Hiberno-English (also known as Irish English^[1]) is the dialect of English written and spoken in Ireland (Hibernia is the Latin name of the island).^[2]

English was first brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion of the late 12th century. Initially it was mainly spoken in an area known as the Pale around Dublin, with Irish spoken throughout the rest of the country. By the Tudor period, the Irish culture and language had regained most of the territory initially lost to the colonists: even in the Pale, ‘all the common folk … for the most part are of Irish birth, Irish habit and of Irish language’.^[3] However, the resumption of English expansion following the Tudor conquest of Ireland saw a revival in use of their language, especially during the plantations. By the mid-19th century, English was spoken by half of the population and the decline of Irish was only going to worsen;^[4] It has retained this status to the present day, with even the minority whose first language is Irish usually being fluent in English as well.

Modern English as spoken in Ireland today retains some features showing the influence of the Irish language, such as vocabulary, grammatical structure and pronunciation.

Spelling[link]

Unlike the United States (see American English) and Canada (see Canadian English), Ireland does not have its own spelling rules and British English spelling is used throughout the island.

Vocabulary[link]

Loan words[link]

Loan words from the Irish language provide for a large amount of words unique to Hiberno-English, particularly in an official state capacity (e.g. the head of government, the Taoiseach, and the parliament itself, the Oireachtas). Less formally, people also use loan words within day-to-day speech, although this has been on the decline in recent decades and among younger generations.^[5]

Some examples include:

Derived words[link]

Another group of vocabulary that is unique to Ireland is that of words derived from the Irish language. These words and phrases are often an Anglicised version of words in Irish, or a direct translation of these words into English. In the latter case, they often give a meaning to a word or phrase that is generally not found in wider English use.

Some examples include:

Survivals from Old- and Middle-English[link]

Another class of vocabulary found in Hiberno-English are words and phrases common in Old- and Middle-English, but which have since been lost or forgotten in the modern English language generally.

Some examples include:

Others[link]

In addition to the three groups above, there are also additional words and phrases found in Hiberno-Irish whose origin is disputed or unknown. While this group may not be unique to Ireland, their usage is not widespread, and could be seen as characteristic of the language in Ireland.

Some examples include:

Grammar and syntax[link]

The syntax of the Irish language is quite different from that of English. Various aspects of Irish syntax have influenced Hiberno-English, though many of these idiosyncrasies are disappearing in urban areas and among the younger population.

The other major influence on Hiberno-English that sets it apart from modern English in general is the retention of words and phrases from Old- and Middle-English.

From Irish[link]

Reduplication[link]

Reduplication is an alleged trait of Hiberno-English strongly associated with stage-Irish and Hollywood films.

• the Irish ar ngíthe corresponds to English "at all", so the stronger ar ngíthe go bhfuar ina bfhuil go shó gives rise to the form "at all at all".
  • "I've no money at all at all."
• ar eagla go … (lit. "on fear that …") means "in case …". The variant ar eagla na heagla, (lit. "on fear of fear") implies the circumstances are more unlikely. The corresponding Hiberno-English phrases are "to be sure" and "to be sure to be sure". In this context, these are not, as might be thought, disjuncts meaning "certainly"; they could better be translated "in case" and "just in case". Nowadays normally spoken with conscious levity.
  • "I brought some cash in case I saw a bargain, and my credit card."

Yes and no[link]

Irish lacks words that directly translate as "yes" or "no", and instead repeats the verb used in the question, negated if necessary, to answer. Hiberno-English uses "yes" and "no" less frequently than other English dialects as speakers can repeat the verb, positively or negatively, instead of (or in redundant addition to) using "yes" or "no".

• "Are you coming home soon?" – "I am."
• "Is your mobile charged?" – "It isn't."

The Irish equivalent of the verb "to be" has two present tenses, one (the present tense proper or "aimsir láithreach") for cases which are generally true or are true at the time of speaking and the other (the habitual present or "aimsir ghnáthláithreach") for repeated actions. Thus, "you are [now, or generally]" is tá tú, but "you are [repeatedly]" is bíonn tú. Both forms are used with the verbal noun (equivalent to the English present participle) to create compound tenses.

Recent past construction[link]

Irish indicates recency of an action by "after" is added to the present continuous (a verb ending in "-ing"), a construction known as the "hot news perfect" or "after perfect".^[47][48] The idiom for "I had done X when I did Y" is "I was after doing X when I did Y", modelled on the Irish usage of the compound prepositions i ndiaidh, tar éis, and in éis: bhí mé tar éis/i ndiaidh/in éis X a dhéanamh, nuair a rinne mé Y.

• "Why did you hit him?" – "He was after giving me cheek."

A similar construction is seen where exclamation is used in describing a recent event:

• "I'm after hitting him with the car!" Táim tar éis é a bhualadh leis an gcarr!
• "She's after losing five stone in five weeks!"

When describing less astonishing or significant events, a structure resembling the German perfect can be seen:

• "I have the car fixed." Tá an carr deisithe agam.
• "I have my breakfast eaten." Tá mo bhricfeasta ite agam.

This correlates with an analysis of "H1 Irish" proposed by Adger & Mitrovic,^[49] in a deliberate parallel to the status of German as a V2 language.

Reflection for emphasis[link]

The reflexive version of pronouns is often used for emphasis or to refer indirectly to a particular person, etc., according to context. Herself, for example, might refer to the speaker's boss or to the woman of the house. Use of herself or himself in this way often indicates that the speaker attributes some degree of arrogance or selfishness to the person in question. Note also the indirectness of this construction relative to, for example, She's coming now

• "'Tis herself that's coming now." Is í féin atá ag teacht anois.
• "Was it all of ye or just yourself?" Ar sibhse go léir ná tusa féin a bhí i gceist?

This is not limited only to the verb to be: it is also used with to have when used as an auxiliary; and, with other verbs, the verb to do is used. This is most commonly used for intensification.

• "This is strong stuff, so it is."
• "We won the game, so we did."

Prepositional pronouns[link]

There are some language forms that stem from the fact that there is no verb to have in Irish. Instead, possession is indicated in Irish by using the preposition at, (in Irish, ag.). To be more precise, Irish uses a prepositional pronoun that combines ag "at" and mé "me" to create agam. In English, the verb "to have" is used, along with a "with me" or "on me" that derives from Tá … agam. This gives rise to the frequent

• "Do you have the book?" – "I have it with me."
• "Have you change for the bus on you?"
• "He will not shut up if he has drink taken."

Somebody who can speak a language "has" a language, in which Hiberno-English has borrowed the grammatical form used in Irish.

• She does not have Irish. Níl Gaeilge aici. literally "There is no Irish at her".

When describing something, rural Hiberno-English speakers may use the term "in it" where "there" would usually be used. This is due to the Irish word ann (pronounced "oun" or "on") fulfilling both meanings.

• "Is it yourself that is in it?" An tú féin atá ann?
• "Is there any milk in it?" An bhfuil bainne ann?

Another idiom is this thing or that thing described as "this man here" or "that man there", which also features in Newfoundland English in Canada.

• "This man here." An fear seo. (cf. the related anseo = here)
• "That man there." An fear sin. (cf. the related ansin = there)

Conditionals have a greater presence in Hiberno-English due to the tendency to replace the simple present tense with the conditional (would) and the simple past tense with the conditional perfect (would have).

• "John asked me would I buy a loaf of bread." (John asked me to buy a loaf of bread.)
• "How do you know him? We would have been in school together." (We went to school together.)

Bring and take: Irish use of these words differs from that of British English because it follows the Gaelic grammar for beir and tóg. English usage is determined by direction; person determines Irish usage. So, in English, one takes "from here to there", and brings it "to here from there". In Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else – and a person brings at all other times, irrespective of direction (to or from).

• Don't forget to bring your umbrella with you when you leave.
• (To a child) Hold my hand: I don't want someone to take you.

To be[link]

Some Irish speakers of English, usually in rural areas, especially Mayo/Sligo in the West of Ireland and border areas of the North and Republic, use the verb "to be" in English similarly to how they would in Irish, using a "does be/do be" (or "bees", although less frequently) construction to indicate this latter continuous present:

• "He does be working every day." Bíonn sé ag obair gach lá.
• "They do be talking on their mobiles a lot." Bíonn siad ag caint go leor ar a fóin póca.
• "He does be doing a lot of work at school." Bíonn sé ag déanamh go leor oibre ar scoil.
• "It's him I do be thinking of." Is air a bhíonn mé ag smaoineamh.

From Old- and Middle-English[link]

In old-fashioned usage, "it is" can be freely abbreviated ’tis, even as a standalone sentence. This also allows the double contraction ’tisn’t, for "it is not".

Irish has separate forms for the second person singular (tú) and the second person plural (sibh). Mirroring Irish, and almost every other Indo European language, the plural you is also distinguished from the singular in Hiberno-English, normally by use of the otherwise archaic English word ye [ji]; the word yous (sometimes written as youse) also occurs, but primarily only in Dublin and across Ulster. In addition, in some areas in Leinster, north Connacht and parts of Ulster, the hybrid word ye-s, pronounced "yis", may be used. The pronunciation differs with that of the northwestern being [jiːz] and the Leinster pronunciation being [jɪz].

• "Did ye all go to see it?" Ar imigh sibh go léir chun é a fheicint?
• "None of youse have a clue!" Níl ciall/leid ar bith agaibh!
• "Are ye not finished yet?" Nach bhfuil sibh críochnaithe fós?
• "Yis are after destroying it!" Tá sibh tar éis é a scriosadh!

The word ye, yis or yous, otherwise archaic, is still used in place of "you" for the second-person plural. Ye'r, Yisser or Yousser are the possessive forms, e.g. "Where are yous going?"

The verb mitch is very common in Ireland, indicating being truant from school. This word appears in Shakespeare, but is seldom heard these days in British English, although pockets of usage persist in some areas (notably South Wales, Devon, and Cornwall). In parts of Connacht and Ulster the mitch is often replaced by the verb scheme, while Dublin it is replaced by "on the hop/bounce".

Another usage familiar from Shakespeare is the inclusion of the second person pronoun after the imperative form of a verb, as in "Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed" (Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene IV). This is still common in Ulster: "Get youse your homework done or you're no goin' out!" In Munster, you will still hear children being told, "Up to bed, let ye" [lɛˈtʃi]

For influence from Scotland see Ulster Scots and Ulster English.

Other grammatical influences[link]

Now is often used at the end of sentences or phrases as a semantically empty word, completing an utterance without contributing any apparent meaning. Examples include "Bye now" (= "Goodbye"), "There you go now" (when giving someone something), "Ah now!" (expressing dismay), "Hold on now" (= "wait a minute"), "Now then" as a mild attention-getter, etc. This usage is universal among English dialects, but occurs more frequently in Hiberno-English. It is also used in the manner of the Italian 'prego' or German 'bitte', for example a barman might say "Now, Sir." when delivering drinks.

So is often used for emphasis ("I can speak Irish, so I can"), or it may be tacked on to the end of a sentence to indicate agreement, where "then" would often be used in Standard English ("Bye so", "Let's go so", "That's fine so", "We'll do that so"). The word is also used to contradict a negative statement ("You're not pushing hard enough" – "I am so!"). (This contradiction of a negative is also seen in American English, though not as often as "I am too", or "Yes, I am".) The practice of indicating emphasis with so and including reduplicating the sentence's subject pronoun and auxiliary verb (is, are, have, has, can, etc.) such as in the initial example, is particularly prevalent in more northern dialects such as those of Sligo, Mayo, Cavan, Monaghan and other neighbouring counties.

Sure is often used as a tag word, emphasising the obviousness of the statement, roughly translating as but/and/well. Can be used as "to be sure", the famous Irish stereotype phrase. (But note that the other stereotype of "Sure and …" is not actually used in Ireland.) Or "Sure, I can just go on Wednesday", "I will not, to be sure." "Sure Jaysus [Jesus]" is often used as a very mild expletive to express dismay. The word is also used at the end of sentences (primarily in Munster), for instance "I was only here five minutes ago, sure!" and can express emphasis or indignation.

To is often omitted from sentences where it would exist in British English. For example, "I'm not allowed go out tonight", instead of "I'm not allowed to go out tonight".

Will is often used where British English would use "shall" ("Will I make us a cup of tea?"). The distinction between "shall" (for first-person simple future, and second- and third-person emphatic future) and "will" (second- and third-person simple future, first-person emphatic future), maintained by many in England, does not exist in Hiberno-English, with "will" generally used in all cases.

Pronunciation[link]

Hiberno-English retains many phonemic differentiations that have merged in other English accents.

• With some local exceptions, /r/ occurs postvocally, making most Hiberno-English dialects rhotic.^[50] The exceptions to this are most notable in Dublin and some smaller eastern towns like Drogheda. In Dublin English, a retroflex [ɻ] is used (much as in American English). This has no precedent in varieties of southern Irish English and is a genuine innovation of the past two decades. Mainstream varieties still use a non-retroflex [ɹ] (as in word-initial position). A uvular [ʁ] is found in north-east Leinster.^[51] /r/ is pronounced as a postalveolar tap [ɾ] in conservative accents. Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh and Jackie Healy-Rae are both good examples of this.
• /t/ is not pronounced as a plosive where it does not occur word-initially in some Irish accents; instead, it is often pronounced as a slit fricative [θ̠].^[50]
• The distinction between w /w/ and wh /hw/, as in wine vs. whine, is preserved.
• There is some variation with the consonants that are dental fricatives in other varieties (/θ/ and /ð/); after a vowel, they may be dental fricatives or dental stops ([t̪ʰ] and [d̪] respectively) depending on speaker. Some dialects of Irish have a "slender" (palatalised) d as /ðʲ/ and this may transfer over to English pronunciation. In still others, both dental fricatives are present since slender dental stops are lenited to [θʲ] and [ðʲ].
• The distinction between /ɒː/ and /oː/ in horse and hoarse is preserved, though not usually in Dublin or Belfast.
• A distinction between [ɛɹ]-[ɪɹ]-[ʌɹ] in herd-bird-curd may be found.
• /l/ is never velarised, except in (relatively recent) South Dublin English, often derisively termed D4 English, after the area where the accent predominates.
• The vowels in words such as boat and cane are usually monophthongs outside of Dublin: [boːt], and [keːn].
• The /aɪ/ in "night" may be pronounced in a wide variety of ways, e.g. [əɪ], [ɔɪ], [ʌɪ] and [ɑɪ], the latter two being the most common in middle class speech, the former two, in popular speech.
• The /ɔɪ/ in "boy" may be pronounced [ɑːɪ] (i.e. the vowel of thought plus a y) in conservative accents (Henry 1957 for Co. Roscommon, Nally 1973 for Co. Westmeath).
• In some varieties, speakers make no distinction between the [ʌ] in putt and the [ʊ] in put, pronouncing both as the latter. Bertz (1975) found this merger in working-class Dublin speech, and a fluctuation between merger and distinction in General Dublin English (quoted in Wells 1982). Nevertheless, even for those Irish people who, say, have a different vowel sound in put and cut, pairs such as putt and put, look and luck may be pronounced identically.
• In some highly conservative varieties, words spelled with ea and pronounced with [iː] in RP are pronounced with [eː], for example meat, beat.
• In words like took where "oo" usually represents /ʊ/, speakers may use /uː/. This is most common in working-class Dublin accents and the speech of North-East Leinster.
• Any and many is pronounced to rhyme with nanny, Danny by very many speakers, i.e. with each of these words pronounced with /a/ or /ɛ/.
• /eɪ/ often becomes /ɛ/ in words such as gave and came (becoming "gev" and "kem")
• Consonant clusters ending in /j/ often change.^{[citation needed]}
  • /dj/ becomes /dʒ/, e.g. dew/due, duke and duty sound like "jew", "jook" and "jooty".
  • /tj/ becomes /tʃ/, e.g. tube is "choob", tune is "choon"
  • The following show neither dropping nor coalescence:
    • /kj/
    • /hj/
    • /mj/

Irish English also always uses the alveolar or "light" L sound, as opposed to other English dialects which use a velar or "dark" L in word-final position. The naming of the letter H as "haitch" is standard, while the letter R is called "or", the letter A is often pronounced "ah", and the letter Z is often referred to as "e-zed" in working-class Dublin accents or parodies of same. Some words like the English word for movie "film" become "fillum" in Irish speech.

Leinster and Greater Dublin[link]

Dublin has a number of dialects which differ significantly based on class and age group. These are roughly divided into three categories: "local Dublin", or the broad-working class dialect (sometimes referred to as the "working-class", or "inner city" accent); "mainstream Dublin", the typical accent spoken by middle-class or suburban speakers; and "new Dublin", an accent among younger people (born after 1970). Features include:^[52]

• /ɒ/ as in lot has a variety of realizations. In Local, this vowel is often quite front and unrounded, ranging to [a]. In Mainstream, the sound varies between [ɑ] and [ɒ]. New Dublin speakers often realize this phoneme even higher, as [ɔ].
• /ɔ/ as in thought: In Local and Mainstream accents, this vowel is usually a lengthened variant of the corresponding LOT set (i.e. [aː] in Local and [ɒː] in Mainstream.) In New Dublin accents, this sound can be as high as [oː].
• /ʌ/ as in strut: in Local Dublin, this sound merges with the sound in foot, so that strut is pronounced [strʊt]. In Mainstream, a slight distinction is made between the two, with the vowel for strut varying greatly from [ʌ] to [ɤ]. In New Dublin this vowel can shift forward, toward [ɪ].
• /oʊ/ as in goat: in Dublin English, unlike other Hiberno-Englishes, this vowel is almost always dipthongized. Local Dublin features a low inglide, rendering this sound as [ʌo], whereas Mainstream features a tighter diphthong: [oʊ]. New Dublin has a slightly fronter realization, ranging to [əʊ].
• /uː/ as in goose. Local Dublin features a unique, palatized realization of this vowel, [ʲu], so that food sounds quite similar to feud. In Mainstream and New Dublin, this sound ranges to a more central vowel, [ʉ].
• /aɪ/ as in price: Traditionally this vowel ranges in pronunciation from [əi] in Local Dublin speech to [ai] in Mainstream Dublin. Among speakers born after 1970, the pronunciation [ɑɪ] often occurs before voiced consonants and word-finally.
• /aʊ/ as in mouth is usually fronted, to [æu] in Mainstream and New Dublin and more typically [ɛu] in Local.
• /ɔɪ/ as in choice: This sound ranges greatly, from [aɪ] in Local Dublin to a high-back realization [oɪ] in New Dublin. Mainstream Dublin more typically tends toward [ɒɪ].

Rhoticity

Rhoticity and rhotic consonants vary greatly in Dublin English. In Local Dublin, "r" can often be pronounced with an alveolar tap ([ɾ]), whereas Mainstream and New Dublin almost always feature the more "standard" alveolar approximant, [ɹ].

Post-vocalically, Dublin English maintains three different standards. Local Dublin is often non-rhotic (giving lie to the repeated claim that Hiberno-English is universally rhotic), although some variants may be variably or very lightly rhotic. In non-rhotic varieties, the /ər/ in "lettER" is either lowered to [ɐ(ɹ)] or in some speakers may be backed and raised to [ɤ(ɹ)]. In Mainstream Dublin, this sound is gently rhotic ([əɹ], while New Dublin features a retroflex approximant [əɻ]. Other rhotic vowels are as follows:

• /ɑɹ/ as in start: This vowel has a uniquely high realization in Local Dublin, ranging to [ɛː]. In Mainstream Dublin, this sound is more typically [aːɹ], whereas New Dublin can feature a more back vowel, [ɑːɻ]
• The "horse-hoarse" distinction in other Irish dialects is heavily preserved in Local Dublin, but only slightly maintained in Mainstream and New varieties. In Local, "force" words are pronounced with a strong diphthong, [ʌo], while "north" words feature a low monophthong, [aː]. Mainstream Dublin contrasts these two vowels slightly, as [ɒːɹ] and [oːɹ], while in New Dublin, these two phonemes are merged to [oːɻ].
• /ɜɹ/ as in nurse. In local Dublin, this phoneme is split, either pronounced as [ɛː] or [ʊː]. In this accent, words written as "-ur" are always pronounced as [ʊː], while words written as either "-er" or "-ir" are pronounced as [ɛː], unless "-er" or "-ir" follows a labial consonant (e.g. bird or first), when this sound has the [ʊː] realization. In Mainstream and New Dublin this distinction is seldom preserved, with both phonemes typically merging to [ɚ].

Dublin Vowel Lengthening

In Local Dublin, long monophthongs are often dipthongized, and while some diphthongs are tripthongized. This process can be summarized with these examples:

• School [skuːl] = [skʲuwəl]
• Mean [miːn] = [mɪjən]
• Five [faɪv] = [fəjəv]

Consonants

• Final "t" is heavily lenited in Local Dublin English so that "sit" can be pronounced [sɪh], [sɪʔ] or even [sɪ].
• Intervocalically, "t" can become an alveolar approximate in Local Dublin (e.g. "not only" = [na ɹ ʌonli], while in New and Mainstream varieties it can become an alveolar tap [ɾ], similar to American and Australian English.
• θ and ð, as in "think" and "this", usually become alveolar stops [t] and [d] in Local Dublin English, while Mainstream and New Dublin maintains the more standard dentalized stops common in other varieties of Hiberno-English.
• In Local Dublin, stops are often elided after sonorants, so that, for example sound is pronounced [sɛʊn].

Ulster[link]

Map of the Ulster dialects

Northern Hiberno-English (also called Ulster English) is an umbrella term for the dialects of Hiberno-English spoken by most people in the province of Ulster. The dialect has been greatly influenced by Ulster Irish, but also by the Scots language, which was brought over by Scottish settlers during the plantations.

It has three main subdivisions: South Ulster English, Mid Ulster English and Ulster Scots. South Ulster English is spoken in south Armagh, south Monaghan, south Fermanagh, south Donegal and north Cavan.^[53][54][55] Ulster Scots is spoken in parts of north County Antrim and northeast County Londonderry. Mid Ulster English is used in the area between these (including the main cities of Belfast and Derry) and has the most speakers.

See also[link]

	Ireland portal
	Language portal

• Languages of Ireland
• List of English words of Irish origin
• Regional accents of English
• English language in Europe
• Terence Dolan
• Anglo-Manx
• Highland English
• Welsh English

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Hickey, Raymond (1984). "Coronal Segments in Irish English". Journal of Linguistics 20 (2): 233–250. DOI:10.1017/S0022226700013876 
• Hickey, Raymond (2007). Irish English: History and Present-day Forms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85299-4 
• Adger, David (2003). Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924370-0 

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: English as we speak it in Ireland

• The English As We Speak It In Ireland. (1910) P.W.Joyce
• Everyday English and Slang in Ireland

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Eamon Michael Kelly (born 1936)^[1] was the president of Tulane University from 1981 to 1998.^[2] He was born in New York City and earned a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.^[3]

Kelly is best known for shutting down the basketball program in 1985 due to a massive point-shaving scandal. He didn't intend to ever allow its return, but relented in 1988 after several students convinced him that they were being punished for something that occurred when they weren't at Tulane.^[4]

References[link]

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This biography of an American academic administrator is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

John Banville
Banville in Sarzana (2010)
Born	William John Banville (1945-12-08) 8 December 1945 (age 66) Wexford, Ireland
Pen name	Benjamin Black
Occupation	Novelist Playwright Screenwriter
Nationality	Irish
Notable work(s)	The Book of Evidence The Untouchable Eclipse The Sea The Infinities
Notable award(s)	James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1976 Man Booker Prize 2005 Franz Kafka Prize 2011
Influences • Henry James[1] • Samuel Beckett[2] • Harold Pinter[2] • Franz Kafka[3] • Heinrich von Kleist

William John Banville (born 8 December 1945), who writes as John Banville who sometimes writes as Benjamin Black, is an Irish novelist, adapter of dramas, and screenwriter.^[4] He is recognised for his precise, cold, forensic prose style, Nabokovian inventiveness, and for the dark humour of his generally arch narrators.^[5] His stated ambition is to give his prose "the kind of denseness and thickness that poetry has".^[6]

Banville's career has seen him presented with numerous awards. His novel The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Guinness Peat Aviation award in 1989. His eighteenth novel, The Sea, won the Booker Prize in 2005. He was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011 and is a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[7][8]

Early life[link]

William John Banville was born to Agnes (née Doran) and Martin Banville, a garage clerk, in Wexford, Ireland. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Anne Veronica "Vonnie" Banville-Evans^[9] has written both a children's novel and a reminiscence^[10] of growing up in Wexford.

Banville was educated at a Christian Brothers school and at St Peter's College, Wexford. Despite having intended to be a painter and an architect he did not attend university.^[11] Banville has described this as "A great mistake. I should have gone. I regret not taking that four years of getting drunk and falling in love. But I wanted to get away from my family. I wanted to be free."^[12] Alternately he has stated that college would have had little benefit for him - "I don’t think I would have learned much more, and I don’t think I would have had the nerve to tackle some of the things I tackled as a young writer if I had been to university—I would have been beaten into 
submission by my lecturers."^[13] After school he worked as a clerk at Aer Lingus which allowed him to travel at deeply discounted rates. He took advantage of this to travel in Greece and Italy. He lived in the United States during 1968 and 1969. On his return to Ireland he became a sub-editor at The Irish Press, rising eventually to the position of chief sub-editor.

Work[link]

Banville's first book, Long Lankin, was published in 1970. He has written three trilogies; The first, The Revolutions Trilogy, focused on great men of science and consisted of Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, and The Newton Letter. The second unnamed trilogy consisted of The Book of Evidence, Ghosts, and Athena, and focused on the power of works of art. The third trilogy is composed of Eclipse, Shroud and Ancient Light, all of which concern the characters Alexander and Cass Cleave. Banville also writes crime fiction under the pen name Benjamin Black, beginning with Christine Falls (2006).

He has been a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books since 1990.

After The Irish Press collapsed in 1995,^[14] he became a sub-editor at The Irish Times. He was appointed literary editor in 1998. The Irish Times, too, suffered severe financial problems, and Banville was offered the choice of taking a redundancy package or working as a features department sub-editor. He left.

Banville is highly scathing of all of his work, stating of his books "I hate them all ... I loathe them. They're all a standing embarrassment."^[11] Instead of dwelling on the past he is continually looking forward; "You have to crank yourself up every morning and think about all the awful stuff you did yesterday, and how you can compensate for that by doing better today."^[12] He writes his Benjamin Black crime fiction much more quickly than he composes his literary novels,^[15] and he appreciates his work as Black as a craft, while as Banville he is an artist. He considers crime writing, in his own words, as being "cheap fiction".^{[citation needed]}

Style[link]

Banville is considered by critics as a master stylist of English, and his writing has been described as perfectly crafted, beautiful, dazzling.^[17] David Mehegan of the Boston Globe calls him "one of the great stylists writing in English today"; Don DeLillo described his work "dangerous and clear-running prose"; Val Nolan in The Sunday Business Post calls his style "lyrical, fastidious, and occasionally hilarious";^[18] The Observer described The Book of Evidence as "flawlessly flowing prose whose lyricism, patrician irony and aching sense of loss are reminiscent of Lolita." Banville himself has admitted that he is "trying to blend poetry and fiction into some new form".^[12] He is known for his dark humour, and sharp, wintery wit.^[2]

In five of his novels (including one as Benjamin Black), he has used the trope of a character's eyes darting back and forth "like a spectator at a tennis match." ^[19]

In 1984, he was elected to the Irish arts association, Aosdána, but resigned in 2001^[20] so that some other artist might be allowed to receive the cnuas (annuity).

In an interview with Argentine paper La Nacíón, he described himself as a West Brit.^[21]

Banville has a strong interest in animal rights, and is often featured in Irish media speaking out against vivisection in Irish university research.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011, he offered to donate his brain to The Little Museum of Dublin "so visitors could marvel at how small it was".^[22]

Influences[link]

Banville said in an interview with The Paris Review that he liked Vladimir Nabokov's style, however he went on, "But I always thought there was something odd about it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Then I read an interview in which he admitted he was tone deaf."^[13] He is highly influenced by Heinrich von Kleist,^{[citation needed]} having written adaptations of three of his plays (including Amphitrion) and having again used Amphitrion as a basis for his novel The Infinities.^{[citation needed]} Banville has reported that he imitated James Joyce as a boy: "After I'd read the Dubliners, and was struck at the way Joyce wrote about real life, I immediately started writing bad imitations of the Dubliners."^[12] However, The Guardian reports that the early Joycean influence may not have persisted, quoting the writer again: "Banville himself has acknowledged that all Irish writers are followers of either Joyce or Beckett - and he places himself in the Beckett camp."^[2] During an interview on The Charlie Rose Show in 2011, Rose asked him, "The guiding light has always been Henry James?" and Banville replied, "I think so, I mean people say, you know, I've been influenced by Beckett or Nabokov but it's always been Henry James [...] so I would follow him, I would be a Jamesian."^[1]

Private life[link]

Banville has two adult sons with his wife, the American textile artist Janet Dunham. They met during his visit to San Francisco in 1968 where she was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. Dunham described him during the writing process as being like "a murderer who's just come back from a particularly bloody killing".^[23] Banville has two daughters from his relationship with Patricia Quinn, former head of the Arts Council of Ireland.

Awards and honours[link]

Banville famously wrote a letter to The Guardian requesting that the 1981 Booker Prize, for which he was "runner-up to the shortlist of contenders", be given to him so that he could use the money to buy every copy of the longlisted books in Ireland and donate them to libraries, "thus ensuring that the books not only are bought but also read — surely a unique occurrence."^[24][25]

When The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the 1989 Booker Prize, Banville said a friend whom he described as "a gentleman of the turf", instructed him "to bet on the other five shortlistees, saying it was a sure thing, since if I won the prize I would have the prize-money, and if I lost one of the others would win . . .But the thing baffled me and I never placed the bets. I doubt I'll be visiting Ladbrokes any time soon".^[7]

Banville was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.^[26]

In 2011, Banville was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize.^[27] Marcel Reich-Ranicki and John Calder featured on the jury.^[28] The award was worth $10,000.^[28] According to The Guardian, Banville described the award "one of the ones one really wants to get. It's an old style prize and as an old codger it's perfect for me ... I've been wrestling with Kafka since I was an adolescent" and said his bronze statuette trophy "will glare at me from the mantelpiece". Wondering while receiving congratulations from Roddy Doyle what sort of prize Kafka would have given had he been alive, Doyle said "It wouldn't have stayed still on the mantelpiece."^[3]

List of works[link]

Short story collection

• Long Lankin (1970; revised ed.1984)

Novels

John Banville talks about The Infinities on Bookbits radio.

• Nightspawn (1971)
• Birchwood (1973)
• The Revolutions Trilogy :
  • Doctor Copernicus: A Novel (1976)
  • Kepler, a Novel (1981)
  • The Newton Letter: An Interlude (1982)
• Mefisto (1986)
• The Book of Evidence (1989)
• Ghosts (1993)
• Athena: A Novel (1995)
• The Ark (1996) (only 260 copies published)
• The Untouchable (1997)
• Eclipse (2000)
• Shroud (2002)
• Prague Pictures: Portrait Of A City (2003)
• The Sea (2005)
• The Infinities (2009)
• Ancient Light (2012)

Plays

• The Broken Jug: After Heinrich von Kleist (1994)
• Seachange (performed 1994 in the Focus Theatre, Dublin; unpublished)
• Dublin 1742 (performed 2002 in The Ark, Dublin; a play for 9–14 year olds; unpublished)
• God's Gift: A Version of Amphitryon by Heinrich von Kleist (2000)
• Love In The Wars (adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist's Penthesilea, 2005)
• Conversation In The Mountains (radio play, forthcoming 2008)

As "Benjamin Black"

• Christine Falls (2006)
• The Silver Swan (2007)
• The Lemur (2008, previously serialised in The New York Times)
• Elegy for April (2010)
• A Death In Summer (2011)^[32]
• Vengeance (2012)

Book reviews

• "The Family Pinfold" The New York Review of Books 54/11 (28 June 2007) : 20–21 [reviews Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons : the Autobiography of a Family]
• "Trump Cards" Bookforum (Dec/Jan 2010) : John Banville on The Original of Laura, Nabokov's final, unfinished novel.

Screenwriter

Further reading[link]

• John Banville by John Kenny; Irish Academic Press (2009); ISBN 0-7165-2909-1
• John Banville, a critical study by Joseph McMinn; Gill and MacMillan; ISBN 0-7171-1803-7
• The Supreme Fictions of John Banville by Joseph McMinn; (October 1999); Manchester University Press; ISBN 0-7190-5397-8
• John Banville: A Critical Introduction by Rüdiger Imhoff (October 1998) Irish American Book Co; ISBN 0-86327-582-6
• John Banville: Exploring Fictions by Derek Hand; (June 2002); Liffey Press; ISBN 1-904148-04-2
• Irish University Review: A Journal of Irish Studies: Special Issue John Banville Edited by Derek Hand; (June 2006)
• Irish Writers on Writing featuring John Banville. Edited by Eavan Boland (Trinity University Press, 2007).

References[link]