Discovering Ireland
HUGH SHEARMAN'S book on Ulster has already been published in the " County Books " series. Now Frank O'Connor has written an informative and interesting book on Leinster, Munster and Connaught. This is at the same time both more and less than a guide-book, for it toudhes on history, geography, myth, poetry, architecture, conversation and personalities .without aiming at matter-of-fact completeness. It is written with a sense of excite- ment or adventure, as though the author were sharing the pleasures
of his own discovery of his native country. The counties in these three provinces are discussed individually, but not exhaustively, nor are all discussed. On the whole, a representative picture is given of Ireland, without " that part known as Northern Ireland," rather than a complete description of each county. For instance, the description of Cork is roughly and sentimentally anecdotal, while that of Wicklow is historical, starting with the earliest manu- scripts, ending with a view of Parnell's birthplace, and tailing off with some personal incidents connected with his tragedy. In other chapters, ruined churches and cathedrals, or decayed and gutted mansions, are criticised, with details that relate them to the writer and the present, and to the civilisation or its opposite in which they stand.
Frank O'Connor repeats himself in this survey only when he has cause to repeat the denunciation of an abuse—such as the archaeological squalor of famous neglected buildings, like Clon- macnois, which incites him to a parody of Rolleston's " The Dead at Clonmacnois." But though he writes of these things with proper passion, and attacks the censorship of literature with the vigour of a man who has been unfairly suppressed in the past (his transla- tion of Merryman's Irish classic, The Midnight Court, was banned), yet he convinces the reader of his unspoiled reasonableness. . This is reflected in his view of the land. Nor do I say he is reasonable because I agree with him. Those who share his fastidious and urbane discrimination in favour of landscape which is fertile, un- dulating, well-drained, fenced, watered and neatly stocked will find his taste for the more cultivated parts of Ireland attractive and possibly novel. But he maintains this appreciation of the anglicised Pale country (a rational appreciation, indeed) at the expense of the rest—which is not rational. The character of Ireland, I think, might be better represented by more pictures of those flat, endless bogs that fill the centre of the country like a water-logged hole ; and the spirit of languor over civic things, and the familiar fanaticism of the people, might be portrayed, or understood, more sympa- thetically in relation to the fruitless wastes of mountain that surround those bogs, than by Mr. O'Connor's emphasis on the likenesses to Chipping Campden in a few select places. It is a matter partly of taste and what you wish to see. Hence, though he is good on the Pale, he is not so good on Connaught ; for though he may know something of the character of this province, he does not pretend to like anything in it that is characteristic. However, he illustrates, and argues for, his emphasis by clear and convincing descriptions of the kind of 'landscape which the Whig landlords converted into settings for their eighteenth-century houses—a period in Irish history, a phase in Irish manners and taste with which Mr. O'Connor has entire sympathy. The book is weitten not from one but from many points of view : that of the poet, Gaelic translator, story-writer, conversationalist, journalist and man of letters. From this last point of view one is shown studies of the Irish great seen in their environment. The most original sketch is one of Goldsmith, whom it is unusual to identify with his home in County Longford. Sligo is recorded primarily as the country known best through the verse of Yeats. Come to South Galway and Clare and the place where Coole once stood—" the old lady was a holy terror ; that is the only way I can describe her "—conjures up stories of Lady Gregory. Wherever he goes Mr. O'Connor has stories to enliven his view of the country. He really knows Ireland, and gives living examples of the life, as well as descriptions of the places, he has seen. If there are a few occasions when he has neglected his crusade against the familiar " over-intimacy " of Irish manners, the disappointment is followed by an astonishing recovery, and made up for by a sound critical faculty and vigorous powers of description. RICHARD MURPHY.
Previous page
