Irish writing of 8th century

For a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature. Irish literature encompasses the Irish and English languages.

The beginning of writing in Irish[link]

Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in western Europe (after Greek and Latin)[1].

The Irish became fully literate with the arrival of Christianity in the fifth century. Before that time a simple writing system known as "ogham" was used for inscriptions. The introduction of Latin led to the adaption of the Latin alphabet to the Irish language and the rise of a small literate class, both clerical and lay.^[1][2]

Early and medieval literature[link]

The earliest Irish literature consisted of original lyric poetry and versions of ancient prose tales. The earliest poetry, composed in the 6th century, illustrates a vivid religious faith or describe the world of nature, and was sometimes written in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. Unusually among European epic cycles, the Irish sagas (such as Táin Bó Cúailnge) were written in prose, with verse interpolations expressing heightened emotion. Although usually found in recensions of the later mediaeval period, these works are linguistically archaic, and thus throw light on pre-Christian Ireland.^[3]

After the Old Irish period, there is a vast range of poetry from mediaeval and Renaissance times. By degrees the Irish created a classical tradition in their own language, though they continued to use Latin. Verse remained the main vehicle of literary expression, and by the 12th century questions of form and style had been essentially settled, with little change until the 17th century.^[4]

The literary language (known in English as Classical Irish), was a sophisticated medium with elaborate verse forms, and was taught in bardic schools (i.e. academies of higher learning) both in Ireland and Scotland.^[5] These produced historians, lawyers and a professional literary class which depended on the aristocracy for patronage. Much of the writing produced in this period was conventional in character, in praise of patrons and their families, but the best of it was of exceptionally high quality and included poetry of a personal nature. Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh (14th century), Tadhg Óg Ó hUiginn (15th century) and Eochaidh Ó hEoghusa (16th century) were among the most distinguished of these poets. Every noble family possessed a body of manuscripts containing genealogical and other material, and the work of the best poets was used for teaching purposes in the bardic schools.^[6] In this hierarchical society, fully trained poets belonged to the highest stratum; they were court officials but were thought to still possess ancient magical powers.^[7]

Women were largely excluded from the official literature, though female aristocrats could be formidable patrons in their own right. An example is the 15th century noblewoman Mairgréag Ní Cearbhaill, praised by the learned for her extraordinary hospitality.^[8] At that level a certain number of women were literate, and some were contributors to an unofficial corpus of courtly love poetry known as dánta grádha.^[9]

Prose continued to be cultivated in the mediaeval period in the form of tales. The Norman invasion of the 12th century introduced a new body of stories which influenced the Irish tradition, and in time translations were made from English.^[10]

The early modern period[link]

The 17th century saw the tightening of English control over Ireland and the suppression of the traditional aristocracy. This meant that the literary class lost its patrons, since the new nobility were English speakers with little sympathy for the older culture. The elaborate classical metres lost their dominance and were largely replaced by more popular forms.^[11] This was an age of social and political tension, expressed with power and anguish by Dáibhí Ó Bruadair, an outstanding poet, and by the anonymous authors of Pairliment Chloinne Tomáis, a corrosive prose satire on the aspirations of the lower classes.^[12] Prose of another sort was represented by the elegant historical works of Geoffrey Keating (Seathrún Céitinn) and the great compilation known as the Annals of the Four Masters.

The consequences of these changes were seen in the 18th century, when the sophistication of the old high tradition reappeared at a popular level. Poetry was still the dominant literary medium and its practitioners were poor scholars, often educated in the classics at obscure local schools and themselves often schoolmasters by trade. Such writers produced work of great refinement in popular metres for a local audience. This was particularly the case in Munster, in the south-west of Ireland, and notable names included Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin and Aogán Ó Rathaile. A certain number of local patrons were still to be found, even in the early 19th century, and especially among the few surviving families of the Gaelic aristocracy.^[13]

Irish was still an urban language, and continued to be so well into the 19th century. In the first half of the 18th century Dublin was the home of an Irish-language literary circle connected to the Ó Neachtain (Naughton) family, a group with wide-ranging Continental connections.^[14]

There is little evidence of female literacy for this period, but women were of great importance in the oral tradition. They were the dominant composers of traditional laments, which contain some of the most intense poetry in the language. The most famous of these laments is Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, composed in the late 18th century by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, one of the last of the Gaelic gentry of West Kerry.^[15] Compositions of this sort were not committed to writing until collected in the 19th century.

The manuscript tradition[link]

Well after the introduction of printing to Ireland, works in Irish continued to be disseminated in manuscript form.

Access to the printing press was hindered in the 1500s and the 1600s by official caution, although an Irish version of the Bible (known as Bedell's Bible after the Anglican clergyman who commissioned it) was published in the 17th century. A number of popular works in Irish, both devotional and secular, were available in print by the early 19th century, but the manuscript remained the most affordable means of transmission almost until the end of the century.^[16]

Manuscripts were collected by literate individuals (schoolmasters, farmers and others) and were copied and recopied. They might include material several centuries old. Access to them was not confined to the literate: the contents were read aloud at local gatherings, thus exposing even the illiterate to the riches of the literature. This was still the case in the late 19th century in Irish-speaking districts.^[17]

Manuscripts were often taken abroad, particularly to America. In the 19th century many of these were collected by individuals or cultural institutions.^[18]

Modern writing[link]

In the 19th century English was well the way to becoming the dominant vernacular. Down until the Great Famine of the 1840s, however, and even later, Irish was still used over large areas of the south-west, the west and the north-west.

A famous long poem from the beginning of the century is Cúirt an Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court), a vigorous and inventive satire by Brian Merriman from County Clare. The copying of manuscripts continued unabated, and one such collection was in the possession of Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin, a teacher and linen draper of County Kilkenny who kept a unique diary in vernacular Irish from 1827 to 1835 covering local and international events, with a wealth of information about daily life.

The Great Famine of the 1840s hastened the retreat of the Irish language. Many of its speakers died of hunger or fever, and many more emigrated. The hedge schools of earlier decades which had helped maintain the native culture were now supplanted by a system of National Schools where only English was permitted. Literacy in Irish was restricted to a very few.

A vigorous English-speaking middle class was now the dominant cultural force; a number of its members were influenced by political or cultural nationalism, and some took an interest in the literature of the Irish language. One such was a young Protestant scholar called Samuel Ferguson who studied the language privately and discovered its poetry, which he began to translate.^[19] He was preceded by James Hardiman, who in 1831 had published the first comprehensive attempt to collect popular poetry in Irish.^[20] These and other attempts supplied a bridge between the literature of the two languages.

The Anglo-Irish tradition[link]

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), a powerful and versatile satirist, was Ireland's first earliest notable writer in English. Though born in Ireland, he spent much of his life in England. Oliver Goldsmith (1730–1774), born in County Longford, moved to London, where he became part of the literary establishment, though his poetry reflects his youth in Ireland.

Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849) furnished a less ambiguous foundation for an Anglo-Irish literary tradition. Though not of Irish birth, she came to live there when young and closely identified with Ireland. She was a pioneer in the realist novel.

Other Irish novelists to emerge during the 19th century include John Banim, Gerald Griffin, Charles Kickham and William Carleton. Their works tended to reflect the views of the middle class or gentry and they wrote what came to be termed "novels of the big house". Carleton was an exception, and his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry showed life on the other side of the social divide. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, was outside both traditions, as was the early work of Lord Dunsany. One of the premier ghost story writers of the nineteenth century was Sheridan Le Fanu, whose works include Uncle Silas and Carmilla.

The novels and stories, mostly humorous, of Edith Somerville and Violet Florence Martin (who wrote together as Martin Ross), are among the most accomplished products of Anglo-Irish literature, though written exclusively from the viewpoint of the "big house". In 1894 they published The Real Charlotte.

George Moore spent much of his early career in Paris and was one of the first writers to use the techniques of the French realist novelists in English.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), though born and raised in Ireland, spent the greater part of his life in England. Despite this, he is usually claimed to be an Irish writer. His plays are distinguished for their wit, and he was also a poet.

The growth of Irish cultural nationalism towards the end of the 19th century, culminating in the Gaelic Revival, had a marked influence on Irish writing in English, and contributed to the Irish Literary Revival. This can be clearly seen in the plays of J.M. Synge (1871–1909), who spent some time in the Irish-speaking Aran Islands, and in the early poetry of William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), where Irish mythology is used in a personal and idiosyncratic way.

The Gaelic Revival[link]

In 1899 the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) was founded. It insisted that the identity of Ireland was intimately bound up with the Irish language, which should be modernised and used as a vehicle of contemporary culture. This found a ready response and led to the publication of thousands of books and pamphlets in Irish, providing the foundation of a new literature in the coming decades.^[21]

Modern writers in Irish[link]

Patrick Pearse (1879–1916), teacher, barrister and revolutionary, was a pioneer of modernist literature in Irish. He was followed by, among others, Pádraic Ó Conaire (1881–1928), an individualist with a strongly European bent. One of the finest writers to emerge in Irish at the time was Seosamh Mac Grianna (1900–1990), writer of a powerful autobiography and accomplished novels, though his creative period was cut short by illness. His brother Séamus Ó Grianna (1889–1969) was more prolific.

This period also saw remarkable autobiographies from the remote Irish-speaking areas of the south-west - those of Tomás Ó Criomhthain (1858–1937), Peig Sayers (1873–1958) and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (1904–1950).

Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906–1970), a language activist, is generally acknowledged as the doyen (and most difficult) of modern writers in Irish, and has been compared to James Joyce. He produced short stories, two novels and some journalism. Máirtín Ó Direáin (1910–1988), Máire Mhac an tSaoi (b. 1922) and Seán Ó Ríordáin (1916–1977) were three of the finest poets of that generation. Eoghan Ó Tuairisc (1919–1982), who wrote both in Irish and English, was noted for his readiness to experiment in both prose and verse.

Caitlín Maude (1941–1982) and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (b. 1952) may be seen as representatives of a new generation of poets, conscious of tradition but modernist in outlook. The best known of that generation was possibly Michael Hartnett (1941–1999), who wrote both in Irish and English, abandoning the latter altogether for a time.

Writing in Irish now encompasses a broad range of subjects and genres, with more attention being directed to younger readers. The traditional Irish-speaking areas (Gaeltacht) are now less important as a source of authors and themes. Urban Irish speakers are in the ascendancy, and it is likely that this will determine the nature of the literature.

Modern Irish writing in English[link]

James Joyce

Yeats was already prominent at the beginning of the 20th century, but his style changed under the influence of his contact with modernism. The generation of Irish poets who followed Yeats were, to simplify, divided between those who were influenced by his early Celtic style and those who followed such modernist figures as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, both of whom wrote poetry as well as their better known fiction and drama. This period also saw the emergence of such significant figures as Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney and Brian Coffey.

Joyce is often regarded as the father of the literary genre "stream of consciousness", best exemplified in his famous work, Ulysses, considered to be one of the 20th century's greatest literary achievements. It has been described as "a demonstration and summation of the entire [Modernist] movement".^[22] Joyce also wrote Finnegans Wake, Dubliners, and the semi-autobiographical A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce's high modernist style had its influence on coming generations of Irish novelists, most notably Samuel Beckett, Brian O'Nolan, who published as Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen, and Aidan Higgins. O'Nolan was bilingual and his fiction clearly shows the mark of the native tradition, particularly in the imaginative quality of his storytelling and the biting edge of his satire in works such as An Béal Bocht.

The big house novel prospered into the 20th century, and Aidan Higgins' first novel Langrishe, Go Down is an experimental example of the genre. More conventional exponents include Elizabeth Bowen and Molly Keane (writing as M.J. Farrell).

With the rise of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland, more novelists from the lower social classes began to emerge. Frequently, these authors wrote of the narrow, circumscribed lives of the lower-middle classes and small farmers. Exponents of this style range from Brinsley MacNamara to John McGahern.

The Irish short story has proved a popular genre, with well-known practitioners including Frank O'Connor, William Trevor and Sean O'Faolain.

Theatre[link]

George Bernard Shaw

Although the documented history of Irish theatre began at least as early as 1601, the earliest Irish dramatists of note were William Congreve, one of the most interesting writers of Restoration comedies, and Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who were two of the most successful playwrights on the London stage in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, Dion Boucicault was an extremely popular writer of comedies. However, it was in the last decade of the century that the Irish theatre finally came of age with the emergence of George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde and the establishment in Dublin in 1899 of the Irish Literary Theatre.

This last company, later to become the Abbey Theatre, performed plays by W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge, and Sean O'Casey. Equally importantly, through the introduction by Yeats, via Ezra Pound, of elements of the Noh theatre of Japan, a tendency to mythologise quotidian situations, and a particularly strong focus on writings in dialects of Hiberno-English, the Abbey was to create a style that held a strong fascination for future Irish dramatists.

The twentieth century saw a number of Irish playwrights come to prominence. These included Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Denis Johnston, Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Thomas Kilroy, Tom Murphy, Hugh Leonard, and John B. Keane. The Gate Theatre, founded in 1928 by Micheál MacLiammóir, introduced Irish audiences to many of the classics of the Irish and European stage.

Since the 1970s, a number of companies have emerged to challenge the Abbey's dominance and introduce different styles and approaches. These include Focus Theatre, The Children's T Company, the Project Theatre Company, Druid Theatre, Rough Magic, TEAM, Charabanc, and Field Day. These companies have nurtured a number of writers, actors, and directors who have since gone on to be successful in London, Broadway and Hollywood.

Irish language theatre[link]

Conventional drama did not exist in Irish before the 20th century. The Gaelic Revival stimulated the writing of plays, aided by the founding in 1928 of An Taibhdhearc, a theatre dedicated to the Irish language. The Abbey Theatre itself was reconstituted as a bilingual national theatre in the 1940s under Ernest Blythe, but the Irish language element declined in importance.^[23]

Drama in Irish has since encountered grave difficulties, despite the existence of interesting playwrights such as Máiréad Ní Ghráda. The Taidhbhearc has declined in importance and it is difficult to maintain professional standards in the absence of a strong and lively audience. The tradition persists, however, thanks to troupes like Aisling Ghéar^[24]

See also[link]

• Irish poetry
• Irish short story
• Irish fiction
• Irish theatre
• List of Irish poets
• Old Irish literature
• Early Irish literature

References[link]

1. ^ Dillon and Chadwick (1973), pp. 241-250
2. ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 54-72
3. ^ Dillon and Chadwick (1973), pp. 298-333.
4. ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 147-156
5. ^ See the foreword in Knott (1981).
6. ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp.150-194
7. ^ For a discussion of poets' supernatural powers, inseparable from their social and literary functions, see Ó hÓgáin (1982).
8. ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp.165-6.
9. ^ Examples can be found in O'Rahilly (2000).
10. ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), p. 149.
11. ^ TLG 201-223
12. ^ See the introduction to Williams (1981). The text is bilingual.
13. ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 252-268, 282-290. See Corkery (1925) for a detailed discussion of the social context.
14. ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 279-282.
15. ^ See the introduction to Ó Tuama, Seán (1961) (ed.), Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, An Clóchomhar Tta, Baile Átha Cliath.
16. ^ See Niall Ó Ciosáin in Books beyond the Pale: Aspects of the Provincial Book Trade in Ireland before 1850, Gerard Long (ed.). Dublin: Rare Books Group of the Library Association of Ireland. 1996. ISBN 0-946037-31-0
17. ^ Ó Madagáin (1980), pp.24-38.
18. ^ Mac Aonghusa (1979), p.23.
19. ^ O'Driscoll (1976), pp. 23-32.
20. ^ O'Driscoll (1976), pp. 43-44.
21. ^ Ó Conluain and Ó Céileachair (1976), pp. 133-135.
22. ^ Beebe, Maurice (Fall 1972). "Ulysses and the Age of Modernism". James Joyce Quarterly (University of Tulsa) 10 (1): p. 176.
23. ^ Hoch, John C. (2006). Celtic Culture: An Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 980-981 ISBN 1-85109-440-1
24. ^ http://www.aislingghear.com

References and further reading[link]

• Brady, Anne & Cleeve, Brian (1985). Biographical Dictionary of Irish Writers. Lilliput. ISBN 0-946640-11-4
• Jeffares, A. Norman (1997). A Pocket History of Irish Literature. O'Brien Press. ISBN 0-86278-502-2
• Welsh, Robert (ed.) & Stewart, Bruce (ed.) (1996). The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-866158-4
• Wright, Julia M. (2008). Irish Literature, 1750-1900: An Anthology. Blackwell Press. ISBN 978-1-4051-4520-6
• Caerwyn Williams, J.E. agus Ní Mhuiríosa, Máirín (1979). Traidisiún Liteartha na nGael. An Clóchomhar Tta. Baile Átha Cliath. Revival 336-350
• Corkery, Daniel (1925). The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth Century. M.H. Son, Ltd. Dublin.
• Céitinn, Seathrún (1982) (eag. De Barra, Pádraig). Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, Athnua 1 & 2. Foilseacháin Náisiúnta Teoranta. Baile Átha Cliath. A two volume version of Keating’s history in modernised spelling.
• De Bhaldraithe, Tomás (ed.) (1976 – third printing). Cín Lae Amhlaoibh. An Clóchomhar Tta. Baile Átha Cliath. ISBN 7171-0512-1. A shortened version of the diaries of Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin. There is an English translation, edited by de Bhaldraithe: Diary of an Irish Countryman 1827 - 1835. Mercier Press. ISBN 1-85635-042-8
• De Brún, Pádraig and Ó Buachalla, Breandán and Ó Concheanainn, Tomás (1975 – second printing) Nua-Dhuanaire: Cuid 1. Institiúid Ardléinn Bhaile Átha Cliath.
• Dillon, Myles and Chadwick, Nora (1973). The Celtic Realms. Cardinal. London. ISBN 0-351-15808-1 pp. 298–333
• Williams, .J.A. (ed.) (1981). Pairlement Chloinne Tomáis. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Dublin.
• Knott, Eleanor (1981 – second printing). An Introduction to Irish Syllabic Poetry of the Period 1200–1600. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Dublin.
• Merriman, Brian: Ó hUaithne, Dáithí (ed.) (1974 – fourth printing). Cúirt an Mheán Oíche. Preas Dolmen. Baile Átha Cliath. ISBN 0-85105-002-6
• Mac Aonghusa, Proinsias (1979). ‘An Ghaeilge i Meiriceá’ in Go Meiriceá Siar, Stiofán Ó hAnnracháin (ed.). An Clóchomhar Tta.
• Mac hÉil, Seán (1981). Íliad Hóiméar. Ficina Typofographica. Gaillimh. ISBN 0-907775-01-2
• Nicholls, Kenneth (1972). Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages. Gill and MacMillan. Dublin. ISBN 7171-0561-X
• Ó Conluain, Proinsias and Ó Céileachair, Donncha (1976 – second printing). An Duinníneach. Sáirséal agus Dill. ISBN 0-901374-22-9
• O’Driscoll, Robert (1976). An Ascendancy of the Heart: Ferguson and the Beginnings of Modern Irish Literature in English. The Dolmen Press. Dublin. ISBN 0-85105-317-3
• Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí (1982). An File. Oifig an tSoláthair. Baile Átha Cliath.
• Ó Madagáin, Breandán (1980 – second edition). An Ghaeilge i Luimneach 1700–1900. An Clóchomhar Tta. Baile Átha Cliath. ISBN 7171-0685-3
• O’Rahilly, Thomas F. (Ed.) (2000 – reprint). Dánta Grádha: An Anthology of Irish Love Poetry (1350–1750). Cork University Press. ISBN 0-902561-09-X.

External links[link]

• National Library of Ireland: Premier cultural institution holding Irish literary collections
• CELT: The online resource for Irish history, literature and politics
• The Irish Playography database
• http://bill.celt.dias.ie/vol4/browseatsources.php?letter=A#ATS7714

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Paula Meehan is an Irish poet and playwright. Born in Dublin in 1955, Meehan studied at Trinity College, Dublin,and at Eastern Washington University.^[1]

Biography[link]

Paula Meehan was born in Dublin in 1955, the eldest of six children. She started school at St. Elizabeth's in Kingston upon Thames, England, where her parents had travelled to find work. She subsequently attended a number of primary schools around Dublin. She finished her primary education at the Central Model Girls' School in Gardiner Street.

She began her secondary education at St. Michael's Holy Faith Covent in Finglas but was expelled for organising a protest march against the regime of the school. She studied for her Intermediate Certificate on her own and then went to Whitehall House Senior School, a vocational school, to study for her Leaving Certificate. Outside school she was a member of a dance drama group, became involved in band culture and, around 1970, began to write lyrics. Gradually composing song lyrics would give way to writing poetry.

At Trinity College, Dublin, (1972 -77) she studied English, History and Classical Civilization, taking five years to complete her Bachelor of Arts degree. This included one year off, spent travelling through Europe. While a student she was involved in street theatre and various kinds of performance.

After college she travelled again, spending long stretches in Greece, Germany, Scotland and England. She was offered a teaching fellowship at Eastern Washington University where she studied (1981 -83) with James J. McAuley in a two year programme which led to a Master of Fine Arts degree in Poetry. Gary Snyder & Carolyn Kizer were among the distinguished visiting writers to have a profound influence on her work and on her thought. She returned to Dublin in the mid-eighties. Her poem "Seed" was used in the 2010 Leaving Certificate examination as the unseen poem, although (critically) the department misprinted 'useful' as 'useless' which somewhat diminished the meaning of the poem.^[2]

Works[link]

Poetry[link]

• Return and no Blame. Dublin: Beaver Row Press, 1984.
• Reading the Sky. Dublin: Beaver Row Press, 1986.
• The Man who was Marked by Winter. Oldcastle, Co. Meath: Gallery, 1991. North American edition with foreword by Eavan Boland. Cheney, WA: Eastern Washington University Press, 1994.
• Pillow Talk. Oldcastle, Co. Meath: Gallery Press, 1994.
• Mysteries of the Home: A Selection of Poems. Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books, 1996.
• Dharmakaya. Carcanet: Manchester, 2000. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 2001.
• Six Sycamores. With Marie Foley, sculpture and drawings. Belfast: Crowquill, 2004.
• Three Irish Poets: an anthology. Paula Meehan, Mary O'Malley, Eavan Boland. Edited by Eavan Boland. Manchester: Carcanet, 2003.
• Painting Rain. Manchester: Carcanet, 2009. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 2009.

Plays[link]

• Kirkle. Produced by Team Theatre Company. Dalkey School Project, Dalkey, Co. Dublin, 1995.
• The Voyage, Produced by the Team Educational Theatre Company of Dublin, The Ark, 1997.
• Mrs. Sweeney, in Rough Magic: First Plays. Edited by Siobhan Bourke, Dublin: New Island Books, 1999. Produced by Rough Magic Company, Dublin, 1997.
• Cell: a play in two parts for four actors and a voice. Dublin: New Island Books, 2000. Produced by Calypso Company, Dublin, 1999.
• Janey Mac is Going to Die. Dramatic monologue (28 mins). RTÉ Radio 1, 2001. Repeat 2002.
• The Wolf of Winter. Produced by the Abbey Company: Abbey Theatre of Dublin, 2003.
• Wuthering Heights. Two hour adaptation of the novel for RTÉ Radio 1, 2003. Repeat March 2004.
• The Lover. Dramatic monologue (35 mins) RTÉ Radio 1 January 2005.
• Threehander. One hour radio play, RTÉ Radio, 2005.
• Music for Dogs: Three radio plays. Dublin: Dedalus Press, 2008.

Other[link]

Paula Meehan has also written poetry for film, for contemporary dance companies and for collaborations with visual artists; her poems have been put to music by songwriters (including Christy Moore) and composers.^[3] Her poetry has been extensively published in translation, including substantial collections in French and German.^[4]

Awards[link]

• Arts Council Bursaries in Literature (1987, 1990)
• The Martin Toonder Award for Literature (1995)
• Elected Member of Aosdána (1996)
• The Butler Literary Award for Poetry presented by the Irish American Cultural Institute (1998)
• Denis Devlin Memorial Award for Dharmakaya (2001)
• PPI Award for Radio Drama, Best Play (2005)

Bibliography[link]

• Paula Meehan: A Selected Bibliography by Jody Allen Randolph (2009)

Interviews[link]

• "The Body Politic: Paula Meehan in Conversation with Jody Allen Randolph" (2009)
• Paula Meehan: Working with Metal. Documentary Film (15 min). Crowley, Elaine, Dir. Institute of Art, Design and Technology (2009).
• “‘Playing with the Ghosts of Words’: An Interview with Paula Meehan.” Luz Mar González Arias.(1999)

Further Reading[link]

• Allen Randolph, Jody, ed. An Sionnach: Special Issue: Paula Meehan. Double Issue. An Sionnach 5.1 and 5.2 (Bealtaine/Spring and Samhain/Fall 2009).
• Allen Randolph, Jody. "Text and Context: Paula Meehan."
• Auge, Andrew. "The Apparitions of “Our Lady of the Facts of Life”: Paula Meehan and the Visionary Quotidian."
• Boland, Eavan. "Unfinished Business: The Communal Art of Paula Meehan."
• Collins, Lucy. "A Way of Going Back: Memory and Estrangement in the Poetry of Paula Meehan."
• Falci, Eric. "Meehan’s Stanzas and the Irish Lyric After Yeats."
• Fogarty, Anne. "'Hear Me and Have Pity': Rewriting Elegy in the Poetry of Paula Meehan."
• González Arias, Luz Mar. "'In Dublin’s Fair City'—Citified Embodiments in Paula Meehan."
• Holdridge, Jefferson. "The Wolf Tree: Culture and Nature in Dharmakaya and Painting Rain."
• Denn Jackson, Eileen. "The Lyricism of Abjection in Paula Meehan’s Drama of Imprisonment."
• Kirkpatrick, Kathryn. "'A Murmuration of Starlings in a Rowan Tree': Finding Gary Snyder in Paula Meehan’s Eco-Political Poetics."
• McCarthy, Thomas. "'None of us well fixed' – Empathy and its Aesthetic Power in Paula Meehan’s Poetry."
• McMullen, Kim. "'Snatch a song from a stranger’s mouth': The Stage Plays and Radio Dramas of Paula Meehan."
• Mulhall, Anne. "Memory, Poetry and Recovery: Paula Meehan’s Transformational Aesthetics."
• O’Malley, Mary. "City Centre."
• Poloczek, Katarzyna. "'Sharing Our Differences': Individuality and Community in the Early Work of Paula Meehan."
• Schrage-Früh, Michaela. "Transforming that Past”: The Healing Power of Dreams in Paula Meehan’s Poetry."
• Tortora-Lee, Karen. Review of The Cell. Dir. John Keating. The Fab Marquee. 18 Sep. 2009.
• Villar-Argáiz, Pilar. "'Act Locally, Think Globally': Paula Meehan’s Local Commitment and Global Consciousness."

External links[link]

• Paula Meehan's page at Carcanet Press
• Paula Meehan's page at Wake Forest University Press
• Review of Cell
• Poetry International site with several poems
• 2009 video of Paula Meehan reading her poems

References[link]

William Butler Yeats ( /ˈjeɪts/ YAYTS; 13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and others, founded the Abbey Theatre, where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honoured^[1] for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).^[2] Yeats was a very good friend of Indian Bengali poet Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Yeats was born and educated in Dublin, but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889 and those slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.

Life[link]

Early years[link]

An Anglo-Irishman,^[3] William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount, County Dublin, Ireland.^[4] His father, John Butler Yeats (1839–1922), was a descendant of Jervis Yeats, a Williamite soldier and linen merchant who died in 1712.^[5] Jervis' grandson Benjamin married Mary Butler, daughter of a landed family in County Kildare. At the time of his marriage, John Yeats was studying law but abandoned his studies to study art at Heatherley's Art School in London.^[6] His mother, Susan Mary Pollexfen, came from a wealthy merchant family in the county town Sligo, County Sligo, who owned a milling and shipping business. Soon after William's birth the family relocated to the Pollexfen home at Merville, Sligo to stay with her extended family, and the young poet came to think of the area as his childhood and spiritual home. Its landscape became, over time, both literally and symbolically, his "country of the heart".^[7] The Butler Yeats family were highly artistic; his brother Jack became an esteemed painter, while his sisters Elizabeth and Susan Mary—known to family and friends as Lollie and Lily—became involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement.^[8]

Yeats grew up as a member of the former Protestant Ascendancy at the time undergoing a crisis of identity. While his family was broadly supportive of the changes Ireland was experiencing, the nationalist revival of the late 19th century directly disadvantaged his heritage, and informed his outlook for the remainder of his life. In 1997, his biographer R. F. Foster observed that Napoleon's dictum that to understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty "is manifestly true of W.B.Y."^[9] Yeats' childhood and young adulthood were shadowed by the power shift away from the minority Protestant Ascendancy. The 1880s saw the rise of Parnell and the Home rule movement; the 1890s saw the momentum of nationalism, while the Catholics became prominent around the turn of the century. These developments were to have a profound effect on his poetry, and his subsequent explorations of Irish identity had a significant influence on the creation of his country's biography.^[10]

In 1867, the family moved to England to aid their father, John, to further his career as an artist. At first the Yeats children were educated at home. Their mother entertained them with stories and Irish folktales. John provided an erratic education in geography and chemistry, and took William on natural history explorations of the nearby Slough countryside.^[11] On 26 January 1877, the young poet entered the Godolphin school,^[12] which he attended for four years. He did not distinguish himself academically, and an early school report describes his performance as "only fair. Perhaps better in Latin than in any other subject. Very poor in spelling."^[13] Though he had difficulty with mathematics and languages (possibly because Yeats was tone deaf,^[14]) he was fascinated by biology and zoology. For financial reasons, the family returned to Dublin toward the end of 1880, living at first in the suburb of Harold's Cross^[15] and later in the suburb of Howth. In October 1881, Yeats resumed his education at Dublin's Erasmus Smith High School.^[16] His father's studio was located nearby and William spent a great deal of time there, and met many of the city's artists and writers. It was during this period that he started writing poetry, and, in 1885, Yeats' first poems, as well as an essay entitled "The Poetry of Sir Samuel Ferguson", were published in the Dublin University Review. Between 1884 and 1886, William attended the Metropolitan School of Art—now the National College of Art and Design—in Thomas Street.^[4] His first known works were written when he was seventeen, and included a poem—heavily influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley—that describes a magician who set up a throne in central Asia. Other pieces from this period include a draft of a play about a Bishop, a monk, and a woman accused of paganism by local shepherds, as well as love-poems and narrative lyrics on medieval German knights. The early works were both conventional and, according to the critic Charles Johnston, "utterly unIrish", seeming to come out of a "vast murmurous gloom of dreams".^[17] Although Yeats' early works drew heavily on Shelley, Edmund Spenser, and on the diction and colouring of pre-Raphaelite verse, he soon turned to Irish mythology and folklore and the writings of William Blake. In later life, Yeats paid tribute to Blake by describing him as one of the "great artificers of God who uttered great truths to a little clan".^[18] In 1891, Yeats published "John Sherman" and "Dhoya", one a novella, the other a story. The two were re-published together in 1990 by The Lilliput Press in Dublin.

Young poet[link]

Balscadden House in Leinster, Ireland, where Yeats lived from 1880-83

The family returned to London in 1887. In 1890, Yeats co-founded the Rhymers' Club with Ernest Rhys,^[19] a group of London based poets who met regularly in a Fleet Street tavern to recite their verse. The collective later became known as the "Tragic Generation"^[20] and published two anthologies, first in 1892 and again in 1894. He collaborated with Edwin Ellis on the first complete edition of William Blake's works, in the process rediscovering a forgotten poem "Vala, or, the Four Zoas".^[21] In a late essay on Shelley, Yeats wrote, "I have re-read Prometheus Unbound... and it seems to me to have an even more certain place than I had thought among the sacred books of the world."^[22]

1900 portrait by John Butler Yeats

Yeats had a life-long interest in mysticism, spiritualism, occultism and astrology. He read extensively on the subjects throughout his life, became a member of the paranormal research organisation "The Ghost Club" (in 1911) and was especially influenced by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.^[23] As early as 1892, he wrote: "If I had not made magic my constant study I could not have written a single word of my Blake book, nor would The Countess Kathleen ever have come to exist. The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write."^[24] His mystical interests—also inspired by a study of Hinduism, under the Theosophist Mohini Chatterjee, and the occult—formed much of the basis of his late poetry. However, some critics have dismissed these influences as lacking in intellectual credibility.

In particular, W. H. Auden criticised this aspect of Yeats' work as the "deplorable spectacle of a grown man occupied with the mumbo-jumbo of magic and the nonsense of India."^[25]

His first significant poem was "The Isle of Statues", a fantasy work that took Edmund Spenser for its poetic model. The piece appeared in Dublin University Review, but has not since been republished. His first solo publication was the pamphlet Mosada: A Dramatic Poem (1886), which comprised a print run of 100 copies paid for by his father. This was followed by the collection The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889), which arranged a series of verse that dated as far back as the mid-1880s. The long title poem contains, in the words of his biographer R.F. Foster, "obscure Gaelic names, striking repetitions [and] an unremitting rhythm subtly varied as the poem proceeded through its three sections";^[26]

We rode in sorrow, with strong hounds three,
Bran, Sgeolan, and Lomair,
On a morning misty and mild and fair.
The mist-drops hung on the fragrant trees,
And in the blossoms hung the bees.
We rode in sadness above Lough Lean,
For our best were dead on Gavra's green.

"The Wanderings of Oisin" is based on the lyrics of the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology and displays the influence of both Sir Samuel Ferguson and the Pre-Raphaelite poets.^[27] The poem took two years to complete and was one of the few works from this period that he did not disown in his maturity. Oisin introduces what was to become one of his most important themes: the appeal of the life of contemplation over the appeal of the life of action. Following the work, Yeats never again attempted another long poem. His other early poems, which are meditations on the themes of love or mystical and esoteric subjects, include Poems (1895), The Secret Rose (1897), and The Wind Among the Reeds (1899).

During 1885, Yeats was involved in the formation of the Dublin Hermetic Order. The society held its first meeting on 16 June, with Yeats acting as its chairman. The same year, the Dublin Theosophical lodge was opened in conjunction with Brahmin Mohini Chatterjee, who travelled from the Theosophical Society in London to lecture. Yeats attended his first séance the following year. He later became heavily involved with the Theosophical Society and with hermeticism, particularly with the eclectic Rosicrucianism of the Golden Dawn. During séances held from 1912, a spirit calling itself "Leo Africanus" apparently claimed it was Yeats' Daemon or anti-self, inspiring some of the speculations in Per Amica Silentia Lunae.^[28] He was admitted into the Golden Dawn in March 1890 and took the magical motto Daemon est Deus inversus—translated as Devil is God inverted or A demon is a god reflected.^[29] He was an active recruiter for the sect's Isis-Urania temple, and brought in his uncle George Pollexfen, Maud Gonne, and Florence Farr. Although he reserved a distaste for abstract and dogmatic religions founded around personality cults, he was attracted to the type of people he met at the Golden Dawn.^[30] He was involved in the Order's power struggles, both with Farr and Macgregor Mathers, but was most notably involved when Mathers sent Aleister Crowley to repossess Golden Dawn paraphernalia during the "Battle of Blythe Road". After the Golden Dawn ceased and splintered into various offshoots, Yeats remained with the Stella Matutina until 1921.^[31]

Maud Gonne[link]

In 1889, Yeats met Maud Gonne, then a 23-year-old heiress and ardent Nationalist.^[32] Gonne was eighteen months younger than Yeats and later claimed she met the poet as a "paint-stained art student."^[33] Gonne had admired "The Isle of Statues" and sought out his acquaintance. Yeats developed an obsessive infatuation with her beauty and outspoken manner, and she was to have a significant and lasting effect on his poetry and his life thereafter.^[34]

Maud Gonne c. 1900

W.B. Yeats (no date)

In later years he admitted, "it seems to me that she [Gonne] brought into my life those days—for as yet I saw only what lay upon the surface—the middle of the tint, a sound as of a Burmese gong, an over-powering tumult that had yet many pleasant secondary notes."^[35] Yeats' love initially remained unrequited, in part due to his reluctance to participate in her nationalist activism.^[36]

His only other love affair during this period was with Olivia Shakespear, whom he had first met in 1896, and parted with one year later. In 1891, he visited Gonne in Ireland and proposed marriage, but was rejected. He later admitted that from that point "the troubling of my life began".^[37] Yeats proposed to Gonne three more times: in 1899, 1900 and 1901. She refused each proposal, and in 1903, to his horror, married the Irish nationalist Major John MacBride.^[38]

There were two main reasons why Yeats was so horrified. To lose his muse to another made him look silly before the public. Yeats naturally hated MacBride and continually sought to deride and demean him both in his letters and his poetry. The second reason Yeats was horrified was linked to the fact of Maud's conversion to Catholicism, which Yeats despised. He thought his muse would come under the influence of the priests and do their bidding.^[39] The marriage, as forecast by both their sets of friends and relations was an early disaster. This pleased Yeats as Maud began to visit him in London. After the birth of her son, Seán MacBride, in 1904, she and MacBride agreed to end the marriage, although they were unable to agree on the child's welfare. Despite the use of intermediaries, a divorce case ensued in Paris in 1905. Maud made a series of allegations against her husband with Yeats as her main 'second' though he did not attend court or travel to France. A divorce was not granted as the only accusation that held up in court was that MacBride had been drunk once during the marriage. A separation was granted with Maud having custody of the baby with John having visiting rights.^[40] Yeats' friendship with Gonne persisted, and, in Paris, in 1908, they finally consummated their relationship. "The long years of fidelity rewarded at last" was how another of his lovers described the event. Yeats was less sentimental and later remarked that "the tragedy of sexual intercourse is the perpetual virginity of the soul."^[37] The relationship did not develop into a new phase after their night together, and soon afterwards Gonne wrote to the poet indicating that despite the physical consummation, they could not continue as they had been: "I have prayed so hard to have all earthly desire taken from my love for you and dearest, loving you as I do, I have prayed and I am praying still that the bodily desire for me may be taken from you too."^[41] By January 1909, Gonne was sending Yeats letters praising the advantage given to artists who abstain from sex. Nearly twenty years later, Yeats recalled the night with Gonne in his poem "A Man Young and Old":

My arms are like the twisted thorn
And yet there beauty lay;
The first of all the tribe lay there
And did such pleasure take;
She who had brought great Hector down
And put all Troy to wreck.

In 1896, Yeats was introduced to Lady Gregory by their mutual friend Edward Martyn. Gregory encouraged Yeats' nationalism, and convinced him to continue focusing on writing drama. Although he was influenced by French Symbolism, Yeats concentrated on an identifiably Irish content and this inclination was reinforced by his involvement with a new generation of younger and emerging Irish authors. Together with Lady Gregory, Martyn, and other writers including J. M. Synge, Seán O'Casey, and Padraic Colum, Yeats was one of those responsible for the establishment of the "Irish Literary Revival" movement.^[42] Apart from these creative writers, much of the impetus for the Revival came from the work of scholarly translators who were aiding in the discovery of both the ancient sagas and Ossianic poetry and the more recent folk song tradition in Irish. One of the most significant of these was Douglas Hyde, later the first President of Ireland, whose Love Songs of Connacht was widely admired.

Abbey Theatre[link]

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of W. B. Yeats, 1908

In 1899, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and George Moore established the Irish Literary Theatre for the purpose of performing Irish and Celtic plays.^[43] The ideals of the Abbey were derived from the avant-garde French theatre, which sought to express the "ascendancy of the playwright rather than the actor-manager à l'anglais."^[44][45] The group's manifesto, which Yeats wrote, declared, "We hope to find in Ireland an uncorrupted & imaginative audience trained to listen by its passion for oratory ... & that freedom to experiment which is not found in the theatres of England, & without which no new movement in art or literature can succeed."^[46]

The collective survived for about two years but was not successful. Working with two Irish brothers with theatrical experience, William and Frank Fay, Yeats's unpaid yet independently wealthy secretary Annie Horniman, and the leading West End actress Florence Farr, the group established the Irish National Theatre Society. Along with Synge, they acquired property in Dublin and on 27 December 1904 opened the Abbey Theatre. Yeats's play Cathleen Ní Houlihan and Lady Gregory's Spreading the News were featured on the opening night. Yeats remained involved with the Abbey until his death, both as a member of the board and a prolific playwright. In 1902, he helped set up the Dun Emer Press to publish work by writers associated with the Revival. This became the Cuala Press in 1904, and inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement, sought to "find work for Irish hands in the making of beautiful things."^[47] From then until its closure in 1946, the press—which was run by the poet's sisters—produced over 70 titles; 48 of them books by Yeats himself.

In 1909, Yeats met the American poet Ezra Pound. Pound had travelled to London at least partly to meet the older man, whom he considered "the only poet worthy of serious study."^[48] From that year until 1916, the two men wintered in the Stone Cottage at Ashdown Forest, with Pound nominally acting as Yeats's secretary. The relationship got off to a rocky start when Pound arranged for the publication in the magazine Poetry of some of Yeats's verse with Pound's own unauthorised alterations. These changes reflected Pound's distaste for Victorian prosody. A more indirect influence was the scholarship on Japanese Noh plays that Pound had obtained from Ernest Fenollosa's widow, which provided Yeats with a model for the aristocratic drama he intended to write. The first of his plays modelled on Noh was At the Hawk's Well, the first draft of which he dictated to Pound in January 1916.^[49]

The emergence of a nationalist revolutionary movement from the ranks of the mostly Roman Catholic lower-middle and working class made Yeats reassess some of his attitudes. In the refrain of "Easter, 1916" ("All changed, changed utterly / A terrible beauty is born"), Yeats faces his own failure to recognise the merits of the leaders of the Easter Rising, due to his attitude towards their humble backgrounds and lives.^[50]

Politics[link]

Undeniably, Yeats was intrinsically an Irish Nationalist at heart, looking for a more simplistic and traditional lifestyle; one that is displayed through his poems such as 'The Fisherman'. However, as his life progressed he sheltered much of his revolutionary spirit and distanced himself from the intense political landscape until 1922, when he was appointed Senator for the Irish Free State.^[51]

In the earlier part of his life, Yeats was a member of the primitive IRA, desperate to return to an independent Irish state. Indeed these views continued throughout his life as he associated himself with other key political figures such as Eva Gore Booth. However, due to the escalating tension of the political scene Yeats distanced himself from the core political activism in the midst of the Easter Rising, even holding back his poetry inspired by the events until 1920. Perhaps then, it must be said although Yeats was intrinsically a nationalist, he had a deeper desire to live simply.

Marriage to Georgie[link]

By 1916, Yeats was 51 years old and determined to marry and produce an heir. John MacBride had been executed by British forces for his role in the 1916 Easter Rising, and Yeats thought that his widow might remarry.^[52] His final proposal to Maud Gonne took place in the summer of 1916.^[53] Gonne's history of revolutionary political activism, as well as a series of personal catastrophes in the previous few years of her life, including chloroform addiction and her troubled marriage to MacBride made her a potentially unsuitable wife^[37] and biographer R.F. Foster has observed that Yeats' last offer was motivated more by a sense of duty than by a genuine desire to marry her.

Yeats photographed in 1908 by Alvin Langdon Coburn

Yeats proposed in an indifferent manner, with conditions attached, and he both expected and hoped she would turn him down. According to Foster "when he duly asked Maud to marry him, and was duly refused, his thoughts shifted with surprising speed to her daughter." Iseult Gonne was Maud's second child with Lucien Millevoye, and at the time was twenty-one years old. She had lived a sad life to this point; conceived as an attempt to reincarnate her short-lived brother, for the first few years of her life, she was presented as her mother's adopted niece. When Maud told her that she was going to marry, Iseult cried and told her mother that she hated MacBride.^[54] At fifteen, she proposed to Yeats. A few months after the poet's approach to Maud, he proposed to Iseult, but was rejected.

That September, Yeats proposed to 25-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees (1892–1968), whom he had met through Olivia Shakespear. Despite warning from her friends—"George ... you can't. He must be dead"—Hyde-Lees accepted, and the two were married on 20 October.^[37] Their marriage was a success, in spite of the age difference, and in spite of Yeats' feelings of remorse and regret during their honeymoon. The couple went on to have two children, Anne and Michael. Although in later years he had romantic relationships with other women and possibly affairs, George herself wrote to her husband "When you are dead, people will talk about your love affairs, but I shall say nothing, for I will remember how proud you were."^[55]

During the first years of his marriage, he and George experimented with automatic writing, and George contacted a variety of spirits and guides they called "Instructors." The spirits communicated a complex and esoteric system of characters and history, which the couple developed during experiments with the circumstances of trance and the exposition of phases, cones, and gyres.^{[clarification needed]} The spirits notified George that they were ready to communicate by filling the Yeats's house with the scent of mint leaves.^[56] Yeats devoted much time to preparing this material for publication as A Vision (1925). In 1924, he wrote to his publisher T. Werner Laurie admitting: "I dare say I delude myself in thinking this book my book of books".^[57]

Nobel Prize[link]

In December 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was determined to make the most of the occasion. He was aware of the symbolic value of an Irish winner so soon after Ireland had gained independence, and sought to highlight the fact at each available opportunity. His reply to many of the letters of congratulations sent to him contained the words: "I consider that this honour has come to me less as an individual than as a representative of Irish literature, it is part of Europe's welcome to the Free State."^[58] Yeats used the occasion of his acceptance lecture at the Royal Academy of Sweden to present himself as a standard-bearer of Irish nationalism and Irish cultural independence. As he remarked, "The theatres of Dublin were empty buildings hired by the English travelling companies, and we wanted Irish plays and Irish players. When we thought of these plays we thought of everything that was romantic and poetical, because the nationalism we had called up—the nationalism every generation had called up in moments of discouragement—was romantic and poetical."^[59] The prize led to a significant increase in the sales of his books, as his publishers Macmillan sought to capitalise on the publicity. For the first time he had money, and he was able to repay not only his own debts, but those of his father.^[60]

Old age and death[link]

Walter de la Mare, Bertha Georgie Yeats (née Hyde-Lees), William Butler Yeats, unknown woman, summer 1930; photo by Lady Ottoline Morrell

By early 1925, Yeats' health had stabilised, and he had completed most of the writing for "A Vision" (dated 1925, it actually appeared in January 1926, when he almost immediately started rewriting it for a second version). He had been appointed to the first Irish Senate in 1922, and was re-appointed for a second term in 1925.^[61] Early in his tenure, a debate on divorce arose, and Yeats viewed the issue as primarily a confrontation between the emerging Roman Catholic ethos and the Protestant minority.^[62] When the Roman Catholic Church weighed in with a blanket refusal to consider their anti position, the Irish Times countered that a measure to outlaw divorce would alienate Protestants and "crystallise" the partition of Northern Ireland.

In response, Yeats delivered a series of speeches that attacked the "quixotically impressive" ambitions of the government and clergy, likening their campaign tactics to those of "medieval Spain."^[63] "Marriage is not to us a Sacrament, but, upon the other hand, the love of a man and woman, and the inseparable physical desire, are sacred. This conviction has come to us through ancient philosophy and modern literature, and it seems to us a most sacrilegious thing to persuade two people who hate each other ... to live together, and it is to us no remedy to permit them to part if neither can re-marry."^[63] The resulting debate has been described as one of Yeats's "supreme public moments", and began his ideological move away from pluralism towards religious confrontation.^[64]

William Butler Yeats, 1933. Unknown photographer. U.S. Library of Congress.

His language became more forceful; the Jesuit Father Peter Finlay was described by Yeats as a man of "monstrous discourtesy", and he lamented that, "It is one of the glories of the Church in which I was born that we have put our Bishops in their place in discussions requiring legislation".^[63] During his time in the Senate, Yeats further warned his colleagues: "If you show that this country, southern Ireland, is going to be governed by Roman Catholic ideas and by Catholic ideas alone, you will never get the North ... You will put a wedge in the midst of this nation".^[65] He memorably said of his fellow Irish Protestants, "we are no petty people".

In 1924, he chaired a coinage committee charged with selecting a set of designs for the first currency of the Irish Free State. Aware of the symbolic power latent in the imagery of a young state's currency, he sought a form that was "elegant, racy of the soil, and utterly unpolitical".^[66] When the house finally decided on the artwork of Percy Metcalfe, Yeats was pleased, though he regretted that compromise had led to "lost muscular tension" in the finally depicted images.^[66] He retired from the Senate in 1928 because of ill health.

Towards the end of his life—and especially after the Wall Street Crash and Great Depression, which led some to question whether democracy could cope with deep economic difficulty—Yeats seems to have returned to his aristocratic sympathies. During the aftermath of the First World War, he became sceptical about the efficacy of democratic government, and anticipated political reconstruction in Europe through totalitarian rule.^[67] His later association with Pound drew him towards Benito Mussolini, for whom he expressed admiration on a number of occasions.^[59] He wrote three "marching songs"—never used—for the Irish General Eoin O'Duffy's Blueshirts.

Yeats's gravestone in Drumcliffe, County Sligo.

After undergoing the Steinach operation in 1934, when aged 69, he found a new vigour evident from both his poetry and his intimate relations with younger women.^[68] During this time, Yeats was involved in a number of romantic affairs with, among others, the poet and actress Margot Ruddock, and the novelist, journalist and sexual radical Ethel Mannin.^[69] As in his earlier life, Yeats found erotic adventure conducive to his creative energy, and, despite age and ill-health, he remained a prolific writer. In a letter of 1935, Yeats noted: "I find my present weakness made worse by the strange second puberty the operation has given me, the ferment that has come upon my imagination. If I write poetry it will be unlike anything I have done".^[70] In 1936, he undertook editorship of the Oxford Book of Modern Verse, 1892–1935.^[38]

He died at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour, in Menton, France, on 28 January 1939.^[4] He was buried after a discreet and private funeral at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Yeats and George had often discussed his death, and his express wish was that he be buried quickly in France with a minimum of fuss. According to George, "His actual words were 'If I die bury me up there [at Roquebrune] and then in a year's time when the newspapers have forgotten me, dig me up and plant me in Sligo'."^[71] In September 1948, Yeats' body was moved to Drumcliffe, County Sligo, on the Irish Naval Service corvette LÉ Macha.^[72] Interestingly, the person in charge of this operation for the Irish Government was Sean MacBride, son of Maud Gonne MacBride, and then Minister of External Affairs.^[73] His epitaph is taken from the last lines of "Under Ben Bulben", one of his final poems:

Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death.
Horseman, pass by!

Attempts had been made at Roquebrune to dissuade the family from proceeding with the removal of the remains to Ireland due to the uncertainty of their identity. His body had earlier been exhumed and transferred to the ossuary.^[74]

Style[link]

Yeats is generally considered one of the twentieth century's key English language poets. He was a Symbolist poet, in that he used allusive imagery and symbolic structures throughout his career. Yeats chose words and assembled them so that, in addition to a particular meaning, they suggest other abstract thoughts that may seem more significant and resonant. His use of symbols^[75] is usually something physical that is both itself and a suggestion of other, perhaps immaterial, timeless qualities.^[76]

Unlike other modernists who experimented with free verse, Yeats was a master of the traditional forms.^[77] The impact of modernism on his work can be seen in the increasing abandonment of the more conventionally poetic diction of his early work in favour of the more austere language and more direct approach to his themes that increasingly characterises the poetry and plays of his middle period, comprising the volumes In the Seven Woods, Responsibilities and The Green Helmet.^[78] His later poetry and plays are written in a more personal vein, and the works written in the last twenty years of his life include mention of his son and daughter,^[79] as well as meditations on the experience of growing old.^[80] In his poem, "The Circus Animals' Desertion", he describes the inspiration for these late works:

Now that my ladder's gone
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.^[81]

During 1929, he stayed at Thoor Ballylee near Gort in County Galway (where Yeats had his summer home since 1919) for the last time. Much of the remainder of his life was lived outside of Ireland, although he did lease Riversdale house in the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham in 1932. He wrote prolifically through his final years, and published poetry, plays, and prose. In 1938, he attended the Abbey for the final time to see the premier of his play Purgatory. His Autobiographies of William Butler Yeats was published that same year.^[82]

While Yeats' early poetry drew heavily on Irish myth and folklore, his later work was engaged with more contemporary issues, and his style underwent a dramatic transformation. His work can be divided into three general periods. The early poems are lushly pre-Raphaelite in tone, self-consciously ornate, and, at times, according to unsympathetic critics, stilted. Yeats began by writing epic poems such as The Isle of Statues and The Wanderings of Oisin.^[83] His other early poems are lyrics on the themes of love or mystical and esoteric subjects. Yeats' middle period saw him abandon the pre-Raphaelite character of his early work^[84] and attempt to turn himself into a Landor-style social ironist.^[85]

Yeats photographed in 1923

Critics who admire his middle work might characterize it as supple and muscular in its rhythms and sometimes harshly modernist, while others find these poems barren and weak in imaginative power. Yeats' later work found new imaginative inspiration in the mystical system he began to work out for himself under the influence of spiritualism. In many ways, this poetry is a return to the vision of his earlier work. The opposition between the worldly-minded man of the sword and the spiritually-minded man of God, the theme of The Wanderings of Oisin, is reproduced in A Dialogue Between Self and Soul.^[86]

Some critics claim that Yeats spanned the transition from the nineteenth century into twentieth-century modernism in poetry much as Pablo Picasso did in painting while others question whether late Yeats really has much in common with modernists of the Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot variety.^[87]

Modernists read the well-known poem The Second Coming as a dirge for the decline of European civilisation in the mode of Eliot, but later critics have pointed out that this poem is an expression of Yeats' apocalyptic mystical theories, and thus the expression of a mind shaped by the 1890s. His most important collections of poetry started with The Green Helmet (1910) and Responsibilities (1914). In imagery, Yeats' poetry became sparer, more powerful as he grew older. The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair (1929), and New Poems (1938) contained some of the most potent images in twentieth-century poetry.

Yeats' mystical inclinations, informed by Hindu Theosophical beliefs and the occult, provided much of the basis of his late poetry,^[88] which some critics have judged as lacking in intellectual credibility. The metaphysics of Yeats' late works must be read in relation to his system of esoteric fundamentals in A Vision (1925).^[89]

His 1920 poem, "The Second Coming" contains some of literature's most potent images of the twentieth century.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.^[90]

Here, Yeats incorporates his ideas on the gyre - a historical cycle of about 2000 years. He first published this idea in his writing 'a vision' which predicted the expected anarchy which would be released around 2000 years after the birth of Christ. Indeed, the whole poem is an antithesis to the reality of Christianity.^{[clarification needed]}

The poem also served as the inspiration for the name of the 1958 novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

According to some interpretations "the best" referred to the traditional ruling classes of Europe who were unable to protect the traditional culture of Europe from materialistic mass movements. The concluding lines also refer to Yeats' belief that history was cyclic, and that his age represented the end of the cycle that began with the rise of Christianity.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?^[91]

Influence[link]

Yeats was an important influence on Máirtín Ó Direáin.^[92]

The title of the album Like a Flame by Frederik Magle is derived from a quote from Yeats' play The Land of Heart's Desire.^[93]

In 2011 The Waterboys released An Appointment with Mr Yeats, an album that contains fourteen tracks, all of which are based upon Yeats' poetry, a long term influence on lead-songwriter Mike Scott.^[94]

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

	Literature portal
	Poetry portal

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Find more about W. B. Yeats on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource

• Works by W. B. Yeats at Project Gutenberg
• The WB Yeats Society of NY
• The National Library of Ireland's exhibition, Yeats: The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats
• The Yeats theatre, an introduction to his life and work
• The 1911 Census return lists W.B. Yeates (sic) and Lady Gregory boarding in South Frederick Street, Dublin
• Yeats' correspondence and other archival records at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center
• Archival material relating to W. B. Yeats listed at the UK National Register of Archives
• Portraits of William Butler Yeats at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Sebastian Barry (born 5 July 1955) is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. He is noted for his dense literary writing style and is considered one of Ireland's finest writers.^[1]

Barry's literary career began in poetry before he began writing plays and novels. In recent years his fiction writing has surpassed his work in the theatre in terms of success, having once been considered a playwright who wrote occasional novels.

He has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his novels A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008), the latter of which won the 2008 Costa Book of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His 2011 novel On Canaan's Side was longlisted for the Booker.

Early life[link]

Barry was born in Dublin. He is the son of the late Irish actress Joan O'Hara. He attended Catholic University School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited Icarus.

Work[link]

His academic posts have included Honorary Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa (1984), Villanova University (2006) and Writer Fellow at Trinity College, Dublin (1995–1996). Barry started his literary career with the novel Macker's Garden in 1982. This was followed by several books of poetry and a further novel The Engine of Owl-Light in 1987 before his career as a playwright began with his first play produced in the Abbey theater, Boss Grady's Boys in 1988.

Barry's maternal great-grandfather, James Dunne, provided the inspiration for the main character in his most internationally known play, The Steward of Christendom. The main character, named Thomas Dunne in the play, was the chief superintendent of the Dublin Metropolitan Police from 1913-1922. He oversaw the area surrounding Dublin Castle until the Irish Free State takeover on 16 January 1922. One of his grandfathers belonged to the British Army Corps of Royal Engineers.

Both The Steward of Christendom and the novel The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, are about the dislocations (physical and otherwise) of loyalist Irish people during the political upheavals of the early 20th century. The title character of the latter (McNulty), for instance, is a young man forced to leave Ireland by his former friends for his political beliefs during the Anglo-Irish War.

He also wrote Hinterland, a satirical play based loosely on former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, the performance of which caused a minor controversy in Dublin. The Sunday Times, which did not review the play, criticized it as "feeble, puerile, trite, dissociated, shallow, exploitative and gratuitously offensive".^[2]

Barry's work in fiction came to the fore during the 1990s. His novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize, and was selected for Dublin's 2007 One City One Book event. ^[3] The novel tells the story of Willie Dunne, a young recruit to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers during the First World War. It brings to life the divided loyalties that many Irish soldiers felt at the time following the Easter Rising in 1916. {Willie Dunne, son of the fictional Thomas Dunne, first appears as a minor but important character in The Steward of Christendom.}

Barry's 2008 novel, The Secret Scripture won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction (announced in August 2009), the oldest such award in the UK, the 2008 Costa Book of the Year (announced January 27, 2009)^[4] and in French translation Le testament caché it won the 2010 Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE.^[5] It was also a favourite to win the 2008 Man Booker Prize, narrowly losing out to Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger.

Sebastian Barry's most recent play is Andersen's English,^[6] and is inspired by children's writer Hans Christian Andersen coming to stay with Charles Dickens and his family in the Kent marshes. Directed by Max Stafford-Clark and produced by Out of Joint and Hampstead Theatre, it toured in the UK from 11 February to 8 May 2010.

On Canaan's Side, Barry's fifth novel, concerns Lily Bere, the sister of the character Willy Dunne from A Long Long Way and the daughter of the character Thomas Dunne from The Steward of Christendom, as she emigrates to the US. The novel was longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize.

Personal life[link]

Barry lives in County Wicklow with his family.

List of works[link]

Poetry

• The Water Colourist (1983)
• The Rhetorical Town (1985)

Fiction

• Mackers Garden (1982)
• The Engine of Owl-Light (1987)
• The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998)
• Annie Dunne (2002)
• A Long Long Way (2005)
• The Secret Scripture (2008)
• On Canaan's Side (2011)

Plays

• The Pentagonal Dream (1986)
• Boss Grady's Boys (1988)
• Prayers of Sherkin (1990)
• White Woman Street (1992)
• The Only True HIstory of Lizzie Finn (1995)
• The Steward of Christendom (1995)
• Our Lady of Sligo (1998)
• Hinterland (2002)
• Whistling Psyche (2004)
• Fred and Jane (2004)
• The Pride of Parnell Street (2008)
• Dallas Sweetman (2008)
• Tales of Ballycumber (2009)
• Andersen's English (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sebastian Barry, Unaffiliated Website
• Sebastian Barry at Contemporary Writers
• Sebastian Barry's Writer's Reflect at the Harry Ransom Center

Anthony Kearns
Kearns performing in June 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Anthony Joseph Kearns
Born	(1971-08-17) August 17, 1971 (age 40)
Origin	Kiltealy, County Wexford, Ireland
Genres	Opera, Irish, Classical
Occupations	Singer, performer
Associated acts	The Irish Tenors, Ronan Tynan, Finbar Wright, John McDermott

Anthony Kearns (born 17 August 1971, Kiltealy, County Wexford, Ireland) is a founding member of the Irish Tenors, along with Ronan Tynan and John McDermott.

Early career[link]

Anthony Kearns is one of six children in a musical family; as a result, his interest in music came at a very early age. Kearns began singing traditional Irish songs with his family and won many singing competitions in his youth. He spent much of his youth learning the button (double row black dot) accordion (placing in the All-Ireland finals) and various other instruments common in Traditional music. He attended F.C.J. Secondary School Bunclody, singing at their masses and school shows. After leaving school, Kearns studied catering and hotel management, while singing in local musical productions, all the while entering and placing in various singing competitions around the country.^[1]

Kearns achieved success in 1993 after entering a national radio competition, "Ireland's Search for a Tenor" on the Gay Byrne program, a competition to celebrate the issuing of a new ten pound note (called a "tenner.") In magnificent renditions of The Impossible Dream and Danny Boy, Kearns won the competition, leaps ahead of his competitors. One of his prizes was an appearance on Gay Byrne's Late Late Show on TV. After winning the competition, he began training with the renowned Irish opera singer and vocal coach, Veronica Dunne, who was a judge on the show. Kearns then began pursing a full-time career in music.^[2]

Kearns' career took a leap in 1998 when Irish Producer Bill Hughes and PBS joined forces to begin ^[2] The Irish Tenors.[1] Kearns, the founding member of the Irish Tenors, collaborated with Ronan Tyan and John McDermott to net Gold, Platinum, and Double Platinum CD recognitions. The Irish Tenors are in the top 3 highest-grossing clients for PBS, bringing in a whopping $10 million dollars over the course of their lengthy collaboration.

Kearns teamed up with Bill Hughes again for a PBS project called Hallelujah Broadway, filmed in Prague in February 2010.[2] Hallelujah Broadway has since been broadcast on Irish and U.S. television stations, and Hallelujah Broadway concerts have been presented in various cities in the U.S. as well.

Professional Recognition[link]

As a youth, Anthony entered and won countless "All Ireland" singing competitions such as Ceol an Geimhridh, Feis Ceoils, Readoiri, Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, placing and winning often.

While studying with Dr. Dunne, Kearns continued competing in and winning talent competitions, twice winning the prestigious Dermot Troy Trophy for oratorio, as well as Best Male Singer at the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera, and Best Irish Singer at the 1999 ESB Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition.

The prize for Best Male Singer during all Veronica Dunne International Singing Competitions [3] is now presented in Anthony’s name.

Anthony was recognized in 2010 by the Irish Music Association as the Best Irish Tenor in the US, UK, and European Union. He is also a voting member of The Grammy's. ^[3]

Opera and Current Projects[link]

Kearns has made a huge impact on the opera world. His opera credits include: Fenton in an Italian production of Falstaff, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and the title role in Faust for Opera Ireland. The Irish Times said of his performance: "Kearns gets around the notes of Faust quite well. His subtle tonal shading and judicious use of well-supported head voice complements an exciting top register." Kearns also performed Carmen's Don Jose for Ireland's Glasthule Opera. The Irish Times wrote: "Anthony Kearns proved a top-notch Don José, rising to each decisive moment with quality to spare." Anthony performed Don Ottavio in a Lismore Music Festival production of Don Giovanni in June 2011 in Ireland. The British magazine "Opera Now" is quoted: "Anthony Kearns's beautifully spun Il Mio Tesoro was a moment of still beauty in the turmoil."

In the U.S. Kearns has performed the roles of Romeo (Romeo & Juliet: Then and Now), as well as Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) for Opera Naples [FL]. Steffanie Pearce, Opera Naples Founder and Artistic Director, is quoted: "This is a voice-of-the-century voice!" Kearns was invited to sing Alfred in Die Fledermaus for the Emerald City Opera Company in Steamboat Springs, Colorado during the summer of 2011. In February 2012, Kearns reprised his title role of Faust for Opera Naples. Of his performance, Kearns was praised for executing opera’s most carefully crafted High C. Cello Bennett, of Cello Bennett Artists, reported: "Kearns sang with melting lyricism in the aria and love duets, adding dramatic intensity as required by the story and the score, topping his impressive performance off with endless high notes of ravishing beauty." The Naples News is quoted: "Kearns continues to prove he can sing anything lyrically -- and in French, too. As the younger Faust he is a vocal and visual maiden magnet."

To read Anthony's complete and official opera credits use this link. [4]

Kearns works tirelessly for many causes world-wide including countless benefit concerts in the U.S. and Ireland to raise funds for Education and Christian organizations. Among others, he has lent his name and talent to Autism Awareness [5] and works with many organizations who honor and assist U.S. troops. In 2012, he performed to benefit the USO's Operation Enduring Care and sand "God Bless America" during a military tribute at the 137th Preakness Stakes.

Kearns' 2012 Spring Tour ended on stage at the John F. Kennedy Library, in a celebration of the late President's Irish heritage. The Kennedy family traces their ancestry to the same county in which Kearns was born and raised: Wexford. See the entire concert here[6].

Learn More[link]

Anthony Kearns's professional quotes and reviews of performances can be accessed here.[7]

YouTube index of Anthony Kearns's youtube videos here. [8]

Anthony's charity work overview: [9] and notable events overview: [10]

Anthony Kearns draws from an immense and varied repertoire which includes Irish, [11] Classical, [12] and what he fondly calls songs of a golden age.[13]

Anthony Kearns: dozens of interviews with Anthony Kearns from all over the world are found here. [14]

Anthony Kearns: archived print articles and interviews with Anthony Kearns down through the years can be accessed here. [15]

Irish Tenors[link]

Kearns, Tynan and John McDermott were brought together for a concert at the Royal Dublin Society in 1998. The concert was broadcast on the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1999 and the group found itself in huge demand for concerts across the Atlantic and around the world. After the first year of international prominence, McDermott left the group to pursue solo opportunities. He was replaced by Finbar Wright, who has remained with the group. In 2006 Ronan Tynan left and was replaced by another Irish tenor Karl Scully; Tynan returned to the fold in 2010. The Irish Tenors, with Anthony Kearns as the only Tenor to stay with the group from its inception, continues to tour and record; each member also continues with solo projects.^[2] Anthony Kearns's music with the Irish Tenors can be found here [16]

References[link]

http://anthonykearns.net

http://anthonykearns.net/AJKBIO.html

http://www.anthonykearns.net/AJKoperacredits.pdf/

http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003200/The-Irish-Tenors.html

http://www.cmientertainment.com/Kearns.html

http://hallelujahbroadway.com

http://homepage.eircom.net/~skelton/Kearns/Interview.htm

http://www.theirishtenorsmusic.com/

External links[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2010)

• Anthony Kearns official website
• http://anthonykearns.net/
• http://wexford.org/Benefit_concerts.html
• http://www.cmientertainment.com/Kearns.html
• http://www.operanaples.org/2010_2011_shows/at_lucia_jan2011_review1.html
• http://www.operanaples.com/2011-2012%20shows/at_faust_feb2012.html
• http://www.theirishtenorsmusic.com/
• http://homepage.eircom.net/~skelton/Kearns/Interview.htm
• http://www.anthonykearnsmusic.com/
• http://anthonykearns.com/

Anthony's most current and authorized information including his accurate touring schedule, current media, audios & videos, can always be accessed on his official website at [17].

The Irish Tenors current schedule can be accessed on their website at [18]