Published by Humanities West 660 Market St., Suite 202 San Francisco, California 94104 415/391-9700
Cover-. William Butler Yeats. 1904, fju fiis father, \ohn Butler Yeats
Humanities West journal
Volume 2, No. 2
HUMANITIES WEST
«explohng history to celebrate the mind and the arts» presents
IMAGINING IRELAND
Poet’s Vision and Patriot’s Dream
Contents
Program 2
Lecturer, Moderator and Performer Biographies 4
Poems by Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill 5
The Irish Way with Words 1 0
Irish History: A Brief Chronology 1 4
Suggested Reading List 1 6
Humanities West 18
March 24 and 25, 1995 Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
Presented in cooperation with the Consul General of Ireland, The Irish Cultural Relations Committee, The Irish Tourist Board and The Irish Arts Foundation
Humanities West gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities in presenting this program.
HUMANITIES WEST PRESENTS
IMAGINING IRELAND
POET'S VISION AND PATRIOT'S DREAM
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Robert Tracy, Moderator
FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1995, 8:00-10:15 PM
8:00 PM Lecture: “Seedy Elegance: The Decay and Resurrection of Georgian Dublin”
David Norris, Trinity College, Dublin
Senator Norris tells the story of his crusade to preserve the architec- tural treasures of Georgian Dublin. This illustrated lecture looks at the building of the city of Dublin, the history of 18th century architec- ture, and the trying but often amusing battles to save the Georgian core of the inner city.
9: 1 5 PM Lecture! reading: "TOO LONG Enchanted”
NUALA Nf Dhomhnaill, Poet
Ms. Nf Dhomhnaill discusses the role of poets in the Irish literary revival and reads from her own poetry.
The events of the Easter Rising in 1916 were perpetrated by patri- ots, many of whom were poets and dramatists who, as well as produc- ing original literary work, pressed Irish mythology and literature into use for their own purposes. In reaction to this, says Ms. Nf Dhomhnaill, "Many of my generation have eschewed entirely the Irish language and all its ramifications, seeing it as 'fascist' and old-fashioned, and out of tune with today's realities. It is high time for us to retrieve the Irish language, and its literature and mythology from a patriarchal physical force agenda which has long outlived its usefulness. The great tropes and images of our literature which move maiestically through our souls can be reinterpreted using agenda more pertinent to our own time, so that once again they can become as liberating and enabling as they were at the turn of the century."
INTRODUCTORY MUSIC FRIDAY AND SATURDAY BY Aryeh Frankfurter
Saturday, March 25, 1995, 10:00 am-4:00 pm
10:00 AM Lecture: "Irish Talk: Language as the Irish Art" Robert Tracy, University of California, Berkeley
Prof. Tracy explores the role of the oral tradition in Irish life, espe- cially the Irish story-telling tradition, and the way in which this reap- pears in fiction, poetry, and especially drama, loyce’s preoccupation with language, Beckett’s despair at the inadequacy of language, Yeats’ plays of language rather than action, Yeats' poetry, and the verbal dramas of lohn M. Synge — all of these represent an art based on the word in a special way, as well as a preoccupation with the struggle between the two languages, Irish and English.
2
1 1 : 1 0 AM Lecture: "STAGING IRELAND: CONTESTED IMAGES” Nicholas Grene, Trinity College, Dublin
The Irish national theatre movement began in reaction against the ninteenth-century tradition of stage Irish misrepresentation. Yet from the beginning the dramatic images of Irish experience which Yeats and Synge offered were contested, often violently, by audiences at home and abroad who also regarded them as false. This lecture focuses on the controversial representation of Ireland on stage from the beginning of the century to the present. Certain key productions — Synge's Tfie Playboy of the Western World, O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars, and Brian Friel’s Translations — will be used to illustrate the relationship between dramatic images (including staging, costumes, acting styles) and cultural or political audience expectations, not only at home in Ireland but in England and the United States as well.
BREAK FOR LUNCH: 12:00-1:30 PM
1 :30 PM Dramatic performance: Deirdre Herbert as Molly Bloom FROM James Joyce's Ulysses
1 :50 PM Lecture: "VIEWS FROM THE TOWER”
David Norris, Trinity College, Dublin
This lecture analyzes the literary and political aspirations of the Irish Renaissance. The image of the tower is taken from the poetry of Yeats and the prose of James Joyce. Senator Norris will examine the search for a national cultural identity, the interrelationship between litera- ture and politics at the turn of the century, and the impact of artists like Joyce, Yeats, O'Casey and Synge upon the reality of the new Ireland.
3:00 PM Lecture: "MODELS OF AMBIVALENCE AND AMBIGUITY: LEGENDS OF THE IRISH SUPERNATURAL”
MAUREEN Murphy, Hofstra University, New York
The supernatural figures prominently in certain kinds of discourse about Ireland, and stereotypes portray Irish supernatural belief as naive, but a closer examination of Irish literature and folklore reveals psychological and sociological issues considered in terms of super- natural beliefs and legends. This lecture will explore how Irish super- natural legends offer a model of the social world in which they are told. The legends focus on individual rites of passage and on the relationship between the individual and the community.
SPEAKERS’ BIOGRAPHIES: IMAGINING IRELAND
NICHOLAS Grene was born in Chicago but has lived most of his life in Ireland where he is currently Associate Professor of English and Head of Department at Trinity College Dublin. Educated at Trinity College and then at the University of Cambridge where he earned his PhD., he taught at the University of Liverpool before taking up his present post. A special- ist in drama, his books include Synge: a Critical Study of the Plays (1975), Shakespeare, jonson, Moliere: the Comic Contract (1980), Bernard Shaw: a Critical View (1984), Shakespeare's Tragic Imagi- nation (1992). He has been invited to lecture on Irish literature in many countries, France, Egypt, Brazil, Canada and the United States among them. He is the founder- Director of the Synge Summer School in County Wicklow, where he lives on a farm with his wife and four children.
Deidre Herbert abandoned post-graduate research in psycopharmacology for the stage. Since then she has performed with the Abbey Theater in Ireland, England and America and has acted, sung, written and directed with many other companies. She co-founded an all woman theater company in Ireland and more recently the Fifth Province Theater here in San Francisco, for whom she scripted and directed Sheelanagig and played the part of Molly Bloom. Her most recent roles were in Cousin Martin and Somewhere Over the Balcony. She received the Silver Rose, The Bay Area Actor’s Achievement Award in 1991 .
Maureen Murphy is Professor of Curriculum and Teaching/English at Hofstra University. She is past president of the American Conference for Irish Studies, the chairperson of the International Association for the Study of Anglo-Irish Literature, a member of the Executive Council of the American Irish Historical Society and the Board of the Emerald Island Immigration Center. She was a member of the faculty of Yeats International Summer School in 1981, 1985, 1989 and 1993 and the Joyce International Summer School in 1988. She has written on Irish history, literature, folklore and the Irish language. She is the editor of A Guide to Irish Studies in the United States (1979, 1982, 1987) and Maire MacNeill’s Maire Rua. Lady of Leamaneh as well as a co-editor of Irish Literature: a Reader (1987) and James Joyce: A Centenary Tribute ( 1988). Her current project is a book on the Irish servant girl in America.
NUALA Nf Dhomhnaill was born of Irish-speaking parents and educated at University College, Cork. After living in Holland and teaching in Turkey she returned to Ireland in 1980 to write full time. In 1992-93 she was the first Artist-in-Residence in University College Cork. She is at present Artist-in-Residence in Portmarnock Community School, County Dublin. She is married with four children. Her poetry has been translated into French, German, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Estonian and Japanese as well as English. Recent published work includes poetry collection The Astrakhan Cloak (1992); and An Cohan Saor (1993), a screenplay.
David Norris is a graduate of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, where he is now senior lecturer in English literature. He has written, lectured and broadcast on a wide variety of subjects, literary, sociological and political in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. He was chairman of the International James Joyce Symposium and continues to be involved in editing for the gathering as well as in the International James Joyce Foundation. In 1987 he was elected to the Irish Senate and continues to serve on the independent benches.
ROBERT Tracy is Professor of English and of Celtic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches courses in nineteenth and twentieth century Irish literature, as well as courses dealing with Victorian literature. He has served at Berkeley since 1 960, and has also taught, as a visiting professor, at the universities of Leeds and Dublin, and at Wellesley College. His translation from Russian of the poems of Osip Mandelstam was published under the title Stone, by Princeton University Press in 1981. He has also edited Synge’s prose, three novels by Anthony Trollope, and a collection of stories by the Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu and published Trollope's Later Novc/s. He is the author of about 100 reviews and articles on Irish or Victorian literature.
4
POETRY BY NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL Ceist Na Teangan
Cuirim mo dhochas ar snamh i mbaidm teangan faoi mar a leagfa nafonan i gcliabhan a bheadh fite fuaite de dhuilleoga feileastraim is bitiuman agus pic bheith cuimilte lena thoin
ansan e leagadh sios i mease na ngiolcach is coigeal na mban si le taobh na habhann, feachaint n’fheadrais ca dtabharfaidh an sruth e feachaint, dala Mhaoise, an bhfoirfidh infon Fharoinn?
The Language Issue
translation by PAUL MULDOON
I place my hope on the water in this little boat
of the language, the way a body might put an infant
in a basket of intertwined iris leaves, its underside proofed with bitumen and pitch,
then set the whole thing down amidst the sedge
and bulrushes by the edge of a river
only to have it borne hither and thither, not knowing where it might end up; in the lap, perhaps, of some Pharoah's daughter.
Aois Nfl Cloiche
B’shin \ an bhlian gur thit an bhaisteach as na speartha ni ina murtha na ina slaoda ach inba ceathanna cloch.
Is maidir leis an sneachta, d’fhan se ina phudar mallaithe argach blathcheapach is lana.
Ni bhoigfeadh se is ni leafadh se ach oiread le quartz.
Niorgha do bhardaisi cathrach leachtanna a thogaint i gcearnoga na i lar oilean trachta.
Na do gharraiodoin i mbruachbhailte badrail le gnomanna: — bhi na daoine go leir rompu, reoite ina stangadh.
D'eirigh suil Fhomhorach na greine go bagrach ag ior na speire gach maidin, gan teip,
is chas a radghathaiocht fhiochmhar ar an uile smut de thor no paiste luibheanna a leomhaigh peacadh no a cheann a ardu no oiread agus sraoth a ligint as.
Samhlaigh duit fein cloch ag duiseacht gach la is ar eiri as an leaba, ag searradh a charraig-ghuailne is ag bogadh a theanga sail is anall mar leac ag iarraidh labhairt.
Bhuel, b’in agaibh mise.
Bhi fuar againn a bheith ag lasadh tinte is ag coimhlint leis an sioc.
D'fhas criostal abhalmhor i dtuaslagan sarthuilithe ar maoithneachais is bhi ag dul i meid as ag dul i meid gur phleasc amach sa deiradh mar bholcan.
Pe rud a bhi de dhith ansan orainn nforbh teas e.
Ag feachaint siar anois air
tuigtear dom gur mhair an bhliain sin achar agus faid ne gcianta cairbreach.
Tfte Stone Age
translation by ROBERT TRACY
That was the year when rain fell out of the sky not in torrents or downpours — it came down in showers of stone.
As for the snow, it stayed on flower-beds and lawns as a toxic powder.
It never changed, never showed any signs of melting any more than quartz would.
There was no need for public bodies to put up statues in squares or traffic islands.
Suburban gardeners didn’t need to go shopping for gnomes; — there were people right there in front of them, froze where they stood.
Every day without fail the sun’s Fomorian eye rose baleful above the horizon
shooting fierce radiation wherever a branch of a bush or green scrap of growth was so bold as to put out a sprout or show as much as a tendril.
Imagine a stone waking up every day, getting out of bed, and shrugging stone shoulders
as it wobbles its tongue up and down like a slab of stone struggling to speak.
Well, that stone was me.
No use lighting fires to fight frost with the cold upon us.
A vast crystal swelled
in the supersaturated solution of our melancholy and grew bigger and bigger and bigger till at last it blew up like a volcano.
Whatever was needed then, it wasn’t heat.
Looking back on it all now
that year seems to spread across lengths and breadths of ages past counting.
Caith'n
Nf fheadfa i a thabhairt in aon ait leat, do thabharfadh sf naire is aithis duit.
Direach toisc go raibh sf an-mhor ina vamp
thiar ins na fichidf, is gur dhamas sf an Searlastan
le tonntracha meirfneacha ina gruaig dhualach thrilseanach;
gur phabhsae gleigeal f thiar i naoi deag se deag,
go bhfacthas fornocht i gConnachta f, mar aille na haille,
is ag taisteal bhoithre na Mumhan, mar ghile ne gile;
go raibh sf beo bocht, gan locht,
a pfob mar an eala, ag teacht taobh leis an dtoinn
is a headan mar shneachta,
nf theann aon stad uirthi ach ag mafomh
as na seanlaethanta, nuair a bhfodh sf ag ionsaf
na duthaf is an drucht ar a broga,
maidin Donhnaigh is f ag dul go hEochaill
no ar mbothar cothrom idir Corcaigh agus Dughlas,
Na rudaf iontacha a duirt an Paorach fuithi is e mar mhaor ar an loing. Is duirt daoine eile go mbeadh an Eirne ina tuilte treana, is go reabfaf cnoic. Murab ionann is anois nuair ata sf ina baintreach treith go raibh sf an trath san ina maighdean mhomhax, chaoin, sheimh
is dfreach a dothain ceille aici chun fanacht i gconaf ar an dtaobh thall den dteorainn ina mbftear de shfor.
Ba dhoigh leat le heisteacht lei nar chala
sf riamh gur binn beal ina thost, is nach mbfonn
in aon nf ach seal, go gcrfonnann an tslat le haois
is fiu da mba dhoigh le gach spreasean an uair ud
go mba leannan aige fein f, go bhfuil na laethanta san thart.
Chuirfidh me geall sfos leat nar chuala sf leis
marta se de mhorbhua aici agus de dheis
gan aon nf chloisint ach an rud a 'riunafonn f fein
Ta mil ar an ogbhean aici, dar lei, agus ros brea
ina headan. Is f an sampla f is fearr ar m'aithne
de bhodhaire Uf Laoghaire.
8
Cathleen
Translation by PAUL MULDOON
You can’t take her out for a night on the town
without her either showing you up or badly letting you down:
just because she made the Twenties roar
with her Black and Tan Bottom — O Terpsichore —
and her hair in a permanent wave;
just because she was a lily grave
in nineteen sixteen; just because she was once spotted quite naked in Cannought, of beauties most beautied, or tramping the roads of Moonstare, brightest of the bright; just because she was poor, without blemish or blight, high-stepping it by the ocean with her famous swan's prow and a fresh fall of snow on her broadest of brows —
because of all that she never stops bending your ear about the good old days of yore
when she crept through the country in her dewy high heels of a Sunday morning, say, on the road to Youghal or that level stretch between Cork and Douglas.
There was your man Power’s ridiculous suggestion when he was ship’s captain, not to speak of the Erne running red with abundance and mountain-peaks laid low. She who is now a widowed old woman was a modest maiden, meek and mild, but with enough gumption
at least to keep to her own
side of the ghostly demarcation, the eternal buffer-zone.
For you’d think to listen to her she’d never heard
that discretion is the better part, that our names are writ
in water, that the greenest stick will wizen:
even if every slubberdegullion once had a dream-vision
in which she appeared as his own true lover,
those days are truly over.
And 1 bet Old Gummy Granny
has taken none of this on board because of her uncanny
knack of hearing only what confirms
her own sense of herself, her honey-nubile form
and the red rose, proud rose or canker
tucked behind her ear, in the head-band of her blinkers.
1
THE IRISH WAY WITH WORDS
by David Norris
V-
Mi^ Brother and Myself Have a Pint in
Davy Byrne's by Sir William Orpen
10
Th e Irish are noted for their ability to perform remarkable conjuring tricks with the English language, written and spoken. This gift ranges from the calculated blarney of the professional tourist guide or the frothy whimsicalities of a Dublin pub through masters of conversa- tion like Oscar Wilde and Sir lohn Mahaffy to some of the greatest names in world literature, from Jonathan Swift to George Bernard Shaw, Edmund Burke to Samuel Beckett.
And yet James Joyce, the ultimate virtuoso of the English lan- guage, noted wryly in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the sense of cultural alienation that underlies its use by an Irishman. In this novel, Joyce’s alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, uses a word unfamiliar to the Dean of Studies at his university. The Dean, Father Darlington, an Englishman, suspects wrongly that the word is Irish in origin, which prompts Stephen to reflect: “The language in which we are speaking is his before it is mine. How different are the words home, Christ, ale, master, on his lips and on mine! I cannot speak or write these words without unrest of spirit. His language, so familiar and so foreign, will always be for me an acquired speech. I have not made or accepted its words. My voice holds them at bay. My soul frets in the shadow of his language.”
Indeed, few visitors today realize how recent is the general use of English in Ireland. Few know that Irish, not English, is still the official first language of the state and that, in matters of law, the Irish-language version of the constitution holds superior authority.
A minority language: In 1835 the number of Irish speakers was estimated at 4 million. This number consisted almost entirely of a deprived rural class which was devastated by the great famine of the 1840s and subsequent mass emigration. By 1891 the number of Irish speakers had tumbled to 680,245. Today, the everyday use of Irish is confined almost exclusively to the officially designated Gaeltacht areas along the western seaboard, whose combined popu- lation is around 75,000. Yet over a million people claim some knowl- edge of the language, thanks to the government’s policy of compul- sory instruction.
The ancient Irish language survived repeated waves of inva- sion by Vikings, Normans and English planters. In 1366, so many of the Anglo-Irish settlers had “gone native” that the Statutes of Kilkenny forbade the use of Irish in a vain attempt to stem the encroachment of Celtic customs and language among the colonizers.
The decisive abandonment of Irish in the 19th Century was brought about not just by the impact of the famine but by the introduction of the National School System in 1831. This system decreed that English would be the proper language of instruction, and children who spoke the native tongue were beaten or gagged. The situation was made worse when national leaders such as Daniel
O'Connell, though a native Irish speaker himself, declared that he was "sufficiently utilitarian not to regret its gradual abandonment."
Far different was the attitude of the 20th Century leader Eamon de Valera, who somewhat surprisingly said that "Ireland with its language and without freedom is preferable to Ireland with its free- dom and without its language." The virtual extinction of Irish as a living language was certainly a tragedy. Gan teanga, gan tfr was the slogan of the revivalists — “No language, no country” — and a certain element of the Irish identity withered as English took over. Irish had a venerable tradition, being the earliest variant of the Celtic lan- guages and the earliest language north of the Alps in which exten- sive writings are still extant. It had a special alphabet of distinctive and beautiful characters. This script was, in a strange quirk of his- tory, carried over into print by order of Englands' Queen Elizabeth I, who ordered a fount to be cut in 1571 for an Irish version of the Protestant catechism.
Unfortunately this elegant script was officially superseded by Roman script in the 1960s in an attempt to make the language more "modern” and accessible, and the use of Irish script is now rare. Outstanding examples can be seen in the Book of Kells or the Book of Armagh, kept in Dublin’s Trinity College library, or in the Book of the Dun Cow in the Royal Irish Academy. A section of this last book appears on the back of the new Irish pound note.
Sure it's only talk: The 19th Century shift from Irish to English was so sudden and so resented that the mark of the earlier lan- guage was imprinted on its successor. There is an intriguing anec- dote in Mo Sceal Fein ("My Own Story”) by Ant-Athair Peadar O Laoghaire (Father Peter O’Leary), which tells of two West Cork chil- dren during the famine period;
"Con,” said she,
"Coming Sheila,” said he, "I have no talk now,” said she.
"Why, what else have you, Sheila?” said he.
“I have English,” said she,
"And sure English is talk Sheila,” said he.
"English, talk?” said she, amazed, "Sure if it was, people would understand it.”
Mike and the Priest by Sir William Orpen
Irish is seen here as "talk,” the language of communication and imagination, whereas English is not "talk” but a necessary and utili- tarian, though not fully understood, vehicle.
During the 19th Century it became commonplace for many people to think in Irish, then translate their thoughts into English. This process led to the development of the so-called Hiberno- English dialect, and sometimes produced effects of great beauty and elegance, even in the simplest phrases. Thus the bald state- ment in English "that is true” becomes either " ’Tis true for you” (Hiberno-English) from Is fior e sin (Irish) or "There’s not a word of a lie in it” from Ni7 aon focal breige ann.
What’s more, received standard English is a language that is imperial and rational, its preoccupations administrative and its so- cial tone most characteristically represented by the genius of lane Austen. No Irish hand could have written the celebrated opening line of Pride and Prejudice; "It is a truth universally acknowledged
jofw Synge by lofin Butler Yeats
that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.” For all its wit and elegance, it is too precise, too exact, too conscious, and above all, too lacking in the essentially subversive irreverence of the Irish way of thought. Anglo-Saxon precision is alien to the Irish mind, which would be more at home with Humpty- Dumpty’s dictum: "When I use a word it means just what 1 choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
A classic illustration of this is the story of Daniel O’Connell's battle of words with an old Dublin fishwife, reported to have the most virulent flow of invective in Ireland. A colleague bet O’Connell that even he could not best this woman in dispute. He accepted the challenge and, on the appointed day, a quarrel was deliberately engineered. The old harridan attacked O’Connell with all the con- siderable verbal venom at her disposal. He bided his time and, when she was finally exhausted, let fly at her, eschewing vulgar ojascenity and profanity, employing instead only the terms of Euclidian geometry. When he reached a climax of mathematical abuse, describing her as a shameless parallelogram, an inveterate isosceles triangle and an unregenerative hypontenuse, she collapsed in tears, protesting her virtue. O’Connell was the victor.
It is no accident that it was an Irishman, the 18th Century playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who gave the world the im- mortal Mrs. Malaprop in his comedy Tfie Rivals. She resents "an aspersion to my parts of speech” and avers that "if 1 reprehend anything in the world it is the use of my oracular tongue and a nice derangement of epitaphs.”
A politician. Sir Boyle Roche, did similar violence to English in real life, once informing the Irish House of Commons: "Mr. Speaker, 1 smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky, but 1 shall nip him in the bud.” It was Roche who disdained the future with the memorable phrase: "Posterity be damned. What has pos- terity done for us?”
But of course such innocent buffoonery, acceptable as a joke within the family, could make the Irish look ridiculous to outsiders. In the 20th Century, a new generation of writers rediscovered the collision of sensibility between the Irish mind and the English lan- guage, and set out to explore its literary potential. William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory, instrumental in founding Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, decided that the Irish peasant was a noble creature, and they determined to correct the balance of earlier representations by giving him a speech that was real and melodic rather than pho- netic and contrived.
lohn Millington Synge (pronounced sing} had the added ben- efit of being fluent in Irish, and carried the experiment even further, although his lilting stage speech was sometimes dismissed as "Synge- song.” In the preface to his controversial play Tfte Playboy of tfie Western World, he wrote: "Anyone who has lived in real intimacy with the Irish peasantry will know that the wildest sayings and ideas in this play are tame indeed when compared with the fancies one may hear in any little hillside cabin in Geesala or Carroroe or Dingle Bay.”
A web of lyricism; Synge, in fact, manufactured a convincing theatrical language from a small number of Irish-derived construc- tions: ending a phrase with surely as in "It’s destroyed he’ll be
surely”: using do be in the sense of a continuous present, as in “In the big world the old people do be leaving things after them for their sons and children”; and inserting the adverbial and as in “There were two men and they rowing.” Synge had the technical command to use these apparently simple devices as a frame over which he stretched the web of a remarkable new lyricism.
When one considers the contribution of Irish writers to litera- ture in this century, even an incomplete list astonishes: Yeats with his poetry of the Celtic Twilight and beyond; Sean O'Casey with his miraculous ear for the cadences of the Dublin slums; Frank O’Connor’s powerfully humorous but unsentimental stories of childhood in Cork; the plays of Beckett and Shaw; Somerville and Ross’s world of the Irish RM (resident magistrate), in which tweedy English officialdom gets its come-uppance from the brilliant improvisations on lan- guage of the Irish peasantry; the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Kennelly and Seamus Heaney.
Although very different in their genius, they all share one thing in common: an almost physical delight in words that springs from a sharpened sensitivity to a language that is never entirely their own.
DAVID Norris, a speaker in the Humanities West program “Imagining Ireland,” is a graduate of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, where he is now senior lecturer in English literature. He has written, lectured and broadcast on a wide variety of subjects, literary, sociologi- cal and political in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. In 1987 he was elected to the Irish Senate and continues to serve on the independent benches.
Ladi) Gregory by Flora Lion
IRISH HISTORY: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY
c. 6000 B.C c. 600 B.C. 43 A.D.
410
432
500-800
795
841
1002-1014 1066 1 169
1394, 1399 1536-7
1592
1603-09
1607
1609-10
1649-50
1685
1691-1703
1729-1797
1782
1789
1800
1794-1869
1829
1845-49
First traces of human occupation in Ireland Celts arrive in Ireland and Britain Roman conquest of Britain Final Roman withdrawal from Britain
Traditional date of St. Patrick’s arrival (he works in North and West)
Golden age of Irish monasticism; Irish monks to Britain, France, Germany, Austria
First Viking raids
Vikings found Dublin; later settlements at other ports Brian Boruma (Brian Boru) High King Norman Conquest of England
Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, invites Normans to Ireland; beginning of foreign rule, gradually extending through most of the country
Irish chiefs swear allegiance to Richard 11 of England
Establishment of (Protestant) Church of Ireland; Irish monasteries closed, communion with Rome forbidden; Irish politics are henceforth shaped by Catholic/Protestant split
Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin University) founded English law extended throughout Ireland
"The Flight of the Earls” (O'Neill, O'Donnell) to the Continent, seeking help from Catholic powers
"Plantation” (settlement by English and Scottish settlers) of Ulster.
Confiscation of Irish-owned lands. The Plantation policy granted farms to many Scots or Englishmen to replace the Irish
Cromwell's Irish wars; surrenders of Drogheda and Wexford followed by massacres of garrisons and townspeople. Large scale confiscations of Irish land; Irish sent "To hell or Connaught” (poorer land in the West); severe laws against practice of Catholic religion
lames 11 (Catholic, brother of Charles 11) becomes King. In 1688 Parliament offers the throne to William of Orange, a Dutch Protestant, who becomes King as William 111. lames escapes to France, then lands in Ireland ( 1689); William defeats him at the Battle of the Boyne duly 1 , 1690). lames flees to France; his Irish supporters are defeated at the Battle of Aughrim (luly 1 2, 1691 ) and surrender at Limerick (October 1691 ); they sail for France and become the Irish Brigade (the "wild geese”), serving the French king
Further extensive confiscation of land. Establishment of Penal Laws, denying Irish most civil rights and outlawing Catholic religion
Edmund Burke
Irish Parliament establishes right to legislate for Ireland, without reference to British Parliament at Westminster
Charlotte Brooke, Reliques of Irish Poetry (translations)
Irish parliament (heavily bribed) passes Act of Union, abolishing separate Irish Parliament and uniting it with British Parliament at Westminster (London)
William Carleton, first unhyphenated Irish writer in English; his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. 1830
Catholic Emancipation. Nearly all legal restraints on Catholics abolished
The Great Famine, caused by repeated failure of potato harvest due to blight; potato was staple and often only peasant food. Mass evictions of those unable to pay rents, large scale emigration, especially to U.S. and Canada; use of "coffin ships” (unseaworthy vessels); many deaths from "Famine Fever"; government policy wavered between necessary relief measures and unwillingness to interfere with free market or encourage idleness by supplying food; population drops from 8,177,744 in 1841 to 6,554,074 in 1851
1865-1939 William Butler Yeats
1867 Fenian Rising (abortive and quickly suppressed)
1870 Isaac Butt found Home Rule Movement (in effect, Repeal of the Union and
restoration of a separate Irish parliament)
1872 Le Fanu, \n a Glass Darkly (including Carmilla)
1877 Charles Stuart Parnell becomes leader of Irish delegates in Parliament;
develops obstructive and disruptive tactics
1879 Michael Davitt founds Land League, to obtain three Fs; Fair rent. Free sale.
Fixity of Tenure. Under Parnell, Land League, Home Rulers, and Fenians more or less merge, seeking abolition of landlordism, tenant rights, separate parliament
1884 Foundation of Gaelic Athletic Association, to replace cricket, rugby, with
traditional Irish sports, especially hurling
1882-1941 lames loyce
1886, 1893 William Gladstone, British Prime Minister (Liberal) introduces first and second Home Rule Bills. Both pass House of Commons but not House of Lords.
Conservative Party (Tories) becomes Conservative and Unionist Party
1890 November Fall of Parnell. Named as co-respondent in O'Shea divorce case, he
is repudiated as immoral by Gladstone and the Catholic bishops. Irish party meets in Committee Room 1 5 of House of Commons, and deposes Parnell as leader. Irish Party, once split, has no power. Parnell dies in 1891
1898 Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn found Irish Literary Theatre
(established in Abbey Street, Dublin, as Abbey Theatre, 1904)
1904, lune 16 lames loyce walks out with Nora Barnacle; Leopold Blooms wanders Dublin,
Molly Bloom commits adultery with Blazes Boylan, Stephen Dedalus gets very drunk; Paddy Dignam is buried; the Lord Lieutenant opens the Mirus Bazaar
1914-18 World War 1
1914 loyce, Dubliners
1916 The Easter Rising. Patrick Pearse, lames Connolly, and others seize General
Post Office and other Dublin buildings, and proclaim Irish Republic (April 24- 29). British troops suppress Rising; Irish leaders are court-martialed and shot by firing squad
1916 loyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
1918 General Election at end of World War. Sinn Fein candidates sweep Irish
constituencies. Their platform: though elected under British law to British Parliament, they will refuse to take seats in London, but will instead meet in Dublin as the lawfully elected Irish Parliament
1919-2 1 War of Independence or Black and Tan War. Irish fight a classic guerilla war
against British troops. Irish ambushes followed by British reprisals, including burning of Cork. Many Anglo-Irish "Big Houses” burned
1921 Anglo-Irish Agreement ends war. Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiated in London; it sets up Irish Free State with "Home Rule," but retains British sovereign and sets up separate dominion of Northern Ireland, consisting of six Ulster counties with alleged Protestant majorities. Eamon de Valera and his followers refuse to accept Treaty and insist on an Irish Republic with no links to British Crown
1 922-23 Civil War between Free Staters and Republicans; Free State Army prevails
1922 loyce, Ulysses
1924 Sean O'Casey ( 1880-1964), ]uno and Paycock
1 926 O'Casey, The Pough and the Stars-, riots at Abbey Theatre over this unflattering
portrait of the Rising
1929 Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973), The Last September
1932 Eamon de Valera, having accepted the oath to the King "with reservations, and
led his followers into the Dail (Irish Parliament) in 1927, becomes Prime Minister (continued on next page) 1 5
IRISH HISTORY: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY Continued
1937
1939-45
1939
1944
1949
De Valera rewrites Constitution, renaming Free State as Eire and providing for a President instead of the King. Dr. Douglas Hyde ( 1860-1949) becomes First President. A poet, playwright, and scholar of Irish literature and language, he had founded the Gaelic League, dedicated to restoring the Irish language to use, in 1893
World War II. Ireland neutral
Flann O’Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds. Seamus Heaney born. Death of Yeats
Samuel Beckett (b. 1906) writes Wcitt while a fugitive from the Gestapo, in unoccupied France; V^att published in 1953
Republic of Ireland declared; last links with Great Britain severed
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR IMAGINING IRELAND:
POET'S VISION AND PATRIOT'S DREAM
Beckett, Samuel, Murphy, Grove.
, Waiting for Godot, Grove.
Fitz-Simon, Christopher, The \rish Theatre, Thames and Hudson, London, [out of print)
Frazier, Adrian, Behind the Scenes, University of California Press.
Friel, Brian, Selected Plays, ed. Seamus Deane, Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C.
Grene, Nicholas, Synge: a Critical Study of the Plays, Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa, N.|., 1975. )Out of print.)
Heaney, Seamus, Selected Poems 1966-1987, Farrar, Straus.
Joyce, James, The Portable James Joyce, Viking.
Kiberd, Declan, Anglo-Jrish Attitudes, 1984. lOut of print.]
Le Fanu, Sheridan, \n a Glass Darkly, Oxford University Press/World’s Classics.
Maxwell, D.E.S., Modern Irish Drama 1891-1980, Cambridge Univer- sity Press. lOut of print.]
Nf Chuilleanain, Eilean, The Magdelene Sermon, Wake Forest Uni- versity Press.
Nf Dhomhnaill, Nuala, The Astrakhan Cloak, Wake Forest University Press.
O’Brien, Flann, At Swim-Two-Birds, New American Library.
O'Brien, Flann, Rhapsody in Stephen’s Green, Irish Books & Media.
O’Casey, Sean, Three Plays, St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Synge, John M., Complete Plays, Vintage.
6
Trollope, Anthony, Tfie Macdermotts of Ballyclomn, Oxford University PressAVorld's Classics.
Yeats, W. B., Collected Poems, Macmillan.
, Selected Poems and Three Plays, Collier/Macmillan.
ANTHOLOGIES
Forkner, Ben, editor. Modern Irish Short Stories, Penguin.
Kennelly, Brendan, editor. The Penguin Booh of Irish Verse, Penguin.
Kiberd, Declan, and G. Fitzmaurice, editors. The Flowering Tree/An Crann Faoi Blath, Dufour.
Kinsella, Thomas, editor. The New Oxford Booh of Irish Verse, Oxford University Press
Owens, Coilin D., and Joan N. Radnor, editors, Irish Drama 1900- 1980, Catholic University Press.
CRITICISM AND HISTORY
Brown, Terence, Ireland: A Social and Cultural Flistory 1922-Present, Cornell University Press.
Cairns, David and Shaun Richards, Writing Ireland: Colonialism, Na- tionalism, and Culture, St. Martin’s Press, 1988.
Deane, Seamus, Celtic Revivals, Wake Forest University Press, 1987.
, A Short Flistory of Irish Literature, University of Notre Dame
Press, 1986.
Ellmann, Richard, J^mes Joyce, Oxford University Press
, Yeats: The Man and the Mashs, Norton
Foster, John Wilson, Fictions of the Irish Literary Revival, Syracuse University Press, 1987.
Foster, R. F., Modern Ireland 1600-1972, Penguin, 1990.
Garratt, Robert F., Modern Irish Poetry. Tradition and Continuity from Lyeats to FJeaney, University of California Press, 1986.
Johnston, Dillon, Irish Poetry after Joyce, University of Notre Dame Press, 1985. lOut of print. 1
Kiberd, Declan, Synge and the Irish Language, Macmillan, 1979. lOut of print. 1
Lee, J. J., Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society, Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 1989.
Lyons, F.S.L., Culture and Anarchy in Ireland 1830-1939, Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1979.
Mercier, Vivian, The Irish Comic Tradition, Oxford University Press, 1962.
, Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders, Oxford University
Press, 1994.
Worth, Katherine, The Irish Drama of Europe from Yeats to Bechett, Athlone, London.
EN)OY SPECIAL ADVANTAGES AS A ‘TRIEND OF HUMANITIES WEST"
All Friends of Humanities West receive preferential seating or all Humanities West programs, acknowledgement in the pro- gram for each event, and a newsletter which offers advanced ticket sales and information about discussion groups and other special events preceding each program. For more information, call 415/391-9700.
HUMANITIES WEST PAST PROGRAMS
Venice in Glorious Decline
Rembrandt's Amsterdam: Society and Arts in the Golden Age
Los Angeles in the I940's
MOZART: THE MYTH, THE MUSIC AND THE MAN
Handel's London: Path to Messiah Napoleon's Paris
lEFFERSON: ARCHITECT OF THE AMERICAN VISION VERSAILLES: ROYAL PATRONAGE OF THE ARTS RENAISSANCE FLORENCE
PARIS IN JAPAN, 1880-1930: TOKYO ENCOUNTERS IMPRESSIONISM
St. PETERSBURG: THE ARTS IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA
AMERICANS IN PARIS: THE JAZZ AGE
SPAIN: A Golden Century from El Greco to Velasouez
Wagner in His Century
BADA SHANREN: A MiNG PRINCE IN THE QiNG DYNASTY THE Enchantment of Prague: 1600-1750 The Golden age of Venice: Image and Illusion in the Renaissance
Dickens's London: Heart of Victoria's Britain
Manet'S Paris: The first Modern City
San Francisco 1906-1939: Recovering the Lost City
Spain and the New World: a Collision of Cultures
THOMAS JEFFERSON AT 250: THE LEGACY OF AN AMERICAN GENIUS
THE Glory of the Ottoman Empire: Suleyman the Magnificent
Shakespeare's England
Galileo's Universe: Art, Science and Music in the Renaissance SIENA: Art AND SOCIETY IN A RENAISSANCE REPUBLIC THE CLASSICAL IDEAL: THE ENDURING LIGHT OF ANCIENT GREECE VENICE AND AMSTERDAM: WORLD POWERS AT SEA
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COMING HUMANITIES WEST PROGRAMS
AGE OF CATHEDRALS: Soaring stone and the Quest for Light I' MAY 12-13, 1995
I I
Medieval Europe was distinguished by the spectacular develop- 1 i ment of religious architecture from the eleventh to the thirteenth j t centuries. This program will provide fascinating detail about me- > dieval society, exploring the political, economic and spiritual role of the churchmen who enabled the construction of the ex- I traordinary cathedrals of Chartres, Reims, Canterbury, Saint-Denis, I > and Notre Dame de Paris. The Friday evening program will present ' a musical performance at Grace Cathedral.
The Light of Provence: Cezanne, Van Gogh and Matisse
OCT. 20-21 1995
HARLEM RENAISSANCE: New York in the Twenties
FEB. 9-10 1996
RENAISSANCE WOMEN: Courtly Power and Influence
MAY 17-19 1996
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Hunuxnities West News
« exploring history to celebrate the mind and the arts » January, 1995
Imagining Ireland: Poets Vision and Patriots Dream
Hear the Irish themselves tell tales of their literary history
The Irish are coming and Friends of Humanities West are going to have a number of opportunities to mingle with them! Expect to be charmed by these loquacious story tellers.
Three speakers and a poet, all from Dublin, will tell of the great explosion of literary tal- ent that marks Ireland’s lasting contribution to world literature.
Rebelling against British suppression of their culture and language, Irish writers in the early 20th cen- tury transmuted traditional themes and settings into the allegories and symbols of a nationalist movement. The great Irish story-telling tradition reappeared in fiction, poetry and especially drama.
Colorhil Irish senator David Norris is the featured speaker Friday night. Slides and anecdotes will illuminate the story of his crusade to preserve architectural treasures of Geor- gian Dublin.
Saturday Nicholas Grene recounts the stormy episodes at the birth of modern Irish drama, of violent demonstra- tions against the plays of Synge and O’Casey. Dublin’s Angela Bourke reveals how Irish fairy legends offered a language in which to discuss puberty, marriage and child- birth in a culture of repressive social norms.
Senator Norris returns Saturday to explain the interrela- tionship between literature and politics in this period of extraordinary ferment. Robert Tracy of U.C. Berkeley ex- plores Joyce’s preoccupation with language, Beckett’s de- spair at the inadequacy of language and Yeats’s plays, where language, rather than action, is the well-spring of drama. Professor TTacy wUl moderate the program.
Music of pipe and fiddle fill the air on Friday evening. Poet Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill discusses the role of poets in the Irish literary revival and reads from some of her own works. She makes her listeners feel that Irish life itself has a lyrical quality as she imparts to her audiences the sensual beauty of language. Actress Deirdre Herbert is James Joyce’s Molly Bloom incarnate on the Herbst Theatre stage.
Spring at the Source: HW tour to Greece April 28 to May 13, 1995
Does a picnic on Mount Olympus while discussing the Homeric gods appeal to you, or a visit to Thebes and Corinth complete with seminars on Oedipus? Picture yourself dis- cussing Socrates’ life and ideas at the actual site of his cell, then sailing to two Greek islands known for their present- day pleasures of sun. sand and cuisine as well as their an- cient cultural importance. The humanistic values reborn in the Renaissance in Europe first flourished in the culture of ancient Greece. Visit the source of the Renaissance this spring on a unique tour "A Spiritual Odyssey to Ancient Greece.”
Harrison Sheppard, moderator of HW’s program on an- cient Greece, leads this exciting tour. A pre-tour reception and briefing will be held in March or early April. The tour is limited to 24 people, so friends of Humanities West will want to make reservations now. A brochure is available. Call Humanities West, 415/391-9700 or Travel Directions, 415/441-0446.
T
IMAGINE YOU’RE IN DUBLIN
Friends of Humanities West who would like to join us at an Irish pub in San Francisco for a no-host evening of listen- ing to music (and maybe some blarney) on Sunday evening February 26, please call the Humanities West office for details. 415/391-9700.
Free Pre-Program Lecture
You are invited to a pre-program lecture/discussion, “The Patriot Game: Set, Match,” given by Professor Robert Tracy of U.C. Berkeley.
Most Irish poets have been Irish patriots and many patriots have been poets. From Thomas Moore through Yeats to Seamus Heaney and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, there is inevitably a political dimension to Irish poetry.
The Easter Rising of 1916, which sparked the struggle for independence, was led by two poets, Padraic Pearse and Joseph Plunkett, who were in part inspired by the poetry and drama of W. B. Yeats. Yeats’s play, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, reworked a traditional image, Ireland as a poor old woman robbed of her land, transformed into a young beauty by the sacrifices of those ready to die for her.
Hear Professor Tracy explore Irish poetry and politics on Thesday, March 7 at 7:30 pm at the firehouse at Fort Mason. Please call 391-9700 to reserve a place.
DISCOUNT ON IRISH ARTS EVENTS
Friends of Humanities West will receive a 1 0% discount at the following events and exhibits planned by the Irish Arts Foundation during the month of March (call 474-1040 for information) :
March 1-31 Ashling-. Exhibition of Contemporary Irish ART: photographs of Joe Geoghan and painting of Joe Boske, venue TBA.
March 4-5 4th Annual Celtic music and Arts FESTIVAL, Fort Mason. Noon to 10 pm. Celtic Marketplace, continuous music featuring Sharon Shannon, Martin Hayes, Arcady, Boys of the Lough, Kennelly Dancers, Sean Keane, Terry Woods and more.
March 10-11 Writers Symposium— ethnic Trauma in AMERICA, Press Club. Featuring readings, discussions, social gathering.
March 12 ST. Patrick’s Parade wmi Macnas, Ireland’s premier street theatre group. Market Street.
March 17-19 Irish Film Fleadh, Roxie Cinema, Valencia at 16th Street, San Francisco. Films and discussions with Irish film makers and directors.
March 22-April 2 Sweeny, an indoor stage drama at Theatre Artaud with Macnas.
Letter Jrom the Executive Director
I am pleased to take this opportunity to extend a greet- ing to all Friends of Humanities West. I began in the position of Executive Director in September, and of all the praises I sing to the organization, I complement most highly the dedicated and enthusiastic people of Humani- ties West. First accolades go to Elaine Thornburgh, whose vision carried Humanities West through its first ten years, and who inspired me as we worked together on “Venice and Amsterdam: World Powers at Sea," and Associate Director Heather Sterner, who knows every detail and continues to keep all operations running smoothly through this period of change. Our industrious board members, talented speakers and hard-working volun- teers have shown me that a group effort is what makes us successful.
I especially enjoyed meeting Friends of Humanities West at our fall events. I learned from you that not only does Humanities West present great historical/cultural programs, we are also a lively, friendly, and welcoming community.
I look forward to getting to know even more of you at the next two programs, “Imagining Ireland” and “The Age Of Cathedrals.” I encourage Friends to take advan- tage of opportunities to share ideas and socialize with other humanities enthusiasts at the pre-program activi- ties and the Speakers’ lunch and dinner. You’re also welcome to contact me at the office with suggestions, or just to say hello. (And remember, your feedback through the audience surveys is invaluable to us as we plan for future programs!)
Again, I am proud to be joining Humanities West at this exciting time. With your support our next ten years will see a growing community of supporters and our pro- grams will continue to inspire, educate and entertain. A Happy and prosperous New Year to all, and I look for- ward to seeing you at “Imagining Ireland: Poet’s Vision and Patriot’s Dream.”
Executive Director
Corporate Matching Grants
Humanities West thanks the following individuals for their generous donations in 1994 and their employers for match- ing them:
Hazel Best and Levi Strauss Michael Hodges and IBM
Robert C. Lauppe and The St. Paul Companies, Inc.
Maria Micale and AT&T
Bonnie Woodworth and R. H. Macy & Co.
. Connie Yaeger and Bank of America
2
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR Imagining Ireland: Poet’s Vision and Patriot’s Dream
Beckett, Samuel, Murphy, Grove.
, Waitingjor Godot, Grove.
Friel, Brian, Selected Ploys, ed. Seamus Deane, Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C.
Grene, Nicholas, Synge: a Critical Study ojthe Plays, Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa, N.J., 1975. [Out of print.] Heany, Seamus, Selected Poems 1966-1987, Farrar, Straus.
Joyce, James, The Portable James Joyce, Viking.
Kiberd, Declan, Synge and the Irish Language, Macmillan, Basingstoke. [Out of print.]
, Anglo-Irish Attitudes, 1984. [Out of print.]
Ni Chuilleanain, Eilean, The Magdelene Sermon, Wake Forest University Press.
Ni Dhomhnaill, Nuala, The Astrakhan Cloak, Wake Forest University Press.
O’Brien, Flann, At Swim-TWo-Birds, New American Library.
O’Casey, Sean, Three Plays, St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Synge, John M., Collected Plays , Vintage.
Yeats, W. B., Collected Poems , Macmillan.
, Selected Poems and Three Plays, Collier/Macmillan.
Anthologies
Forkner, Ben, editor. Modern Irish Short Stories, Penguin.
Kennedy, Brendan, editor. The Penguin Book of Irish Verse, Penguin.
Kiberd, Declan, and G. Fitzmaurice, editors. The Flowering Tree/An Crann Faoi Blath, Dufour.
Kinsella, Thomas, editor. The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse, Oxford University Press.
Owens, Coilin D., and Joan N. Radnor, editors, Irish Drama 1900-1980, Catholic University Press.
Criticism and History
Brown, Terence, Ireland: A Social and Cultural History 1922-Present, Cornell University Press.
Cairns, David and Shaun Richards, Writing Ireland: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Culture, St.Martin’s Press, 1988. Deane, Seamus, Celtic Revivals, Wake Forest University Press, 1987.
, A Short History of Irish Literature, University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.
Foster, John Wilson, Fictions ojthe Irish Literary Revival, Syracuse University Press, 1987.
Foster, R. F., Modern Ireland 1600-1972, Penguin, 1990.
Johnston, Dillon, Irish Poetry after Joyce, University of Notre Dame Press, 1985.
Kiberd, Declan, Synge and the Irish Language, Macmillan, 1979.
Lee, J. J., Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Lyons, F.S.L., Culture and Anarchy in Ireland 1830-1939, Oxford University Press, 1979. [Out of print.]
Mercier, Vivian, The Irish Comic Tradition, Oxford University Press, 1962. [Out of print.]
Worth, Katherine, The Irish Drama oj Europe from Yeats to Beckett, Athlone, London.
3
Schedule: Imagining Ireland: Poets Vision and Patriots Dream
March 24 and 25, 1995
UPDATE: Please note the change in the Friday program which supersedes the information in the brochure.
Friday evening, March 24, 8-10:15 pm
8:00 pm Lecture ‘‘Seedy Elegance: The Decay and Resurrection of Georgian Dublin": David Norris, Trinity College, Dublin
This illustrated lecture will look at the building of the city of Dublin, the history of 18th century architecture, and the wonderful and amusing battles to save the Georgian core of the inner city.
9:15 pm LECTURE/READING Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Poet
Ms. Ni Dhomhnaill discusses the role of poets in the Irish literary revival and reads from her own poetry.
Saturday, March 25 10 am-4:00 pm
10:00 am Lecture ‘‘Irish Talk: Language as the Irish Art": Robert Tracy, University of California, Berkeley
The rich oral story-telling tradition in Irish life reappears in Irish fiction, poetry and especially drama: art based on the word in a special way.
1 1:10 am LECTURE ‘‘Staging Ireland: Contested Images": Nicholas Grene, Trinity College, Dublin
Dramatic images of Irish experience offered by Yeats, Synge and O’Casey often provoked violent reactions from audiences who believed they maligned the Irish character.
Break for Lunch: 12:00-1 :30 pm
1 :30 pm Dramatic performance Deirdre Herbert as Molly Bloom from James Joyce’s Ulysses 1 :50 pm Lecture ‘‘Views from the Tower": David Norris, Trinity College, Dublin
Professor Norris, a member of the Irish Senate, will examine the search for a national cultural identity, and the interrelationship between literature and politics at the turn of the century.
3:00 pm Lecture ‘‘Models of Ambivalence and Ambiguity: Irish Fairy Legend”: Angela Bourke, University College, Dublin.
Stereotypes portray Irish fairy-belief as simple-minded credulity, but a closer acquaintance with the literature and folklore shows many preoccupations of modern sociology and psychology addressed in terms of these perspectives.
4
Speakers’ Dinner Moves Backstage
Sponsors, Patrons and Fellows of Humanities West are invited to join our Irish speakers for dinner before the Friday program in a new locale, a beautiful new restaurant. Backstage. A short block-and-a-half from Herbst Theatre, it serves seasonal California cuisine with Mediterranean accents. Theatrical sculptures, columns and friezes adorn this romantic setting, a favorite post-performance haven for stars of the San Francisco Opera. Join us there on Friday, March 24.
Friends of Humanities West are cordially invited to join us for lunch at Ivy’s, 398 Hayes at Gough, on Saturday, March 25, between the morning and afternoon sessions of the program. Guests will have a chance to share a table and break bread with one of the speakers and other Friends of Humanities West.
Speakers’ Luncheon and Dinner Reservations Form”]
Ves, I am a Sponsor, Patron or Fellow of Humanities I West and would like to attend the Speakers’ Dinner. |
Please reserve place (s) in my name for dinner |
Friday night March 24, at Backstage, 687 McAllister i Street. Enclosed is my check, payable to Humanities West, for $50 per person. I
Yes, I am a Friend of Humanities West and would like to j attend the Speakers’ Luncheon. i
Please reserve place (s) in my name for lun-
cheon at Ivy’s on Saturday, March 25. Enclosed is a * check, payable to Humanities West, for $35 per person. I
A letter of confirmation will be sent approximately two i weeks prior to the event. .
Reminder
Tickets to the program must be ordered from City Box Office, 153 Kearny Street, Suite 401 , San Francisco, CA, 94108.
Reservations for the Speakers’ Dinner and Luncheon need to be made with Humanities West, 660 Market Street, Suite 202, San Francisco, CA 94104.
Book Review
The New York Times Book Review of January 8, 1995, fea- tures an article by Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, poet, who will read from her own works at the Fri- day evening Humanities West program, “Imaging Ireland” on March 24. “Why I Choose to Write in Irish, The Corpse That Sits Up and Talks Back," can be found on page 3.
Books About Ireland
Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Quality books about Ireland, both contemporary and out- of-print, will be displayed and available for purchase, by Anna Livia Books, in the lobby of Herbst Theatre during the Ireland program.
Telephone
Please return this form to Humanities West, 660 Market Street, Suite 202, San Francisco, CA 94104
I I
^
Use your priority ticket order form by February 10. Send- ing it in before the deadline will assure you of receiving good seats for Imagining Ireland.
“Imagining Ireland” Priority Ticket Order Form
PLEASE ORDER YOUR TICKETS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. DONORS WILL RECEIVE PRIORITY UNTIL February 10. Tickets will be mailed approximately 4 weeks prior to the program.
Friday evening, March 24, 1995 8:00 pm-10:15
Donor @$27
Student @ $ 1 5
Saturday, March 25, 1995 10:00 am-4:00 pm
Donor @ $ 1 5
Student @ $ 1 5
Handling Charge $ 1 per ticket
Total Enclosed:
Name
Address
CITY, STATE, ZIP
Daytime telephone
Please make checks payable to:
City Box Office 153 Kearny Street, Suite 402 San Francisco, CA 94108
NOTE: Tickets are non-refundable. Luncheon is not included. FOR INFORMATION, CALL CITY BOX OFFICE 4 1 5/392-4400
*
5
Meet our Valuable Volunteers
Steeped in academe, Gloria Melone naturally gravitated to Humanities West many years ago. She has spent most of her life on or closely associated with colleges and uni- versities. A native of Manila, she came to the U.S. to at- tend U.C. Berkeley where she studied health education and anthropology. Later she went back to Cal to work on a doc- torate in Higher Education Administration and met her husband Rudy who was studying the same thing.
After a sojourn in Arizona where he founded a college, they returned to California and she began a long associa- tion with San Jose State where she worked in the adminis- tration. Gloria also taught at San Jose State and at San Jose City College, giving a Third World Culture class, an Asian Women’s class and a graduate seminar in drug abuse edu- cation. She also served as a consultant to the National In- stitutes for Mental Health.
Gloria is once again a student, this time taking docent training at the DeYoung and at the Museum of Modem Art. With all the required papers and the research necessary to complete them, she says the docent programs are more rig- orous than her doctoral work. She will be giving tours at both museums soon.
Gloria is the mother of three married sons, a doctor, a businessman and a lawyer. When asked if she misses her girlhood home in the Philippines, she said when she goes back she realizes that she has changed a great deal and that, as Thomas Wolfe said, you can’t go home again. That is this community’s and Humanities West’s gain.
Age of Cathedrals:
Soaring Stone and the Quest for Light
Come and be enchanted by 1 2 th century music with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices,
Friday evening. May 1 2 at Grace Cathedral.
Friday’s music and commentary are followed Saturday at Herbst Theatre by illustrated lec- tures on medieval arts and architecture and their relation- ships to societies of craftsmen and to religious culture. Reserve the date now and tell your friends ab^out “The Age of Cathedrals’’ May 12 and 13, 1995.
Continuing Education
One Continuing Education Credit through San Francisco State Extended Education is available for attendance at Humanities West programs. It is necessary to attend both the Friday night and Saturday programs and to write a short paper. Please call the Humanities West office to enroll.
Humanities West
660 Market Street, Suite 202
San Francisco, CA 94104