Irish literature
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Irish literature is literature written in the
The English language was introduced to Ireland in the 13th century, following the
What is often termed the Anglo-Irish literary tradition[3] found its first great exponents in Richard Head and Jonathan Swift, followed by Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Other Irish writers in English include Mary Tighe, Thady Connellan, Arthur Murphy, John O'Keeffe, Nicholas Brady, Sydney, Lady Morgan, Edmond Malone, Hugh Kelly, Matthew Concanen, Anne Donnellan, Samuel Madden and Thomas Dermody.
The descendants of Scottish settlers in Ulster maintained an Ulster-Scots writing tradition, having an especially strong tradition of rhyming poetry.[citation needed]
At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, Irish literature in English benefited from the work of such authors as Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Elizabeth Bowen, C. S. Lewis, Kate O'Brien and George Bernard Shaw, not all of whom stayed in Ireland.[citation needed]
Though English was the dominant Irish literary language in the 20th century, works of high quality were also produced in
Most attention has been given to Irish writers who wrote in English and who were at the forefront of the modernist movement, notably James Joyce, whose novel Ulysses is considered one of the most influential works of the century. The playwright Samuel Beckett, in addition to a large amount of prose fiction, wrote a number of important plays, including Waiting for Godot. Several Irish writers have excelled at short story writing, in particular Edna O'Brien, Frank O'Connor, Lord Dunsany and William Trevor. Other notable Irish writers from the twentieth century include poets Eavan Boland and Patrick Kavanagh, dramatists Tom Murphy and Brian Friel, and novelists Edna O'Brien and John McGahern. In the late twentieth century, Irish poets, especially those from Northern Ireland, came to prominence including Derek Mahon, Medbh McGuckian, John Montague, Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon. Influential works of writing continue to emerge in Northern Ireland with huge success such as Anna Burns, Sinéad Morrissey, and Lisa McGee.
Well-known Irish writers in English in the twenty-first century include
The Middle Ages: 500–1500
Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in western Europe (after Greek and Latin).[4][5]
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. These inscriptions are mostly simple "x son of y" statements. The introduction of Latin led to the adaptation of the Latin alphabet to the Irish language and the rise of a small literate class, both clerical and lay.[6][7]
The earliest works of literature produced in Ireland are by Saint Patrick; his Confessio and Epistola, both in Latin.[8] The earliest literature in Irish consisted of lyric poetry and prose sagas set in the distant past. The earliest poetry, composed in the 6th century, illustrates a vivid religious faith or describes the world of nature, and was sometimes written in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. "The Blackbird of Belfast Lough", a fragment of syllabic verse probably dating from the 9th century, has inspired reinterpretations and translations in modern times by John Montague, John Hewitt, Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, and Thomas Kinsella, as well as a version into modern Irish by Tomás Ó Floinn.[9]
The
The Annals of Ulster (Irish: Annála Uladh) cover years from AD 431 to AD 1540 and were compiled in the territory of what is now Northern Ireland: entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne. The Ulster Cycle written in the 12th century, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Down and Louth. The stories are written in Old and Middle Irish, mostly in prose, interspersed with occasional verse passages. The language of the earliest stories is dateable to the 8th century, and events and characters are referred to in poems dating to the 7th.[10]
After the Old Irish period, there is a vast range of poetry from medieval and Renaissance times. By degrees the Irish created a classical tradition in their own language. 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.[11]
Medieval Irish writers also created an extensive literature in Latin: this Hiberno-Latin literature was notable for its learned vocabulary, including a greater use of loanwords from Greek and Hebrew than was common in medieval Latin elsewhere in Europe.
The literary Irish 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]
Women were largely excluded from the official literature, though female aristocrats could be patrons in their own right. An example is the 15th century noblewoman Mairgréag Ní Cearbhaill, praised by the learned for her hospitality.[15] 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.[16]
Prose continued to be cultivated in the medieval 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.[17]
Irish poets also composed the
Irish mythological and legendary saga cycles
Early Irish literature is usually arranged in four epic cycles. These cycles are considered to contain a series of recurring characters and locations.
Second is the Ulster Cycle, mentioned above, also known as the Red Branch Cycle or the Heroic Cycle. This cycle contains tales of the conflicts between Ulster and Connacht during the legendary reigns of King Conchobar mac Nessa in Ulster and Medb and Ailill in Connacht. The chief saga of the Ulster cycle is Táin Bó Cúailnge, the so-called "Iliad of the Gael,".[21] Other recurring characters include Cú Chulainn, a figure comparable to the Greek hero Achilles, known for his terrifying battle frenzy, or ríastrad,[22] Fergus and Conall Cernach. Emain Macha and Cruachan are the chief locations. The cycle is set around the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD, with the death of Conchobar being set at the same day as the Crucifixion.[23]
Third is a body of romance woven round
Fourth is the
Unusually among European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prosimetrum, i.e. prose, with verse interpolations expressing heightened emotion. Although usually found in manuscripts of later periods, many of these works contain language that predates the surviving records, and some of the poetry is significantly older than the complete tales they form a part of. It is thus not unusual to find poetry from the Old Irish period in a tale written in Middle Irish.
While these four cycles are common to readers today they are the invention of modern scholars. There are several tales which do not fit neatly into one category, or not into any category at all. Early Irish writers though of tales in terms of genre's such as Aided (Death-tales), Aislinge (Visions), Cath (Battle-tales), Echtra (Adventures), Immram (Voyages), Táin Bó (Cattle Raids), Tochmarc (Wooings) and Togail (Destructions).[24] As well as Irish mythology there were also adaptations into Middle Irish of Classical mythological tales such as Togail Troí (The Destruction of Troy, adapted from Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia, purportedly by Dares Phrygius),[25] Togail na Tebe (The Destruction of Thebes, from Statius' Thebaid)[26] and Imtheachta Æniasa (from Virgil's Aeneid).[27]
The Early Modern period: 1500–1800
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.[28] This was an age of social and political tension, as expressed by the poet Dáibhí Ó Bruadair and the anonymous authors of Pairliment Chloinne Tomáis, a prose satire on the aspirations of the lower classes.[29] Prose of another sort was represented by the historical works of Geoffrey Keating (Seathrún Céitinn) and the compilation known as the Annals of the Four Masters.
The consequences of these changes were seen in the 18th century. Poetry was still the dominant literary medium and its practitioners were often poor scholars, educated in the classics at local schools and schoolmasters by trade. Such writers produced polished work 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 Rathaille of Sliabh Luachra. 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.[30]
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.[31]
There is little evidence of female literacy for this period, but women were of great importance in the oral tradition. They were the main composers of traditional laments. The most famous of these 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.[32] Compositions of this sort were not committed to writing until collected in the 19th century.
The manuscript tradition
Reformation-era literature |
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Well after the introduction of printing to Ireland, works in Irish continued to be disseminated in manuscript form. The first printed book in Ireland was the Book of Common Prayer.[33]
Access to the printing press was hindered in the 1500s and 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.[34]
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, since the contents were read aloud at local gatherings. This was still the case in the late 19th century in Irish-speaking districts.[35]
Manuscripts were often taken abroad, particularly to America. In the 19th century, many of these were collected by individuals or cultural institutions.[36]
The Irish English tradition (1): In the 18th century
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), a powerful and versatile satirist, was Ireland's first earliest notable writer in English. Swift held positions of authority in both England and Ireland at different times. Many of Swift's works reflected support for Ireland during times of political turmoil with England, including Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier's Letters (1724), and A Modest Proposal (1729), and earned him the status of an Irish patriot.[37]
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. He is best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770), and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man (1768) and She Stoops to Conquer (1771, first performed in 1773). Edmund Burke (1729–1797) was born in Dublin and came to serve in the House of Commons of Great Britain on behalf of the Whig Party, and establish a reputation in his oratory and published works for great philosophical clarity as well as a lucid literary style.
Literature in Ulster Scots (1): In the 18th century
Scots, mainly Gaelic-speaking, had been settling in Ulster since the 15th century, but large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, arrived during the 17th century following the 1610 Plantation, with the peak reached during the 1690s.[38] In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one.[39]
In Ulster Scots-speaking areas the work of Scottish poets, such as
These weaver poets looked to Scotland for their cultural and literary models but were not simple imitators. They were inheritors of the same literary tradition and followed the same poetic and orthographic practices; it is not always immediately possible to distinguish between traditional Scots writing from Scotland and Ulster. Among the rhyming weavers were James Campbell (1758–1818), James Orr (1770–1816), Thomas Beggs (1749–1847).
The Modern period: from 1800
In the 19th century English was well on 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
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 English was given primacy. 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.[42] He was preceded by James Hardiman, who in 1831 had published the first comprehensive attempt to collect popular poetry in Irish.[43] These and other attempts supplied a bridge between the literatures of the two languages.
The Anglo-Irish tradition (2)
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
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), born and educated in Ireland, spent the latter half of his life in England. 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
Literature in Irish
There was a resurgence of interest in the Irish language in the late 19th century with the
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
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 (1922-2021) 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. Flann O'Brien (1911–66), from Northern Ireland, published an Irish language novel An Béal Bocht under the name Myles na gCopaleen.
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.
Literature in Ulster Scots (2)
In Ulster Scots-speaking areas there was traditionally a considerable demand for the work of Scottish poets, such as
Among the rhyming weavers were James Campbell (1758–1818), James Orr (1770–1816), Thomas Beggs (1749–1847), David Herbison (1800–1880), Hugh Porter (1780–1839) and Andrew McKenzie (1780–1839). Scots was also used in the narrative by novelists such as W. G. Lyttle (1844–1896) and Archibald McIlroy (1860–1915). By the middle of the 19th century the Kailyard school of prose had become the dominant literary genre, overtaking poetry. This was a tradition shared with Scotland which continued into the early 20th century.[40]
A somewhat diminished tradition of vernacular poetry survived into the 20th century in the work of poets such as Adam Lynn, author of the 1911 collection Random Rhymes frae Cullybackey, John Stevenson (died 1932), writing as "Pat M'Carty"[45] and John Clifford (1900–1983) from East Antrim.[45] A prolific writer and poet,
The polarising effects of the politics of the use of English and Irish language traditions limited academic and public interest until the studies of John Hewitt from the 1950s onwards. Further impetus was given by more generalised exploration of non-"Irish" and non-"English" cultural identities in the latter decades of the 20th century.
In the late 20th century the
Philip Robinson's (1946– ) writing has been described as verging on "post-modern kailyard".[47] He has produced a trilogy of novels Wake the Tribe o Dan (1998), The Back Streets o the Claw (2000) and The Man frae the Ministry (2005), as well as story books for children Esther, Quaen o tha Ulidian Pechts and Fergus an tha Stane o Destinie, and two volumes of poetry Alang the Shore (2005) and Oul Licht, New Licht (2009).[48]
A team in Belfast has begun translating portions of the Bible into Ulster Scots. The Gospel of Luke was published in 2009.
Irish literature in English (20th century)
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2013) |
The poet
A group of early 20th-century Irish poets worth noting are those associated with the
Irish poetic Modernism took its lead not from Yeats but from Joyce. The 1930s saw the emergence of a generation of writers who engaged in experimental writing as a matter of course. The best known of these is Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Beckett's poetry, while not inconsiderable, is not what he is best known for. The most significant of the second generation Modernist Irish poets who first published in the 1920s and 1930s include Brian Coffey (1905–1995), Denis Devlin (1908–1959), Thomas MacGreevy (1893–1967), Blanaid Salkeld (1880–1959), and Mary Devenport O'Neill (1879–1967).[57]
While Yeats and his followers wrote about an essentially aristocratic Gaelic Ireland, the reality was that the actual Ireland of the 1930s and 1940s was a society of small farmers and shopkeepers. Inevitably, a generation of poets who rebelled against the example of Yeats, but who were not Modernist by inclination, emerged from this environment. Patrick Kavanagh (1904–1967), who came from a small farm, wrote about the narrowness and frustrations of rural life.[58] A new generation of poets emerged from the late 1950s onward, which included Anthony Cronin, Pearse Hutchinson, John Jordan, and Thomas Kinsella, most of whom were based in Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s. In Dublin a number of new literary magazines were founded in the 1960s; Poetry Ireland, Arena, The Lace Curtain, and in the 1970s, Cyphers.
Though the novels of
Joyce's high
The big house novel prospered into the 20th century, and Aidan Higgins' (1927–2015) first novel Langrishe, Go Down (1966) is an experimental example of the genre. More conventional exponents include Elizabeth Bowen (1899–73) and Molly Keane (1904–96) (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 (1890–1963) to John McGahern (1934–2006). Other notable novelists of the late 20th and early 21st century include John Banville, Sebastian Barry, Seamus Deane, Dermot Healy, Jennifer Johnston, Patrick McCabe, Edna O'Brien, Colm Tóibín, and William Trevor.
The Irish short story has proved a popular genre, with well-known practitioners including Frank O'Connor, Seán Ó Faoláin, and William Trevor.
A total of four Irish writers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature – W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.
Literature of Northern Ireland
After 1922 Ireland was partitioned into the independent
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) and Louis MacNeice (1907–63) are two writers who were born and raised in Northern Ireland, but whose careers took them to England.
James Fenton's poetry is written in contemporary
The most significant dramatist from Northern Ireland is Brian Friel (1929–2015), from Omagh, County Tyrone,[72][73][74][75] hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov",[76] and "the universally accented voice of Ireland".[77] Friel is best known for plays such as Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Dancing at Lughnasa but has written more than thirty plays in a six-decade spanning career that has seen him elected Saoi of Aosdána. His plays have been a regular feature on Broadway.[78][79][80][81]
Among the most important novelists from Northern Ireland are
, and The Anatomy School. He has also written five acclaimed collections of short stories, the most recent of which is Matters of Life & Death. He has lived in Scotland since 1975.Other noteworthy writers from Northern Ireland include poet
Theatre
The first well-documented instance of a theatrical production in Ireland is a 1601 staging of
The earliest Irish-born dramatists of note were:
In the 19th century, Dion Boucicault (1820–90) was famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the English-speaking theatre. The New York Times heralded him in his obituary as "the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century."[89]
It was in the last decade of the century that the Irish theatre came of age with the establishment in
In 1903 a number of playwrights, actors and staff from several companies went on to form the
Synge's most famous play, The Playboy of the Western World, "caused outrage and riots when it was first performed" in Dublin in 1907.[92] O'Casey was a committed socialist and the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. O'Casey's first accepted play, The Shadow of a Gunman, which is set during the Irish War of Independence, was performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1923. It was followed by Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926). The former deals with the effect of the Irish Civil War on the working class poor of the city, while the latter is set in Dublin in 1916 around the Easter Rising.
The
The twentieth century saw a number of Irish playwrights come to prominence. These included Denis Johnston (1901–84), Samuel Beckett (1906–89), Brendan Behan (1923–64), Hugh Leonard (1926–2009), John B. Keane (1928–2002), Brian Friel (1929–2015), Thomas Kilroy (1934– ), Tom Murphy (1935–2018), and Frank McGuinness (1953– ).
Denis Johnston's most famous plays are The Old Lady Says No! (1929), and The Moon in the Yellow River (1931).
While there no doubt that
In 1954, Behan's first play The Quare Fellow was produced in Dublin. It was well received; however, it was the 1956 production at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Stratford, London, that gained Behan a wider reputation – this was helped by a famous drunken interview on BBC television. Behan's play The Hostage (1958), his English-language adaptation of his play in Irish An Giall, met with great success internationally.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Hugh Leonard was the first major Irish writer to establish a reputation in television, writing extensively for television, including original plays, comedies, thrillers and adaptations of classic novels for British television.[93] He was commissioned by RTÉ to write Insurrection, a 50th anniversary dramatic reconstruction of the Irish uprising of Easter 1916. Leonard's Silent Song, adapted for the BBC from a short story by Frank O'Connor, won the Prix Italia in 1967.[94]
Three of Leonard's plays have been presented on Broadway: The Au Pair Man (1973), which starred
Brian Friel, from Northern Ireland, has been recognised as a major Irish and English-language playwright almost since the first production of "Philadelphia, Here I Come!" in Dublin in 1964.[98]
Tom Murphy is a major contemporary playwright[99] and was honoured by the Abbey Theatre in 2001 by a retrospective season of six of his plays. His plays include the historical epic Famine (1968), which deals with the Great Famine between 1846 and spring 1847, The Sanctuary Lamp (1975), The Gigli Concert (1983) and Bailegangaire (1985).
Frank McGuinness first came to prominence with his play The Factory Girls, but established his reputation with his play about World War I, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which was staged in Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1985 and internationally. The play made a name for him when it was performed at Hampstead Theatre.[100] It won numerous awards including the London Evening Standard "Award for Most Promising Playwright" for McGuinness.
Since the 1970s, a number of companies have emerged to challenge the Abbey's dominance and introduce different styles and approaches. These include
- Irish language theatre
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.[101]
In 1957, Behan's play in the Irish language An Giall had its debut at Dublin's Damer Theatre. Later an English-language adaptation of An Giall, The Hostage, met with great success internationally.
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.[102]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Falc’Her-Poyroux, Erick (1 May 2015). "'The Great Famine in Ireland: a Linguistic and Cultural Disruption". Halshs Archives-Ouvertes. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
- ^ "Aidan Doyle on "Language Change in 19th-Century Ireland: A New Interpretation?"". 3 December 2018.
- ^ Moynahan, Julian (1995). Anglo-Irish: The Literary Imagination in a Hyphenated Culture (1st ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Maureen O'Rourke Murphy, James MacKillop. An Irish Literature Reader. Syracuse University Press. p. 3.
- ^ "Languages : Indo-European Family". Krysstal.com. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ Dillon and Chadwick (1973), pp. 241–250
- ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 54–72
- ^ "Saint Patrick's Confessio". Confessio. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ Sansom, Ian (20 November 2008). "The Blackbird of Belfast Lough keeps singing". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
- ^ Garret Olmsted, "The Earliest Narrative Version of the Táin: Seventh-century poetic references to Táin bó Cúailnge", Emania 10, 1992, pp. 5–17
- ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 147–156
- ^ See the foreword in Knott (1981).
- ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp.150–194
- ^ For a discussion of poets' supernatural powers, inseparable from their social and literary functions, see Ó hÓgáin (1982).
- ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp.165–6.
- ^ Examples can be found in O'Rahilly (2000).
- ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), p. 149.
- ^ dind "notable place"; senchas "old tales, ancient history, tradition" – Dictionary of the Irish Language, Compact Edition, 1990, pp. 215, 537
- ^ Collins Pocket Irish Dictionary p. 452
- ^ Poppe, Erich (2008). Of cycles and other critical matters: some issues in medieval Irish literary history. Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, University of Cambridge.
- ^ MacDonald, Keith Norman (1904). "The Reasons Why I Believe in the Ossianic Poems". The Celtic Monthly: A Magazine for Highlanders. 12. Glasgow: Celtic Press: 235. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
- ^ Literally "the act of contorting, a distortion" (Dictionary of the Irish Language, Compact Edition, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1990, p. 507)
- ^ Meyer, Kuno. "The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes". CELT - Corpus of Electronic Texts. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
- ISBN 9781855001206.
- ^ "Togail Troí". Van Hamel Codecs. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ "Togail na Tebe". Van Hamel Codecs. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ "Imtheachta Æniasa". Van Hamel Codecs. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ TLG 201–223
- ^ See the introduction to Williams (1981). The text is bilingual.
- ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 252–268, 282–290. See Corkery (1925) for a detailed discussion of the social context.
- ^ Caerwyn Williams and Ní Mhuiríosa (1979), pp. 279–282.
- ^ See the introduction to Ó Tuama, Seán (1961) (ed.), Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, An Clóchomhar Tta, Baile Átha Cliath.
- ^ "Church of Ireland - A Member of the Anglican Communion". Ireland.anglican.org. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-946037-31-5
- ^ Ó Madagáin (1980), pp.24–38.
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