Twentieth-century Ireland Research Articles

James Stephens's Diminutive National Narratives: Imagining an Irish Nation Based on the "Orient"

JAMES STEPHENS'S DIMINUTIVE NATIONAL NARRATIVES: IMAGINING AN IRISH NATION BASED ON THE "ORIENT" Joseph Lennon Critics usually regard James Stephens as one ofthe most whimsical and entertaining of the modernist Irish writers. Consequently, his writings are rarely read for their social and national impUcations. While whimsy certainly comprises much of his poetry and prose writings,1 a good portion of Stephens's work, particularly his later short stories, portrays social reaUties of early twentieth-century Ireland. In these stories Stephens's characters struggle against poverty, unemployment and class subjugation amidst tropes of Indian and Irish mythology. Throughout his career, Stephens wove myth into reahstic stories seeking to construct narratives ofthe emerging Irish nation. These narratives borrow heavily not only from versions of Irish myth, but also from OrientaUst versions of"Eastern" philosophy and mythology. Stephens used these mythological and philosophical tropes to represent Ireland's present in hopes of writing Ireland's national narrative. In this respect, his works provide a complex and specificaUy Irish answer to Homi K. Bhabha's rhetorical question: "How does one write the nation's modernity as the event of the everyday and the advent of the epochal?" ("DissemiNation" 293). I Stephens's stories of his "nation's modernity" were written on the threshold of the contemporary and the epochal, relying both upon nativism and OrientaUsm. Homi Bhabha's use of the term national narrative signifies a narrative in the broadest cultural sense, that is a narrative which permeates a culture, embodying its identity and hegemony . Every nation has a national narrative as weU as many stories of nationhood or what I will call diminutive national narratives. These diminutive narratives both signify and represent a nation, but cannot fully pervade a culture or embody its identity. As Ireland broke from England, Stephens and other Irish writers self-consciously attempted to "write the [new] nation" in their narratives. What they wrote had a significant effect on Ireland, primarily because many oftheir diminutive narratives were later incorporated into the Irish Republic's programs of official nationaUsm; for example, Yeats's poetry and Lady Gregory's plays about the west of Ireland became part of the RepubUc's image of rural Ireland. But to consciously create the identity of a nation or its national narrative is, of course, an impossibiUty. Both the identity and the narrative of a nation evolve through the events and accidents of history, emerging through the shared experiences of its members, not through conscious constructions of a few individuals. A national narVol ·. 20 (1996): 62 THE COMPAnATIST rative resonates for individuals in a nation, interpellates or hails them as citizens, and becomes the center of their collective identity. Understanding the need for a unified national culture in Ireland, Stephens and other Irish writers tried to unify the nation by writing narratives which linked Ireland's past to its present. Theorists of nationhood as far back as Ernest Renan in 1882 have noted the need for a coherent past in nation building: A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute this soul or spiritual principle. One lies in the past, one in the present. One is the possession in common ofa rich legacy ofmemories ; the other is present-day consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value ofthe heritage that one has received in an undividedform [emphasis added]. ("What is a Nation" 19) Stephens projected mythical pasts—interestingly, both Irish and Indian —onto Irish culture as a way of reimagining Ireland. The new Ireland that he revealed to the Irish pubUc presented an undivided heritage of pre-colonial Ireland. In a seemingly strange move, Stephens often substituted OrientaUst visions of Hindu spirituaUty for Irish mythology. But this actually was a common move for the Theosophists and Irish spirituahsts. The reUgions of India, China, Japan, Turkey and other countries of the "Orient" represented models of pre-colonial, pre-modern, and pre-Christian Ireland for these spiritual theorists. Because they did not view the "Orient" coevally, they believed they could find a spiritual panacea for the ailments ofmodern Western European culture. Stephens, in particular , assumed that the classical Indian caste system could be...

Dermot Keogh. <italic>Twentieth-Century Ireland: Nation and State</italic>. New York: St. Martin's. 1994. Pp. xxi, 504. $39.95

Journal Article Dermot Keogh. Twentieth-Century Ireland: Nation and State. New York: St. Martin's. 1994. Pp. xxi, 504. $39.95 Get access Keogh Dermot. Twentieth-Century Ireland: Nation and State. New York: St. Martin's. 1994. Pp. xxi, 504. $39.95. Catherine Shannon Catherine Shannon Westfield State College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 101, Issue 2, April 1996, Pages 501–502, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/101.2.501 Published: 01 April 1996

Reviews and Short Notices

Reviews and Short Notices

Late in the Field: Catholic Sisters in Twentieth-Century Ireland and the New Religious History

Late in the Field: Catholic Sisters in Twentieth-Century Ireland and the New Religious History Margaret MacCurtain The most significant development of the 1980s in the field of history has been the emergence of women's history. Its acceptance by the Irish professional history estabhshment has been slow. In setting the history of women as the theme for the twenty-first Conference of Historians held in Queen's University, Belfast, 27-29 May 1993, the Irish conference of historians has yielded tardily to the demand of practitioners of women's history at third-level institutions to come together and share the research on women's history, an area formally recognized by the International Committee of Historical Sciences in September 1987. Its entry into and its reluctant acceptance by the academic world in Ireland have given rise to new ways of looking at primary sources and innovative methods, and has sparked an interest by a reading and hstening pubhc that has taken professional historians aback.1 No summer school, no third level, or university department of history can afford to ignore the treatment of women as an important field of studies. Yearly, the volume of new scholarship on women accelerates as graduate schools take on the task of guiding theses in women's history, often without the training and specialized skills needed for this rapidly expanding field. High on the list of new tools is the issue of gender as a category of analysis; to it may be added in the nineties those of class and ethnicity in the redefinition of "difference." A feminist analysis of power yields a different configuration of the past and, in general, according to Linda Gordon in a recent survey of U.S. women's history, "most women's historians consider themselves social historians, focusing more on private than on pubhc experience, more on informal than on official sources of power."2 The chronology of writing twentieth-century nuns into Irish history is full of surprises. A cluster of studies in the first years of the twentieth century focused on subjects such as Foxford and its woollen mills (founded by Agnes Morrogh-Bernard), Mother Arsenius,3 and Irish convent industries including lace and linen weaving.4 Somewhat later, Helena Concannon, professor of history in University College, Galway, wrote several studies of the Poor Clares nuns, estabhshing securely the spiritual traditions of contemplative nuns in Ireland.5 Her work contributes by its scholarly method to a history of Irish female spirituality. Two major biographies of founders, one by Roland Burke, S.J., A Valiant Dublin Woman: © 1995 Journal of Women's History, Vol 6 No. 4/Vol 7 No. ι (Winter/Spring) 50 Journal of Women's History Winter/Spring The History of George's Hill (1940), the other by T. J. Walsh, Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters (1959), exemplified the tenets of Catholic historiography of the mid-century: namely, that historical biography, especially of those who were leaders, was "the key to unlocking the past, and the object of this exercise was to understand more fully the history of the institution."6 In 1965 Angela Bolster pubhshed her Ph.D. thesis, "The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimea," a revisionist study that upset admirers of Florence Nightingale. Bolster, with her emphasis on documentary sources, went on to edit The Letters of Catherine McAuley, and has been one of the main influences behind the steady stream of postgraduate studies of Mercy Sisters since the seventies.7 At least fifty postgraduate theses dealing with the role or activities of Irish rehgious women in the twentieth century have been researched in various university departments over the past fifteen years. Of these, five dealt with the Mercy Sisters in different regions of Ireland, four with the Presentation Order of nuns, three with the Loreto Institute, two with the Sisters of the Holy Faith, one each with Dominicans, Ursulines, Sisters of St. Louis, and Poor Clare teaching Sisters. Several more theses, including the Ph.D. dissertation of John Coolahan, professor of education at Maynooth College, treated the Cathohc Sisters in the context of state training colleges, and several more examined their involvement with workhouses.8 Biographies have appeared in the 1980s...

Twentieth Century Ireland: Nation and State by Dermot Keogh

BOOK REVIEWS Twentieth Century Ireland: Nation and State, by Dermot Keogh, pp. 504, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994, $39.95. Dermot Keogh, the Jean Monnet Professor of History at University College, Cork, has tackled one of the most diYcult tasks facing the historian—writing a survey text. A survey text’s purpose is to serve either as a handy reference book at the side of the desk or as a basic source for students in a history course. As such, readers expect to be able to trace the development of large themes over time, review information about pivotal events, and learn how important individuals acted in key situations. The successful survey must balance its coverage of the various themes and put a human face on the transient individuals who make history happen. It must also maintain a steady narrative beat to make the themes march, sustain its analysis of the events and the actions of individuals, and, perhaps most challenging of all, present the author’s grand synthesis of what it all means. Keogh structures his narrative of Ireland since 1922 around the battles within, between, and among the political parties; the role of the bureaucracy; the relationship between church and state; the conduct of foreign policy; and the contributions that artists and women have made to the development of the nation. His survey excludes Northern Ireland, except when that region’s aVairs aVect the course of political life in the Republic. Keogh places his roots toward an emphasis on rational economic planning and a more inclusive approach to the making of public policy. Keogh’s prescience on this development provides a context for understanding the formation of the Fine Gael, Labour, and Democratic Left government in December, 1994. The contours of Keogh’s narrative of Irish diplomacy appear in the politician’s and diplomats’ ability to provide leadership on the European and world stages. It is a story of highs and lows. In the 1930s, de Valéra was a forceful voice for the rights of small nations in the League of Nations, yet his attempt to trade NATO membership for an end to partition was crude, at best. More recently, Ireland has played a full part in decision making within the European Community. In Anglo-Irish aVairs concerning Northern Ireland, Keogh observes that there is no doubting the signiWcance of the series of diplomatic agreements that began with the New Ireland Forum in 1983; these actions maintained the eYcacy of the constitutional approach to resolving problems between the three states into 1995. The best chapter in the book is devoted to a foreign policy issue—Irish neutrality in World War II. His convincBOOK REVIEWS 177 ing argument is that de Valéra and his diplomatic corps maintained an oYcial neutrality throughout the war, but operated within an evolving modus vivendi that favored the Allies. Nevertheless, Keogh does not underestimate the bitter resentment that the British maintained towards Ireland during and after the defeat of fascism. He concludes the chapter with Louis MacNeice’s chilling poem, “Neutrality”: But then look eastward from your heart, there bulks A continent, close, dark, as archetypal sin, While to the west oV your own shores the mackerel Are fat—on the Xesh of your kin. Keogh breaks the conventions of the survey text in three noteworthy ways that enhance the eVectiveness of his treatment of themes and characters. He smoothly integrates his research in the archives and newspapers with the secondary literature . This technique allows him to expand the narrative at key points, thereby giving the reader a more intimate glimpse at the unfolding of events. His story is also enhanced by information he gathered in the course of conducting interviews with major Wgures in Irish public life. This oral history material, when combined with archival work, illuminates the inXuence of the high ranking civil servants who have consistently advised government ministers on administrative policy in a professional manner from the critical days during founding of the state. And, drawing perhaps on his earlier career as a journalist, Keogh has a knack for the droll afterword that adds spice to the 400 page book. For example, noting that William T. Cosgrave...

Twentieth-century Ireland: nation and state

With the emphasis on the South, this book looks at the island since partition and examines the performances of the two entities created by the collapse of the old Union. The author traces the establishment and development of the independent Irish state in detail, drawing on his knowledge of Irish government sources. The book looks at the development of Irish states of mind and follows the great change from the dominant farmer-shopkeeper rural culture of the 1930s and 1940s to the more urban, cosmopolitan attitudes of recent decades. Overshadowing all the achievements and failures of independent Ireland has been the spectre of Northern Ireland. The author sees Northern Ireland as a self-contained problem and refuses to blame the Troubles for the shortcomings of the Republic in the 1990s.

Twentieth-century Ireland: nation and state

Twentieth-century Ireland: nation and state

Feminism in Early Twentieth-century Ireland: A Sociological Study

Feminism in Early Twentieth-century Ireland: A Sociological Study

Town Tenant Protest in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century Ireland

Town Tenant Protest in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century Ireland

Household Structure in Early Twentieth Century Ireland

This paper aims to provide a count of households by structural type in Ireland in the early twentieth century. In doing so it addresses some of the issues which have been raised in the debate on the structure of Irish households at that time. The question of the classification of households by structural type is also addressed and attempts made to clarify some of the more ambiguous definitions. Some commonly accepted and some modified definitions are then applied to a national sample of 2,495 households drawn from the 1911 Census of Ireland. The paper concludes that the nuclear or simple household was the dominant from of household in Ireland at that time and that while the extended and multiple household certainly existed, its prevalence has largely been overstated in previous writings.

Irish cultural nationalism in the United Kingdom state: Politics and the Gaelic League 1900–18

Abstract The relationship between cultural nationalism and political nationalism in early twentieth century Ireland has been interpreted in various ways. Here it is argued that the role played in politics by the principal cultural nationalist vehicle, the Gaelic League, was primarily that of a pressure group on education questions. The educational orientation of language revivalism made the League's interaction with churches as important as that between it and political parties. How nationalist and left wing parties related to the League during its “non‐political and non‐sectarian” period up to 1915 is analysed, as is the manner in which the League became party politicised during the First World War.

Suffragists and nationalism in early twentieth-century Ireland∗

(1993). Suffragists and nationalism in early twentieth-century Ireland∗. History of European Ideas: Vol. 16, No. 4-6, pp. 1009-1015.

Education policy in twentieth-century Ireland. By Séamus Ó Buachalla. Pp 434. Dublin: Wolfhound Press. 1988. IR£27.50.

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Education Policy in Twentieth Century Ireland. Seamus Ó. Buachalla

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsEducation Policy in Twentieth Century Ireland. Seamus Ó. Buachalla Ann WickhamAnn Wickham Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 34, Number 4Nov., 1990 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/446990 Views: 3Total views on this site Copyright 1990 The Comparative and International Education SocietyPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The American Wake of Ireland: Symbolic Death Ritual

Knowledge of a group's death customs can provide insight into their social system. The wake and funeral of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland have been said to provide the most dramatic revelation of community life during those times. In the early days of Irish emigration when the journey to North America was considered to be a final separation, Irish society developed an institution known as the American wake. Among other things, it provided a mechanism for ventilating the grief associated with this special type of bereavement. This article examines the similarities between the American wake and a wake for the dead and is concerned with how the emigrant wake reflected the Irish view of life and death.

Review: Education Policy in Twentieth-Century Ireland

Review: Education Policy in Twentieth-Century Ireland

John Ireland's Americanism After 1899: The Argument from History

Historians of American Catholicism long have recognized that John Ireland, the aggressive archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota, was a leading exponent of the Americanist movement. At the turn of the twentieth century Ireland advocated a number of important ideas—religious liberty, separation of church and state, interfaith cooperation, and greater lay initiative—gleaned from the American experience. Reflecting his democratic convictions, Ireland declared, “Let there be individual action. Layman need not wait for priest, nor priest for bishop, nor bishop for pope.” Although there were differences on specific issues, Americanists in general took an optimistic view of American life and culture. In fact, they were eager to move their church into a more positive relationship with the political, cultural, and social climate of America.

Nationalism and Socialism in Twentieth-Century Ireland

Journal Article Nationalism and Socialism in Twentieth-Century Ireland Get access Nationalism and Socialism in Twentieth-Century Ireland. By E. Rumpf and A. C. Hepburn. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 1977. 275 pp. £15.25. E. Moxon-Browne E. Moxon-Browne 1The Queen's University of Belfast Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 55, Issue 1, January 1979, Pages 133–134, https://doi.org/10.2307/2617177 Published: 01 January 1979

Review: Nationalism and Socialism in Twentieth-Century Ireland

Review: Nationalism and Socialism in Twentieth-Century Ireland

Theatre and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland

Theatre and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland