Page 28 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Ireland

26  INTRODUCING IRELAND

Literary Ireland

For a land the size of Ireland to have produced four
Nobel Prize-winners in Shaw, Yeats, Beckett and
Séamus Heaney is a considerable feat. Yet it is not
easy to speak of an “Irish literary tradition” as the
concept embraces rural and urban experiences,
Protestant and Catholic traditions and the Gaelic and
English languages. Irish fiction today, as in the past,
is characterized by a sense of community and history, W B Yeats – Ireland’s most famous poet
a love of storytelling and a zest for language.

St Joan and Pygmalion, also
made London his home. This
dramatist, critic, socialist and
pacifist continued to write until
well into the 20th century.
20th-Century Writers
In 1898, W B Yeats and Lady
Gregory founded Dublin’s
Abbey Theatre (see p92). Its
The Blasket Islands, which provided inspiration for several writers opening, in 1904, heralded the
Irish Revival, which focused
Gaelic Literature born in Dublin in 1667 of on national and local themes.
English parents. Anglo­Irish Playwright John Millington
Irish literature proclaims itself literature was strong in drama, Synge drew inspiration from
the oldest vernacular literature the entertainment of the a love of the Aran Islands and
in Western Europe, dating back cultured classes, and owed Irish folklore, but the “immoral
to early monastic times when little to Irish settings or sensi­ language” of his Playboy of
Celtic folklore and sagas such bil ities. By the 1700s, Ireland the Western World caused a
as the epics of Cúchulainn (see was prod ucing an inordinate riot when first per formed at
p30) were written down for num ber of leading the Abbey Theatre. Along
the first time. The dis­ playwrights, many of with contemporaries, like
appearance of Gaelic whom were more at Sean O’Casey and W B Yeats,
literature followed the home in London. Synge influenced sub sequent
demise, in the 17th These included generations of Irish writers,
century, of the Irish Oliver Goldsmith, including novelist Seán
aristocracy for whom remembered for his O’Faolain, writer and columnist
it was written. Gaelic comedy She Stoops Flann O’Brien, and hard­
literature has had to Conquer, and drinking, quarrelsome play­
several revivals. Peig Richard Brinsley wright Brendan Behan. The
Sayers is famous for her Sheridan, whose literary revival also produced
accounts of the harsh life Novelist Maria plays include The many notable poets in the
on the Blasket Islands Edgeworth School for Scandal.
(see p162) in the early Near the end of the
20th century. century, Maria Edgeworth set a
precedent with novels such as
Anglo-Irish Literature Castle Rackrent, based on the
class divide in Irish society. The
The collapse of Gaelic culture 19th century saw an exodus to
and the Protestant Ascendancy England of Irish playwrights,
led to English becoming the including Oscar Wilde, who
dominant language. Most entered Oxford University in
literature was concerned with 1874 and later became the
the privileged classes. An early darling of London society with
Anglo­Irish writer was satirist plays such as The Importance of
Jonathan Swift (see p86), author Being Earnest. George Bernard
of Gulliver’s Travels, who was Shaw (see p104), writer of Playwright George Bernard Shaw

026-027_EW_Ireland.indd 26 08/03/17 11:05 am
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Date 3rd August 2012
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