Modern Ireland Week - Assignment Example

Running head: Modern Ireland Week 8 Questions Modern Ireland Week 8 Instructor: John Eastlake Kristina L. Haydel Q3. Discuss the nature of the satire in An Béal Bocht / The Poor Mouth, paying particular attention to the novels relationship to the objects of its satire. Include specific examples from the work and other pieces of literature in Irish. O’Brien’s novel An Béal Bocht or The Poor Mouth is satire of the purest form. This novel was published in 1941 in the Gaelic language, and then later translated into English. The title comes from a Gaelic saying of ‘putting on the poor mouth’. This saying basically means to exaggerate one’s poor economic situation, generally to put off creditors. The extreme ‘putting on the poor mouth’ of the whole village of Corkandoragha is shown through satire. Everything in the fictional village, Corkandoragha, is the worst in Ireland. The rain falls with more fierceness, the poverty is unbelievable, and the pessimism is rampant. Even happy times bring sorrow. For example: The dance continued until the dancers drove their lives out through the soles of their feet and eight died during the course of the feis. Due to both the fatigue caused by the revels and the truly Gaelic famine that was ours always, they could not be succoured when they fell on the rocky dancing floor and, upon my soul, short was their tarrying on this particular area because they wended their way to eternity without more ado. (Flann, 128) Because of this continued despair, Corkandoragha is the most Gaelic place in all of Ireland. The village epitomizes all of Northern Ireland’s problems, the poverty, the oppression, and most importantly helplessness of their situation. Instead of using reality, like James Joyce, O’Brien takes the reality to the extreme level. Joyce’s ‘Sisters’ shows the paralysis of the situation Northern Ireland people as he saw it (Joyce). O’Brien depicts the paralysis of all Northern Ireland in Corkandoragha in a worse light to highlight how the Irish people perceive the situation in Northern Ireland. Q4. Discuss the relationship between Yeats writing and the struggle for Irish national political independence in the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century, citing specific examples from the literature. Yeats’ was an Irish poet. Although his early poems were of Irish mythology and folklore, later his writings were influenced by the struggle for Irish national political independence. Of course, being Irish influenced his poems, but his association with Maud Gonne, a Nationalist, swayed his point of view, affecting his poems. Although he married another woman, she had a major impact in his life. This impact led to deep involvement in the Irish politics. Some of Yeats’ early poems dealt with non-political issues, like in The Cat and the Moon. This poem is simply about a cat and how the changing phases of the moon affect the cat’s eyes (Yeats, 1919). Later, the Irish national political independence movement influenced Yeats to write A Prayer for my Daughter, The Second Coming, and Easter, 1916. Writers generally write what they know. It would have been natural for Yeats to be moved by the political atmosphere of the time. Yeats, like many of his peers, realized that the late nineteenth and early twentieth century would bring change in Ireland. Not many thought it would be good. Yeats wrote in Easter, 1916: Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. (Yeats, 1919) Like many Irish that yearned for Irish Independence, Yeats knew that change would be a "terrible beauty” (Yeats, 1919). Q9. What were the circumstances that led to the emergence of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the 1960s? The emergence of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the 1960s was in response to the Roman Catholic community discrimination under the Protestant Unionist dominated government after Northern Irelands creation as a state. The discrimination was widespread. The Roman Catholic community wanted equal rights with their Protestant neighbors. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association wanted the Protestant Unionist dominated government to grant some simple rights like: one man, one vote an end to state gerrymandering of council boundaries, which effectively limited Catholic influence even when in places where Catholics were the majority the elimination of discrimination in government an end to discrimination in housing. the disbandment of the B Specials, an entirely Protestant police reserve, which was percieved by nationalists as sectarian. (Ellison and Smyth, 2000, p. 30) In order to accomplish these goals, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association wanted a new system for the allocation of housing, an ombudsman to deal with complaints, a Development Commission, the abolition of the Special Powers Acts, and an end to the company vote. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was formed out of the discriminative circumstances present in Northern Ireland in the 1960s. Q10. Compare and contrast one Irish language poet and one English language poet which you have studied in this course. The Irish language poet chosen for comparison is Máirtín Ó Direáin, with the English language poet W.B. Yeats. Máirtín Ó Direáin was comfortable with the Gaelic language, since he spoke only Gaelic up until the age of sixteen. Yeats, on the other hand, despite being Irish never learned Gaelic. Yeats also published his poems during the fight for Irish Independence in the early twentieth century, whereas Máirtín Ó Direáin did not start publishing poems until 1938. The first Gaelic poet in the twentieth century to be noticed was Máirtín Ó Direáin. He did not to think of writing poetry in the Irish language until 1938. Ó Direáin explained: Níor chabhair mhór d’éinne againn san aois seo an aon uaill ná mac alla ó na filí a chuaigh romhain inár dteanga féin” — No cry or echo from the poets who went before us in our own tongue would be of help to any of us in this time. (Dorgan) Ó Direáin felt the need to express his frustration with the situation in the Northern Ireland, like many poets before him. Since he was familiar with the Gaelic language, it was another form of expression of his pride at being Irish. Yeats was just as proud of being Irish. He never learned the Gaelic language though. His poems also spoke of his Irish pride and the contempt for English oppression: For England may keep faith For all that is done and said. We know their dream; enough To know they dreamed and are dead; (Yeats, 1920) Although Yeats wrote in English, he was no less Irish than Ó Direáin. Both Ó Direáin and Yeats were proud Irish poets, even though one expresses his feelings in Gaelic and the other in English. Q11. “Contemporary Northern Irish literature is saturated by the question of the Troubles”. Select two authors to focus your discussion on, and be sure to cite specific examples from literature and history. The two authors chosen are W.B. Yeats and James Joyce. These two authors had different styles, but both wrote about the same subjects. Yeats and Joyce were also both Irish. They wrote about the ‘Troubles’ in different ways. Yeats chose to be more controversial, while Joyce wrote of everyday life under the Protestant controlled government. Yeats chose to write about current events during his time, such as Easter, 1916. This poem was about the Easter Rising, when an uprising took place against the British on April 24, 1916. The participants were executed for treason. Yeats (1920) immortalized the men in his poem: I write it out in a verse - MacDonagh and MacBride And Connolly and Pearse Yeats chose to write about the fight for Irish independence. Joyce wrote about everyday life. In the ‘Counterparts’ a short story from the Dubliners, Farrington is an oppressed Irish worker. This story tells of Farrington’s alcoholism, poverty, and bad attitude. Farrington takes out his rage on his children. Joyce writes about everyday events. Farrington’s frustration shows how the ‘Troubles’ affected everyday working men. The cycle of poverty, abuse, alcoholism, and most of all the helplessness of the situation is presented vividly in Joyce’s writings. References Dorgan, T. (n.d.) Twentieth-century Irish-language Poetry. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.archipelago.org/vol7-3/dorgan.htm Ellison, G. and Smyth, J. (2000). The Crowned Harp: policing Northern Ireland. Pluto Press. Joyce, J. (2001). Dubliners. USA: Oxford University Press. O’Brien, Flann. (1993). The Poor Mouth. New York: Dalkey Archive Press. Yeats, W.B. (1919). A Prayer for my Daughter. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/Yeats.prayer.html ---. (1919). The Cat and the Moon. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.poetry- archive.com/y/the_cat_and_the_moon.html ---. (1920). Easter, 1916. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.online- literature.com/yeats/779/ Read More