Irish short story
Encyclopedia
The Irish Short Story has a distinctive place in the modern Irish literary tradition, many of Ireland’s best writers, both in English and Irish, having been practitioners of the genre. It has been argued that its origins lie in the ancient Gaelic tradition of story-telling, though it conforms to the conventions of the genre elsewhere.
Inspired by Moore, Liam O Flaherty published his first collection in 1924, Spring Sowing, depicting the harsh life of his native Aran Islands. The remarkable Cork school of short story writers began with Daniel Corkery – A Munster Twilight (1916). He was an influential mentor to Sean O Faolain (first collection Midsummer Night Madness, 1932) and to Frank O Connor (first collection Guests of the Nation, 1931). With Elizabeth Bowen (first collection Encounters, 1923), this Cork school was to bring the Irish short story to new heights in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.
By 1960 there was a consensus that the Irish contribution to the short story was on a par with the Russian and American, and that the short story was the national art form of Ireland.
The status of the short story has declined in Ireland since the 1960s, despite excellent writers cultivating the genre, including Michael McLaverty, Benedict Kiely, Mary Lavin and John McGahern. The main editorial influence on the short story from the sixties onwards was David Marcus
through his New Irish Writing column in the now defunct Irish Press newspaper and the many anthologies he edited.
at the beginning of the 20th century saw the Irish language
re-emerging as a literary medium after a century of almost complete neglect. This had an effect on all genres, short stories among them. The tradition that developed was characterised by great variety, reflecting the background of the writers. It is likely that over a thousand stories have been written in Irish.
The modernist pioneer was Patrick Pearse
, language activist and revolutionary, and writer of stories of idealistic content in a contemporary European form. Pearce was executed in 1916 but left a legacy which opened new possibilities for the language. Modernist possibilities were further developed by Pádraic Ó Conaire
, a writer of the 1920s on whom the European influence was evident but whose own legacy was mixed. He wrote, like Pearce, in the Irish of Conamara, sometimes setting his stories in that remote landscape and at other times in the towns. Ó Conaire has been described as the true pioneer of short story writing in Irish because of his rejection of older conventions and his determination to deal fearlessly with the truths of human nature.
A different approach was taken by Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha
(known as “An Seabhac” – the hawk), who set his comic stories and sketches in the Munster Gaeltacht
. An Baile S’Againne (1913) (“Our Place”) shows him to be a master of language in his own genre, deftly combining slapstick and irony.
The Donegal
Gaeltacht brought forth Séamas Ó Grianna, who wrote prolifically and idiomatically about the people of his region, though much of his work has been criticised for its predictability. His brother Seosamh Mac Grianna
, less prolific, left a handful of excellent stories.
Máirtín Ó Cadhain
, a powerful and idiosyncratic writer, was born in the Conamara Gaeltacht
, a region rich in folklore but with no strong literary tradition. Ó Cadhain had an unequalled knowledge of the language and great psychological penetration. His early stories, written in a thorny and difficult style, were set in his native region. He settled eventually in Dublin and his style became more direct, though still marked by imaginative intensity. He remains generally regarded as the doyen of the craft in Irish and one of the best writers to emerge from Ireland in the 20th century, despite the fact that the difficulty of his earlier style was criticised – a difficulty which may have robbed him of a wider readership.
The emigrant tradition in Ireland continued in the forties and fifties, and many of those who went were Irish speakers. One was Dónal Mac Amhlaidh, who took to writing about his experiences as a navvy in England and about other aspects of lives touched by exile. An fine comic writer, he was also capable of evoking a haunting frustration and sadness.
Liam O'Flaherty
, though a native speaker of Irish, made his name as a writer in English. He returned to Irish in a collection called Dúil ("Desire"), containing stories in the west of Ireland. The reviews were disappointing and may have discouraged him from writing in Irish again, but Dúil continues to be printed.
In the middle of the 20th century most habitual speakers of Irish still lived in the Gaeltacht, but the number of urban readers was growing. The genre was still dominated by a masculine sensibility, but in 1955 brother and sister Domhnall Ó Céileachair and Síle Ní Chéileachair published Bullaí Mhártain, stories dealing with both the Munster Gaeltacht and city life. These stories were praised for their scope and their skilful adaptation of the language to an urban environment.
A collection of sketches and stories called Feamainn Bealtaine ("Seaweed in May") was published by the distinguished poet Máirtín Ó Direáin
in 1961. These deal largely with his youth in the Irish-speaking Aran Islands
, and are distinguished by their lyricism and humour.
One of the best regarded contemporary practitioners of the genre, the poetic realist Seán Mac Mathúna (b. 1935), has published versions of his stories in both Irish and English. His reputation was confirmed by his collection Ding ("Wedge"), with its disturbing title story. He was never a prolific writer, and has published little for some years.
The short story continues to be a favoured form for writers in Irish, possibly because it lends itself to publication in the two main literary magazines, Feasta
and Comhar
. Collections in Irish continue to be published, with over 125 presently available. It is noteworthy that women writers are now more prominent - Orna Ní Choileáin, Méadhbh Ní Ghallchobhair, Deirdre Ní Ghrianna and others. Younger readers are addressed by writers like Ré Ó Laighléis, whose stories deal with social problems such as drug abuse. Most readers now come from the urban Irish-speaking community, together with all the younger writers. This represents a distinctive change in the situation of the language and the future of its literature, though the Gaeltacht still has writers from the older generation, such as Colm Ó Ceallaigh and Joe Steve Ó Neachtain
.
The prevailing tone of short stories in Irish continues to be quotidian and realistic. An exception is the work of Daithí Ó Muirí, whose stories, often dreamlike, are dark in their themes and their humour. He has published several well-reviewed collections.
This approach has been the dominant influence on the short story in Ireland, and remained unchallenged until Jack Hart
declared in the preface to his collection From Under Gogol’s Nose (2004) that the parameters of the short story had been set too narrowly. He advocates a broader range of possibilities, from stories that are almost an essay to those that are almost a poem. He argues that the short story should be seen as closer by nature to the poem, requiring a similar engagement from the reader and communicating in a similar way through a fundamentally oral/aural process.
Origins
It has been argued that the Irish short story evolved naturally from the ancient tradition of oral storytelling in Ireland. The written word has been cultivated in Ireland since the introduction of the Roman alphabet by the Christian missionaries in the 5th Century. But oral storytelling continued independently up to the 20th Century and survived the general switch from the Irish to the English language. By the mid 19th century Irish writers had begun to use the English language to record the lives and convey the thoughts of the ordinary people, mostly impoverished peasants, and to address themselves to an Irish readership. The most popular literary form to emerge from this development was the tale, and the most notable practitioner William Carleton (1794–1869), whose collection Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1830) is a classic of the genre.Stories in English
What is regarded as the literary short story began in Ireland with George Moore’s The Untilled Field (1903), stories of rural life using a variety of narrative techniques and originally intended for publication in the Irish language. In the following year James Joyce’s stories began appearing in magazines, to be eventually published as Dubliners (1914) a collection integrated as a narrative presentation of the lives of a selection of Dublin citizens.Inspired by Moore, Liam O Flaherty published his first collection in 1924, Spring Sowing, depicting the harsh life of his native Aran Islands. The remarkable Cork school of short story writers began with Daniel Corkery – A Munster Twilight (1916). He was an influential mentor to Sean O Faolain (first collection Midsummer Night Madness, 1932) and to Frank O Connor (first collection Guests of the Nation, 1931). With Elizabeth Bowen (first collection Encounters, 1923), this Cork school was to bring the Irish short story to new heights in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.
By 1960 there was a consensus that the Irish contribution to the short story was on a par with the Russian and American, and that the short story was the national art form of Ireland.
The status of the short story has declined in Ireland since the 1960s, despite excellent writers cultivating the genre, including Michael McLaverty, Benedict Kiely, Mary Lavin and John McGahern. The main editorial influence on the short story from the sixties onwards was David Marcus
David Marcus
David Marcus was an Irish Jewish editor and writer who was a lifelong advocate and editor of Irish fiction.- Life and times :...
through his New Irish Writing column in the now defunct Irish Press newspaper and the many anthologies he edited.
Stories in Irish
The Gaelic RevivalGaelic Revival
The Gaelic revival was the late-nineteenth-century national revival of interest in the Irish language and Irish Gaelic culture...
at the beginning of the 20th century saw the Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
re-emerging as a literary medium after a century of almost complete neglect. This had an effect on all genres, short stories among them. The tradition that developed was characterised by great variety, reflecting the background of the writers. It is likely that over a thousand stories have been written in Irish.
The modernist pioneer was Patrick Pearse
Patrick Pearse
Patrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916...
, language activist and revolutionary, and writer of stories of idealistic content in a contemporary European form. Pearce was executed in 1916 but left a legacy which opened new possibilities for the language. Modernist possibilities were further developed by Pádraic Ó Conaire
Pádraic Ó Conaire
Pádraic Ó Conaire was an Irish writer and journalist whose production was primarily in the Irish language.-Life:Ó Conaire was born in Galway in 1882. His father was a publican, who owned two premises in the town...
, a writer of the 1920s on whom the European influence was evident but whose own legacy was mixed. He wrote, like Pearce, in the Irish of Conamara, sometimes setting his stories in that remote landscape and at other times in the towns. Ó Conaire has been described as the true pioneer of short story writing in Irish because of his rejection of older conventions and his determination to deal fearlessly with the truths of human nature.
A different approach was taken by Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha
Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha
Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha and his brother Mícheál Ó Siochfhradha were writers, teachers and Irish language storytellers, from County Kerry, Ireland....
(known as “An Seabhac” – the hawk), who set his comic stories and sketches in the Munster Gaeltacht
Gaeltacht
is the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...
. An Baile S’Againne (1913) (“Our Place”) shows him to be a master of language in his own genre, deftly combining slapstick and irony.
The Donegal
Donegal
Donegal or Donegal Town is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. Its name, which was historically written in English as Dunnagall or Dunagall, translates from Irish as "stronghold of the foreigners" ....
Gaeltacht brought forth Séamas Ó Grianna, who wrote prolifically and idiomatically about the people of his region, though much of his work has been criticised for its predictability. His brother Seosamh Mac Grianna
Seosamh Mac Grianna
Seosamh Mac Grianna was an Irish writer, in his early career under the pen-name Iolann Fionn. He was born into a family of poets and storytellers, which included his brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seán Bán Mac Grianna, in Ranafast, County Donegal, at a time of linguistic and cultural...
, less prolific, left a handful of excellent stories.
Máirtín Ó Cadhain
Máirtín Ó Cadhain
Máirtín Ó Cadhain was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century.-Career:Born in Connemara, he became a schoolteacher but was dismissed due to his IRA membership. In the 1930s he served as an IRA recruiting officer, enlisting fellow writer Brendan Behan...
, a powerful and idiosyncratic writer, was born in the Conamara Gaeltacht
Gaeltacht
is the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...
, a region rich in folklore but with no strong literary tradition. Ó Cadhain had an unequalled knowledge of the language and great psychological penetration. His early stories, written in a thorny and difficult style, were set in his native region. He settled eventually in Dublin and his style became more direct, though still marked by imaginative intensity. He remains generally regarded as the doyen of the craft in Irish and one of the best writers to emerge from Ireland in the 20th century, despite the fact that the difficulty of his earlier style was criticised – a difficulty which may have robbed him of a wider readership.
The emigrant tradition in Ireland continued in the forties and fifties, and many of those who went were Irish speakers. One was Dónal Mac Amhlaidh, who took to writing about his experiences as a navvy in England and about other aspects of lives touched by exile. An fine comic writer, he was also capable of evoking a haunting frustration and sadness.
Liam O'Flaherty
Liam O'Flaherty
Liam O'Flaherty was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, born August 28, 1896, died September 7, 1984.-Biography:...
, though a native speaker of Irish, made his name as a writer in English. He returned to Irish in a collection called Dúil ("Desire"), containing stories in the west of Ireland. The reviews were disappointing and may have discouraged him from writing in Irish again, but Dúil continues to be printed.
In the middle of the 20th century most habitual speakers of Irish still lived in the Gaeltacht, but the number of urban readers was growing. The genre was still dominated by a masculine sensibility, but in 1955 brother and sister Domhnall Ó Céileachair and Síle Ní Chéileachair published Bullaí Mhártain, stories dealing with both the Munster Gaeltacht and city life. These stories were praised for their scope and their skilful adaptation of the language to an urban environment.
A collection of sketches and stories called Feamainn Bealtaine ("Seaweed in May") was published by the distinguished poet Máirtín Ó Direáin
Máirtín Ó Direáin
Máirtín Ó Direáin born in Sruthán on Inismór in the Aran Islands was an Irish language poet.The son of a small-farmer, Máirtín Ó Direáin spoke only Irish until his mid-teens. He worked as a civil servant from 1928 until 1975...
in 1961. These deal largely with his youth in the Irish-speaking Aran Islands
Aran Islands
The Aran Islands or The Arans are a group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland. They constitute the barony of Aran in County Galway, Ireland...
, and are distinguished by their lyricism and humour.
One of the best regarded contemporary practitioners of the genre, the poetic realist Seán Mac Mathúna (b. 1935), has published versions of his stories in both Irish and English. His reputation was confirmed by his collection Ding ("Wedge"), with its disturbing title story. He was never a prolific writer, and has published little for some years.
The short story continues to be a favoured form for writers in Irish, possibly because it lends itself to publication in the two main literary magazines, Feasta
Feasta
Feasta is an Irish-language magazine that was established in 1948. Its purpose is the furtherance of the aims of the Gaelic League, an objective reflecting the cultural nationalism of the language movement, and the promotion of new writing...
and Comhar
Comhar
Comhar is a prominent literary journal in the Irish language, published by the company Comhar Teoranta. It was founded in 1942, and has published work by some of the most notable writers in Irish, including Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Seán Ó Ríordáin, Máirtín Ó Direáin, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Brendan Behan...
. Collections in Irish continue to be published, with over 125 presently available. It is noteworthy that women writers are now more prominent - Orna Ní Choileáin, Méadhbh Ní Ghallchobhair, Deirdre Ní Ghrianna and others. Younger readers are addressed by writers like Ré Ó Laighléis, whose stories deal with social problems such as drug abuse. Most readers now come from the urban Irish-speaking community, together with all the younger writers. This represents a distinctive change in the situation of the language and the future of its literature, though the Gaeltacht still has writers from the older generation, such as Colm Ó Ceallaigh and Joe Steve Ó Neachtain
Joe Steve O Neachtain
Joe Steve Ó Neachtain, Irish actor and playwright.Ó Neachtain portrays Peadar Ó Conghaile on Irish language drama Ros na Rún. A native of An Spidéal, he first appeared on the programme in 1996. He has acted on stage in Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, while for the past ten years he has written and acted...
.
The prevailing tone of short stories in Irish continues to be quotidian and realistic. An exception is the work of Daithí Ó Muirí, whose stories, often dreamlike, are dark in their themes and their humour. He has published several well-reviewed collections.
Theory and Art of the Irish Short Story
The development of the Irish short story has been accompanied by continuous reflection on technique, and driven by an evolving theory. James Joyce saw his stories as epiphanies, presenting moments of heightened perception. Two of the most influential books on the theory and practice of the short story were written by Sean O Faolain The Short Story (1948) and Frank O'Connor The Lonely Voice (1962). They advocated a realist approach in which the story focuses on a moment of crisis or change in a character’s life. O'Connor sees the story as the expression of human loneliness.This approach has been the dominant influence on the short story in Ireland, and remained unchallenged until Jack Hart
Jack Harte (Irish writer)
Jack Harte is an Irish short story writer and novelist. He founded the Irish Writers’ Union and the Irish Writers’ Centre. He is the author of the novel Reflections in a Tar-Barrel.- Background :...
declared in the preface to his collection From Under Gogol’s Nose (2004) that the parameters of the short story had been set too narrowly. He advocates a broader range of possibilities, from stories that are almost an essay to those that are almost a poem. He argues that the short story should be seen as closer by nature to the poem, requiring a similar engagement from the reader and communicating in a similar way through a fundamentally oral/aural process.