UNIT 1

KEY MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF IRELAND

- Famine

- The troubles

- 1990’s immigration

- Easter rising

- British colonisation

- Banning Catholicism

- Civil war 1880’s

- Geographical isolation
Taoiseach-> Prime minister
Irish name for Ireland -> Eire
Roman name for Ireland -> Hibernia
MAIN CONFLICTS IN IRELAND
- British colonization geographical isolation
- Partition of Ireland
- Banning of Catholicism
- Famine
- Mass immigration
- Coexistence/antagonism of 2 languages
- Long-lasting poverty and sudden economic boom
- (multiculturalism)
Romans referred to Irish as Hibernia
Romans did not invade
Celtic invasion of Ireland influenced art.
Influence of Romans through trading relations with Ireland. Christianity entered Ireland
through contact with Roman Britain.
TERMS:
- Eire: is the term used to refer to Irish people in Ireland
 - Hiberno: the English used in Ireland. It has its own characteristics.
The Romans didn’t invade Ireland although they made it to Britain. But they had influence by
treated relations, because of the Romans Christianity was introduced to the island.

Prolonged British Colonization

Gaels colonized South -West Scotland.

British Colonization was a disaster.

Islands Partition

The Island 's Partition began in 1921 May.

It was the process by which the Government of the UK of Great Britain and Ireland divided
Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

Northern Ireland: decentralized Government and formed part from UK

Southern Ireland: not recognized by its citizens, contrarily, they recognized the Ireland
Republic. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty, it left the UK and became the Free state of Ireland
(Ireland Republic).

The Northern territory, inside Ulster's province, had protestant and unionist majority that
wanted to stay linked to Great Britain because of the British Colonization in the XVII
century. The rest of Ireland was Catholic nationalist and the Island wanted auto government
and independence.

Irish Catholic Church - Banning Catholicism

Christianity has always existed in Ireland and comes from the Roman Great Britain, which is
associated with Saint Patrick, known as the Apostle of Ireland.
After the Tudor -5 Conquest, the Catholic Church finished. The English Crown tried to
export the Protestant. Movement to Ireland. For several centuries, the Irish Catholic majority
were suppressed, but the church and the British Empire came to a rapprochement. > Funding
Maynooth College (“ National Seminary for Ireland " ) was agreed as a Catholic
Emancipation in order to avoid Revolutionary Republicanism.
The Great Famine and emigration
Occurred in Ireland from 1845 to 1849 when the crop failures were caused by late blight, a
disease that destroys the leaves and roots, or tubbers of the potato plant. The cause of the late
blight was the water mold Phytophthora infestans. ↳Moho the Irish famine was the worst
occur in Europe in 19th century.
Cause of the Great Famine:
Ireland's tenant (arrendatarios) farmers, especially in the west, struggled both to provide for
themselves and to supply the British market with cereal crops. Many farmers had many issues
to live with due to several difficulties with the land in some areas/ regions.
The potato was the most basic aliment in their diets and they depended on them. When the
late blight appeared invaded the tubbers having therefore the framing and vulnerability of the
tenant farmers.
Death toll, emigration to America, and demographic effects
The famine proved to be a watershed in the demographic history of Ireland. As a direct
consequence of the Famine, Ireland's population of almost 8,4 million in 1844 had Fallen to
6.6 million by 1851.
The number of agricultural laborers and smallholders in the western and southwestern
counties underwent an especially drastic decline.
Around 1 million people died because of “typhus or famine” and almost 2million of Irish
emigrated during the famine.
Celtic Christianity
· Adopted and adapted from Celtic habits.
· Divorce was accepted
They became so important that the island became famous because of that.
Monasteries become places of education and art.
· Monasticism-> Monasteries became very important places of learning/ study
and art / literature
· Highly literate society
· Book of Kells-> Illuminated manuscript, transcribed by monks and priests with
drawings.
· Earliest vernacular literature
Important centre of learning.
They wrote in Irish and Latin.
Gaeltacht-> Irish speaking areas-> Located on the west coast, far away from England
VIKING RAIDS AND SETTLEMENTS 793-1014
- Normans invaded Ireland in 1169
- Vikings also invaded Ireland
- Vikings destroyed monasteries
- Vikings created a network of trading – founded the 1st towns
8th C- 11th C, the aim was to destroy the monasteries. They founded the first towns and
created a trading network.
ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION 1169 “800 YEARS OF OPPRESSION”
William the Conqueror was the one that invaded Ireland.

They asked for help from Henry the ll as Ireland was divided in two and then he stayed to try
to control Ireland to reassure that Ireland was not a threat to Britain, but the excuse was that
he was going to reorganize the Catholic church and confiscated the land to Irish chiefs.

The descendants of the ones that colonized Ireland were known as Old English, at the end
they adopted Irish language and culture.

People from Ireland had to become Irish over time. They had to get used to their traditions
and learn Irish.

- Decentralized (fought against each other)

- Land was confiscated from Celtic chiefs and given to Anglo Normans
- A chief of one of the kingdoms asked for help to fight against other Celtic chiefs
- Eventually, the Anglo Normans that invaded and lived there become Irish
To counteract the merging of the populations, statutes of Kilkenny forbade Anglo Normans
from
- Intermarriage
- Using Irish names / dress
- Contact with Irish singers / poets / musicians
The Pale – 1945

● 14th / 15th century-the control over Ireland weakened

● Only controlled "the pale" – Dublin

The control of England over Ireland at the weekend. It only lasted around Dublin.

Why?
- 100 years war in Europe
- Control of England over Ireland weakened

‘MORE IRISH THAN THE IRISH’

British people converting to Irish.

To counteract merging of population statutes of Kilkennny (1366) forbade:

- Intermarriage (different nationalities)

- Use of Irish names and dress

 - Playing hurling

- Contact with Irish singers, poets and musicians

16TH CENTURY: THE 2ND COLONISATION

The reformation, they confiscated monasteries and took the richness, also because in
monasteries they were teaching in Irish. It was not successful the reformation in Ireland, the
majority of the population remained catholic, they did not want to adopt the English church
(Protestantism Henry the 8th) and language. Religion becomes a source of division. Another
way to impel the reformation was to confiscate land and give it to the protestants from
England and Scotland, that is why there is Scottish influence on Ireland.

The situation changes with the Tudors in 16th century England

- Henry 8th

Tudors
● Henry 8th reformed the church
● Tries to introduce Anglican church in Ireland
● Reformation was not successful in Ireland
● Most of the population remained Catholic
● Anglican church was in English
● English were the invaders and Irish remained Catholic as a form of resistance to
England
● Religion became a reason of conflict

Process of plantation was not successful in Northern Ireland

People would fight back against the planters.

Motives:
1. Religious
2. Political
3. Strategic: in order to make Ireland protestant: policy of plantations
(not successful)

Consequences:

1. Anglicanism is imposed
2. Irish is forbidden

Ulster
- Consists of 9 counties
- 6 counties of Northern Ireland in Ulster
- The 6 Northern Irish counties of Ulster resisted English planters
 - Eventually, English took over Northern Irish Ulster. This is why this area has a large
concentration of protestants

Cromwell was the head of the army (Irish people hated him)

When he moved to Ireland, he massacred the population.

REACTION TO THE PLANTATIONS POLICY:

- 1641: The Great Rebellion (organised by the Catholic Confederation).
- In this year the Irish see that there is trouble in England, and that it was a good time
for a revolution, but it was not successful. England sent an army to clash the
rebellion. Charles the 1st mascaraed the population. The division between Catholics
and Protestants becomes even bigger. Also, the union of native population and the
descendants of the Anglo-Normans becomes stronger. England keeps on confiscating
land and giving it to protestants.
- The Cromwellian Defeat: Buscar info.

JACOBITE DEFEATS

· Battle of the Boyne, 1690: celebrated every 12 July.

James II à catholic. The Irish thought that he could improve the situation for being catholic.
He was replaced by William III orange. He exiles himself to France, and then goes to Ireland.

Charles the 1st dies and is substituted by his brother James the 2nd (Catholic King), that makes
the Irish think that things are gonna go better. James the 2nd is kicked out of the throne by his
daughter and his daughter’s husband. William the 3rd of Orange married Mary, Jame’s
daughter. Protestant kings established again.

There is a war between Catholics (supported by James) and the Protestants. Battle of Boyne
12th July 1960. Every year the victory of this battle is celebrated in Northern Ireland. The
English won over the Irish.

Jacobite defeats= Penal Laws (1695) barring Catholics from:

● Could not vote (voting was forbidden if not being part of the government)
● Could not buy land
● Practicing Catholic faith
● Army, navy, the law and commerce
● Catholic Estates dismembered: land was divided between sons, unless one of them
turned into Protestantism (everything was for that son).
● In the 1600 the 10% of the land was protestant.
● By the end of the 18th Century the 90% of the land was in hands of the protestants.
GROWING DIVISION BETWEEN CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS
Absenteeism: Irish tenant farmers pay high rents to protestants landowners.
Georgian Dublin: The rebuilding of the medieval city
- Sense of Irish identity is reinforced.
- 1st stirrings of political nationalism: the Patriot Party (Protestant members) &
the Society of United Irishmen led by Theobald Wolfe Tone (Ecumenical
Republicanism).
- 1798 United Irishmen Rising
1801: Act of UNION
Mid 19th c: movement of independence
Two methods:
1. Armed action
2. Constitutional means
Charles Stewart Parnell
- Parnell was a protestant, first elected to parliament in the Meat by-election of
April 1875.
- Home rule: his party won every seat outside eastern Ulster and Dublin
university.
- He accepted leader of the Irish nationalist in 1880-1882
- Uncrowned king of Ireland. Received financial support from America which
he used to channel fund into the Iris parliamentary Party.
THE REVOLUTIONARY LINE
- The fenian society (1858)
- The fenian rising (1867)
Republican organisations.
Irish independence from Britain.
Late 19th cultural revival
- They recovered economically
- 1884: GAA to promote Irish sports.
- 1893: the Gaelic League to promote the Irish language.
- Gaelic Renaissance to revive Ireland’s Celtic heritage: Crofton Croker, Lady
Wilde, Yeats, Synge, etc...
 - 1904: Establishment of the Abbey Theatre. (First national theatre in the world)
Charles Stuart Parnell and The Land League
· The Land League founded by Parell and Michael Davitt (1879) to:
1. Fight against evictions
2. Achieve a national reduction of rents
The Land wars
The Irish start organising politically
The land acts (1881), the government (with laws) regulated evictions and rents. Parnell was
so popular in Ireland that was known as the uncrowned king of Ireland. Parnell’s next
objective was the Home Rule, a very wide autonomy (the government of Ireland had to be
home ruled). A home rule bill was actually discussed in the English parliament in 1886 for
the first time but it was not approved, due to Ulster protestants. It was a success because it
had been spoken. Parnell had an affair with a married woman, an adulterer could not be an
appropriate ruler for Ireland. Parnellites: Those in favour of Parnell.
Michael Davitt also participated in the revolutionary line:
· The Fenian Society (1858)-> Extreme republican movement, that represented
the revival of Republicanism.
· The Fenian Rising (1867)-> Rebellion was not successful due to a lack of
organisation.
The term fenian comes from Fianna were warriors from the Celtic mythology.
· The Fenian society was the seed of the IRA.
Late 19th Century: Cultural Revival (Mostly led by protestants)
· Because of the land acts there was an economic revival. There is a revival of
interest in Irish/Gaelic culture.
· 1884: The GAA, Gaelic Athletic Association promote Irish sports
· 1893: The Gaelic league promoted the Irish language.
· Gaelic Renaissance to revive Ireland’s Celtic heritage: Crofton Crocker, Lady
Wilde
· 1904: Establishment of the Abbey theatre, the first national theatre.

1. The Irish peasant to his mistress by Thomas Moore

The binaries images represent the two religions and are:

- Grief and danger

- Smile and joy

- Hope and throne

- Temples and caves

- Slavery and freedom

- Honour and wronged

The narrative voice is the Catholics and the defenders of the Catholic church.

The mistress is a representation of the Catholic church and her rival is Protestantism. A
marriage with the mistress is a sign of loyalty to the Catholic church.

Catholicism is associated with poverty whereas Protestantism reflects wealth.

The suffering is represented as a way to make somebody noble.

2. The emigrant's farewell to Donegal by Anonymous

Ballad.

Ireland is seen as to land of slavery. USA land of liberty. Slavery due to remark they had to
pay.

ERIN: reference to Celtic origins.

ISLE OF SAINTS: reference to Catholicism.

People were forced out of land, they had problems eating because there wasn’t food. Hibernal
English. The conditions are terrible during famine, but there are no provisions.

During medieval times, Ireland became a centre of culture.

Wedlock’s bands are the marriage rings.

At the end, the narrator is no longer lamenting himself.

3. Skibbereen by Anonymous

Ballad about death during famine. Based on a dialogue between father and son talking about
first-generation immigration.

Erin’s reference about the mystical past. There are also references to Hibernal English.
Ireland is depicted as a woman. It develops the idea of a time to learn and start a new life.
The Irish are forced to leave the land and to move. A place to move is America, which is
idealized and presented as an opportunity.

There are a lot of references about famine and the rebellion because of the Queen violence.
The migration was because of political and economic reasons.

4. Thousands are sailing by Phillip Chevron

Ellis Island is the centre of migrancy, where Irish people were put for a period of time.

The torch is a reference to the statue of liberty followed by the famished man referring to the
Irish immigrant.

The tradition of the Irish people working for the police department is one of the references
that are represented.

When the narrator is talking about somebody changing his name is referring to the possibility
of the Anglo-Saxons anglicising the name in order to be assimilated better.

FIRST PERSON narrator.

Dance represents a way to forget the past.

It makes lots of references to Irish Republicanism.

There is a reference to J.F.K. who was an Irish descendant and a Catholic president
representing success.

5. No Irish need apply by John F. Poole

Irish immigrants are taking the jobs of US people.

Catholicism was a thing to male differences between them. Anti-Catholic rules.

The song is about an Irish immigrant facing discriminations in the search for a job because he
is an Irish man.
The immigrant is faced with the slogan NINA (no Irish need apply) causing the sense of
injustice to rise. He argues with the person who created the slogan that his ancestors did the
same and they didn’t face many difficulties to have a job. This man is one of the last people
preserving the anti-Irish prejudices.

Rooted in anti-Irish sentiment in America and Britain in the 19 th century.

6. Going to exile by O’Flaherty

Strong social concern.

Is a realistic story. Is a story about migration. Is called exile instead of migration because the
poet wants to reinforce that he needs to leave and not come back.

Rural Ireland was depicted as an idealized community because of the nostalgia but also,
Ireland was not idealized because of the lack of opportunities. The poem tells the story of a
family who knows that they are going to lose 2 of their kids because they are going to leave.

Here is the description of the households. There is the depiction of the Irish cottage that
seems to be idealized like the countryside.

They are celebrating that the kids are going to emigrate to have a better life.

There is a reference to the American Wake that was a ritual done when somebody died and
where everybody went to the family house to eat and say goodbye.

3RD PERSON narrator, is a way to know all the emotions.

For the father and the son, the land is perceived as cruel and a place where although you work
you live in poverty. The mother's point of view is different because she is a domestic woman
so she doesn’t see what life is like outside the house. She lives in pain but she works in the
house because she must do it.

The daughter has mixed feelings because she is afraid of leaving but also she is excited. She
is oppressed in Ireland so she is afraid of not finding a man to take care of her, and not giving
her nice clothes. She is afraid of her father so she is associated with hysteria.

When the American wake is over the next morning life must go on so everybody does what
they do in their daily life.
The ending is dramatic because of the mother who is “keening” (a group of women crying in
a house). This has a symbolic meaning of the motherland and the loss of children for
emigration.

7. In the shadow of the glen by John Millington Synge

Irish literary revival/ Irish renaissance.

Is a representation of the Irish countryside and its peasant, especially talking about West
people.

The narrator in the story is different from the narrator of the play. In the poem the voice of
official discourse is the husband, whereas in the play the narrator is the Tramp who stays
besides Nora. In the story the narrator doesn’t have affection for his wife whereas the tramp
has affection for Nora during the play.

Based on a short story.

Dan decides to lay on the ground like a corpse to catch his wife cheating on him.

- NORA BURKE

- MICHAEL DARA

- DANIEL BURKE

- TRAMP (vagabundo)

Nora and Dara have a secret relationship. Nora doesn’t love her husband.

Nature is not friendly. The landscape is romanticised (outdoors). There is a big dichotomy
between indoors (house) and the outdoors. So it is a romanticised landscape thanks to the
tramp who represents freedom and speaks in a romantic way.

Dan represents the tradition of marriage in Ireland, where people were married for
convenience and between different ages. He is also a source of comic relief because of the
resuscitation.

Foil ewes.
 8. The dead by James Joyce

Class consciousness.

Is the last story in a collection of short stories.

Society in Dublin was not making progress.

Greek “epiphanlenein” à spiritual manifestation

The story is in Christmas to present an evolution of life, the end of an era. Is a cycle.

Talks about tradition.

It starts with the description of the character’s world ending up centred on the character’s
individuality.

The story is structured on how the character interacts with a female character. Giving each
other different perspectives.

Gabriel is very educated.

Psychoanalytic point of view. The author was afraid of becoming like Gabriel.

FIRST PART: interaction between Lily and Gabriel.

- Lily works for the aunties representing working class Ireland.

- Social classes are defined by appearance.

- Attitude towards Lily, he treated her as a child, he has a paternal attitude, very
patronizing.

- She answers back to him which is something he is not used to.

SECOND PART: interaction with Mis. Ivors

- She is very conscious and has strong convictions.

- She is a nationalist and a pro-independence.

- She contextualizes a date in the context.

- She represents nationalism and tradition.

- She is tired of her country.

THIRD PART: Greta and Gabriel’s conversation.

- Their marriage is not a happy one.

- Greta listens to a song that reminds her of her true love. She has always compared him
with her 1st love. He is not important to her.

The dinner speech is very important for the tradition and it has a nostalgic tone.

9. Digging by Seamus Heaney

From North Ireland.

A pen is considered a weapon because language is a way to transmit ideas, traditions and
facts. Language is seen as a weapon.

This poem tries to connect the present of the speaker with the past of his family.

Physical distance between generations and also between the speaker and his father. The
speaker wants to reconnect with his father and the culture/family.

The speaker is in his house looking through the window and looking down, in other words he
is in a higher position than what he is looking at.

Use of alliterations with onomatopoeic sounds.

The speaker is not working the land like his family, but with the memory he is presenting to
the readers tells that when he was a kid he had a connection with the land and the labour of
his father. This memory is to connect with his roots.

Proud of his father but he doesn’t have the spade to follow him in his job.

Asonant.

He is digging to his past (double meaning). He doesn’t dig the land but he is digging through
the past and his family life.
 10. The great hunger by Patrick Kavanagh

Voice to catholic population.

Counter-revival.

Not obsessed with history.

The main character is an anti-hero (Patrick Maguire).

Reflection of famine.

Pastoral countryside is emphasized.

Reference to God talking about Catholicism. Conservative society. Biblical references

“beginning”, eternal choirs, the countryside was considered a paradise and the revival, apart
from something eternal.

Refusal of excessive materialism.

Popular images.

Travelers are the ones who came from history.

Repetition.

Nature is described as a procreator but he is not represented in it because he won’t be able to

procreate because he isn’t an attractive man.

Emphasis to the attachment he has on the land.

There is a parallelism between the connection between son and mother (mother being
Ireland) and the connection between peasant and the land.

Lack of freedom

The goat is a villain.

Dehumanisation of the human being.

11. The Aisling by Daniel Corkery

Irish dream poem, where Ireland is personified as a woman. 18th century.

The woman is stressed.

He is going to help her to be independent.

Is a revelation.

Hopes for the future are expressed.

“feminine idiosyncrasy”: Mathew Arnold. Celtic culture.

Countries were classified as men or female.

Ireland was a woman in a way to justify colonialism.

The nation was depicted as a stressed woman, whereas the population were depicted as
savages and the nation had to save them. English people were depicted as masculine and rude
whereas the Irish were less masculine.

UNIT 2
12. Cathleen Ní houlihan by W.B. Yeats

Old woman representing Ireland, who is looking for young men to help her. They do blood
sacrifices and she ends up being a beautiful young lady.

Underdeveloped drama. Wanting to recover Celtic culture.

A representation of the political questions that divides the Irish population.

Start from scratch the drama of the Irish.

Political allegory.

Freedom of experiment was a concept that showed the lack of censorship in Ireland.

Idealisation of the stereotypes and the image of Ireland.

“Puella Senilis”: an old woman who is transformed into a young woman.

- The poet has a dream about the independence of Ireland in the form of a woman.
Change because of the political issues of the 19th century. There are very stressed people
because of famine and other issues.

- 18th Ireland → young maiden

- 19th Ireland → old woman

The community is formed by farmers/ peasants, and are depicted as the crowd of hte play.

Context: colonial war: Boer War (1899-1902). South Africa. Men enlist to war and this gave
young men arms.

Play is a propaganda for young men enlisting for war, which was seen as an opportunity.
England’s difficulty is Ireland's opportunity.

Maud Gonne. Nationalist. She was the person portraying Cathleen in the play, apart from the
inspiration for Yeats.

Fortune: dowry. (la dote)

Family with good fortune, and who was going to improve economically thanks to the
marriage. The money given from the dowry was going to be converted into more land.
Emphasising the materialism of parents (Bridget and Peter).

DELIA is going to marry MICHAEL.

After the marriage there is an Old woman who starts visiting the family. This woman wants
people to give themselves completely to her and her cause.

Michael tries to follow the Old woman, fascinated by her. She speaks with enigmas and in a
poetic way. She seduces Michael.

Instead of staying, and marrying Delia, Michael follows Cathleen and fights for the cause of
Irish independence and nationalism.

Then this old woman was transformed into a young and beautiful lady. Sacrifice of Michael
transforms the old lady to a young.

Strangers in the house are the English. External characters who transform the situation in a
household.
Cathleen was considered to have the power of a witch because she enchanted Michael.
Nationalism is an emotional discourse and this is the reason Michael follows her.

There is a parallelism between Cathleen and Christ. They both have circle life and devotion
for their thoughts. Self-sacrifices.

Cathleen ní Houlihan is a political allegory.

- conflict with private hopes and public duties
- love of family vs. love of the country
- individual happiness vs. collective good

Women are represented as a part of the society not in the nationalist movement. They are
support, inspiration for men, and they represent family. There is a contradictions CnH is the
one necessary to start the movement although she needs men’s help.

Transformation play:
- realism to transcendentalism
- nationalism discourse transforms Michael
- old woman to young lady (with the “walk of a queen”)

The role of the crowd represents the nationalist movement instead of giving the idea of
individuality. The crowd has a strong impact on the sense of nation.

13. Dark Rosaleen by James Clarence Mangan

Dark rose is also a depiction of Ireland.

Contrast of the depiction of Ireland. Is about Irish Nationalism.

Rosaleen is an allegory for Ireland.

The “I” persona is a male who is very active, and describing active images whereas the
woman is passive throughout the poem. He is love sick for Rosaleen. At the beginning is seen
as a romantic love nut then in the end is a platonic relationship with a religious concept.

Religious approach:

- Queen as the virgin Mary

- Saint of saints
All of these religious concepts represent the idealization of Ireland.

“Shall reign alone” is a reference that the Queen, which is Ireland, has to be independent.

Resurrection ideas.

“I” person is going to do a blood sacrifice for Ireland. Do whatever is in his hands.

*Hunger strikes were blood sacrifices to protest.

Rosaleen is a central character although she is passive.

14. Act of union by Seamus Heaney

Allegorization of the “union” as an act of sexual as well as a historical “congress”.

Reflects the imposition of the act of union in 1801. Ireland is part of England.

The speaker is aware of his implication in being “imperial male”.

Reflection of colonization.

Female figure: Ireland.

There is always the male’s voice but the woman's voice is not represented. What is
represented is a woman's pain.The female body would mix with the landscape.

Male is associated with strength and power: England.

Violence is represented with the idea of a cut, reflected as a tape of a woman, depicting the
violence to the landscape.

Troubles are given to birth by Ireland/ the woman, this was the result of the rape.

Fifth column= traitor in a community or in a group. Used in militar concepts. The baby is
considered a traitor and represents Northern Ireland. This is the product of the violence.

Northern Ireland pointing at England with a gun (cocking).

Is a process is not going to end => again (last word)

Gender terminology to describe Ireland in contrast with England is not important.

 15. Mise Eire by the Eavan Roland

There is the voice of the narrator.

He deconstructs the idea of Ireland represented as a woman. This representation is a

simplification of reality.

Religion said that to be a poet you had to be a man, women were inspiration and protagonists,
not poets.

Ireland as a woman went from the symbolic to the legislative.

“Truths of experiences”. Reflecting ordinary lives makes history.

Miss Eire: I am Ireland.

“It” is the tradition, and he doesn’t go back to it.

Scalded memory is the pain of Irish history. The songs limit the history. Crime committed is
the real suffering of people.

“I am woman” contrasting with “I am Ireland”.

Ireland as the motherland. Mother migration.

References to language in the 2 last stanzas.

Scar: you have been suffering but the healing makes it a remembering. The English language
is described as the scar.

UNIT 3

LATE 19TH CENTURY

- Cultural revival
EARLY 20 TH CENTURY
1910 general elections in the UK. Irish nationalists have the key for a discussion of a HOME
RULE BILL.
Dominion status: Canada = passed but then suspended in 1914.
Nationalists believed in the British empire, so they didn’t want to be independent. Whereas
the republicans wanted to be it.
● The Ulster volunteer force (unionist militia) opposes the home rule bill.
● Iris volunteers (nationalist force) defending the home rule bill.
For the 1st WW the bill was suspended.
Republicans were radical:
- Fenian society
- IRB: Irish republican brotherhood
Cumann Na Mban: Republican women’s association. Their aim is to assist the Irish
volunteers.
Postponement of Home Rule Bill: Easter rising.
Proclamation of an Irish republic
Is applied just in a part of Ireland. But after the war, if they helped British people they would
help them to apply the rule to all Ireland.
“Paradaig Pearse” = command in the Republican forces.
The revolution was in Dublin to proclaim the Irish republic.
“Sinn Féin” 1916: win in Ireland the 1918 UK general elections. They were all republicans.
“Sinn Féin” form the Dail Eireann= the Irish Parliament with no legal recognition. Illegal.
This was repressed by the British army (black and tans)
This developed the war for independence (1918-1921)
In 1921 the conflict was over. Partition treaty, creation of Northern Ireland, and the Irish Free
state. Although they were independent they had to pay Britain some fees, so there was
economic loss.
Civil war between favour of treaty and against treaty in Ireland the free state. Northern
Ireland was affected but not participants. The victory was for the ones of the free state.
Republicans against the treaty.
Effects of the Republican defeat
Reconstruction of the state.
Language associated with Irish culture.
Fianna Fáil founded by De Valera in 1926. In 1927 this party was elected a member of the
Parliament.
1933 general elections in the free Irish state: Fianna Fáil forms government with Labour part
support.
De-anglaise Ireland= Patrick
From Irish State to Irish Republic (1948)
“Taoiseach” is the prime minister.
Irish constitution (1937):
 - Isolation, conservative catholic morality, severe censorship
- Catholic church was not the main church
Eamon de Valera’s Ireland
Valera became popular because made Ireland neutral and didn't participate in the 2nd WW.
Conservative policy when discussing emigration.
1948 Fianna Fáil loses the general elections. First inter party government formed to proclaim
the Republic of Ireland.
1948 Ireland leaves the Commonwealth and breaks the last link with the UK.
1940’s growth of school language turned into Irish.
Post-war period
Economic growth.
Benefits from the Economic fund.
Admission to UN in 1955.
Sean Lemass became Taoiseach in 1959, which marked the “opening” of the country.
1970’s/ 1980’s
1960’s / 1970’s : economic change.
1973 joined the EEC (European economic community).
1980’s economic crisis (1979 oil crisis).
THE IRISH LANGUAGE
After the Anglo-Norman invasion (1169):
· Statutes of Kilkenny (1366): no intermarriage, no Irish costumes, no Irish
spoken.
· Plantation’s policy. They made the Irish move from power and be less than the
others.
· Tudor: Henry VIII: reformation
· Penal laws: 1689-1991
· Introduction of National School system through English
· Effects of the Great Famine and emigration.
· Turn of the 19th to the 20th century: economic revival as a result of Land Acts
and money coming from Irish emigrants.
 · Irish free state (1922): Irish becomes the national language (co-official with
English). Irish has become a compulsory subject in education. Reduction of Irish
speakers.
· 1940’s there was a growing decline of Irish-speaking communities.
· 1950’s-1960’s: the role of Irish is questioned because of bilingualism. (Official
language act 2003)
· Reasons for decline:
- Rural backwardness and poverty
- Unappealing teaching methods
- Independence achieved while Ireland was an English-speaking nation
- Not useful language
· Irish was the working language in the EU in 2007. It was no longer required for
the Civil service.
Objectives of the 20-year strategy for the Irish language
· Increase use of Irish
· Ensure its use in public services
· Compulsory subject from primary
· Make Irish more visible

SHORTS

1.My name is Yu Ming by Daniel O’hara

● The title is a sign of identity.

● Yu Ming decides to learn Irish because he is bored and wants to learn the first
language of Ireland.
● Promote Irish as the 1st language to make people want to learn it.
● Irish was not an identity because everybody can learn Irish.
● Promoting it as a tourist place.
● Tribute to gale talk.

2.Fiorghael by Macdara Vallely

● The title says that you have to move to extremes in order to implant Irish and turn it to
a community language.
● Learning Irish is important.
● Criticism of the educational system. How it is possible that people had learn Irish at
school but when they grow up they don’t remember.
 ● Motivation is very important.
● “A land without a language is a land without a soul”.

16. Translations by Brian Friel (1929-2015)

Friel’s technique:

- Defamiliarisation.
- Alienation effect.

Royal Court: theatre associated with Friel.

Place of opportunities.

Translations (1980)

This play is naturalistic because of the language. The characters are supposed to be speaking
in Irish but actually the actors speak in English.

This play is associated with the company Field Day, and it was its first play.
“Fifth Province” was an imaginary place for dissenters, traitors of the other provinces, and
worked to talk about fidelity, authenticity and treason. Is another way of looking at Ireland.
A traitor is the person who goes against Ireland.

In the mid 1990’s the Field Day stopped being a company. It was involved in publishing.

The play’s opening: Is a conventional representation of Ireland. With an idealistic view of the
countryside.
1833 is where the plot of the play is taking place.
The place is based on the event of the British coming where they were renaming the places to
build a new start and creating a map of Ireland. (Ordnance Survey) This map starts the
anglicization of the Irish places.
Central metaphor for the play is about names.

Translating has different stages. In the play English is superior to Gaelic (Irish).
The work of a translator is very important because it is a cultural mediator, mediating
between two languages and cultures. Is not a transparent act.
There is an interpreter in the play, named Owen. He is the one mediating two different
cultures and places.

Although people speak the same language, there are different ways of interpretation.
Dealing with a theme that affected an audience in that particular time and also is an issue
nowadays.
English was an important language.
Friel is dealing with the fact that Irish was not the first language anymore.
Irish people no longer know how to speak their own language, because of the anglicization of
Ireland.
Sarah is taught how to speak her own language, because she lost her ability to speak Irish.
She is trying to gain her own voice.

Hedge-school.
Places for Irish peasants' children to learn. To avoid the descrimination of education because
of the positions.
The standard of education was hard. Everything was taught in Irish until the colonization
when everything was taught in English. The parents asked that their children be taught in
English because it was more important for everything than their mother tongue. These
schools developed very strict rules to follow such as religious, politic and economic.
The popularity of these schools went to decline from the 1830s with the introduction of
national schools. Set up by the British government and run by the National Board Education.

The Ordnance survey

From 1824 to 1846 Ordnance survey undertook a large-scale mapping of Ireland.

Reasons/effects for Friel’s “historical fiction”

I don’t want to write a play about Irish peasants being suppressed by English sappers.

NAMING
Sarrah. Etymology
Christening
Reversal at the end of the play
Owen: the cultural “mediator”
Modern and Anglicised Ireland.
Dinnseanchas: the lore of place names.

Characters embody ideas/attitudes to language.

Hugh is against the English language. He starts changing his mind when he realizes he needs
to adapt to the transformation, and learn English and also teach it. Being flexible is a way of
not being stuck. He says that he needs to possess English not let English possess people, in
order to take the language and adapt it.

Maire wants to escape from the countryside, she wants to migrate to the USA. She rejects the
role of women imposed in Ireland. She wants to learn English and leave. She rejects the idea
of a woman representing northern Ireland. She is a very active woman. She falls in love with
the enemy.

Yolland challenges stereotypes.

Sarah is the first to be the mother of Ireland but she is silent in contrast with Maire who is
very active.
Blood sacrifice for the cause of independence.
UNIT 4 CATHOLICISM
Catholic Ireland
1536- Suppression of the Catholic Church
1829 → Emancipation Act, -1869→ Disestablishment of the Anglican church
Faith and Fatherland (Catholicism and Nationalism) → Blood sacrifice. Easter Rising (1916)
to the Hunger Strikes (1981).
The Role of the Church is a precarious rural economic system.
Regulation of sexuality to curb fertility and ensure celibacy.

1929 → Irish Censorship of Publications Act.

- External influences are banished
Catholicism gave stability to Ireland.
Center of christians. All of this was related to the Irish Diaspora.
Irish nationalism was also associated with catholicism.

The Irish identity was seen in the Eucharistic congress in Dublin in 1932. Ireland became the
center of catholicism.
The catholic church had a special position, because it was never recognized as the established
church, although it was popular.
Construction of Englishness thanks to the valera.

Post-independence period
The Irish project of decolonisation was insular, conservative & informed by nativist agenda.
It was created to reinstate the authentic cultural forms of Ireland. There was a fight between
rural, conservative, and spiritual catholic cultural vs. urbanism, materialism and
commercialism endemic to modern Western civilization.
Severe censorship to keep at bay “filthy tide of modernity”: films, literature, press,
advertisements for birth control.

Patriarchal and hypocritical social models were women extolled but relegated to the domestic
sphere.

60s Liberalisation: economic expansion, foreign investment, free

education, II Vatican Council, TV.

1972: Catholic Church ceased to "enjoy a special position"

1979: Pope John Paul II's visit served as a catalyst in a

conservative counter-attack against liberalisation.

1980s: Debate on divorce, abortion, birth control, homosexuality.

1990s: Further liberalisation: Economic boom of the "Celtic Tiger” vs. revelation of scandals
in public finances and within the Catholic Church:
 - Decriminalisation of homosexuality, 1993 (Sexual Offences Act)
- 13th Amendment (freedom to travel abroad for an abortion)
- Halappanavar case
- 15th Amendment (dissolution of marriage, 1995;

2015: Yes vote in referendum on marriage equality.

May 2018: Referendum on abortion: repeal of the 8th Amendment

Celebrations by Austin Clarke, 1941

Catholic church based on the needs of the people, 18th c.
Contrast between catholic church in the 18th century and the 20th century.
Celebration of the Eucharistic congress has references in the title, although it is ironic
because for the “I” persona is not a celebration.
There is a proper because of the link between church and state, not with the people.
Liberties are taken. Loss of liberties because of the construction of the church.

Stanza 1
“Who dare complain or be ashamed of liberties our arms have taken?” Rhetorical question
showing that nobody is going to complain about the situation, so nobody will answer.
“Open hearts” has a religious connotation. Gullibility of the population (they were easy to
manipulate).
Dublin Castle refers to the colonial past. “The shade of Dublin Castle” is referred to because
the repression because of the colonial church was similar to the repression in the colonial
past.

Stanza 2
References to nationalism. (flagpoles).
Meaning of wards: a prison divided in different wards, the city is also divided in districts and
the wards that divide a hospital, political divisions (sala, pavellón). It was a way to control, an
excess of control and this causing the lack of freedom.

Stanza 3
Ageing politicians are the image of the politicians of the valera. Generation who participated
in the Easter rising. Religion is being displayed.
Accumulation of money by the church and the state.
Accumulation of faith is under consideration of the accumulation of money.
Blindfold woman is a symbol of justice that is condemned for treason (traición). Those who
need to be in charge of justice have changed the values and have other interests for
themselves.
Looter is somebody who steals.
The rebel souls would be the Irish republicans and are the ones who had lost everything
(position, money, etc).

Sister Agnes Writes to her beloved mother by Paul Durcan

1978
Ironic.
Free verse.
Humor is used to talk about a serious matter in order to be treated in a non offensive way.
The church preaches celibacy for the members of the church and the population in order to
control sexuality. The church is not following what they preach.
Exposes the inconcluency of the actions and discourse of the church.
In the 1990s the scandals of the church would be revealed.

Wife who smashed television gets jail by Paul Durcan

Deals with family. Nuclear, patriarchal and national family.
Is a representation of the nation.
Dysfunction of families.

The poem can be divided into two parts:

- Husband’s testimony in trial (l.1-21)
- The judge’s report (l.22-26)

She did not marry the television.

Challenging the family discourse because the woman is the one who is being violence.
In the poem the husband and the judge are the two who speak.
There is no testimony of hers, the system had women silent. She has no voice in her
judgment.
The judge puts her in jail.
You empathize with the wife when you read the poem, because the strong sense of her being
voiceless and her presence is put on a side because of the discourse of the husband.
He takes the children away from their mother.
Deals with violence.
Negative impact of mass media is represented.
Marriage and containment.
The marriage is criticized because it contrasts with the reality of that time. Because she is
associated with violence and at that time all women were happy in their marriages and they
were never violence. She reacts that way because she announces an injustice because they are
not talking to each other, and she is being ignored because of the television. There is a
rebellion in her. She is compared with a strong powerful queen Maeve.
She is contained and oppressed by the judge and the husband. All the rebellion has to be
contained by the discourse and the system itself. An example is that her testimony is not
asked.

Indictment of the legal system.

Local identity.
The television is a basic unit of the family, and the violence against it has to be condemned.

The poem takes the reader through an event in the speaker’s life. His wife came into their
house, demanded the TV be turned off and when it wasn’t, threw her show through the
screen. She was eventually sent to jail for his act and condemned for doubting the goodness
of the television in a family household.
Single stanza of a sensational newspaper headline and the body of the article.
In the first lines of this piece the husband who is quoted speaking about the wife, explains
what happened when she arrived home.
The violence came as a shock to the family because the peace was contrasted with her
destruction of the TV. She gave them a chance to turn off the TV or she was going to “put her
boot through the screen”.
Comparison of turning the TV off with what was going on in the TV.
When the speaker goes back home his wife has a chance to explain herself. She describes her
frustration at the amount of time they spend in front of TV. “She didn't get married to a
television”.
She goes on, angrily and frustratedly expressing her opinion that “they” the whole family.
In the last lines the speaker changes. The husband’s story is over and now a few comments
are added from the writer of this make-believe news article.
The justice in this case said that the wife posed a danger to the family for thinking that the
television was a “threat to the family”. These lines are multilayered and meant, through their
sarcastic tone, but genuine delivery by the justice, to convey the opposite sentiment. TV is an
issue in the modern world.

The protestant component

2nd half of the 19th century: most protestants belonged to the church of Ireland (about 8% of
the population in what would become the Republic of Éire).

1891: Less than 3% belonged to the Church of Ireland.

- Other protestant denominations: mostly Presbyterians (southern Ulster) and
Methodists.
Once the minority elite (Protestant Ascendancy) with the creation of the Irish free State
protestants found themselves ideologically alienated but there was a contribution of the
protestant ascendancy to Irish politics and culture:

The decline of the Ascendancy can be traced to the late 19th century with the promulgation of
the Land Acts (1881). In literature, this was reflected in “Big House Novel”.

John Hewitt (1907-1987): the protestan component

Born in belfast.

Studies at Methodist College and Queen’s College, Belfast

1920s: Publishes early poetry in left-wing publications: the Irishman, the New Leader and the
Workers’ Voice
Works for the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery
1957: appointed director of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry. Retired in 1972
and returned to Belfast.

Hewitt’s regionalism is based upon the conviction that, as man is a social being, he must, now
that the nation has become an enormously complicated organization, find some smaller unit
to which to give his loyalty.

Once Alien Here by John Hewitt’s

1948
The title refers to the Irish protestants who were alien in Ireland because of being descendants
from the English.
He is talking about his ancestors building the land.
Protestantization of the land, clean it, improve it.
Native Irish are silent and they limp to the hills because they were being colonised. There is a
strong identification with the environment.
Find a voice for the two communities. Combine and create a balance between them.

IRELAND AND VIOLENCE

Fighting Ireland: Atavistic Violence
Kipling:where there are Irish there’s bound to be fighting and when there’s no fighting it’s
Ireland no more.
- He is referring to the fighting for being integrated in Britain.
- Irish people are volatile.

Samuel Beckett: if an Irishman were asked to give a paper on a camel, he would certainly
entitle it “the Camel and the Irish Fight for Freedom ''.
- Violence is referred to obtain a political goal, that is freedom.

Colonial discourse.
Expressive violence associated with pleasurable feelings.
Instrumental violence was associated with rationality and with a political goal.

Glorification/criminalisation
From nationalism perspective: physical force is a necessary part of the struggle against
British domination.

From imperialist perspective: Irish violence is atavistic,anarchic, irrational and without a

legitimating ideology.

Violence as a blood sacrifice.

- Hunger strikes
(Bobby Saints)
Easter 1916 by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Poet, dramatist, senator, critic.
Nobel prize winner in 1923.
Promoter of celtic and literary revival.
Co-founder of Abbey theater in 1904.
Tied to Unionism although he had a strong sense of place.
→ Home rule is nationalism without independence.

Disturbing effect caused by the half-rhymes.

Enjambed lines.
3-beat measure.

Stanza 1
Close of day means the end of the day and also it makes reference to a close of an era.
The I persona and them.
Eighteen century houses make reference to Georgian Dublin.
Emphasis on politeness reflects the separation of his political ideas.
Beauty is idealized death.

Major John McBride.

*
Is a reflection on the events of the Easter rising in which nationalists led a rebellion to win
independence from British rule.
“Them” are the Irish rebels who died during the Easter rising at the end of the day (close of
day). Their faces agitated emotions but seeing them as ordinary contexts.
The speaker is moved to admire the heroism and bravery displayed by the Irish rebels trying
to throw off British rule even though he didn’t agree with them. He respect them.
This poem shows that true heroism can transcend personal flaws and transform a person.

Stanza 1:
He explains how he used to see the rebels as foolish because he didn’t take them seriously.
He exchanges polite meaningless talks with them or makes jokes with his friends because he
saw them as comic figures.

Stanza 2:
He details the rebels’ flaws, revealing his irritation and his anger because of them. He
criticizes a woman for lack of judgment because of her devotion to political arguments.
The speaker’s admiration for the rebels overcomes his criticisms and he affirms that their
bravery in agreeing to die for the cause has transformed them into heroic figures that he must
honor.
Making references to Major John McBride, “this man had kept a school”.

Stanza 3:
“A terrible beauty is born” the death of many others in the violence with the beauty of their
heroism to die for what they truly believe. Being a martyr is beautiful. Rebels have been
changed or transformed because they passed through terror in orther to fight for freedom.
Image of the stone contrasted with the stream. The stone represents inflexibility because it
doesn't change, making references to nationalists. The stream is republicanism because it can
change.

Stanza 4:
“Was it needless death after all?”, he is asking if this death (high cost) was necessary. Maybe
England would grant Ireland Freedom without rebellion. Maybe now, rebels will be seen as
the instigators of violence. He puts aside his criticism and honors them. Now their acts of
bravery are no longer defined by the flaws and because of that he will admire them forever.
“are changed, changed utterly”.
Ends with a list of the rebels’ names.
He is a little bit skeptical asking when this will end.

UNIT 5
Naming the Names by Anne Devlin
She remembers Belfast that does not exist anymore (because of the troubles).
Finn probably joins the IRA because of his heritage.
Main character: woman terrorist.
Honey trap → picking a woman who flirts with them in order to attract a man. To trap was a
provisional IRA technique.
Story told as an interrogation from the police.
She gives names of streets instead of her mate’s names. (From Belfast, sign of identity)
There are 2 relationships with English people that do not convince her.

Boy side Riots: reference to internment. Catholic in Ireland.

Most people were Catholic not Protestant.
Her mother was protestant and that broke the relation between her father and her
grandmother, who was nationalist.
She is not comfortable being nationalist.
Symbolical meaning of her dream with her grandmother (Shan Van Vocht). Nationalism was
the idea to protect her from England.

Spider web associated with grandmother. Network of protection within Catholic community.
Catholic symbols were a water fort. Nationalist symbols were the sacred heart.
Spider web negative symbol: being trapped was a situation of violence and nationalist
discourse.
The web was useful for describing the structure of the story. Was a non linear structure that
expresses fragmentation.
- Fragmentation of Northern Ireland doing the troubles and main character’s division
into loyalty, to her ancestors and love.
The names make reference to areas of conflict during the Troubles.
The violence situation makes reference to the web and the idea of being trapped.
Finn is an active character (decided to join the IRA).
Is seen as a manipulative character.
The target can be considered chosen by her (she recognises the name of the target).
Ending: she assumes her responsibility for the target's death. She accepts being guilty.

Ireland by Paul Durcan (1972)

The aim is to transmit an image that signs your correct feelings.
Sectarian division of society and family.
Idea of not trusting anybody.

Ireland by Paul Muldoon

It describes an explosion because of ticking over (a bomb sticked).
The car is moving:
- 2 people having sex inside
- idea of the ticking of a bomb clock
Describing anxiety and violence is becoming the common day.

Progress by Alan Gillis

After the Belfast agreement.
Ironic progress in the first 2 lines.
Reference to the period of peace after the agreement represented progress.
Box → image of coffins
Image of a bomb exploiting and ambulances going to heal.
The poem is going backwards.
Reassembling image and bomb going back to the terrorist.
The idea of healing everything by agreement is refused and criticized.

A new Ireland by Mary Robinson

First woman president in Ireland.
Change of position of women in society.
Pluralist Ireland, inclusive, open, tolerant. (Multicultural)
Change from an emigration place to an immigration destiny.

1440’s: THE CELTIC TIGER

1990: Mary Robinson as president.
Republic of Ireland.
Economic boom: foreign investment.
Google, Yahoo, Apple, etc. Had its main offices in Ireland: English thinking as society,
well-educated population and taxes reduced.
Divorce, homosexuality permitted in Ireland.
Economic development encouraged.
Multicultural society promoted.
Until 2004 every new born acquired Irish nationality, then peasants must be Irish in order to
acquire the nationality.

Post-celtic tiger
Beginning 2000s: Irish economy continues to boom, but disturbing signs foretell what is to
come.
2004: UN report on Ireland’s wide gap between rich and poor.
2004: Abbey theatre’s centenary.
2008: global financial crisis.
2010: Wage-cuts and raising taxes.
2013: end of bailout programme.

Sate for sale by Kinga Olszewska

Short.
The seller is not in favour of immigration.
It questions the idealization of multiculturalization.
Nationality as a faith of blood not time living in a country.
People not being able to buy houses→ segregation of immigrants.
Short period of time to assimilate the changes in Ireland.
Romantic relationship between an Indian boy and an Irish boy.
Topic of multiculturalism.
Extreme capitalism.
?Open market in Dublin?
Masala is an Indian mixture.
Things associated with the Easter rising.

Tensions with certain issues: extreme capitalism reflected in a daydreaming with buying
images, uncontrolled capitalism that affects immigrants and Irish people. Criticism of
dominant capitalist cultures that damaged irish and non-irish.
Solidarity seen in the market of Dublin, takes place in a small community instead of in a
larger one.
Ireland is not monocultural anymore.
The Irish countryside is criticized because it is not an idyllic place, the land has been sold and
has been centralized. Speculation of the selling of the state. defamiliarization of the Irish
landscape

At the end: “Dance dance” emphasizing the local, which has been affected by global
immigration. Support within the community. Mixophilia, decide to embrace and interact with
the other in a secure place, the landscape that is a capitalized society.

ASYLUM-SEEKERS & DIRECT PROVISION

2004 legislation was changed inorder to obtain Irish citizenship. Referendum.
Immigrants will not have citizenship directly.
Refugees vs. immigrants.
A refugee has been an asylum-seeker before. But an asylum-seeker may not be a refugee.

This hostel life by Melatu Uche Okorie

2018
Why do you think Okorie decided to write the story in pidgin, and how effective is it? to
reflect the people who are asking for asylum. They are isolated because it is a welcoming
country that is multiethnic. They are separated and taken away from the other Irish society.
Separation between Ireland and the rest.

Why are they queuing? Why “everybody likes to see GP (general partition) on Monday
too”? What do these events say about life under DP (direct provision)? On Monday the
manager of the hostel gives them food and hygienic things. They are queuing for the
provision for that week if they go another day maybe there is nothing. The hostel is good
because you can have provisions every week, not every month like others. They want to see
the doctor on Monday. Anxiety. Timetables for everything because they have very strict rules
to follow.

How do the people in the hostel feel about the new security man? He shouts the tickets for
having a revision. He doesn’t seem to know how to impose authority. He is from Eastern
Europe, he is not Irish. They call him not real white, there is a classification of the different
ethnicities.

How is power exercised in this hostel and by whom? By the manager. She is the one who
makes the decisions, she decides the timetables. She decides when the provisions are over.

She describes direct provision as being in an abusive relationship. What do you think
Okorie is referring to , and how is this reflected in the story? She feels scared because she
has to start a new life, she only knows what is to live in direct provision. Is an abusive
relationship because they control everything. They say it is to protect but it is not. If you
don’t stay here you’re going to be deported.

Why do you think Ngozi’s fight for honey is given so much importance? Is a
representation for having the same treatment as the others. Is a way to speak for power over
the system.
- Not much interaction because the majority of these places were far from the city.

What do you think the narrator feels that, although Ngozi is her “best friend for dis
hotel but i have to leave her”? Because of the negative consequences it can have for her.

NOT DONE
UNDERMINING ESSENTIALIST FORMULATIONS
Ireland since the 1990’s
Economic boom: new affluence / inequalities
No longer a country of emigrants
Rural depopulation
Decline of Catholic Ethos
→ Impact on national self-image (imagined community)

The Irishness which was invented in the early years of this century was a political project. It
achieved simplicity only by excluding large categories of Irish people. One of the reasons we
are losing a clear sense of Irishness is because we have stopped telling these comforting lies
about ourselves. Have merely become visible.
Mapping Irelannd’s future is even more difficult because so many of the old landmarks have
disappeared.

Modernization and liberalisation left a vacuum

After discarding catholicism & rurality: DILEMMA
Lack of direction/identity apart from:
- Economic growth
- Culture
- Irish creativity
- Literature
- Music, dance

Questioning of essentialist & normative ideas of Irishness

- Revision and critique of main pillars of Catholic and nationalist discourse. (“The
Parting Gift”, “Naming the Names”)
- Idealization of rural and frugal Ireland. (Kavanagh’s "The Great Hunger")
- Conservative sexual politics of the Republic. (Durcan’s “Wife who smashed television
gets jail”)
- Hypocrisy within the Church. (“Sister agnes writes to her beloved mother”)
- Gendered colonial discourse/ feminisation of Ireland. (Boland’s “Mise Eire”)
- Insular and monocultural society vs. globalised and multicultural. (O’Sullivan’s
Moore Street Masala/ Olszewska’s “Site for Sale”)
- Need to work through the legacy of conflict vs. escapist optimism. (Gillis’s
“Progress”)