THE ICON WALK – Poets & Novelists

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Sep
12

IRISH POETS & NOVELISTS

CAN YOU NAME ALL POET & NOVELIST ICONS?

(see below for answers!)

IRISH POETS AND NOVELISTS

In dividing our writers into categories of playwrights, poets and novelists, many of them are done a disservice as almost all o them wrote in more than one medium. Beckett is almost as well known for his novels as his plays, while Joyce did publish verse and drama. Wilde in addition to his plays is celebrated for his poetry and children’s fiction. However their images on this wall are placed where they made their greatest contribution.

The first image is of Raftery, a blind Gaelic Poet/Seanchai (traditional Irish storyteller/historian) (1784 – 1834) who is honoured as a way of reminding us all of the contribution our native language has made to our Anglo-Saxon literature. Raftery is often quoted by politicians to prove their Gaelic bona fides. (Perhaps if you meet one of these politicians, it would be a good time to check your wallet and count your fingers).

A second reason this was done was to banish misconception about the reputation of our writers and that is to make it clear that when people talk about great Irish writers, they were mostly poets and playwrights not novelists. When a list was published of the 100 best novels in English, of the 20th Century, only two Irish born writers made the list, James Joyce (three titles) and Iris Murdoch, and as she left Ireland as a child, no one considers her an Irish writer.

A word here about the writings of Joyce and Beckett and why some people seem deterred from reading them. It seems an opinion has emerged that they are inaccessible to the average reader and that you need an academic, usually an American but sometimes a Trinity professor to guide you. Beckett, also a Trinity College teacher said “It contains the cream of Ireland – rich and thick“. Still think you need them?

Anyone can read a story but in great literature the writer can be found all over the page, even between the lines. It seemed that Joyce wanted the Irish to recognise that an acceptable life was not available in Ireland, that the Irish DNA was flawed and that those in power would always look to restrict and betray them, “Do you know what Ireland is?” Joyce asked, “Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow“. The events of the last decade would suggest he was onto something. His conviction grew out of the politics of his father, who was a Charles Parnell supporter, who was deeply affected by his betrayal by the Church and the Irish themselves. It is an issue visited in all his books. “Poor Parnell” He (Mr. Casey) cried loudly. “My dead king!” He sobbed loudly and bitterly. Stephen (Joyce as a child), raising his terror stricken face, saw his father’s eyes were full of tears.” – Portrait Of The Artist.

Beckett seemed to be even more pessimistic than Joyce and he saw his mission was to warn us not to be fooled by the illusion that happiness was available anywhere. Beckett’s mother and emotional problems as a result of his birth and did not bond with him. She also removed all intimacy from her husband.

The father took the son for long walks while he ranted about the lack of a relationship with his wife. This conversation must have sounded indecipherable to the boy as do many of Beckett’s plays to his audience. Children who do not bond with their mother have lives which tend to be very grey emotionally, lacking heat or colour. As with Autism, they have a different emotional calculus. Beckett went on to live with an older woman who was not exactly a barrel of laughs. She took the phonecall that informed them of Samuel’s Nobel Prize. “This is a disaster, our lives are ruined” she responded.

In the eighties, Beckett was invited to Germany to direct “Waiting For Godot”. When presented with the script which he had not read in many years he exclaimed; “This thing needs a good edit”. And this was his masterpiece! The alchemy of the theatre is what makes the writer’s experience available, and more so the greater the writer. Joyce and Beckett whom have few equals, availed of them.

POETS & NOVELISTS IRISH ICONS:

1. RAFTERY

Artwork By: Dan Roe (Contact:eornad@gmail.com)

Antoine Ó Raifteiri AKA Anthony Raftery (1779 or 1784 – 1835)

Notable Works: