine the recurring theme of death in Jim Sheridan's work, with particular focus on his 2003 film In America. This theme also links Sheridan's work to one of his favourite directors, John Ford, whose work In America alludes to. While exploring the theme of death in Sheridan's films, and how it connects with the work of Ford, this paper will consider responses to In America, the first film to be (partly) shot in New York after the attack on the twin towers, in light of the tragedy of 9/11. It raises questions about the problematic positioning of this film by Sheridan and others not just with respect to the events of that day but also in relation to the 1981 hunger strikes in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, it questions the regressive politics involved in the depiction of the central black character in In America, Mateo, particularly as it relates to this theme of death.

Archetypal, Identical, Similar? Seamus Heaney’s “Punishment” Revisited

Abstract: “Punishment” by Seamus Heaney reflects upon the relationship between a prehistoric girl killed in a ritual and two modern Irish girls punished as a consequence of political strife. My point is that Heaney’s poem cannot be taken as a one-sided approach to identity, to stereotypes or archetypes. The introduction of a Christian hypotext works in such a way that no element in any of the sequences can be taken as a univocal “archetype” of the other two. Notions such as “archetype”, “repetition” and “rite” are critically discussed. The poet interrogates the painful reality of Irish contemporary events and his own reactions, rather than acquiescing to a conclusive pattern of revenge.