Hiberno-English: dawn of modern Irish writing

French Landing at Bantry Bay

In late December 1796 Wolfe Tone and a fleet of about 43 ships with 15,000 men set sail from France towards Ireland with the intention of over throwing English rule. However, despite Wolfe Tone's preparations in France, the weather was victorious on this occasion. Before the ships could leave Brest harbour one ship had already been separated from the main fleet. During the night that followed, across the English Channel, 7 other ships separated from the main party. One of the 7 included the ship of General Hoche, one of the Commanders-in-chief of the rising. Bad weather continued splitting the fleet further and preventing Tone and his men from landing, resulting in only 7 'Sail of the line' or war ships and one frigate remaining after a week of bad weather in Bantry Bay. The rebellion was abandoned and Wolfe Tone returned to France.

French Landing at Bantry Bay

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Title Page, 1814 Edition of Castle Rackrent

Title page of an 1814 edition of Castle Rackrent. This was printed for J. Johnson & Co.

Title Page, 1814 Edition of Castle Rackrent

Title page of an 1814 edition of Castle Rackrent. This was printed for J. Johnson & Co.

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Irish writing in the modern era is generally agreed to have begun with the publication of Maria Edgeworth's (1767-1849) 'Castle Rackrent' in 1800. Certainly it is a good novel with which to begin thinking about writing in Ireland because it encompasses and deals with some of the major issues, themes and ideas that underpin much subsequent Irish literature over the last 200 years.

The date of its publication, 1800, is significant. It is two years after the failed 1798 rebellion of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishman and just one year away from the enactment of the Act of Union in 1801 that that rebellion led to. The novel, then, reflects this moment of transition into a new dispensation for Ireland and the uneasiness and trepidation that this necessarily engenders. It also indicates clearly how Irish writing and writers can consciously make connections between their art and the world of politics and history.

Maria Edgeworth, a member of the Anglo-Irish landowning Ascendancy class, was obviously concerned with her own class and caste and their precarious position in Ireland. The Act of Union effectively meant that parliamentary power shifted from Ireland to Westminster in England: the Anglo-Irish were no longer in control of their own destiny. 'Castle Rackrent' is primarily a comic novel underpinned with a serious intent. It charts the decline of the Rackrents through gambling, drinking and general debauchery: the lesson being, that the Anglo-Irish need to become improving landlords who care for their land and their tenants, otherwise utter ruin will unavoidably follow.

A simple enough story it would seem. Yet, what is of interest is how this story is told. Edgeworth's narrator is Thady Quirke: an old retainer to the Rackrents, seemingly loyal to their ways and to their memory. That he tells the story and tells it in his own voice is what is truly revolutionary. Readers are for the first time exposed to an Irish voice speaking Hiberno-English, that is to say English as it is spoken in Ireland. To be sure, Thady is something of stereotypical comic character, quick to tug his forelock in an apparently servile way. Nonetheless, it is his son Jason who eventually comes into possession of Castle Rackrent: the real horror for Edgeworth and her Anglo-Irish readership.

Another important aspect of interest is the manner in which Edgeworth employs various formal devices. The story itself is surrounded with the paraphernalia of an Introduction and numerous explanatory footnotes. Footnotes imply that extra information is required for the story to be understood. Also, the 'Introduction' frames the narrative: that is to say, anticipates the readers' engagement with it, telling them in a way what to look out for and what is important when they read the main narrative. What might this mean?

Firstly, it suggests that there are two audiences for Castle Rackrent: the first being the native Irish - more probably Anglo-Irish - reader who would have no need for explanations, and the second being an English or international reader for whom illuminating footnotes would be essential for his or her appreciation of the story. It is a feature of Irish writing to this day, with novels by Dermot Bolger and Roddy Doyle having, for instance, helpful footnotes or glossaries explaining Irish words and phrases.

W.B. Yeats Signed Photograph

Poet, Dramatist and Senator. William Butler Yeats winner of the Nobel medal for Literature © Sligo County Library

Courtesy of Sligo County Library

W.B. Yeats Signed Photograph
Courtesy of Sligo County Library

W.B. Yeats Signed Photograph

Poet, Dramatist and Senator. William Butler Yeats winner of the Nobel medal for Literature © Sligo County Library

Courtesy of Sligo County Library

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Edgeworthstown's poor during the Great Famine

A Sketch of Edgeworthstown's poor during the Great Famine. This was taken as they assembled for soup in February 1847.

Edgeworthstown's poor during the Great Famine

A Sketch of Edgeworthstown's poor during the Great Famine. This was taken as they assembled for soup in February 1847.

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An interesting consequence is that Ireland is presented as a place to be 'understood'. That's to say, a place exotically different, or perhaps even bizarre, in relation to the supposedly normal state of existence occurring everywhere else. The poet W.B. Yeats claimed that the Irish writer has two choices: to either express or to exploit his or her material. This is a continuing predicament for the Irish writer that leads to a kind of schizophrenia: the writer caught between the desire to express himself/herself to his or her own community, and the desire to constantly explain Ireland and Irishness to an audience unfamiliar with local customs and culture.

That there is a didactic element to the novel - that the novel wants to teach its readers a lesson - is also important because it signals that there are problems in Ireland that need to be confronted and made right. Again, this has a continuing legacy in the contemporary moment with the assumption that Ireland needs to constantly explained and where nothing can be taken for granted. In other words, sometimes we read, not with aesthetic value judgements in mind, but with a desire to see if a play or a novel can tell us something about the matter of Ireland.

In the 19th Century it might be said that the major difficulty confronting Irish society was the land and its ownership. Castle Rackrent underlines the divisions in Irish culture between a native Irish peasantry and Anglo-Irish ascendancy, between Catholics and Protestants, and acknowledges the site of conflict is the land, between those in possession of land and power and those without land and power. It is a division that is played out again and again in various texts throughout 19th and, indeed, 20th century in novels by George Moore, Elizabeth Bowen, Jennifer Johnson and John Banville.

The reality of Famine made this problem concerning land much more acute. Famine also hastened the decline of the Irish language. The English language seemed to be the language of the present and the future and within a generation the majority of Irish people had moved from one tongue to another. Famine also led to a long series of Land Acts that saw the native Irish coming into possession of land and the Anglo-Irish slowly losing their privileged political and cultural position in Ireland. The effects of this rapid transition in terms of literature meant that, as a kind of cultural compensation for this loss of language, Irish writers excelled in the English language. Also, the emphasis on land and the Irish landscape came into even sharper focus for writers who now attempted to recreate Ireland and Irishness in this new tongue.

Crucial to the language question are those images that language creates. That is to say that the other central site of conflict is in the 19th Century is that of Representation. Certain images of Ireland and the Irish are perpetuated throughout 19th Century writing. The native Irish are seen as superstitious and dreamy, incapable of serious analytical thought and overly emotional: quick to laugh and to cry.

Picture of peasants calling at the door of a wealthier house

In past times people in rural Ireland held superstitions and passed them from generation to generation. Those in the gentry were generally suspicious of these traditions. For example there are many associations warning away the evil eye and protecting things of value. There are also associations regarding certain rituals and good luck omens. For example, it is lucky to be awakened by birds singing on the morning of your wedding and if your wedding dress is accidentally torn on the day. It was also thought that keeping a horse shoe or metal over the door of a house would bring good luck to the household.

Picture of peasants calling at the door of a wealthier house

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Even those writers from a native background such as William Carleton (1794-1869) remained suspicious of the superstitious nature of the Catholic peasantry. Though, Carleton is one of the first Irish writers to successfully write from within Irish culture and value Irish customs and Irish stories.

Maria Edgeworth's Thady Quirke, for instance, is at once shifty and listless but also, finally, a menacing figure for all his supposed ineffectual bluster and talk. The problem, then, is one of stereotypes and stereotyping, of creating and imagining 'typical' Irish characters and characteristics. Part of the difficulty in the 19th Century is that the Irish are the objects of writing; that is to say, they are being written about and have no access to writing and thus the representation of themselves.

Gallery

Maria Edgeworth (Longford Co. Library)

Maria Edgeworth (Longford Co. Library) -

Richard Lowell Edgeworth (Longford Co. Library)

Richard Lowell Edgeworth (Longford Co. Library) -

Edgeworth Family Tree (Longford Co. Library)

Edgeworth Family Tree (Longford Co. Library) -

Leaving the Deserted Village

This illustration is from a late nineteenth-century edition of 'The Deserted Village', illustrated by H.L. Richardson and printed by Addine House, London.

Leaving the Deserted Village -