University College Dublin Press
Irish Interior
Keeping Faith with the Past in Gaelic Prose, 1940-1951
9781906359270
Distributed for University College Dublin Press
Irish Interior
Keeping Faith with the Past in Gaelic Prose, 1940-1951
This is the first volume of a two-part collection following on from O’Leary’s "Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State 1922-1939". Although the 1940s are often seen as a period of lowered post-Renaissance expectations for Irish writers of English, they were years of considerable creative ferment for writers of Irish. Virtually nothing has been written about writing in Irish during and just after the Second World War. "Irish Interior" explores the issues within, but not strictly confined to the cultural nationalism of the language movement. O’Leary draws on a wide range work, exploring writers including Seamus O Grianna, Sean Mac Maolain and Padraig O Siochfradha. The study concludes with a discussion of Mairtin O Cadhain and Brian O Nuallain, who consciously subverted the dominant elegiac or idealising paradigms in their treatment of the Gaeltacht.
Table of Contents
Introduction - Challenging Times for Small Mac Small The Quest for the Holy Gael - Threatened Authenticity in a Changing Ireland The Fragrance and Flavour of the Old Times - Ruralism in Gaelic Prose Waves of Past and Future - Imagining the Gaeltacht The Way of Our Being as We Be - Gaelic Approaches to History A Vacuum instead of History - Gaelic Writings on the Irish Past from Prehistory to 1700 6 Ireland Born Anew as a Nation - Gaelic Writings on Irish History, 1800-1923 A Largely Ignored History - Gaelic Writings on Revival, Social, Cultural, Local and International History Main Routes of Interior Irish History - Gaelic Views of Earlier Irish Literature ’It is not "about" the Gaeltacht, it is about people’ - Mairtin O Cadhain, ’Myles na gCopaleen’, and the Flight of the Living Dead Afterword Notes Selected Bibliography Index.