The accolades here notwithstanding the book was grim. There wasn't much, if any, Gra (love) but a lot of Gruaim (gloom). The stories might have been revised to simplify the language in them for us. Being all rural tales about people's herds falling off cliffs and people dying in misery etc. they didn't connect very well with us city kids. I have a copy of An Beal Bocht but haven't got around to reading it yet . . . There was an exhibition about Peig in the new Museum of Literature of Ireland (MoLI) recently. I didn't see it but I gather it gave the unexpurgated account of her life which was more racy than the version we got in school.
There has been a resurgence of interest in the Irish language in latter years. When I worked in the Parliament we needed Irish speakers in the office and the recent crop were young, bright, and enthusiastic about the language. Half of them left after a couple of years to go to better jobs in the European Commission and Courts of Justice, where there is a need for translators since Irish has been designated an official language.
I will look out for the O Conaire book you mention. Thanks!
Fascinating stuff, Chris. Although born and bred in Ireland I knew nothing about O Conaire and never read his work in school or elsewhere! When I was learning Irish (compulsory) in the 70s we had to wade through a book of dreadful stories written by a priest as a text book. And the infamous Peig - the censored memoir of one of the last inhabitants of the Blasket Islands. The great literary heritage of Irish was closed to us because the language had been simplified to make it easier to teach! The upshot was it put most of my generation off the language. So thank you for the gift of O Conaire!
Thank you Aisling, that is a highly, highly valuable insight and memory of the Irish school system and its effect on Irish language authors- do you recall if the priest you had to read was Peadar Ua Laoghaire and his 'Seadna'? He was a frequent target of O'Nolan in Cruiskeen Lawn, and in his April 1942 letter to O'Casey, O'Nolan jokes about him again,
The thing I didn't know, however, until making long academic research last year was that around the time of the Rising, Ua Laoghaire made a personal appeal to the UCD English director, as one of his books had been removed from the syllabus in favor O Conaire's! To resolve the situation diplomatically, a work by Patrick Pearse was chosen instead :D
And of course, you know O'Nolan mocked the O'Crohan Blasket book in An Beal Bocht (The Poor Mouth), but I believe it is correct to say his mastery of Irish probably made him too formidable for the education-light system, and that book was only republished around 1980.
Anyway, I would HIGHLY recommend acquiring the new 2017 bilingual edition of Seven Virtues of the Rising, from Arlen House. It should be easy to find in Ireland. O Conaire is so incredibly funny, and had a real gift for human character, comedy, and frame stories of alternative history around the Rising... the one I've been researching in relation with O'Nolan, Anam An Easpagi (The Bishop's Soul) is an absolute gem.
A fantastic read. And I found your comment “ Writers… can preserve the underlying humanity of people caught up in events too complex for any honest historian to narrate.” very insightful.
Well I looked up An Gradh agus An Ghruaim and discovered that contrary to what I had been told the author was not a priest and was a highly regarded Irish language writer. See https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10912683-an-gr-dh-agus-an-ghruaim
The accolades here notwithstanding the book was grim. There wasn't much, if any, Gra (love) but a lot of Gruaim (gloom). The stories might have been revised to simplify the language in them for us. Being all rural tales about people's herds falling off cliffs and people dying in misery etc. they didn't connect very well with us city kids. I have a copy of An Beal Bocht but haven't got around to reading it yet . . . There was an exhibition about Peig in the new Museum of Literature of Ireland (MoLI) recently. I didn't see it but I gather it gave the unexpurgated account of her life which was more racy than the version we got in school.
There has been a resurgence of interest in the Irish language in latter years. When I worked in the Parliament we needed Irish speakers in the office and the recent crop were young, bright, and enthusiastic about the language. Half of them left after a couple of years to go to better jobs in the European Commission and Courts of Justice, where there is a need for translators since Irish has been designated an official language.
I will look out for the O Conaire book you mention. Thanks!
Fascinating stuff, Chris. Although born and bred in Ireland I knew nothing about O Conaire and never read his work in school or elsewhere! When I was learning Irish (compulsory) in the 70s we had to wade through a book of dreadful stories written by a priest as a text book. And the infamous Peig - the censored memoir of one of the last inhabitants of the Blasket Islands. The great literary heritage of Irish was closed to us because the language had been simplified to make it easier to teach! The upshot was it put most of my generation off the language. So thank you for the gift of O Conaire!
Thank you Aisling, that is a highly, highly valuable insight and memory of the Irish school system and its effect on Irish language authors- do you recall if the priest you had to read was Peadar Ua Laoghaire and his 'Seadna'? He was a frequent target of O'Nolan in Cruiskeen Lawn, and in his April 1942 letter to O'Casey, O'Nolan jokes about him again,
The thing I didn't know, however, until making long academic research last year was that around the time of the Rising, Ua Laoghaire made a personal appeal to the UCD English director, as one of his books had been removed from the syllabus in favor O Conaire's! To resolve the situation diplomatically, a work by Patrick Pearse was chosen instead :D
And of course, you know O'Nolan mocked the O'Crohan Blasket book in An Beal Bocht (The Poor Mouth), but I believe it is correct to say his mastery of Irish probably made him too formidable for the education-light system, and that book was only republished around 1980.
Anyway, I would HIGHLY recommend acquiring the new 2017 bilingual edition of Seven Virtues of the Rising, from Arlen House. It should be easy to find in Ireland. O Conaire is so incredibly funny, and had a real gift for human character, comedy, and frame stories of alternative history around the Rising... the one I've been researching in relation with O'Nolan, Anam An Easpagi (The Bishop's Soul) is an absolute gem.
A fantastic read. And I found your comment “ Writers… can preserve the underlying humanity of people caught up in events too complex for any honest historian to narrate.” very insightful.
Jerry, I thought just the same when I read that part.