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Eileen Shanahan (Irish poet)
Encyclopedia
Eileen Shanahan was one of the small number of Irish women poets. Her best-known poem, The Three Children (Near Clonmel), was included in the Oxford Book of Irish Verse
(1958).
She was born in Dublin, where her father George Shanahan (1856-1944) was Assistant Secretary of the Irish Board of Works, 1895-1921 and Honorary Treasurer of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, 1925-44. Her maternal grandfather was J. J. Clancy
(1847-1928), Irish Nationalist MP for North County Dublin from 1885 to 1918. Via her maternal grandmother Margaret Hickie, she was related to the revolutionary, poet and author Piaras Béaslaí
. She was educated at St Catherine’s Dominican Convent, Sion Hill
, Blackrock, Dublin and at Alexandra College
. She worked as a secretary in Dublin and from 1929 at the League of Nations
in Geneva. She married a Scot, Richard Webster, in 1936 and had five children. When France was invaded in 1940 she moved with her family to Dún Laoghaire
, Ireland and then to Wallington, Surrey in England
, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Her most productive period as a poet was the later 1920s. She first achieved publication with four of her poems in The Atlantic Monthly
(Boston, USA) during 1929. Her poetry was highly regarded by Lord Dunsany
(1878-1957), who helped her to gain publication of The Three Children and Shankill in The London Mercury
. Some of her then unpublished poems were broadcast by the Dublin radio station 2RN
on 31 May 1930. She also wrote a nativity play The Inn at Bethlehem, related in theme to her poem Epiphany, which was performed at the Theatre Royal, Dublin on 2 December 1928 and broadcast by Radio Eireann on Christmas Eve 1944.
The themes of her poetry include birth and childhood, the trials of love, the contrasts of passionate and cautious approaches to life, and Ireland and its predicament. Many have a powerful sense of place, several, including The Three Children and Moon and Swan, being inspired by visits to her Hickie relatives at Clonmel
, Co. Tipperary and another, Shankill
, by the countryside near her childhood home at Dalkey
. She herself admired the poetry of F. R. Higgins
and Francis Ledwidge
.
Most of her work remains unpublished.
The Desolate Lover - The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Mass.), Vol.143, June 1929, pp.795-6; New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.173
Epiphany - New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.176
Judas in Purgatory - The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Mass.), Vol.144, September 1929, pp.340-1 (only the two lyrics extracted from a longer poem were printed)
The Kilkenny Boy - Irish Times, Saturday 18 May 1935; New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.175
Moon and Swan - The Commonweal (New York)
, Vol.14, 17 June 1931, p.184; Irish Times, Saturday 18 May 1935
The Three Children (Near Clonmel) - The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Mass.), Vol.143, May 1929, p.624; The London Mercury, Vol.23 No.138, April 1931, pp.528-9; Goodbye, Twilight, 1936, pp.62-3; 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, New York, 1947, pp.716-7; The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, 1958, pp. 245-6 (only the middle three of these have the authoritative text)
Shankill - The London Mercury, Vol.23 No.136, February 1931, p.315-6; New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.174
Pastorale, 1946 - Irish Times, Saturday 11 January 1947; Earth Voices Whispering, Belfast, 2008, p.113
Free State (1925) - Earth Voices Whispering, Belfast, 2008, p.113
Irish Times, 31 May 1930
Obituary, George E. Shanahan, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland Vol.XVII, 98th Session 1944-45, p.viii
Piaras Béaslaí Papers, National Library of Ireland
Daiken, Leslie H. (compiler) (1936) Goodbye, Twilight: Songs of the Struggle in Ireland, London, Lawrence and Wishart
Dawe, Gerald (ed.) (2008) Earth Voices Whispering: An Anthology of Irish War Poetry 1914-1945, Belfast, The Blackstaff Press
Garrity, Devin A. (ed.) (1948) New Irish Poets: Representative Selections from the Work of 37 Contemporaries, New York, The Devin-Adair Company
Hoagland, Kathleen (ed.) (1947) 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, New York, The Devin-Adair Company
The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, XVIIth Century-XXth Century, Chosen by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson (1958), Oxford University Press
Oxford Book of Irish Verse
The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, 17th century-20th century was a poetry anthology edited by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1958....
(1958).
J. J. Clancy (MP)
John Joseph Clancy , usually known as J. J. Clancy, was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament for North County Dublin from 1885 to 1918, one of the leaders of the later Irish Home Rule movement and promoter of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1908, known as the Clancy Act...
(1847-1928), Irish Nationalist MP for North County Dublin from 1885 to 1918. Via her maternal grandmother Margaret Hickie, she was related to the revolutionary, poet and author Piaras Béaslaí
Piaras Béaslaí
Piaras Béaslaí was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a member of Dáil Éireann and also an Irish author, playwright, biographer and translator....
. She was educated at St Catherine’s Dominican Convent, Sion Hill
Dominican College Sion Hill
Dominican College Sion Hill is one of the oldest girls' secondary schools in Ireland. It was founded in 1836 in Blackrock, County Dublin in Ireland. Its approach to education is based on the Dominican ideal of developing the whole person...
, Blackrock, Dublin and at Alexandra College
Alexandra College
Alexandra College is a private, single-sex school located in Milltown, Dublin, Ireland. It serves girls from ages 4 to 19 as boarding or day pupils. The school is one of the most prestigious in Ireland and ranks highly in Leaving Certificate results tables...
. She worked as a secretary in Dublin and from 1929 at the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
in Geneva. She married a Scot, Richard Webster, in 1936 and had five children. When France was invaded in 1940 she moved with her family to Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
, Ireland and then to Wallington, Surrey in England
Wallington, London
Wallington is a town in the London Borough of Sutton situated south south-west of Charing Cross. Prior to the merger of the Municipal Borough of Beddington and Wallington into the London Borough of Sutton, it was part of the county of Surrey.- History :...
, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Her most productive period as a poet was the later 1920s. She first achieved publication with four of her poems in The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
(Boston, USA) during 1929. Her poetry was highly regarded by Lord Dunsany
Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany was an Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work, mostly in fantasy, published under the name Lord Dunsany...
(1878-1957), who helped her to gain publication of The Three Children and Shankill in The London Mercury
London Mercury
The London Mercury was the name of several periodicals published in London from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The earliest was a newspaper that appeared during the Exclusion Bill crisis; it lasted only 56 issues...
. Some of her then unpublished poems were broadcast by the Dublin radio station 2RN
2RN
2RN was the first radio broadcasting station in the Irish Free State. It began broadcasting on 1 January 1926 and continued until 1933, when it was succeeded by Radio Athlone...
on 31 May 1930. She also wrote a nativity play The Inn at Bethlehem, related in theme to her poem Epiphany, which was performed at the Theatre Royal, Dublin on 2 December 1928 and broadcast by Radio Eireann on Christmas Eve 1944.
The themes of her poetry include birth and childhood, the trials of love, the contrasts of passionate and cautious approaches to life, and Ireland and its predicament. Many have a powerful sense of place, several, including The Three Children and Moon and Swan, being inspired by visits to her Hickie relatives at Clonmel
Clonmel
Clonmel is the county town of South Tipperary in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county. While the borough had a population of 15,482 in 2006, another 17,008 people were in the rural hinterland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked both...
, Co. Tipperary and another, Shankill
Shankill, Dublin
Shankill is a suburb in the South-East of Dublin located in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County, Ireland. It has a population of 13,242 .-History:-Name:...
, by the countryside near her childhood home at Dalkey
Dalkey
Dalkey is suburb of Dublin and seaside resort in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement and became an important port during the Middle Ages. According to John Clyn, it was one of the ports through which the plague entered Ireland in the mid-14th century...
. She herself admired the poetry of F. R. Higgins
F. R. Higgins
Frederick Robert Higgins was an Irish poet and theatre director.-Early years:Higgins was born on the west coast of Ireland in Foxford, which is located in County Mayo...
and Francis Ledwidge
Francis Ledwidge
Francis Edward Ledwidge was an Irish war poet from County Meath. Sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", he was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I.-Early life:...
.
Most of her work remains unpublished.
Published Poems
To Adventurers (in Romance) - The Observer (London), Sunday 30 March 1930The Desolate Lover - The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Mass.), Vol.143, June 1929, pp.795-6; New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.173
Epiphany - New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.176
Judas in Purgatory - The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Mass.), Vol.144, September 1929, pp.340-1 (only the two lyrics extracted from a longer poem were printed)
The Kilkenny Boy - Irish Times, Saturday 18 May 1935; New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.175
Moon and Swan - The Commonweal (New York)
Commonweal
Commonweal is a American journal of opinion edited and managed by lay Catholics. It is headquartered in The Interchurch Center in New York City.-History:...
, Vol.14, 17 June 1931, p.184; Irish Times, Saturday 18 May 1935
The Three Children (Near Clonmel) - The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Mass.), Vol.143, May 1929, p.624; The London Mercury, Vol.23 No.138, April 1931, pp.528-9; Goodbye, Twilight, 1936, pp.62-3; 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, New York, 1947, pp.716-7; The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, 1958, pp. 245-6 (only the middle three of these have the authoritative text)
Shankill - The London Mercury, Vol.23 No.136, February 1931, p.315-6; New Irish Poets, New York, 1948, p.174
Pastorale, 1946 - Irish Times, Saturday 11 January 1947; Earth Voices Whispering, Belfast, 2008, p.113
Free State (1925) - Earth Voices Whispering, Belfast, 2008, p.113
Sources
Sunday Independent (Dublin), 2 December 1928, 25 May 1930 and 24 December 1944Irish Times, 31 May 1930
Obituary, George E. Shanahan, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland Vol.XVII, 98th Session 1944-45, p.viii
Piaras Béaslaí Papers, National Library of Ireland
Daiken, Leslie H. (compiler) (1936) Goodbye, Twilight: Songs of the Struggle in Ireland, London, Lawrence and Wishart
Dawe, Gerald (ed.) (2008) Earth Voices Whispering: An Anthology of Irish War Poetry 1914-1945, Belfast, The Blackstaff Press
Garrity, Devin A. (ed.) (1948) New Irish Poets: Representative Selections from the Work of 37 Contemporaries, New York, The Devin-Adair Company
Hoagland, Kathleen (ed.) (1947) 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, New York, The Devin-Adair Company
The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, XVIIth Century-XXth Century, Chosen by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson (1958), Oxford University Press