Irish literature

For Modern literature originally written in Irish language, and more generally by the Irish Literary Revival.
see Modern literature in Irish.
The Anglo-Irish literary tradition found its rst great exIrish literature comprises writings in the Irish, Latin,
ponent in Jonathan Swift. Writers such as Lawrence
Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan
are often claimed for Ireland, though their lives and their
works were essentially English. The same can be said
of Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and C.S. Lewis, prominent writers who left Ireland to make a life in London.
More recognisably Irish writers included Louis McNeice, George Bernard Shaw (though he spent most of his
life in England) and W. B. Yeats. The descendants of
Scottish settlers in Ulster formed the Ulster-Scots writing
tradition, having an especially strong tradition of rhyming
poetry.
Though English was the dominant Irish literary language
in the twentieth century, much work of high quality appeared in Irish. A pioneering modernist writer in Irish
was Pdraic Conaire, and traditional life was given
vigorous expression in a series of autobiographies by
native Irish speakers from the west coast, exemplied
by the work of Toms Criomhthain and Peig Sayers. The outstanding modernist prose writer in Irish
was Mirtn Cadhain, and prominent poets included
Mirtn Direin, Sen Rordin and Mire Mhac
an tSaoi. Prominent bilingual writers included Brendan
Behan (who wrote poetry and a play in Irish) and Flann
O'Brien. Two novels by O'Brien, At Swim Two Birds and
Several notable Irish Writers. Clockwise from top left: Jonathan
The Third Policeman, are considered early examples of
Swift; W.B. Yeats; Oscar Wilde; James Joyce; Colm Toibn;
postmodern ction, but he also wrote a satirical novel in
Seamus Heaney; Samuel Beckett; G.B. Shaw
Irish called An Bal Bocht (translated as The Poor Mouth).
and English (including Ulster Scots) languages on the is- Liam O'Flaherty, who gained fame as a writer in English,
land of Ireland. The earliest recorded Irish writing dates also published a book of short stories in Irish (Dil).
from the seventh century and was produced by monks Most attention has been given to Irish writers who wrote
writing in both Latin and Early Irish. In addition to scrip- in English and who were at the forefront of the modernist
tural writing, the monks of Ireland recorded both poetry movement, notably James Joyce, whose novel Ulysses is
and mythological tales. There is a large surviving body considered one of the most inuential of the century.
of Irish mythological writing, including tales such as The The playwright Samuel Beckett, in addition to a large
Tin and Mad King Sweeny.
amount of prose ction, wrote a number of important
The English language was introduced to Ireland in the plays, including Waiting for Godot. Several Irish writers
thirteenth century, following the Norman Conquest of have excelled at short story writing, in particular Frank
Ireland. The Irish language, however, remained the dom- O'Connor and William Trevor. In the late twentieth ceninant language of Irish literature down to the nineteenth tury Irish poets, especially those from Northern Ireland,
century, despite a slow decline which began in the sev- came to prominence with Derek Mahon, John Montague,
enteenth century with the expansion of English power. Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon. Other notable Irish
The latter part of the nineteenth century saw a rapid re- writers from the twentieth century include, poet Patrick
placement of Irish by English in the greater part of the Kavanagh, dramatists Tom Murphy and Brian Friel and
country. At the end of the century, however, cultural na- novelists Edna O'Brien and John McGahern.
tionalism displayed a new energy, marked by the Gaelic Well-known Irish writers in English in the twenty-rst
Revival (which encouraged a modern literature in Irish)
1

THE MIDDLE AGES: 5001500

century include Colum McCann, Anne Enright, Roddy

Doyle, Sebastian Barry, Colm Toibn and John Banville,
all of whom have all won major awards. Younger writers include Paul Murray, Kevin Barry, Emma Donoghue,
Donal Ryan and dramatist Martin McDonagh. Writing in
Irish has also continued to ourish.

The Annals of Ulster (Irish: Annla Uladh) cover years

from AD 431 to AD 1540 and were compiled in the territory of what is now Northern Ireland: entries up to
AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the
scribe Ruaidhr Luinn, under his patron Cathal g
Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne.
The Ulster Cycle written in the 12th century, is a body of
medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional
heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and
1 The Middle Ages: 5001500
northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Down
and Louth. The stories are written in Old and Middle
Main article: Early Irish literature
Irish, mostly in prose, interspersed with occasional verse
Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in westpassages. The language of the earliest stories is dateable
to the 8th century, and events and characters are referred
to in poems dating to the 7th.[5]
After the Old Irish period, there is a vast range of poetry
from mediaeval and Renaissance times. By degrees the
Irish created a classical tradition in their own language.
Verse remained the main vehicle of literary expression,
and by the 12th century questions of form and style had
been essentially settled, with little change until the 17th
century.[6]
Medieval Irish writers also created an extensive literature
in Latin: this Hiberno-Latin literature was notable for its
learned vocabulary, including a greater use of loanwords
from Greek and Hebrew than was common in medieval
Latin elsewhere in Europe.

Irish writing of 8th century

ern Europe (after Greek and Latin).

[1]

The Irish became fully literate with the arrival of Christianity in the fth century. Before that time a simple
writing system known as ogham was used for inscriptions. The introduction of Latin led to the adaptation of
the Latin alphabet to the Irish language and the rise of a
small literate class, both clerical and lay.[2][3]
The earliest Irish literature consisted of original lyric poetry and versions of ancient prose tales. The earliest poetry, composed in the 6th century, illustrates a vivid religious faith or describe the world of nature, and was sometimes written in the margins of illuminated manuscripts.
The Blackbird of Belfast Lough", a fragment of syllabic verse probably dating from the 9th century, has inspired reinterpretations and translations in modern times
by John Montague, John Hewitt, Seamus Heaney, Ciaran
Carson, and Thomas Kinsella, as well as a version into
modern Irish by Toms Floinn.[4]
The Book of Armagh is a 9th-century illuminated
manuscript written mainly in Latin, containing early texts
relating to St Patrick and some of the oldest surviving specimens of Old Irish. It is one of the earliest manuscripts produced by an insular church to contain a near complete copy of the New Testament. The
manuscript was the work of a scribe named Ferdomnach
of Armagh (died 845 or 846). Ferdomnach wrote the
rst part of the book in 807 or 808, for Patricks heir (comarba) Torbach. It was one of the symbols of the oce
for the Archbishop of Armagh.

The literary Irish language (known in English as Classical

Irish), was a sophisticated medium with elaborate verse
forms, and was taught in bardic schools (i.e. academies
of higher learning) both in Ireland and Scotland.[7] These
produced historians, lawyers and a professional literary
class which depended on the aristocracy for patronage.
Much of the writing produced in this period was conventional in character, in praise of patrons and their families, but the best of it was of exceptionally high quality and included poetry of a personal nature. Gofraidh
Fionn Dlaigh (14th century), Tadhg g hUiginn
(15th century) and Eochaidh hEoghusa (16th century)
were among the most distinguished of these poets. Every
noble family possessed a body of manuscripts containing genealogical and other material, and the work of the
best poets was used for teaching purposes in the bardic
schools.[8] In this hierarchical society, fully trained poets belonged to the highest stratum; they were court ofcials but were thought to still possess ancient magical
powers.[9]
Women were largely excluded from the ocial literature, though female aristocrats could be patrons in their
own right. An example is the 15th century noblewoman
Mairgrag N Cearbhaill, praised by the learned for her
hospitality.[10] At that level a certain number of women
were literate, and some were contributors to an unocial
corpus of courtly love poetry known as dnta grdha.[11]
Prose continued to be cultivated in the medieval period in
the form of tales. The Norman invasion of the 12th cen-

3
tury introduced a new body of stories which inuenced
the Irish tradition, and in time translations were made
from English.[12]

2 The Early Modern period: 1500

1800

Irish poets also composed the Dindsenchas (lore of

places),[13][14] a class of onomastic texts recounting the
origins of place-names and traditions concerning events
and characters associated with the places in question.
Since many of the legends related concern the acts of
mythic and legendary gures, the dindsenchas is an important source for the study of Irish mythology.

The 17th century saw the tightening of English control

over Ireland and the suppression of the traditional aristocracy. This meant that the literary class lost its patrons,
since the new nobility were English speakers with little
sympathy for the older culture. The elaborate classical
metres lost their dominance and were largely replaced by
more popular forms.[18] This was an age of social and political tension, as expressed by the poet Dibh Bruadair and the anonymous authors of Pairliment Chloinne
Tomis, a prose satire on the aspirations of the lower
classes.[19] Prose of another sort was represented by the
historical works of Georey Keating (Seathrn Citinn)
and the compilation known as the Annals of the Four Masters.

1.1

Irish mythological and legendary saga

The consequences of these changes were seen in the 18th
cycles

Main article: Irish mythology

There are four principal epic cycles in early Irish literature. The rst of these is the Mythological Cycle,
which concerns the Irish pagan pantheon, the Tuatha D
Danann. Second is the Ulster Cycle, mentioned above,
also known as the Red Branch Cycle or the Heroic Cycle,
which concerns events during the legendary reign of King
Conchobar mac Nessa in Ulster in the rst century BC.
The Ulster Cycle includes the Tin B Cailnge, the socalled "Iliad of the Gael,[15] and its hero, the warrior C
Chulainn, a gure comparable to the Greek hero Achilles,
known for his terrifying battle frenzy, or rastrad.[16]
Third is a body of romance woven round Fionn Mac
Cumhaill, his son Oisin, and his grandson Oscar, in the
reigns of the High Kings Conn of the Hundred Battles,
his son Art Onfer, and his grandson Cormac mac Airt,
in the second and third centuries AD; this cycle of romance is usually called the Fenian cycle because it deals
so largely with Fionn Mac Cumhaill and his anna (militia). Fourth is the Historical Cycle, or Cycle of the Kings,
stemming from Irish court bards duty to recount the histories and genealogies of the dynasties they served.
The Historical Cycle ranges from the almost entirely
mythological Labraid Loingsech, who allegedly became
High King of Ireland around 431 BC, to the entirely historical Brian Boru, who reigned as High King of Ireland in the eleventh century AD. The Historical Cycle includes the late medieval tale Buile Shuibhne (The Frenzy
of Sweeney), which has inuenced the works of T.S. Eliot
and Flann O'Brien, among others. Unusually among European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose,
with verse interpolations expressing heightened emotion.
Although usually found in recensions of the later mediaeval period, many of these works are linguistically archaic,
and thus throw light on pre-Christian Ireland.[17]

century. Poetry was still the dominant literary medium

and its practitioners were poor scholars, often educated
in the classics at local schools and schoolmasters by trade.
Such writers produced polished work in popular metres for a local audience. This was particularly the case
in Munster, in the south-west of Ireland, and notable
names included Eoghan Rua Silleabhin and Aogn
Rathaille of Sliabh Luachra. A certain number of local patrons were still to be found, even in the early 19th
century, and especially among the few surviving families
of the Gaelic aristocracy.[20]
Irish was still an urban language, and continued to be so
well into the 19th century. In the rst half of the 18th
century Dublin was the home of an Irish-language literary
circle connected to the Neachtain (Naughton) family,
a group with wide-ranging Continental connections.[21]

There is little evidence of female literacy for this period, but women were of great importance in the oral
tradition. They were the main composers of traditional
laments. The most famous of these is Caoineadh Airt U
Laoghaire, composed in the late 18th century by Eibhln
Dubh N Chonaill, one of the last of the Gaelic gentry of
West Kerry.[22] Compositions of this sort were not committed to writing until collected in the 19th century.

2.1 The manuscript tradition

Well after the introduction of printing to Ireland, works
in Irish continued to be disseminated in manuscript form.
The rst printed book in Ireland was the Book of Common Prayer.[23]
Access to the printing press was hindered in the 1500s
and the 1600s by ocial caution, although an Irish version of the Bible (known as Bedell's Bible after the Anglican clergyman who commissioned it) was published in
the 17th century. A number of popular works in Irish,
both devotional and secular, were available in print by the

3 THE MODERN PERIOD: FROM 1800

early 19th century, but the manuscript remained the most began around 1720.[30] The most prominent being the
aordable means of transmission almost until the end of 'rhyming weaver' poetry, publication of which began afthe century.[24]
ter 1750, though a broadsheet was published in Strabane
[31]
These weaver poets looked to Scotland for
Manuscripts were collected by literate individuals in 1735.
their
cultural
and literary models but were not simple im(schoolmasters, farmers and others) and were copied and
itators.
They
were inheritors of the same literary tradirecopied. They might include material several centuries
tion
and
followed
the same poetic and orthographic pracold. Access to them was not conned to the literate, since
tices;
it
is
not
always
immediately possible to distinguish
the contents were read aloud at local gatherings. This was
between traditional Scots writing from Scotland and Ulstill the case in the late 19th century in Irish-speaking
ster. Among the rhyming weavers were James Campbell
districts.[25]
(17581818), James Orr (17701816), Thomas Beggs
Manuscripts were often taken abroad, particularly to (17491847).
America. In the 19th century many of these were collected by individuals or cultural institutions.[26]

3 The Modern period: from 1800

2.2

The Anglo-Irish tradition (1): In the

18th-century
Main articles: Irish ction, Irish poetry and Irish short
story

Jonathan Swift (16671745), a powerful and versatile

satirist, was Irelands rst earliest notable writer in English. Swift held positions of authority in both England
and Ireland at dierent times. Many of Swifts works
reected support for Ireland during times of political turmoil with England, including Proposal for Universal Use
of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapiers Letters (1724),
and A Modest Proposal (1729), and earned him the status
of an Irish patriot.[27]
Oliver Goldsmith (17301774), born in County Longford, moved to London, where he became part of the literary establishment, though his poetry reects his youth
in Ireland. He is best known for his novel The Vicar of
Wakeeld (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village
(1770), and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man (1768) and
She Stoops to Conquer (1771, rst performed in 1773).
Edmund Burke (17291797) was born in Dublin and
came to serve in the House of Commons of Great Britain
on behalf of the Whig Party, and establish a reputation in
his oratory and published works for great philosophical
clarity as well as a lucid literary style.

2.3

In the 19th century English was well on the way to becoming the dominant vernacular. Down until the Great
Famine of the 1840s, however, and even later, Irish was
still used over large areas of the south-west, the west and
the north-west.
A famous long poem from the beginning of the century is Cirt an Mhen Oche (The Midnight Court), a
vigorous and inventive satire by Brian Merriman from
County Clare. The copying of manuscripts continued unabated, and one such collection was in the possession of
Amhlaoibh Silleabhin, a teacher and linen draper of
County Kilkenny who kept a unique diary in vernacular
Irish from 1827 to 1835 covering local and international
events, with a wealth of information about daily life.
The Great Famine of the 1840s hastened the retreat of
the Irish language. Many of its speakers died of hunger
or fever, and many more emigrated. The hedge schools of
earlier decades which had helped maintain the native culture were now supplanted by a system of National Schools
where English was given primacy. Literacy in Irish was
restricted to a very few.

Literature in Ulster Scots (1): In the A vigorous English-speaking middle class was now the
18th-century
dominant cultural force; a number of its members were

inuenced by political or cultural nationalism, and some

took an interest in the literature of the Irish language. One
such was a young Protestant scholar called Samuel Ferguson who studied the language privately and discovered
its poetry, which he began to translate.[32] He was preceded by James Hardiman, who in 1831 had published
the rst comprehensive attempt to collect popular poetry
in Irish.[33] These and other attempts supplied a bridge
In Ulster Scots-speaking areas the work of Scottish poets, between the literature of the two languages.
such as Allan Ramsay (16861758) and Robert Burns
(175996), was very popular, often in locally printed
editions. This was complemented by a poetry revival 3.1 The Anglo-Irish tradition (2)
and nascent prose genre in Ulster, which started around
1720.[30] A tradition of poetry and prose in Ulster Scots Maria Edgeworth (17671849) furnished a less amScots, mainly Gaelic-speaking, had been settling in Ulster since the 15th century, but large numbers of Scotsspeaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, arrived during the
17th century following the 1610 Plantation, with the peak
reached during the 1690s.[28] In the core areas of Scots
settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by ve or
six to one.[29]

3.3

Literature in Ulster Scots (2)

biguous foundation for an Anglo-Irish literary tradition.

Though not of Irish birth, she came to live there when
young and closely identied with Ireland. She was a pioneer in the realist novel.
Other Irish novelists to emerge during the 19th century include John Banim, Gerald Grin, Charles Kickham and
William Carleton. Their works tended to reect the views
of the middle class or gentry and they wrote what came
to be termed novels of the big house. Carleton was an
exception, and his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry
showed life on the other side of the social divide. Bram
Stoker, the author of Dracula, was outside both traditions, as was the early work of Lord Dunsany. One of
the premier ghost story writers of the nineteenth century
was Sheridan Le Fanu, whose works include Uncle Silas
and Carmilla.
The novels and stories, mostly humorous, of Edith
Somerville and Violet Florence Martin (who wrote together as Martin Ross), are among the most accomplished
products of Anglo-Irish literature, though written exclusively from the viewpoint of the big house. In 1894 they
published The Real Charlotte.

5
lutionary, was a pioneer of modernist literature in Irish.
He was followed by, among others, Pdraic Conaire
(18811928), an individualist with a strongly European
bent. One of the nest writers to emerge in Irish at the
time was Seosamh Mac Grianna (19001990), writer of a
powerful autobiography and accomplished novels, though
his creative period was cut short by illness. His brother
Samus Grianna (18891969) was more prolic.
This period also saw remarkable autobiographies from the
remote Irish-speaking areas of the south-west those of
Toms Criomhthain (18581937), Peig Sayers (1873
1958) and Muiris Silleabhin (19041950).
Mirtn Cadhain (19061970), a language activist, is
generally acknowledged as the doyen (and most dicult)
of modern writers in Irish, and has been compared to
James Joyce. He produced short stories, two novels and
some journalism. Mirtn Direin (19101988), Mire
Mhac an tSaoi (b. 1922) and Sen Rordin (1916
1977) were three of the nest poets of that generation.
Eoghan Tuairisc (19191982), who wrote both in Irish
and English, was noted for his readiness to experiment in
both prose and verse. Flann O'Brien (191166), from
Northern Ireland, published an Irish language novel An
Bal Bocht under the name Myles na gCopaleen.

George Moore spent much of his early career in Paris

and was one of the rst writers to use the techniques of
the French realist novelists in English.
Caitln Maude (19411982) and Nuala N Dhomhnaill
Oscar Wilde (18541900), though born and raised in Ire- (b. 1952) may be seen as representatives of a new genland, spent the greater part of his life in England. Despite eration of poets, conscious of tradition but modernist in
this, he is usually claimed to be an Irish writer. His plays outlook. The best known of that generation was possibly
Michael Hartnett (19411999), who wrote both in Irish
are distinguished for their wit, and he was also a poet.
and English, abandoning the latter altogether for a time.
The growth of Irish cultural nationalism towards the end
of the 19th century, culminating in the Gaelic Revival, Writing in Irish now encompasses a broad range of subhad a marked inuence on Irish writing in English, and jects and genres, with more attention being directed to
contributed to the Irish Literary Revival. This can be younger readers. The traditional Irish-speaking areas
clearly seen in the plays of J.M. Synge (18711909), who (Gaeltacht) are now less important as a source of authors
spent some time in the Irish-speaking Aran Islands, and and themes. Urban Irish speakers are in the ascendancy,
in the early poetry of William Butler Yeats (18651939), and it is likely that this will determine the nature of the
literature.
where Irish mythology is used in a personal and idiosyncratic way.

3.3 Literature in Ulster Scots (2)

3.2

Literature in Irish

Main articles: Modern literature in Irish and Gaelic

Revival
There was a resurgence of interest in the Irish language in
the late 19th-century with the Gaelic Revival. This had its
origins with the founding 1893 the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge). It insisted that the identity of Ireland
was intimately bound up with the Irish language, which
should be modernised and used as a vehicle of contemporary culture. This led to the publication of thousands
of books and pamphlets in Irish, providing the foundation
of a new literature in the coming decades.[34]
Patrick Pearse (18791916), teacher, barrister and revo-

In Ulster Scots-speaking areas there was traditionally

a considerable demand for the work of Scottish poets,
such as Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns, often in locally printed editions. This was complemented with locally written work, the most prominent being the rhyming
weaver poetry, of which, some 60 to 70 volumes were
published between 1750 and 1850, the peak being in
the decades 1810 to 1840.[31] These weaver poets looked
to Scotland for their cultural and literary models and
were not simple imitators but clearly inheritors of the
same literary tradition following the same poetic and orthographic practices; it is not always immediately possible to distinguish traditional Scots writing from Scotland and Ulster. Among the rhyming weavers were
James Campbell (17581818), James Orr (17701816),
Thomas Beggs (17491847), David Herbison (1800

3 THE MODERN PERIOD: FROM 1800

1880), Hugh Porter (17801839) and Andrew McKenzie

(17801839). Scots was also used in the narrative by novelists such as W. G. Lyttle (18441896) and Archibald
McIlroy (18601915). By the middle of the 19th century the Kailyard school of prose had become the dominant literary genre, overtaking poetry. This was a tradition shared with Scotland which continued into the early
20th century.[30]
A somewhat diminished tradition of vernacular poetry
survived into the 20th century in the work of poets such
as Adam Lynn, author of the 1911 collection Random
Rhymes frae Cullybackey, John Stevenson (died 1932),
writing as Pat M'Carty[35] and John Cliord (1900
1983) from East Antrim.[35] A prolic writer and poet,
W. F. Marshall (8 May 1888 January 1959) was known
as The Bard of Tyrone". Marshall composed poems
such as Hi Uncle Sam, Me an' me Da (subtitled Livin' in
Drumlister), Sarah Ann and Our Son. He was a leading
authority on Mid Ulster English (the predominant dialect
of Ulster).
The polarising eects of the politics of the use of English and Irish language traditions limited academic and
public interest until the studies of John Hewitt from the
1950s onwards. Further impetus was given by more generalised exploration of non-"Irish and non-"English cultural identities in the latter decades of the 20th Century.
In the late 20th century the Ulster Scots poetic tradition was revived, albeit often replacing the traditional
Modern Scots orthographic practice with a series of contradictory idiolects.[36] James Fenton's poetry, at times
lively, contented, wistful, is written in contemporary Ulster Scots,[30] mostly using a blank verse form, but also
occasionally the Habbie stanza.[30] He employs an orthography that presents the reader with the dicult combination of eye dialect, dense Scots, and a greater variety of
verse forms than employed hitherto.[36] Michael Longley
is another poet who has made use of Ulster Scots in his
work.
Philip Robinsons (1946 ) writing has been described as
verging on "post-modern kailyard.[37] He has produced a
trilogy of novels Wake the Tribe o Dan (1998), The Back
Streets o the Claw (2000) and The Man frae the Ministry
(2005), as well as story books for children Esther, Quaen
o tha Ulidian Pechts and Fergus an tha Stane o Destinie,
and two volumes of poetry Alang the Shore (2005) and
Oul Licht, New Licht (2009).[38]
A team in Belfast has begun translating portions of the
Bible into Ulster Scots. The Gospel of Luke was published in 2009.
James Joyce

3.4

Irish literature in English (20th- The poet W. B. Yeats was initially inuenced by the Precentury)
Raphaelites and made use of Irish peasant folk tradi-

Main articles: Irish ction and Irish poetry

tions and ancient Celtic myth in his early poetry.[39] Subsequently, however, he was drawn to the intellectually
more vigorous poetry of John Donne, along with Ezra

3.4

Irish literature in English (20th-century)

Pound and T. S. Eliot, and became one of the greatest 20th-century modernist poets.[40] Though Yeats was
an Anglo-Irish Protestant he was deeply aected by the
Easter Rising of 1916 and supported the independence of
Ireland.[41] He received the Nobel Prize for literature in
1923 and was a member of the Irish Senate from 1922
28.[42]
A group of early 20th-century Irish poets worth noting are
those associated with the Easter Rising of 1916. Three of
the Republican leadership, Patrick Pearse (18791916),
Joseph Mary Plunkett (18791916) and Thomas MacDonagh (18781916), were noted poets.[43] However, it
was to be Yeats earlier Celtic mode that was to be most
inuential. Amongst the most prominent followers of
the early Yeats were Padraic Colum (18811972),[44] F.
R. Higgins (18961941),[45] and Austin Clarke (1896
1974).[46] However Irish poetic Modernism took its lead
not from Yeats but from Joyce and the 1930s saw the
emergence of a generation of writers who engaged in
experimental writing as a matter of course. The best
known of these is Samuel Beckett (19061989), who
won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Becketts
poetry, while not inconsiderable, is not what he is best
known for. The most signicant of the second generation Modernist Irish poets who rst published in the
1920s and 1930s include Brian Coey (19051995),
Denis Devlin (19081959), Thomas MacGreevy (1893
1967), Blanaid Salkeld (18801959), and Mary Devenport O'Neill (18791967).[47] While Yeats and his followers wrote about an essentially aristocratic Gaelic Ireland, the reality was that the actual Ireland of the 1930s
and 1940s was a society of small farmers and shopkeepers. Inevitably, a generation of poets who rebelled against
the example of Yeats, but who were not Modernist by
inclination, emerged from this environment. Patrick Kavanagh (19041967), who came from a small farm, wrote
about the narrowness and frustrations of rural life.[48] A
new generation of poets emerged from the late 1950s onward, which included Antony Cronin, Pearse Hutchinson, John Jordan, and Thomas Kinsella, most of whom
were based in Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s. In Dublin
a number of new literary magazines were founded in the
1960s; Poetry Ireland, Arena, The Lace Curtain, and in
the 1970s, Cyphers.

7
novelists of the rst half of the 20th-century, and a major pioneer in the use of the "stream of consciousness"
technique in his famous novel Ulysses (1922). Ulysses
has been described as a demonstration and summation
of the entire Modernist movement.[50] Joyce also wrote
Finnegans Wake (1939), Dubliners (1914), and the semiautobiographical A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(191415). Ulysses, often considered to be the greatest
novel of the 20th century, is the story of a day in the
life of a city, Dublin. Told in a dazzling array of styles,
it was a landmark book in the development of literary
modernism.[51] If Ulysses is the story of a day, Finnegans
Wake is a night epic, partaking in the logic of dreams and
written in an invented language which parodies English,
Irish and Latin.[52]
Joyces high modernist style had its inuence on coming
generations of Irish novelists, most notably Samuel Beckett (19061989), Brian O'Nolan (191166) (who published as Flann O'Brien and as Myles na gCopaleen), and
Aidan Higgins (1927 ). O'Nolan was bilingual and his
ction clearly shows the mark of the native tradition, particularly in the imaginative quality of his storytelling and
the biting edge of his satire in works such as An Bal
Bocht. Samuel Beckett, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, is one of the great gures in 20th-century
world literature. Perhaps best known for his plays, he
also wrote works of ction, including Watt (1953) and
his trilogy Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1956) and The
Unnamable (1960), all three of which were rst written,
and published, in French.
The big house novel prospered into the 20th century, and
Aidan Higgins' (1927 ) rst novel Langrishe, Go Down
(1966) is an experimental example of the genre. More
conventional exponents include Elizabeth Bowen (1899
73) and Molly Keane (190496) (writing as M.J. Farrell).

With the rise of the Irish Free State and the Republic of
Ireland, more novelists from the lower social classes began to emerge. Frequently, these authors wrote of the
narrow, circumscribed lives of the lower-middle classes
and small farmers. Exponents of this style range from
Brinsley MacNamara (18901963) to John McGahern
(19342006). Other notable novelists of the late 20th
and early 21st-century include John Banville, Sebastian
Barry, Seamus Deane, Dermot Healy, Jennifer JohnThough the novels of Forrest Reid (18751947) are not ston, Patrick McCabe, Edna O'Brien, Colm Tibn, and
necessarily well known today, he has been labelled 'the William Trevor.
rst Ulster novelist of European stature', and comparisons
have been drawn between his own coming of age novel of The Irish short story has proved a popular genre, with
Protestant Belfast, Following Darkness (1912), and James well-known practitioners including Frank O'Connor,
Joyce's seminal novel of growing up in Catholic Dublin, Sean O'Faolain, and William Trevor.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1924). Reids A total of four Irish writers have won the Nobel Prize for
ction, which often uses submerged narratives to explore Literature W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel
male beauty and love, can be placed within the histori- Beckett and Seamus Heaney.
cal context of the emergence of a more explicit expression of homosexuality in English literature in the 20th
century.[49]
James Joyce (18821941) is one of the most signicant

3.5

3 THE MODERN PERIOD: FROM 1800

Literature of Northern Ireland

Main article: Literature of Northern Ireland

After 1922 Ireland was partition into the independent,
Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland, which retained a constitutional connection to the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland has for several centuries consisted of two distinct communities, Protestant, Ulster
Scots and Irish Catholics. While the Protestants majority emphasise the constitutional ties to the United Kingdom, most Catholics would prefer a United Ireland. The
long-standing cultural and political division led to sectarian violence in the late 1960s known as The Troubles,
which ocially ended in 1998, though sporadic violence
has continued. This cultural division created, long before
1922, two distinct literary cultures.
C. S. Lewis (18981963) and Louis MacNeice (1907
63) are two writers who were born and raised in Northern Ireland, but whose careers took them to England. C.
S. Lewis was a poet, novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist. Born in Belfast, he held academic positions at both
Oxford University, and Cambridge University. He is best
known both for his ctional work, especially The Screwtape Letters (1942), The Chronicles of Narnia (194954),
and The Space Trilogy (193845), and for his non-ction
Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles,
and The Problem of Pain. His faith had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the
subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim. Louis
MacNeice was a poet and playwright. He was part of
the generation of "thirties poets" that included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis, nicknamed
MacSpaunday as a group a name invented by Roy
Campbell, in his Talking Bronco (1946). His body of
work was widely appreciated by the public during his
lifetime. Never as overtly (or simplistically) political as
some of his contemporaries, his work shows a humane
opposition to totalitarianism as well as an acute awareness of his Irish roots. MacNeice felt estranged from
the Presbyterian Northern Ireland, with its voodoo of
the Orange bands",[53] but felt caught between British and
Irish identities.[54]
Northern Ireland has also produced a number of signicant poets since 1945, including John Hewitt, John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon,
James Fenton, Michael Longley, Frank Ormsby, Ciarn
Carson and Medbh McGuckian. John Hewitt (190787),
whom many consider to be the founding father of Northern Irish poetry, was born in Belfast, and began publishing in the 1940s. Hewitt was appointed the rst writerin-residence at Queens University, Belfast in 1976. His
collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and
Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974) and his Collected Poems in 1991. John Montague (1929 ) was born
in New York and brought up in County Tyrone. He has

Derek Mahon

published a number of volumes of poetry, two collections

of short stories and two volumes of memoir. Montague
published his rst collection in 1958 and the second in
1967. In 1998 he became the rst occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry[55] (virtually Irelands Poet laureate). Seamus Heaney (19392013) is the most famous of
the poets who came to prominence in the 1960s and won
the Nobel prize in 1995. In the 1960s Heaney, Longley,
Muldoon, and others, belonged to the so-called Belfast
Group. Heaney in his verse translation of Beowulf (2000)
uses words from his Ulster speech.[56] A Catholic from
Northern Ireland, Heaney, however, rejected his British
identity and lived in the Republic of Ireland for much of
his later life.[57] James Fentons poetry is written in contemporary Ulster Scots, and Michael Longley (1939 )
has experimented with Ulster Scots for the translation of
Classical verse, as in his 1995 collection The Ghost Orchid. Longley has spoken of his identity as a Northern
Irish poet: some of the time I feel British and some of
the time I feel Irish. But most of the time I feel neither
and the marvellous thing about the Good Friday agreement was that it allowed me to feel more of each if I
wanted to.[58] He was awarded the Queens Gold Medal
for Poetry in 2001. Medbh McGuckian's, (born Maeve
McCaughan, 1950) rst published poems appeared in two
pamphlets in 1980, the year in which she received an Eric
Gregory Award. Medbh McGuckians rst major collection, The Flower Master (1982), was awarded a Rooney
prize for Irish Literature, an Ireland Arts Council Award
(both 1982) and an Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize (1983). She
is also the winner of the 1989 Cheltenham Prize for her

3.6

Theatre

collection On Ballycastle Beach, and has translated into

English (with Eilan N Chuilleanin) The Water Horse
(1999), a selection of poems in Irish by Nuala N Dhomhnaill. Among her recent collections are The Currach Requires No Harbours (2007), and My Love Has Fared Inland (2008). Paul Muldoon (1951 ) has published over
thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and
the T. S. Eliot Prize. He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 to 2004. Derek Mahon's (1941
) rst collection Twelve Poems appeared in 1965. His poetry, which is inuenced by Louis MacNeice and W. H.
Auden, is often bleak and uncompromising.[59] Though
Mahon was not an active member of The Belfast Group,
he associated with the two members, Heaney and Longley, in the 1960s.[60] Ciarn Carsons poem Belfast Confetti, about the aftermath of an IRA bomb, won The Irish
Times Irish Literature Prize for Poetry in 1990.[61]

9
Belfast. Bernard MacLaverty, from Belfast, has written
the novels Cal; Lamb (1983), which describes the experiences of a young Irish Catholic involved with the IRA;
Grace Notes, which was shortlisted for the 1997 Booker
Prize, and The Anatomy School. He has also written ve
acclaimed collections of short stories, the most recent of
which is Matters of Life & Death. He has lived in Scotland
since 1975.
Other noteworthy writers from Northern Ireland include
poet Robert Greacen (19202008), novelist Bob Shaw
(193196),[77] and science ction novelist Ian McDonald
(1960). Robert Greacen, along with Valentin Iremonger,
edited an important anthology, Contemporary Irish Poetry in 1949. Robert Greacen was born in Derry, lived in
Belfast in his youth and then in London during the 1950s,
60s and 70s. He won the Irish Times Prize for Poetry in
1995 for his Collected Poems, and subsequently he moved
to Dublin when he was elected a member of Aosdana.
Shaw was a science ction author, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
in 1979 and 1980. His short story "Light of Other Days"
was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The
Ragged Astronauts in 1987.

The most signicant dramatist from Northern Ireland

is Brian Friel (1929 ), from Omagh, County Tyrone,[62][63][64][65] hailed by the English-speaking world
as an Irish Chekhov",[66] and the universally accented
voice of Ireland.[67] Friel is best known for plays such
as Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Dancing at Lughnasa but has written more than thirty plays in a sixdecade spanning career that has seen him elected Saoi
of Aosdna. His plays have been a regular feature on 3.6
Broadway.[68][69][70][71]
Among the most important novelists from Northern Ireland are Flann O'Brien (191166), Brian Moore (1921
1999), and Bernard MacLaverty (1942 ). Flann
O'Brien, Brian O'Nolan, Irish: Brian Nuallin, was a
novelist, playwright and satirist, and is considered a major gure in twentieth century Irish literature. Born in
Strabane, County Tyrone, he also is regarded as a key
gure in postmodern literature.[72] His English language
novels, such as At Swim-Two-Birds, and The Third Policeman, were written under the nom de plume Flann O'Brien.
His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an
Irish language novel An Bal Bocht were written under
the name Myles na gCopaleen. O'Nolans novels have
attracted a wide following for their bizarre humour and
Modernist metaction. As a novelist, O'Nolan was powerfully inuenced by James Joyce. He was nonetheless
sceptical of the cult of Joyce, which overshadows much
of Irish writing, saying I declare to God if I hear that
name Joyce one more time I will surely froth at the gob.
Brian Moore was also a screenwriter[73][74][75] and emigrated to Canada, where he lived from 1948 to 1958, and
wrote his rst novels.[76] He then moved to the United
States. He was acclaimed for the descriptions in his novels of life in Northern Ireland after the Second World
War, in particular his explorations of the inter-communal
divisions of The Troubles. He was awarded the James
Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1975 and the inaugural
Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, and he
was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times (in 1976,
1987 and 1990). His novel Judith Hearne (1955) is set in

Theatre

Main article: Irish theatre

The rst well-documented instance of a theatrical production in Ireland is a 1601 staging of Gorboduc presented by Lord Mountjoy Lord Deputy of Ireland in the
Great Hall in Dublin Castle. Mountjoy started a fashion, and private performances became quite commonplace in great houses all over Ireland over the following
thirty years. The Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin is
generally identied as the rst custom-built theatre in the
city, the only pre-Restoration playhouse outside London, and the rst Irish playhouse. The Werburgh Street
Theatre was established by John Ogilby at least by 1637
and perhaps as early as 1634.[78]
The earliest Irish-born dramatists of note were: William
Congreve (16701729), author of The Way of the
World (1700) and one of the most interesting writers
of Restoration comedies in London; Oliver Goldsmith
(173074) author of The Good-Natur'd Man (1768) and
She Stoops to Conquer (1773); Richard Brinsley Sheridan
(17511816), known for The Rivals, and The School for
Scandal. Goldsmith and Sheridan were two of the most
successful playwrights on the London stage in the 18th
century.
In the 19th century, Dion Boucicault (182090) was
famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the
19th century, Boucicault had become known on both
sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actorplaywright-managers then in the English-speaking theatre. The New York Times heralded him in his obituary as the most conspicuous English dramatist of the

10

3 THE MODERN PERIOD: FROM 1800

to write about the Dublin working classes. O'Caseys rst
accepted play, The Shadow of a Gunman, which is set
during the Irish War of Independence, was performed at
the Abbey Theatre in 1923. It was followed by Juno and
the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926).
The former deals with the eect of the Irish Civil War on
the working class poor of the city, while the latter is set
in Dublin in 1916 around the Easter Rising.
The Gate Theatre, founded in 1928 by Michel
MacLiammir, introduced Irish audiences to many of the
classics of the Irish and European stage.
The twentieth century saw a number of Irish playwrights
come to prominence. These included Denis Johnston
(190184), Samuel Beckett (190689), Brendan Behan (192364), Hugh Leonard (19262009), John B.
Keane (19282002), Brian Friel (1929 ), Thomas Kilroy (1934 ), Tom Murphy (1935 ), and Frank McGuinness (1953 ),
Denis Johnstons most famous plays are The Old Lady
Says No! (1929), and The Moon in the Yellow River
(1931).

George Bernard Shaw

19th century.[79] However, it was in the last decade of

the century that the Irish theatre nally came of age with
the establishment in Dublin in 1899 of the Irish Literary Theatre, and emergence of the dramatists George
Bernard Shaw (18561950) and Oscar Wilde (1854
1900), though both wrote for the London theatre. Shaws
career began in the last decade of the nineteenth-century
and he wrote more than 60 plays. George Bernard Shaw
turned the Edwardian theatre into an arena for debate
about important political and social issues, like marriage,
class, the morality of armaments and war and the rights
of women.[80]
In 1903 a number of playwrights, actors and sta from
several companies went on to form the Irish National
Theatre Society, later to become the Abbey Theatre. It
performed plays by W.B. Yeats (18651939), Lady Gregory (18521932), John Millington Synge (18711909),
and Sean O'Casey (18801964). Equally importantly,
through the introduction by Yeats, via Ezra Pound, of elements of the Noh theatre of Japan, a tendency to mythologise quotidian situations, and a particularly strong focus
on writings in dialects of Hiberno-English, the Abbey was
to create a style that held a strong fascination for future
Irish dramatists.[81] Synges most famous play, The Playboy of the Western World, caused outrage and riots when
it was rst performed in Dublin in 1907.[82] O'Casey was
a committed socialist and the rst Irish playwright of note

While there no doubt that Samuel Beckett is an Irishman he lived much of his life in France and wrote several
works rst in French. His most famous plays are Waiting
for Godot (1955) (originally En attendant Godot, 1952),
Endgame (originally Fin de partie) (1957), Happy Days
(1961), written in English, all of which profoundly affected British drama.
In 1954, Behans rst play The Quare Fellow was produced in Dublin. It was well received; however, it was
the 1956 production at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Stratford, London, that gained Behan a wider reputation this was helped by a famous drunken interview
on BBC television. Behans play The Hostage (1958), his
English-language adaptation of his play in Irish An Giall,
met with great success internationally.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Hugh Leonard was the rst
major Irish writer to establish a reputation in television,
writing extensively for television, including original plays,
comedies, thrillers and adaptations of classic novels for
British television.[83] He was commissioned by RT to
write Insurrection, a 50th anniversary dramatic reconstruction of the Irish uprising of Easter 1916. Leonards
Silent Song, adapted for the BBC from a short story by
Frank O'Connor, won the Prix Italia in 1967.[84] Three
of Leonards plays have been presented on Broadway:
The Au Pair Man (1973), which starred Charles Durning and Julie Harris; Da (1978); and A Life (1980).[85]
Of these, Da, which originated o-o-Broadway at the
Hudson Guild Theatre before transferring to the Morosco
Theatre, was the most successful, running for 20 months
and 697 performances, then touring the United States for
ten months.[86] It earned Leonard both a Tony Award and
a Drama Desk Award for Best Play.[87] It was made into
a lm in 1988.

11
The play made a name for him when it was performed
at Hampstead Theatre.[90] It won numerous awards including the London Evening Standard Award for Most
Promising Playwright for McGuinness.
Since the 1970s, a number of companies have emerged
to challenge the Abbeys dominance and introduce dierent styles and approaches. These include Focus Theatre,
The Childrens T Company, the Project Theatre Company, Druid Theatre, Rough Magic, TEAM, Charabanc,
and Field Day. These companies have nurtured a number
of writers, actors, and directors who have since gone on
to be successful in London, Broadway and Hollywood.
Irish language theatre
Conventional drama did not exist in Irish before the 20th
century. The Gaelic Revival stimulated the writing of
plays, aided by the founding in 1928 of An Taibhdhearc,
a theatre dedicated to the Irish language. The Abbey Theatre itself was reconstituted as a bilingual national theatre
in the 1940s under Ernest Blythe, but the Irish language
element declined in importance.[91]
In 1957, Behans play in the Irish language An Giall had
its debut at Dublins Damer Theatre. Later an Englishlanguage adaptation of An Giall, The Hostage, met with
great success internationally.
Drama in Irish has since encountered grave diculties,
despite the existence of interesting playwrights such as
Mirad N Ghrda. The Taidhbhearc has declined in importance and it is dicult to maintain professional standards in the absence of a strong and lively audience. The
tradition persists, however, thanks to troupes like Aisling
Ghar.[92]

Samuel Beckett. Painted by Reginald Gray from life in Paris

1961.

4 See also
Irish ction

Brian Friel, from Northern Ireland, has been recognised

as a major Irish and English-language playwright almost
since the rst production of "Philadelphia, Here I Come!"
in Dublin in 1964.[88]

Irish poetry
Irish short story

[89]

Tom Murphy is a major contemporary playwright and

was honoured by the Abbey Theatre in 2001 by a retrospective season of six of his plays. His plays include the
historical epic Famine (1968), which deals with the Irish
Potato Famine between 1846 and spring 1847, The Sanctuary Lamp (1975), The Gigli Concert (1983) and Bailegangaire (1985).
Frank McGuinness rst came to prominence with his
play The Factory Girls, but established his reputation
with his play about World War I, Observe the Sons of
Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which was staged
in Dublins Abbey Theatre in 1985 and internationally.

Irish theatre
Early Irish literature
List of Irish writers
List of Irish poets
Literature of Northern Ireland
Scottish Gaelic literature

12

5 FOOTNOTES

Footnotes

[1] The Indo-European Family of Languages

[2] Dillon and Chadwick (1973), pp. 241250

[24] See Niall Ciosin in Books beyond the Pale: Aspects of

the Provincial Book Trade in Ireland before 1850, Gerard
Long (ed.). Dublin: Rare Books Group of the Library
Association of Ireland. 1996. ISBN 978-0-946037-31-5
[25] Madagin (1980), pp.2438.

[3] Caerwyn Williams and N Mhuirosa (1979), pp. 5472

[26] Mac Aonghusa (1979), p.23.

[4] Sansom, Ian (20 November 2008). The Blackbird of

Belfast Lough keeps singing. London: The Guardian.
Retrieved 19 January 2013.

[27] Stephen DNB pp. 217218

[5] Garret Olmsted, The Earliest Narrative Version of the

Tin: Seventh-century poetic references to Tin b Cailnge", Emania 10, 1992, pp. 517

[29] Adams 1977: 57

[6] Caerwyn Williams and N Mhuirosa (1979), pp. 147

156

[28] Montgomery & Gregg 1997: 585

[30] The historical presence of Ulster-Scots in Ireland, Robinson, in The Languages of Ireland, ed. Cronin and Cuilleanin, Dublin 2003 ISBN 1-85182-698-X
[31] Rhyming Weavers, Hewitt, 1974

[7] See the foreword in Knott (1981).

[32] O'Driscoll (1976), pp. 2332.

[8] Caerwyn Williams and N Mhuirosa (1979), pp.150194

[33] O'Driscoll (1976), pp. 4344.

[9] For a discussion of poets supernatural powers, inseparable from their social and literary functions, see hgin
(1982).

[34] Conluain and Cileachair (1976), pp. 133135.

[10] Caerwyn Williams and N Mhuirosa (1979), pp.1656.

[11] Examples can be found in O'Rahilly (2000).

[35] Ferguson (ed.) 2008, Ulster-Scots Writing, Dublin, p. 21

ISBN 978-1-84682-074-8
[36] Gavin Falconer (2008) review of Frank Ferguson, UlsterScots Writing: an anthology

[12] Caerwyn Williams and N Mhuirosa (1979), p. 149.

[37] Ulster-Scots Writing, ed. Ferguson, Dublin 2008 ISBN

978-1-84682-074-8

[13] dind notable place"; senchas old tales, ancient history,

tradition Dictionary of the Irish Language, Compact
Edition, 1990, pp. 215, 537

[38] http://www.ulsterscotslanguage.com/en/texts/biography/
philip-robinson/

[14] Collins Pocket Irish Dictionary p. 452

[39] The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature, ed. Marion

Wynne-Davies. (New York: Prentice Hall, 1990), pp.
10367.

[15] MacDonald, Keith Norman (1904). The Reasons Why

I Believe in the Ossianic Poems. The Celtic Monthly:
A Magazine for Highlanders (Glasgow: Celtic Press) 12:
235. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
[16] Literally the act of contorting, a distortion (Dictionary
of the Irish Language, Compact Edition, Royal Irish
Academy, Dublin, 1990, p. 507)
[17] Dillon and Chadwick (1973), pp. 298333.
[18] TLG 201223
[19] See the introduction to Williams (1981). The text is bilingual.
[20] Caerwyn Williams and N Mhuirosa (1979), pp. 252
268, 282290. See Corkery (1925) for a detailed discussion of the social context.
[21] Caerwyn Williams and N Mhuirosa (1979), pp. 279
282.
[22] See the introduction to Tuama, Sen (1961) (ed.),
Caoineadh Airt U Laoghaire, An Clchomhar Tta, Baile
tha Cliath.
[23] ireland.anglican.org/Archives/newsbrief

[40] The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature (1990), pp.

1036-7.
[41] The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature (1990),
p.1037.
[42] The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. Margaret Drabble. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996),
p.1104.
[43] Kilmer, Joyce (7 May 1916). Poets Marched in the
Van of Irish Revolt. New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2008. Available online free in the pre-1922 NYT
archives.
[44] Poetry Foundation: <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
bio/padraic-colum>.
[45] <http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Poetry/
FRHiggins.html>.
[46] Harmon, Maurice. Austin Clarke, 18961974: A Critical
Introduction. Wolfhound Press, 1989.
[47] Alex David The Irish Modernists in The Cambridge
Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry, ed. Matthew
Campbell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2003, pp76-93.

13

[48] Poetry Foundation:<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

bio/patrick-kavanagh>.
[49] Guide to Print Collections Forrest Reid Collection.
University of Exeter. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
[50] Beebe, Maurice (Fall 1972). Ulysses and the Age of
Modernism. James Joyce Quarterly (University of Tulsa)
10 (1): p. 176.

[65] Kemp, Conrad. In the beginning was the image. Mail &
Guardian. 25 June 2010. Brian Friel, who wrote Translations and Philadelphia ... Here I Come, and who is regarded by many as one of the worlds greatest living playwrights, has suggested that there is, in fact, no real need
for a director on a production.

[51] Richard Ellmann, James Joyce. Oxford University Press,

revised edition (1983).

[66] Winer, Linda.Three Flavors of Emotion in Friels Old

Ballybeg. Newsday. 23 July 2009. FOR THOSE OF
US who never quite understood why Brian Friel is called
the Irish Chekhov, here is Aristocrats to explain if
not actually justify the compliment.

[52] James Mercanton. Les heures de James Joyce, Diusion

PUF., 1967, p.233.

[67] O'Kelly, Emer. Friels deep furrow cuts to our heart.

Sunday Independent. 6 September 2009.

[53] MacNeice, Louis (1939). Autumn Journal.

[68] Lawson, Carol. Broadway; Ed Flanders reunited with

Jose Quintero for 'Faith Healer.'". The New York Times.
12 January 1979. ALL the pieces are falling into place
for Brian Friels new play, Faith Healer, which opens 5
April on Broadway.

[54] Poetry in the British Isles: Non-Metropolitan Perspectives.

University of Wales Press. 1995. ISBN 0708312667.
[55] Poet Laureate. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
[56] Heaney, Seamus (2000). Beowulf. New York: W.W.
Norton. ISBN 0393320979.
[57] Sameer Rahim, Interview with Seamus Heaney. The
Telegraph, 11 April 2009.
[58] Wroe, Nicholas (21 August 2004). Middle man. London: The Guardian. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
[59] The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. Margaret
Drabble, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p.616.
[60] The Oxford Companion to English Literature, (1996),
p.616; beck.library.emory.edu/BelfastGroup/web/html/
overview.html
[61] http://www.literature.britishcouncil.org/ciaran-carson
[62] Nightingale, Benedict. Brian Friels letters from an internal exile. The Times. 23 February 2009. But if it
fuses warmth, humour and melancholy as seamlessly as it
should, it will make a worthy birthday gift for Friel, who
has just turned 80, and justify his status as one of Irelands
seven Saoi of the Aosdna, meaning that he can wear the
Golden Torc round his neck and is now ocially what we
fans know him to be: a Wise Man of the People of Art
and, maybe, the greatest living English-language dramatist.
[63] Londonderry beats Norwich, Sheeld and Birmingham
to the bidding punch. Londonderry Sentinel. 21 May
2010.
[64] Canby, Vincent.Seeing, in Brian Friels Ballybeg. The
New York Times. 8 January 1996. Brian Friel has
been recognized as Irelands greatest living playwright almost since the rst production of Philadelphia, Here I
Come!" in Dublin in 1964. In succeeding years he has
dazzled us with plays that speak in a language of unequaled poetic beauty and intensity. Such dramas as
Translations, Dancing at Lughnasa and Wonderful
Tennessee, among others, have given him a privileged
place in our theater.

[69] McKay, Mary-Jayne. Where Literature Is Legend.

CBS News. 16 March 2010. Brian Friels Dancing at
Lughnasa had a long run on Broadway
[70] Osborne,
Robert.
Carroll does cabaret.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter. 5 March 2007. Final curtains fall Sunday on three Broadway shows: Brian
Friels Translations at the Biltmore; The Apple Tree,
with Kristin Chenoweth, at Studio 54; David Hares The
Vertical Hour, with Julienne Moore and Bill Nighy, at
the Music Box, the latter directed by Sam Mendes
[71] Staunton, Denis. Three plays carry Irish hopes of Broadway honours. The Irish Times. 10 June 2006.
[72] Celebrating Flann O'Brien, Los Angeles Times, 13 October 2011.
[73] Brian Moore: Forever inuenced by loss of faith. BBC
Online. 12 January 1999. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
[74] Cronin, John (13 January 1999). Obituary: Shores of
Exile. The Guardian (London). Retrieved 23 September
2011.
[75] Walsh, John (14 January 1999). Obituary: Brian
Moore. The Independent (London). Retrieved 31 August 2012.
[76] Lynch, Gerald. Brian Moore. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
[77] Nicholls 1981
[78] Alan J. Fletcher, Drama, Performance, and Polity in
Pre-Cromwellian Ireland, Toronto, University of Toronto
Press, 1999; pp. 2614.
[79] Dion Boucicault, The New York Times, 19 September
1890
[80] English literature. Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 15 November
2012.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/
188217/English-literature>.

14

REFERENCES

[81] Sands, Maren. "The Inuence of Japanese Noh Theater

on Yeats". Colorado State University. Retrieved on 15
July 2007.

Corkery, Daniel (1925). The Hidden Ireland: A

Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth Century.
M.H. Son, Ltd. Dublin.

[82] The Oxford Companion to English Literature. (1996),

p.781.

Citinn, Seathrn (1982) (eag. De Barra, Pdraig).

Foras Feasa ar irinn, Athnua 1 & 2. Foilseachin
Nisinta Teoranta. Baile tha Cliath. A two
volume version of Keatings history in modernised
spelling.

[83] Fintan, O'Toole (13 February 2009). Irish Times. Missing

or empty |title= (help);
[84] Prix Italia Winners (PDF). Retrieved 21 January 2013.
[85] Irish literature at the Internet Broadway Database
[86] Da at the Internet Broadway Database
[87] IBDB Da:Awards
[88] Nightingale, Benedict. Brian Friels letters from an internal exile. The Times. 23 February 2009; Seeing, in
Brian Friels Ballybeg. The New York Times. 8 January
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[89] McKeon, Belinda (9 July 2012). Home to Darkness: An
Interview with Playwright Tom Murphy. Paris Review.
Retrieved 19 October 2013.
[90] Maxwell, Dominic. Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at Hampstead Theatre, NW3.
The Times. Retrieved on 25 June 2009.
[91] Hoch, John C. (2006). Celtic Culture: An Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 980981 ISBN 978-1-85109440-0
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References
Brady, Anne & Cleeve, Brian (1985). Biographical
Dictionary of Irish Writers. Lilliput. ISBN 978-0946640-11-9
Educational Media Solutions (2012) 'Reading Ireland, Contemporary Irish Writers in the Context of
Place'. Films Media Group. ISBN 978-0-81609056-3

De Bhaldraithe, Toms (ed.) (1976 third printing). Cn Lae Amhlaoibh. An Clchomhar Tta.
Baile tha Cliath. ISBN 978-0-7171-0512-0. A
shortened version of the diaries of Amhlaoibh
Silleabhin. There is an English translation, edited
by de Bhaldraithe: Diary of an Irish Countryman
1827 1835. Mercier Press. ISBN 978-1-85635042-6
De Brn, Pdraig and Buachalla, Breandn and
Concheanainn, Toms (1975 second printing)
Nua-Dhuanaire: Cuid 1. Institiid Ardlinn Bhaile
tha Cliath.
Dillon, Myles and Chadwick, Nora (1973). The
Celtic Realms. Cardinal. London. ISBN 978-0-35115808-7 pp. 298333
Williams, .J.A. (ed.) (1981). Pairlement Chloinne
Tomis. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Dublin.
Knott, Eleanor (1981 second printing). An Introduction to Irish Syllabic Poetry of the Period
12001600. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Dublin.
Merriman, Brian: hUaithne, Dith (ed.) (1974
fourth printing). Cirt an Mhen Oche. Preas Dolmen. Baile tha Cliath. ISBN 978-0-85105-002-7
Mac Aonghusa, Proinsias (1979). An Ghaeilge
i Meirice in Go Meirice Siar, Stiofn hAnnrachin (ed.). An Clchomhar Tta.
Mac hil, Sen (1981). liad Himar. Ficina Typofographica. Gaillimh. ISBN 978-0-907775-01-0

Jeares, A. Norman (1997). A Pocket History of

Irish Literature. O'Brien Press. ISBN 978-0-86278502-4

Nicholls, Kenneth (1972). Gaelic and Gaelicised

Ireland in the Middle Ages. Gill and MacMillan.
Dublin. ISBN 978-0-7171-0561-8

Welsh, Robert (ed.) & Stewart, Bruce (ed.) (1996).

The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866158-0

Conluain, Proinsias and Cileachair, Donncha

(1976 second printing). An Duinnneach. Sirsal
agus Dill. ISBN 978-0-901374-22-6

Wright, Julia M. (2008). Irish Literature, 1750

1900: An Anthology. Blackwell Press. ISBN 9781-4051-4520-6

ODriscoll, Robert (1976). An Ascendancy of the

Heart: Ferguson and the Beginnings of Modern Irish
Literature in English. The Dolmen Press. Dublin.
ISBN 978-0-85105-317-2

Caerwyn Williams, J.E. agus N Mhuirosa, Mirn

(1979). Traidisin Liteartha na nGael. An Clchomhar Tta. Baile tha Cliath. Revival 336350

hgin, Dith (1982). An File.

tSolthair. Baile tha Cliath.

Oig an

15
Madagin, Breandn (1980 second edition). An
Ghaeilge i Luimneach 17001900. An Clchomhar
Tta. Baile tha Cliath. ISBN 978-0-7171-0685-1
ORahilly, Thomas F. (Ed.) (2000 reprint).
Dnta Grdha: An Anthology of Irish Love Poetry
(13501750). Cork University Press. ISBN 978-0902561-09-0.

External links
National Library of Ireland: Premier cultural institution holding Irish literary collections
CELT: The online resource for Irish history, literature and politics
The Irish Playography database
http://bill.celt.dias.ie/vol4/browseatsources.php?
letter=A#ATS7714
The Irish Literary Times:up-to-date coverage of
current Irish literature

16

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Irish literature Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_literature?oldid=682769276 Contributors: Vanderesch, Modster, Cyp, Ronz,

Rossami, Kwekubo, Zoicon5, Finlay McWalter, Robbot, Seglea, Auric, Ogma~enwiki, Mintleaf~enwiki, Zigger, Wmahan, Fergananim,
Evertype, Tothebarricades.tk, Mizike, MeltBanana, Dbachmann, Gronky, Stbalbach, El C, Filiocht, Man vyi, Eixo, Calton, Dabbler, Sciurin, Angr, Woohookitty, LOL, Jkdeadite, Fbriere, Lapsed Pacist, Isnow, Cuchullain, BD2412, Dimitrii, Brighterorange, Transuranium,
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RandomCritic, Rinnenadtrosc, Beetstra, Panzek, BranStark, RekishiEJ, Josh a brewer, Gil Gamesh, Acne m, CmdrObot, Damiantgordon,
Jim Bruce, Aristophanes68, Thijs!bot, MainlyTwelve, Gkhan, MER-C, Skomorokh, Magioladitis, Gerardbeirne, Laterality, Spellmaster,
CommonsDelinker, Cormacmillar, DorganBot, Kaiwynn, Asarla, Anna Lincoln, Finnrind, IrishGothicJournal, EmxBot, Revent, SeoR,
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Ryan, PDiddy85, Andymcgrath, RjwilmsiBot, Rwood128, BudSipkiss, EmausBot, John of Reading, Dewritech, GoingBatty, Comhar,
ZroBot, ClueBot NG, GallaghersGreek, Helpful Pixie Bot, Ossici, RudolfRed, Anthrophilos, IkbenFrank, Soni, Mogism, Charlietallulah,
TarkovskyFanX957, Fixuture, Eccles and neddy, KasparBot and Anonymous: 76

8.2

Images

File:2717x3508_Irish_Writers.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/2717x3508_Irish_Writers.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jonathan_Swift_by_Charles_Jervas_detail.jpg Original

artist: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jonathan_Swift_by_Charles_Jervas_detail.jpg - Charles Jervas (died 1739)
File:Derek_Mahon_in_Moscow.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Derek_Mahon_in_Moscow.JPG
License: GFDL Contributors: my own work Original artist: Marina Masinova
File:Edit-clear.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg License: Public domain Contributors: The
Tango! Desktop Project. Original artist:
The people from the Tango! project. And according to the meta-data in the le, specically: Andreas Nilsson, and Jakub Steiner (although
minimally).
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Public domain Contributors: New York Times, Current History, Vol 1, Issue 1 From the Beginning to March, 1915 With Index at the Project
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Contributors:
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Tkgd2007
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8.3

Content license

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