Irish short story

Last updated

The Irish short story has a distinctive place in the modern Irish literary tradition. Many of Ireland's best writers, both in English and Irish, have been practitioners of the genre.

Contents

Origins

It is possible that the Irish short story evolved naturally from the ancient tradition of oral storytelling in Ireland. The written word has been cultivated in Ireland since the introduction of the Roman alphabet by the Christian missionaries in the fifth century. But oral storytelling continued independently up to the twentieth century and survived the general switch from the Irish to the English language. By the mid-nineteenth century Irish writers had begun to use the English language to record the lives, and to convey the thoughts of the ordinary people – mostly impoverished peasants – and to address themselves to an Irish readership. [1] The most popular literary form to emerge from this development was the tale, and the most notable practitioner was William Carleton (1794–1869), author of Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1830).

The modern Irish short story

Stories in English

An early example in Ireland is George Moore’s collection of stories The Untilled Field (1903), which deal with themes of clerical interference in the daily lives of the Irish peasantry, and of the issue of emigration. The stories were originally written for translation into Irish, in order to serve as models for other writers working in the language. Three of the translations were published in the New Ireland Review, but publication was then paused due to a perceived anti-clerical sentiment. In 1902 the entire collection was translated by Tadhg Ó Donnchadha and Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin, and published in a parallel-text edition by the Gaelic League as An-tÚr-Ghort. Moore later revised the texts for the English edition. These stories were influenced by Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches, a book recommended to Moore by W. K. Magee, a sub-librarian of the National Library of Ireland, and had earlier suggested that Moore "was best suited to become Ireland's Turgenev". [2] The tales are recognised by some as representing the birth of the Irish short story as a literary genre. [3]

On 7 January 1904 Joyce attempted to publish an essay-story, "A Portrait of the Artist", dealing with aesthetics, only to have it rejected by the free-thinking magazine Dana. He decided, on his twenty-second birthday, to revise the story into a novel he called Stephen Hero , which was later re-written as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . [4] It was in 1905 that Joyce first attempted to get his famous collection of stories Dubliners published, and only after many attempts was it published in 1914. [5]

One tradition of Irish storytelling is that it's passed down from ear to ear without being written down. Storytellers who recite these tales are known as Seanchaí. Examples of Seanchaí are Edmund Lenihan and Eamon Kelly (actor)

Liam O'Flaherty published his first collection, Spring Sowing, in 1924, depicting the harsh life of his native Aran Islands.

Daniel Corkery, A Munster Twilight (1916), was the first of a group of writers from County Cork. Seán Ó Faoláin, whose first collection Midsummer Night Madness, 1932, was another member of this group, as was Frank O'Connor. His first collection was Guests of the Nation, 1931. The work of this "Cork school" continued with Elizabeth Bowen (1899 – 1973), first collection Encounters, 1923, in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. [6]

Important writers have continued writing stories, from the 1960s on, including Cónal Creedon, Benedict Kiely, Mary Lavin, John McGahern, and Michael McLaverty. An important editorial influence on the short story from the sixties onwards was David Marcus through his New Irish Writing column in the now defunct Irish Press newspaper and of numerous anthologies of Irish fiction and poetry, including the Phoenix Irish Short Stories collections. [7]

Critical attention has been paid recently to the Irish short story with the publishing of three major books: ACompanion to the British and Irish Short Story (2008), [8] A History of the Irish Short Story (2011), [9] and the collection of essays The Irish Short Story: Traditions and Trends (2015). [10] In addition, the critical journal Journal of the Short Story in English has published special issues on Irish-American short stories, John McGahern, as well as the twenty-first-century Irish short story. [10]

Elke D'hoker has commented on the quality of the Irish short story in the twenty-first century, with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Anne Enright, Bernard MacLaverty, John McGahern, Edna O'Brien, Colm Tóibín and William Trevor publishing collections – or collected stories – to great acclaim. [11]

Several Irish short-story anthologies have been published since 2000 to meet the demands of the reading public, for example: the Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories 2005 and 2007; Irish Short Stories (2011), edited by Joseph O'Connor; Town and Country: New Irish Short Stories (2013), edited and with an introduction by Kevin Barry; The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story was published in 2010, edited and with an introduction by Anne Enright.; [12] Silver Threads of Hope, edited by Anne Enright and Sinéad Gleeson in 2012; and The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers (2015), edited by Sinéad Gleeson. [10] In addition, The Stinging Fly Magazine has been fostering new short story writing, along with other publishing houses such as New Island Books.

Stories in Irish

The Gaelic Revival at the beginning of the 20th century saw the Irish language re-emerging as a literary medium after a century of almost complete neglect. This had an effect on all genres, short stories among them. The tradition that developed was characterised by great variety, reflecting the background of the writers. It is likely that over a thousand stories have been written in Irish. [13]

A modernist pioneer was Patrick Pearse, language activist and revolutionary, and writer of stories of idealistic content in a contemporary European form. Pearse was executed in 1916 but left a legacy which opened new possibilities for the language. Modernist possibilities were further developed by Pádraic Ó Conaire, a writer of the 1920s on whom the European influence was evident but whose own legacy was mixed. He wrote, like Pearse, in the Irish of Conamara, sometimes setting his stories in that remote landscape and at other times in the towns. Ó Conaire has been described as the true pioneer of short story writing in Irish because of his rejection of older conventions and his determination to deal fearlessly with the truths of human nature. [14]

A different approach was taken by Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha (known as "An Seabhac" – the hawk), who set his comic stories and sketches in the Munster Gaeltacht. An Baile S'Againne (1913) ("Our Place").

The Donegal Gaeltacht brought forth Séamas Ó Grianna, who wrote prolifically and idiomatically about the people of his region, though much of his work has been criticised for its predictability. [15] His brother Seosamh Mac Grianna, less prolific, left a handful of stories.

Máirtín Ó Cadhain, an idiosyncratic writer, was born in the Conamara Gaeltacht, a region rich in folklore but with no strong literary tradition. His early stories, written in a thorny and difficult style, though with psychological penetration, were set in his native region. He settled eventually in Dublin and his style became more direct, though still marked by imaginative intensity. He remains generally regarded as the doyen of the craft in Irish and one of the best writers to emerge from Ireland in the 20th century, despite the fact that the difficulty of his earlier style was criticised – a difficulty which may have robbed him of a wider readership. [16]

The emigrant tradition in Ireland continued in the forties and fifties, and many of those who went were Irish speakers. One was Dónal Mac Amhlaidh, who took to writing about his experiences as a navvy in England and about other aspects of lives touched by exile.[ citation needed ]

Liam O'Flaherty, though a native speaker of Irish, made his name as a writer in English. He returned to Irish in a collection called Dúil ("Desire"), containing stories in the west of Ireland. The reviews were disappointing and may have discouraged him from writing in Irish again, [17] but Dúil continues to be printed.

In the middle of the 20th century most habitual speakers of Irish still lived in the Gaeltacht, but the number of urban readers was growing. The genre was still dominated by a masculine sensibility, but in 1955 brother and sister Donncha Ó Céileachair and Síle Ní Chéileachair published Bullaí Mhártain, stories dealing with both the Munster Gaeltacht and city life. These stories were praised[ by whom? ] for their scope and their skilful adaptation of the language to an urban environment.

A collection of sketches and stories called Feamainn Bealtaine ("Seaweed in May") was published by the poet Máirtín Ó Direáin in 1961. These deal largely with his youth in the Irish-speaking Aran Islands.[ citation needed ]

An important contemporary practitioners of the genre, the poetic realist Seán Mac Mathúna (born 1935), has published versions of his stories in both Irish and English. His reputation was confirmed by his collection Ding ("Wedge"), with its disturbing title story. He was never a prolific writer, and has published little for some years.

The short story continues to be a favoured form for writers in Irish, possibly because it lends itself to publication in the two main literary magazines, Feasta and Comhar . Collections in Irish continue to be published, with over 125 presently available. [18] Women writers are now more prominent – Orna Ní Choileáin, Méadhbh Ní Ghallchobhair, Deirdre Ní Ghrianna and others. Younger readers are addressed by writers like Ré Ó Laighléis, whose stories deal with social problems such as drug abuse. Most readers now come from the urban Irish-speaking community, together with all the younger writers. This represents a distinctive change in the situation of the language and the future of its literature, though the Gaeltacht still has writers from the older generation, such as Colm Ó Ceallaigh and Joe Steve Ó Neachtain.

The prevailing tone of short stories in Irish continues to be quotidian and realistic. An exception is the work of Daithí Ó Muirí, whose stories have been praised for their assured and engaging style and their surrealistic atmosphere. [19] His collection Cogaí (Wars) won an important literary prize in 2001 in the Cló Iar-Chonnacht Literary Award Competition. The adjudicators referred to the savagery and vitality of the writing. [20]

Critical theory

Influential books on the theory and practice of the short story were written by Sean O Faolain The Short Story (1948) and Frank O'Connor The Lonely Voice (1962). [21] They advocated a realist approach in which the story focuses on a moment of crisis or change in a character's life.[ citation needed ]

This approach has been an important influence on the short story in Ireland.[ citation needed ] Recently Jack Hart declared in the preface to his collection From Under Gogol's Nose (2004) that the parameters of the short story had been set too narrowly. He advocates a broader range of possibilities, from stories that are almost essays to those that are almost poems. He argues that the short story should be seen as closer by nature to the poem, requiring a similar engagement from the reader and communicating in a similar way through a fundamentally oral/aural process. [22]

Awards

In English

Several awards for the short story have highlighted its development in Ireland. Cork hosted the first Frank O'Connor Short Story festival in 2000, as part of which the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award was established in 2005, and aimed to increase the profile of the short story as a literary form. [23] As of 2016, this award has been discontinued, but past winners include:

YearAuthorTitle
2015Carys DaviesThe Redemption of Galen Pike
2014Colin BarrettYoung Skins
2013 David Constantine Tea at the Midland and Other Stories
2012 Nathan Englander What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
2011 Edna O'Brien Saints and Sinners
2010 Ron Rash Burning Bright
2009 Simon Van Booy Love Begins in Winter
2008 Jhumpa Lahiri Unaccustomed Earth
2007 Miranda July No One Belongs Here More Than You
2006 Haruki Murakami Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
2005 Yiyun Li A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature has been awarded to short story collections by Claire Keegan, Keith Ridway, Philip Ó Ceallaigh and Kevin Barry. Other award-winning authors include Mary Costello (shortlisted for the Guardian First Fiction Award), Sara Baume (winner of the Davy Byrnes Short Story Award), and Billy O'Callaghan (awarded the inaugural Writing.ie Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award for the short story [24] [25] [26] ).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish literature</span> Writings from the island of Ireland

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.

Although Irish has been used as a literary language for more than 1,500 years, and modern literature in Irish dates – as in most European languages – to the 16th century, modern Irish literature owes much of its popularity to the 19th century Gaelic Revival cultural movement. Writers in Irish have since produced some of the most interesting literature to come out of Ireland, supplemented by work produced in the language abroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish prose fiction</span>

The first Irish prose fiction, in the form of legendary stories, appeared in the Irish language as early as the seventh century, along with chronicles and lives of saints in Irish and Latin. Such fiction was an adaptation and elaboration of earlier oral material and was the work of a learned class who had acquired literacy with the coming of Latin Christianity. A number of these stories were still available in manuscripts of the late medieval period and even as late as the nineteenth century, though poetry was by that time the main literary vehicle of the Irish language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seán Ó Faoláin</span> Irish writer

Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Irish culture. A short-story writer of international repute, he was also a leading commentator and critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connemara</span> Region in County Galway, Ireland

Connemara is a region on the Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, which is a key part of the identity of the region and is the largest Gaeltacht in the country. Historically, Connemara was part of the territory of Iar Connacht. Geographically, it has many mountains, peninsulas, coves, islands and small lakes. Connemara National Park is in the northwest. It is mostly rural and its largest settlement is Clifden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Máirtín Ó Cadhain</span> Irish writer (1906–1970)

Máirtín Ó Cadhain was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century. Perhaps best known for his 1949 novel Cré na Cille, Ó Cadhain played a key role in reintroducing literary modernism into modern literature in Irish, where it had been dormant since the 1916 execution of Patrick Pearse. Politically, Ó Cadhain was an Irish republican and anti-clerical Marxist, who promoted the Athghabháil na hÉireann, . Ó Cadhain was also a member of the post-Civil War Irish Republican Army and was interned by the Irish Army in the Curragh Camp with Brendan Behan and many other IRA members during the Emergency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster Irish</span> Irish language dialect

Ulster Irish is the variety of Irish spoken in the province of Ulster. It "occupies a central position in the Gaelic world made up of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man". Ulster Irish thus has much in common with Scottish Gaelic and Manx. Within Ulster there have historically been two main sub-dialects: West Ulster and East Ulster. The Western dialect is spoken in County Donegal and once was in parts of neighbouring counties, hence the name Donegal Irish. The Eastern dialect was spoken in most of the rest of Ulster and northern parts of counties Louth and Meath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connacht Irish</span> Irish language dialect

Connacht Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Connacht. Gaeltacht regions in Connacht are found in Counties Mayo and Galway. Connacht Irish is also spoken in the Meath Gealtacht Ráth Chairn and Baile Ghib. The dialects of Irish in Connacht are extremely diverse, with the pronunciation, forms and lexicon being different even within each county.

Séamus Ó Grianna was an Irish writer, who used the pen name Máire.

Eoghan Ó Tuairisc was an Irish poet and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pádraic Ó Conaire</span> Irish writer and journalist (1882–1928)

Pádraic Ó Conaire was an Irish writer and journalist whose production was primarily in the Irish language. In his lifetime he wrote 26 books, 473 stories, 237 essays and 6 plays. His acclaimed novel Deoraíocht has been described by Angela Bourke as 'the earliest example of modernist fiction in Irish'.

<i>Comhar</i>

Comhar is a prominent literary journal in the Irish language, published by the company Comhar Teoranta. It was founded in 1942, and has published work by some of the most notable writers in Irish, including Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Seán Ó Ríordáin, Máirtín Ó Direáin, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Brendan Behan. Comhar also publishes books in Irish.

Tomás Bairéad (1893–1973) was an Irish author and nationalist. Born in Galway, his father was called Michael Barrett and his mother Mary McDonough. He had two sisters and one brother. He was a member of the Moycullen group of the Irish Volunteers in 1916 and soon after became an IRA volunteer. He was also a member of the IRB and Sinn Féin. He was part of a group of Volunteers who were involved in the burning of the RIC Barracks in Rosmuc in 1920. He began his journalistic career with the Galway Express, a weekly republican paper. In 1922 he joined the Irish Independent, writing on politics, and would later become the newspaper's editor in 1945. While working for the Independent he was presented the Irish Academy of Letters Award (1938). Bairéad also invented his own Irish shorthand. His close friend, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, urged him to leave the IRA to focus on his writings.

Seosamh Mac Grianna was a writer from County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. He was born into a family of poets and storytellers, which included his brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seán Bán Mac Grianna, in Rann na Feirste (Ranafast), a village in The Rosses in the west of County Donegal, at a time of linguistic and cultural change. Mac Grianna is the most high-profile modern writer in Ulster Irish.

<i>Feasta</i>

Feasta is an Irish-language magazine that was established in 1948. Its purpose is the furtherance of the aims of Conradh na Gaeilge, an objective reflecting the cultural nationalism of the language movement, and the promotion of new writing. Feasta describes itself as a review of Irish thought, literature, politics, and science. It was formerly supported by Foras na Gaeilge, but this support was withdrawn because of a review of funding priorities. At present the magazine relies on its own resources.

Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé was an Irish-language writer and musician from the County Kerry Gaeltacht. He was the father of Dáithí Ó Sé. He was one of the best known Irish writers of his generation, noted for his autobiography A Thig Ná Tit Orm. His writings were used as part of the Irish-language element of the Leaving Certificate in Irish state education, as a replacement for Peig from 1995.

Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin was an Irish language writer whose chosen theme was contemporary urban life. He is acknowledged as an important Irish language modernist. He was also active in the Irish republican movement and a member of Sinn Féin.

Donncha Ó Céileachair was a prominent writer in the Irish language. He and his sister, Síle Ní Chéileachair, published an influential collection of short stories, and he was also notable as a biographer and travel writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarlach Ó hUid</span> Irish activist and journalist

Tarlach Ó hUid was an English-born Irish language activist, journalist and writer who became a member of the Irish Republican Army during World War II.

References

  1. ↑ Vivian Mercier, Introduction to Great Irish Short Stories (Dell, 1964); William Trevor: Introduction to The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories (Oxford University Press, 1989)
  2. ↑ Frazier (2000), pp. 306, 326.
  3. ↑ Gilcher, Edwin (September 2004; online edn, May 2006) "Moore, George Augustus (1852–1933)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi : 10.1093/ref:odnb/35089, retrieved 2008-01-07 (Subscription required)
  4. ↑ "Joyce – Other works". The James Joyce Centre. Archived from the original on 24 June 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
  5. ↑ Jeri Johnson, "Composition and Publication History", in James Joyce, Dubliners (Oxford University Press, 2000)
  6. ↑ Susan Osborn (editor): Elizabeth Bowen: New Critical Perspectives (2009).
  7. ↑ "Editor and writer who dedicated his life to promoting Irish literature". The Irish Times. 5 May 2009.
  8. ↑ A Companion to the British and Irish Short Story. Wiley-Blackwell. 2008. ISBN   978-1-4051-4537-4.
  9. ↑ Ingman, Heather (2011). A History of the Irish Short Story. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521349574.
  10. 1 2 3 D'hoker, Elke, ed. (2015). The Irish Short Story: Traditions and Trends. Reimagining Ireland (Volume 63). Bern: Peter Lang. ISBN   978-3-0343-1753-5.
  11. ↑ The Irish Short Story: Traditions and Trends by Elke D'hoker (Editor), Stephanie Eggermont (Editor) (2014).
  12. ↑ The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story. London: Granta. 2010. ISBN   978-1-84708-255-8.
  13. ↑ Ó Cadhain, Máirtín, "An Gearrscéal sa Ghaeilge" (1967), Scríobh 5, an Clóchomhar Tta, 1985: "Scríobhadh na mílte gearrscéal sa Ghaeilge. Tá siad ina sprémhóin inti... Tá sé éasca iad a chur i gcló, nó iad a chur á gcraobhscaoileadh ar an raidió anois".
  14. ↑ See Tomás de Bhaldraithe's foreword to Scothscéalta, Pádraic Ó Conaire (1956), Sáirséal agus Dill, Baile Átha Cliath ISBN   0-901374-14-8
  15. ↑ Ó Cadhain, Máirtín, "An Gearrscéal sa Ghaeilge" (1967), Scríobh 5, an Clóchomhar Tta, 1985.
  16. ↑ See the foreword by Tomás Bairéad in As an nGéibheann, Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1973), Sáirséal agus Dill, Baile Átha Cliath, pp. 15–16 ISBN   0-902563-25-4
  17. ↑ Ó hEithir, Breandán (1991) (ed. Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín), An Chaint sa tSráidbhaile, p. 167. Comhar Teoranta, Baile Átha Cliath.
  18. ↑ http://www.litriocht.com This book ordering service has a comprehensive catalogue of publications in Irish. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  19. ↑ "Leabhar Breac, Seacht Lá na Díleann: "Tá stíl shiúráilte scríbhneoireachta ag rith leis na scéalta seo... éirim éigin síúil, neamhshaolta, fíormhealltach iontu... agus draíocht áirithe leo a thug ar shiúl mé." Moltóir an Oireachtais, 1996". Archived from the original on 28 December 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  20. ↑ "Cló Iar-Chonnacht, Cogaí (printed book)". Archived from the original on 28 December 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  21. ↑ Sean O Faolain The Short Story (1948); Frank O'Connor The Lonely Voice (1962)
  22. ↑ Jack Harte, From Under Gogol's Nose (Scotus Press, 2004)
  23. ↑ "Cork International Short Story Festival Award".
  24. ↑ "Writing.ie Short Story of the Year".
  25. ↑ "Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award Winners". The Sunday Independent. 2 December 2013.
  26. ↑ "Irish Book Award Winners". 26 November 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.