Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art was a magazine published in Dublin, Ireland, from December 1949 to July 1951. It was founded and edited by John Ryan.
During its brief existence, it published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish J. P. Donleavy, Brendan Behan's first short stories and his first poem, and an extract from Samuel Beckett's Watt, Envoy was begun by John Ryan, a Dublin artist, who was editor and prime mover. Among the distinguished associate editors were Valentin Iremonger, Irish diplomat and poet who served as poetry editor, James Hillman (who began his career as associate editor for Envoy,[1] Michael Huron, and Owen Quinn. Envoy included Patrick Kavanagh's infamous monthly "Diary". Brian O'Nolan was also a contributor (once writing a "counter-diary" to Kavanagh's Diary[2]) and was "honorary editor"[3] for the special number commemorating James Joyce.
In December 1949 Envoy was inaugurated in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions which had forced many writers to seek publication outside their homeland. Though the Envoy Publishing Company's goal of publishing books died with the magazine in July 1951, the short-lived enterprise succeeded, with the lone publication of Valentin Iremonger's prize-winning book of poetry, Reservations, and with its lively magazine, in breaching some of the barriers of Irish publication, as well as providing outstanding prose, poetry, criticism, and reviews of the contemporary Irish art scene during its twenty-month existence.
The Envoy offices were located at 39 Grafton Street but most of the journal's business was conducted in the nearby pub, McDaid's, according to Antoinette Quinn in Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography: "Around one o'clock the Envoy office would empty itself into John McDaid's, a small, narrow, high-ceilinged pub at 3 Harry Street, where much of the journal's business was conducted. The clientele was a mixture of working class and bohemian."[4]
John Ryan (1925–1992) was a painter, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor and publican. He was the son of Senator Séamus Ryan, owner of The Monument Creameries shops in Dublin; and the brother of the film actress Kathleen Ryan. John Ryan studied at the NCA, but was largely a self-taught painter. He was a regular exhibitor at the RHA from 1946 onwards, and also showed at the annual Oireachtas and the IELA. He designed theatre sets for the Abbey, Gate, Olympia and Gaiety Theatres as well as for the stage in London. He acted in and produced several plays. From 1969 to 1974 Ryan was editor of The Dublin Magazine. He was a broadcaster, being a long-time contributor to Sunday Miscellany on Radio Éireann. In 1975 he published a book of his reminiscences of literary Dublin entitled Remembering How We Stood, featuring stories of his friends including Behan, Kavanagh, J. P. Donleavy (q.v.) and Anthony Cronin along with the many Dublin characters who patronised his famous pub, The Bailey, in Duke Street. He was also a patron to many artists.
First Bloomsday celebration: Bloomsday (a term Joyce himself did not employ) was invented in 1954, the 50th anniversary, when John Ryan and the novelist Flann O'Brien organised what was to be a daylong pilgrimage along the Ulysses route. They were joined by Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Tom Joyce (Joyce’s cousin and the only family representative that Ryan could find) and A. J. ("Con") Leventhal (Registrar of Trinity College, Dublin). A Bloomsday record of 1954, informally filmed by John Ryan, follows this pilgrimage.
↑ ‘Baudelaire and Kavanagh’, Envoy 3.12 (November 1950): pp. 78–81 [A "counter-diary" to Patrick Kavanagh's Envoy Diary]. Other articles by O'Nolan include: ‘The Martyr’s Crown’, Envoy 1.3 (February 1950), pp. 57–62; ‘A Bash in the Tunnel’, Envoy, vol. 5, no. 17, April 1951, pp. 5–11; ‘Book Reviews’, Envoy, vol. 3, no. 12, November 1950, pp. 88–89; ‘Book Reviews’, Envoy, vol. 4, no. 15, February 1951, pp. 76–77
↑ ‘In 1951, whilst I was editor of the Irish literary periodical Envoy, I decided that it would be a fitting thing to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of James Joyce by bringing out a special number dedicated to him which would reflect the attitudes and opinions of his fellow countrymen towards their illustrious compatriot. To this end I began by inviting Brian Nolan to act as honorary editor for this particular issue. His own genius closely matched, without in anyway resembling or attempting to counterfeit, Joyce’s. But if the mantle of Joyce (or should we say the waistcoat?) were ever to be passed on, nobody would be half so deserving of it as the man whom under his other guises as Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen, proved himself incontestably to be the most creative writer and mordant wit that Ireland had given us since Shem the Penman himself.' – John Ryan, Introduction to A Bash in the Tunnel (Brighton: Clifton Books, 1970) John Ryan (1925–92) Ricorso.net
↑ Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography, by Antoinette Quinn, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 2001, p: 295 ( ISBN071712651X / 0-7171-2651-X )
Bibliography/ Further reading/ External links
Remembering How We Stood, John Ryan (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1975)
Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography, Antoinette Quinn (Gill & Macmillan, 2003)
Dead as Doornails, Anthony Cronin (Dolmen Press, Dublin, 1976)
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place on a Thursday in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom.
Irish literature is literature written in the Irish, Latin, English and Scots languages on the island of Ireland. The earliest recorded Irish writing dates from back in the 7th century and was produced by monks writing in both Latin and Early Irish, including religious texts, poetry and mythological tales. There is a large surviving body of Irish mythological writing, including tales such as The Táin and Mad King Sweeny.
Brian O'Nolan, his pen name being Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth-century Irish literature. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in modernist and postmodern literature. His English language novels, such as At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman, were written under the O'Brien pen name. His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an Irish-language novel, An Béal Bocht, were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen.
Blánaid Salkeld was an Irish poet, dramatist, actor, and publisher, whose well-known literary salon was attended by, among others, Patrick Kavanagh and Flann O'Brien.
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely acknowledged alcohol dependence, despite attempts to treat it, impacted his creative capacities and contributed to health and social problems which curtailed his artistic output and finally his life.
At Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction.
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel Tarry Flynn, and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life through reference to the everyday and commonplace.
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written in 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained unpublished at the time of his death in 1966. It was published by MacGibbon & Kee in 1967.
Events from the year 1954 in Ireland.
Anthony Gerard Richard Cronin was an Irish poet, arts activist, biographer, commentator, critic, editor and barrister.
The James Joyce Tower and Museum is a Martello tower in Sandycove, Dublin, where James Joyce spent six nights in 1904. The opening scenes of his 1922 novel Ulysses take place here, and the tower is a place of pilgrimage for Joyce enthusiasts, especially on Bloomsday. Admission is free.
The Faber Book of Irish Verse was a poetry anthology edited by John Montague and first published in 1974 by Faber and Faber. Recognised as an important collection, it has been described as 'the only general anthology of Irish verse in the past 30 years that has a claim to be a work of art in itself ... still the freshest introduction to the full range of Irish poetry'. According to Montague, "I'm dealing with a thousand years of Irish verse in under four hundred pages. I needed a thousand pages.'
John Jordan was an Irish poet and short-story writer.
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) was an Irish painter who worked in Dublin, London and the Algarve, Portugal.
The Bell was an Irish monthly magazine of literature and social comment.
John Ryan (1925–1992) was an Irish artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, and publican.
Desmond J. MacNamara was an Irish sculptor, painter, stage and art designer and novelist.
Ist das Ihr Fahrrad Mr O’Brien? is a German biographical radio play about life, works and legacy of Irish modernist writer Brian O'Nolan.
Niall Sheridan (1912–1998) was an Irish poet, fiction-writer, and broadcaster, remembered primarily for his friendships with better-known Irish writers Brian O'Nolan and Donagh MacDonagh.
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