Revisiting Irish poetic modernisms

This thesis discusses Irish Modernist poetry written between 1905 and 1970, specifically the poetry of Joseph Campbell (1879-1944), Thomas MacGreevy (1893-1967), Denis Devlin (1908-1959) and Brian Coffey (1905-1995). All four poets have been largely neglected in criticism until a growth of interest encouraged by Michael Smith and Trevor Joyce’s New Writers’ Press during the 1970s. J.C.C. Mays, Stan Smith, Susan Schreibman, Terence Brown, Patricia Coughlan and Alex Davis published subsequent critical support during the ‘80s and ‘90s. My research aims to highlight poetry previously omitted from the canon of Irish literature, those with connections to British or continental European literary movements as well as poetry by women writers and writers from the North. Part of this exploration of Irish Poetic Modernisms involves an investigation of intersections between poetic modernisms and Irish war poetry and of depictions of Irish masculinity in the poetry of Devlin and Coffey. My discussion of Campbell’s poetry focuses on links between the early regional modernism of his poetry and later Irish modernist poetry, including his participation in the Ulster Literary Theatre, with the Literary Revival community in Dublin and his association with the proto-Imagist movement in London. My examination of connections between Irish war poetry and Irish modernism allows me to discuss the writing of several underrecognized Irish poets who are contemporaries and near contemporaries of the main subjects of my thesis. Thomas MacGreevy’s poetry is the most clear case study of the links between Irish modernist poetry and poetry about Ireland’s participation in the Great War. MacGreevy’s writing reveals his multiple allegiances: he both elegizes and challenges the increasing cultural inhibitions of Free State Ireland. Denis Devlin’s poetic portrayals of Ireland reveal his rejection both of the Literary Revival’s fascination with Celticism and of Dublin’s literary community while upholding tradition poetic gender roles. My research explores representations of masculinity and Irish politics, including heroic masculine imagery, in the long poems of Devlin and Coffey. My discussion of Brian Coffey considers the importance of the figure of the “poet as maker” to his writing and his relationship with Ireland during his long writing career. I also consider his role as the editor and executor of Devlin’s literary estate and the impact that had on both the latter’s posthumous reputation and Coffey’s later writing.

Betha Cholmáin maic Luacháin: an ecclesiastical microcosm of the twelfth-century Irish midlands

Betha Cholmáin maic Luacháin (BCh) is a key source of information about a small ecclesiastical community of the Irish midlands in the medieval period. BCh is one of the longest medieval Irish hagiographic texts. A sole copy exists. Scholarly concern with manuscript Rennes 598, and the Life of Colmán therein, diminished following the 1911 edition of BCh. The most attention paid to BCh in the following decades focused largely on its onomastic information. The necessary detailed study of the text has not been undertaken. The present work is an initial view of significant areas of interaction between the church of Lann and its ecclesiastical, social and political milieu. While social and cultural aspects of the text may constitute the focus of this study, linguistic data is also investigated, complementary to evidence regarding its social and political testimony. In this way, light is cast on a complex ecclesiastical microcosm in the twelfth-century Irish midlands. In keeping with recent methodological work in the field a variety of tools are used to aid investigation, and to show the Life within its genre and wider context. An interdisciplinary approach will bring together strands of literary, cultural, archaeological, onomastic, historical, geographical, genealogical and hagiographical information, with reference to linguistic evidence where appropriate. This thesis seeks to suggest a template for studies undertaken on smaller church communities, and is set out in two main sections. The first section investigates the figure of the saint, his life, church, the manuscript source and the combination of prose and verse in the text. The second section examines the testimony of the Life regarding the ecclesiastical and secular concerns of the community of Lann, and how these concerns are represented. Evidence regarding the members of this community and their interaction with the church and the wider world is also discussed.

Edmund Burke and the heritage of oral culture

The dissertation proposes that one of the more fruitful ways of interpreting Burke's work is to evaluate him as an oral performer rather than a literary practitioner and it argues that in his voice can be heard the modulations of the genres and conventions of oral composition of eighteenth-century Gaelic Ireland. The first chapter situates Burke in the milieu of the Gaelic landed class of eighteenth-century Ireland. The next chapter examines how the rich oral culture of the Munster Gaelic gentry, where Burke spent his childhood days, was to provide a lasting influence on the form and content of Burke's work. His speeches on the British constitution are read in the context of the historical and literary culture of the Jacobites, specifically the speculum principis, Párliament na mBán. The third chapter surveys the tradition of Anglo-Irish theoretical writings on oratory and discusses how Burke is aligned with this school. The focus is on how Burke's thought and practice, his 'idioms', might be understood as being mediated through the criterion of orality rather than literature. The remaining chapters discuss Burke's politics and performance in the light of Gaelic cultural practices such as the rituals of the courts of poetry, the Warrant Poems or Barántas; the performance of funeral laments and elegies, Caoineadh, the laments for the fallen nobility, Marbhna na daoine uaisle, the satires and the political vision allegories of Munster, Aislingí na Mumhan; to show how they provide us with a remarkable context for discussing Burke's poetical-political performance. In hearing Burke's voice through the body of Gaelic culture our understanding of Burke's position in the wider world of the eighteenth century (and hence his meaning) is profoundly affected.

Law, poetry and medicine: the literate professionals in autonomous Gaelic Ireland, c.1250 - c.1630

This thesis is about a class of literate professionals that served as hereditary brehons, poets and doctors to the Gaelic aristocracy over a period from c.1250-c.1630. My investigation into these families brings together evidence from Gaelic and English sources to highlight the work these families did for their patrons, their status in society and their subsequent fall in the seventeenth century. Such a broad canvas allows us to observe the vibrancy of Gaelic literary culture as these families adapted to the changing political landscape to absorb new Anglo-Norman patrons and assimilated English and Continental ideas while maintaining their distinctive identity. I want to look beyond the ideology espoused by these families to look at the practical choices members of these families made to maintain their status and relevance in a changing social context. To do this I have chosen to focus on each of the three professions in individual chapters to highlight the continuities and changes within the professions and ultimately by comparing the three groups to gauge the success or failure of these professional families to adapt to the encroachment of the New English and the ultimate collapse of the Gaelic world. This thesis takes a holistic approach to these families by including branches of these families not engaged in the hereditary profession. It seeks to provide a broader picture of Gaelic society below the level of the aristocracy by looking at the geographic distribution of these families, their proximity to centres of power, and to land and sea routes that can indicate their involvement in alternative economic activities.