Political Street Ballads
Carrying a great deal of importance in the history Irish and British relations in literature is the political street Ballad. Georges-Denis Zimmerman discusses this in his work, Songs of Irish Rebellion: Political Street Ballads and Rebel Songs 1780-1900. Many of these songs represent the strong anti-British atmosphere felt in the country. In West’s Dublin By Lamplight, Willy sings a short song, stating “I’m trotting o’er the cobblestones of Dublin,/ Bedecked with memories of yesteryear./ A tram runs by with a ting-ting-ting,/ A little boy begins to sing,/I’m trotting o’er the cobblestones of – / He steps in dog shit./ Dublin.” (West, 14) West makes light of this happy rhyme by having Willy step in excrement. Though it is the playwright, not the ballad, that makes a political statement in this play, it is important to look at the history of the political ballad as these songs represent the feelings of the Irish people towards Great Britain. Included in Zimmerman’s collection is O’Donovan’s Rossa’s Farewell To Dublin (Zimmerman, 261 – 262), an example of one such political ballad.O’DONOVAN’S ROSSA’S FAREWELL TO DUBLIN (c. 1865) TEXT: Broadside in the British Museum.Adieu my friends in Dublin town, I bid you all adieu,I cannot yet appoint the day when I’ll return to you,I write those lines on board of a ship where stormy billows roar,May the heavens save our Fenian boys until I return on shore.Let no one blame the turnkey or any of his men,There is no one knows but two of us the man that stood my friend,I robbed no man, I shed no blood, though they sent me to jail,Because I was O’Donovan Rossa, a son to Granuawale.I joined the Fenian Brotherhood in the year of sixty-four,Bound to save my native land or perish on the shore,My friends and me we did agree our native land to save,And plant the flag of freedom at the head of Emmet’s grave.My curse attend the traitors false who did our cause betray,I would tie a millstone round their necks and drown them in the sea,There is Nagle, Noone, O’Brien, and Power to make four,Like [demons] for their conduct in hell they loudly roar.There’s O’Leary and young Mackey, and the brave O’Donovan Ross,It grieved me for to part with them when I left Harold’s Cross,But if he lives and prospers, boys, the truth he does declare,Like O’Mahony in America the green flag he must wear.Cheer up my gallant Fenian men, the day is not far awayWhen our Fenien boys the flag will raise and trample tyranny,Our gallant sons beyond the seas will join in unity,And we will raise the flag of freedom and fight for liberty.VARIANTS A. A shorter version on a broadside issued by Nugent, Dublin, ends: There is Nagle, Messey, Corydon, And Talbot her makes Four. Like demons with the thirst for blood, In hell they will roar -Heather Taws
Ascendancy Writing
Moynahan’s work offers a number of differing definitions of Anglo-Irish literature. With a long a complicated history, a simple definition proves to be impossible. This excerpt highlights the tumultuous past of Ireland and ‘British Rule.’ Specifically the idea of Ascendancy writing is explored. This is work produced by Irish-born writers who have moved to England and therefore “turn[ed] their backs upon their native place.” [Moynahan, 5] Jonathan Swift’s support of the oppressed Irish in some of his writings was of a great deal of importance to the Irish people. However, according to Moynahan:“a few great works – A Modest Proposal, The Drapier Letters, and a handful of descriptive and satiric poems – by one great writer do not a literature make; nor do they clear the eighteenth-century Ascendency writing as a whole from the charge that it is not ‘Irish enough.’” [Moynahan, 5]In Dublin By Lamplight, characters such as Willy are constantly searching for a method of expressing sentiments of freedom. A mutual disdain can be immediately seen and this solidifies the ideals held in West’s play.Declan Kiberd also discusses the incredible influence of literature in Ireland. The encouragement of nationalist thought through Irish writings was seen as a great threat, and some of the violence surrounding England’s attempt to extinguish this threat is explored. He explains the imposition of the British on the already cultivated literature of the Irish.“when Trinity College was founded, Ireland already had a distinguished literature of which the ruling English, the ascendancy, knew nothing, and which, very humanly, to explain their ignorance to themselves, they dismissed as trivial or even barbaric.” [Kiberd, 21]
The politics surrounding the opening of the Irish National Theatre in Dublin By Lamplight are of a similar nature. A nationalist theatre would allow for Irish plays, possibly with anti-English sentiment, to be performed. This was unacceptable for Great Britain and in reading this article, the extent to which they wanted to suppress Irish nationalism can be seen. – Heather Taws
Yeats On Language
Photo Source: http://www.storieproductions.com/2007/06/william-butler-yeats.htmlW.B. Yeats and Lionel Johnson came together to write about Anglo-Irish issues in literature in a collection of essays. They state that it is ridiculous to criticize Irish poets for not recreating the same political and nationalist material that has come to be expected of them for years. Also presented is the idea that nationalism is possible for Ireland in the English language as Yeats writes, “The old Irish forms are barely possible in English: but their spirit is attainable.” [Johnson and Yeats, 23] Language is tied with nationalist thought, and yet here is the thought that nationalism is not defined by the language you speak, but by the ideals and morals you speak of. In Dublin By Lamplight, it is the opening of the theatre that is important, not the plays that are performed there. In other words, the mode of communication (the language) is more important than the ideals being communicated (the message). Yeats and Johnson bring up some interesting arguments that can give the reader or spectator of Dublin By Lamplight a more well-rounded view of the issues being discussed. – Heather TawsThe Irish Literary Revival The Irish Literary Revival was inspired by a number of political movements, combined with the efforts of multiple Irish authors, most famously W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, J.M. Synge, Sean O’Casey and Lady Gregory, who sought to establish the Irish identity as distinct from the English identity both locally and internationally. It is difficult to trace the development of the Irish Literary Revival as it was inspired by a number of events over many years. However, it is clear the young writers of the revival were firm in the belief that, “Every Irish literature must have its roots in the racy home soil” (Ryan 38). Each of the authors of the revival merged a different set of experiences in creating what they felt was an “Irish identity” and as a result, many different views of the “Irish peasant” emerged from the period of the revival (Watson 13). The works of the authors of the revival ranged from discussion of the peasantry, the political turmoil in Ireland which included the fall of Parnell, the meaning of Ireland’s history, and the validity of ancient cultural traditions (Watson 13).The relationship of literature to Irish society is more complicated than other countries. Irish society simultaneously included valued traditions and assumptions of English, Irish, and Anglo-Irish people. The authors representing each of these people discussed, at the “heart of their work” the nature of Irishness and problems of identity (Watson 15). The figures of the Irish Literary Revival strove to establish a new image of “Irishness” that was in opposition to the British view. British literature and theatre featured the Irish as flat characters who were poor, and uneducated, appearing onstage in coveralls with farm animals.The new view of the Irish included variations of the peasant which developed as the Revival continued. The Irish “peasant” continued to develop in literature and eventually also developed on stage. Dublin by Lamplight explores the tension between people trying to create art that is distinctively Irish. It features both stereotypical “poor” characters and characters with more depth. The need for change in the way the Irish were viewed inspired the Revival and eventually led to the establishment of the Irish National Theatre which is satirized in the play.The Irish Literary Revival eventually created a disconnect between the people it was trying to represent and the mythologized “peasant” it had created as emblematic of the Irish. The authors of the revival imposed values of “the traditional, the archaic, the picturesque, and the organic” onto the Irish people, many of whom were still suffering from poverty and starvation (Watson 23). Nonetheless, as one contemporary critic stated, “The Irish Literary Revival has done more than anything else to draw the attention of the outside world to the separate national existence of Ireland” (Schleifer 153). – Caitlin Carr
J.M. Synge Sean O’Casey
Image Sources:
J.M. Synge
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jsyrnge.jpg
Sean O’Casey
http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t037/T037392A.jsm
-Shana Pereira