Irish Literary Revival.pdf

Irish Literary Revival

The Irish Literary Revival (also called the Irish Literary Renaissance , nicknamed the Celtic Twilight ) was a

flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Forerunners

The literary movement was associated with a revival of interest in Ireland's Gaelic heritage and the growth of Irish

nationalism f rom the middle of the 19th century. The poetry of James Clarence Mangan and Samuel Ferguson and

Standish James O'Grady' s History of Ireland: Heroic Period were influential in shaping the minds of the following

generations. [1] Others who contributed to the build-up of national consciousness during the 19th century included

poet and writer George Sigerson, antiquarians and music collectors such as George Petrie and the Joyce brothers,

editors such as Matthew Russell (of the Irish Monthly ), scholars such as John O'Donovan a nd Eugene O'Curry and

nationalists such as Charles Kickham and John O'Leary. In 1882 the Gaelic Union established the Gaelic Journal

( Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge ), the first important bilingual Irish periodical with the help of Douglas Hyde, with David

Comyn a s editor.

Developments

The early literary revival had two geographic centers, in Dublin and in London, and William Butler Yeats t ravelled

between the two, writing and organising. In 1888 he published Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry , a

compilation of pieces by various authors of the 18th and 19th centuries. He had been assisted by Douglas Hyde ,

whose Beside the Fire , a collection of folklore in Irish, was published in 1890. In London in 1892, along with T. W.

Rolleston , and Charles Gavan Duffy , he set up the Irish Literary Society . Back in Dublin he founded the National

Literary Society i n the same year, with Douglas Hyde a s first President. Meanwhile the more radical Arthur Griffith

and William Rooney were active in the Irish Fireside Club and went on to found the Leinster Literary Society. [2]

In 1893 Yeats published The Celtic Twilight , a collection of lore and

reminiscences from the West of Ireland. The book closed with the poem "Into the

Twilight". It was this book and poem that gave the revival its nickname. In this

year Hyde, Eugene O'Growney and Eoin MacNeill founded the Gaelic League ,

with Hyde becoming its first President. It was set up to encourage the

preservation of Irish culture, its music, dances and language. Also in that year

appeared Hyde's The Love Songs of Connacht , which inspired Yeats, John

Millington Synge a nd Lady Gregory. [3]

Thomas A. Finlay founded the New Ireland Review , a literary magazine, in 1894,

which he edited until 1911, when it was replaced by Studies . Many of the leading

literary lights of the time contributed to it. [4]

1900 portrait of William Butler

Yeats by his father, John Butler

Yeats

In 1897 Hyde became editor, with T. W. Rolleston and Charles Gavan Duffy, of

the New Irish Library , a series of books on Irish history and literature issued by

the London publisher, Fisher Unwin. Two years later Hyde published his

Literary history of Ireland .

Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn published a Manifesto for Irish Literary Theatre in 1897, in which they

proclaimed their intention of establishing a national theater for Ireland. The Irish Literary Theatre was founded by

Yeats, Lady Gregory and Martyn in 1899, with assistance from George Moore . It proposed to give performances in

Dublin of Irish plays by Irish authors. [5] The Fay brothers formed W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Company ,

focused on the development of Irish acting talent. The company produced works by Seumas O'Cuisin, Fred Ryan and

Irish Literary Revival

Yeats.

Around the turn of the century Patrick S. Dinneen p ublished editions of Geoffrey Keating 's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn ,

poems by Aogán Ó Rathaille a nd Piaras Feiritéar, and other works for the Irish Texts Society and the Gaelic League.

He then went on to write the first novel in Irish, while continuing to work on his great Irish-English dictionary. [6] On

Easter Sunday 1900 Yeat's friend and muse, Maud Gonne, founded Inghinidhe na hÉireann ( English: Daughters of

Ireland), a revolutionary women ’ s society which included writers Alice Furlong , Annie Egan, Ethna Carbery and

Sinéad O'Flanagan (later wife of Éamon de Valera) , and the actors Máire Quinn and Sara Allgood. The

Irish-language newspaper Banba was founded in 1901 with Tadhg Ó Donnchadha a s editor. The following year he

also became editor of the Gaelic Journal .

In 1903 Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Russell ("AE") , Edward Martyn, and Synge founded the Irish National

Theatre Society with funding from Annie Horniman ; Fred Ryan was secretary. The Abbey Theatre was opened by

this society in Abbey Street on 27 December 1904. Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh p layed the name part in Cathleen Ni

Houlihan . Yeats' brother Jack painted portraits of all the leading figures in the society for the foyer, while Sarah

Purser designed stained glass for the same space. The new Abbey Theatre found great popular success. It staged

many plays by eminent or soon-to-be eminent authors, including Yeats, Lady Gregory, Moore, Martyn, Padraic

Colum, George Bernard Shaw, Oliver St John Gogarty, F. R. Higgins , Thomas MacDonagh , Lord Dunsany , T. C.

Murray, James Cousins a nd Lennox Robinson . [7]

In 1904 John Eglinton started the journal Dana , to which Fred Ryan and Oliver St John Gogarty c ontributed. [8]

In 1906 the publishing house of Maunsel and Company was founded by Stephen Gwynn , Joseph Maunsel Hone and

George Roberts t o publish Irish writers. Its first publication was Rush-light by Joseph Campbell. [9] Lady Gregory

started publishing her collection of Kiltartan stories, including A Book of Saints and Wonders (1906) and The

Kiltartan History Book (1909).

The Irish Review was founded in 1910 by poet and writer James Stephens , with David Houston, Thomas

MacDonagh, Padraic and Mary Colum a nd Joseph Mary Plunkett . Plunkett published a collection of poems, The

Circle and The Sword , the same year.

Fellow travellers

The movement co-existed with the growth of interest in the Irish language ( Gaelic League) , the Home Rule

movement, the Gaelic Athletic Association, and other cultural organisations. It spawned a number of books and

magazines and poetry by lesser-known artists such as Alice Furlong, Ethna Carbery, Dora Sigerson Shorter and

Alice Milligan a round the turn of the century. These were followed by the likes of George Roberts , Katharine Tynan,

Thomas MacDonagh, Seán O'Casey, Seamus O'Sullivan and others up to the 1930s. It was complemented by

developments in the arts world, which included artists such as Sarah Purser, Grace Gifford, Estella Solomons and

Beatrice Elvery . [10]

Notes

[1] Boyd, Ernest (23 December 1916). "The Irish Literary Revival". The Irish Times : p. 3.

[2] McGuire, James; Quinn, James (2009). Dictionary of Irish Biography . Volume V . Dublin: Royal Irish Academy-Cambridge University Press.

p. 608. ISBN 978-0-521-63331-4.

[3] Ó Corráin, Donnchadh. "Douglas Hyde" (http:/ / multitext. ucc. ie/ d/ Douglas_Hyde3344120424) . University College Cork, Multitext Project

in Irish History. . Retrieved 20 August 2011.

[4] Thomas J. Morrissey, SJ T homas A. Finlay SJ, 1848 – 1940, Educationalist, editor, social reformer. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2004. ISBN

1-85182-827-3

[5]

[5] Foster (2003), pp. 486, 662.

[6] Welch, Robert (1996). The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature . Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280080-9.

[7] McCormack, W. J. (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture , Blackwell Publishing, 28 January 2002. p. 7. ISBN

0-631-22817-9

[8] Carens, James (1979). Surpassing Wit . New York: Columbia University Press. p. 22.

Irish Literary Revival

[9]

[9] John Kelly, Ronald Schuchard: The Collected Letters of W.B. Yeats, 1905-1907 (2005). Oxford University Press. p. 87

[10] Report (15 September 1913). "Irish Artists "At Home"". The Irish Times : p. 9.

Sources

•

Foster, R. F. (1997). W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. I: The Apprentice Mage . New York: Oxford UP. ISBN

0-19-288085-3.

Foster, R. F. (2003). W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915 – 1939 . New York: Oxford UP. ISBN

0-19-818465-4.

•

Ernest Boyd. Ireland ’ s Literary Renaissance . New York: John Lane (1916; revised edition; 1923)

•

External links

•

The National Library of Ireland's exhibition, Yeats: The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats (http:/ / www. nli.

ie/ yeats/ )

•

Irish culture leading to 1916 (http:/ / www. nli. ie/ 1916/ pdf/ 3. 4. 3. pdf)

Article Sources and Contributors

Irish Literary Revival Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=529292440 Contributors : Erik Kennedy, Filiocht, Hohenloh, Pigman, Ruthirwin1, Truthkeeper88, 4 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:William Butler Yeats by John Butler Yeats 1900.jpg Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:William_Butler_Yeats_by_John_Butler_Yeats_1900.jpg License : Public

Domain Contributors : Maire

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