On an Irish Island

by Robert Kanigel

  Their time on the Blasket didn’t leave our visitors able to resolve such oppositions. In our consumer society, men grow rich by convincing us that the next new product, or exercise regimen, or exotic locale can fix the contradictions nagging at us. But of course they never do. The timeless tensions and lingering mysteries take new form in every culture and in every generation, are never resolved.

  Not resolved permanently, anyway. But back then, on that ocean-swept island, for Robin Flower and Carl Marstrander, George and Marie-Louise, the mysteries were clarified, the tensions relieved, and everything, for the blessed days of their youth, was just right.

  Acknowledgments

  It was Trish Hogan and Ed Barrett who, when Sarah and I were weighing where to go in Ireland for our honeymoon in 2005, suggested a spot at the far western tip of the Dingle Peninsula, the village of Dún Chaoin, County Kerry. Not long after we returned, Trish introduced me to some of the Blasket-related books in her substantial library of Irish literature. In the years since, she has been unfailingly enthusiastic and a wonderful friend. Ed, an MIT colleague, and his wife, Jenny, also took an early interest in the project and, for one of our times in Dún Chaoin, let Sarah and me stay at their house. I owe both of these Cambridge friends many thanks, not the least for pointing me to their own most cherished place in Ireland.

  The day after we’d first found our way from Shannon Airport, over the Connor Pass to Dingle and then, around Slea Head, to Dún Chaoin, Sarah and I stumbled on the Blasket Centre; what happened next is briefly told in the Prologue. What’s not told there, and needs to be said here, is how much friendliness and cooperation I enjoyed during my research trips to the Centre, which is archive and museum as well as visitor’s center. There, Dáithi de Mórdha responded to untold questions and research requests. He tracked down books, papers, and photographs, never protested, never wavered. He and his father, Mícheál de Mórdha, the Centre’s director, gave me the run of the place, or so it seemed, routinely advising me of materials just then reaching the archive, introducing me to people, doing spot translations from the Irish. My warmest thanks to them for their dedication, their professionalism, and their many kindnesses.

  Thanks as well to others in the Dún Chaoin community who freely offered help and hospitality to me and my wife. Chief among these are Frances and John Kennedy, our neighbors across the road from Ed’s house who were so generous—with flowers from their garden, honey from their hives, books from their library, stories from their experience. Through Frances’s memorable portrayal of Maurya in a local performance of Synge’s Riders to the Sea, I came away with an indelible impression of the fortitude and forbearance demanded of the fishing families of Ireland’s west.

  Much material about the Blaskets is available in English; some is not and can be found only in Irish-language sources. For her translation work, I wish to thank Ruth Úi Ógáin, whose intelligence, skills, and seriousness of purpose helped make this book a better one. Right from the start, she grasped the tack I’d taken and guided me to particular resources of the Blasket Centre, where she had formerly served as guide, translator, and researcher. She did this, I should say, while juggling the demands of home and family, seemingly without breaking a sweat.

  Many people, most cited by name in the Notes, granted me interviews, furnished correspondence and photographs, invited me into their homes, or lavished on me the resources of their libraries and archives. My debt to them is substantial. I wish especially to acknowledge Séamus Mac Mathúna, for going far beyond his duties at NUI Galway to talk to me at length about George Thomson’s time at Galway seventy-five years earlier; Leslie Matson, for sharing with me his vast trove of Blasket lore and for the hospitality he and his wife accorded me in Waterford; Muiris Mac Conghail, for his generosity in sharing the fruits of his Galway research and his high-spirited conversation in Dublin; Breandán Feiritéar, for driving me around Connemara, where Maurice O’Sullivan lived much of his life after leaving the island, and sharing with me insights and impressions culled from his deep knowledge of the Blaskets. Thanks, too, to Gilberte Furstenberg, who secured for me a rare French-language publication, and Pádraig Ó Healai, for translating substantial excerpts from his mother’s book.

  Finally, thanks to Meg Alexiou, for our many hours talking about her father, George Thomson, and for her friendship. I met Meg not long after the death of her mother when she was clearing out the family house in Birmingham. Just then, before her father’s books and papers had been distributed among various repositories, Meg let me spend time with these precious family materials and through them gain my first real insight into the mind and heart of her father. We were joined in Birmingham by Máire Kavanagh, daughter of Maurice O’Sullivan. The three of us spent the better part of a weekend together, capped with a memorable candlelit dinner. I am grateful to Meg, and to Máire as well, for their openhearted welcome into the lives of their fathers.

  Around the time this book appears in the United States, I’ll be retiring from MIT where I have been professor of science writing since 1999. These years have left me with friendships, fond memories, and debts unpaid. I wish to thank Nick Altenbernd, Maya Jhangiani, and Magdalena Rieb for their steady help in the headquarters office of the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, as well as Susanne Martin before them and Shannon Larkin; my students in the Graduate Program in Science Writing, several of whom gave me good advice on sections of the book; my colleagues in the Grad Program, including Tom Levenson, Marcia Bartusiak, Phil Hilts, Alan Lightman, and Boyce Rensberger; and Deborah Fitzgerald, dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, for her support and sure common-sense advice.

  I was honored to receive a Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship for this project. The Guggenheim, supplemented by grants furnished by MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, as well as by the MIT provost’s office, allowed me to pursue the research and writing of this book with fewer of the financial constraints that can slow, undermine, or distort a substantial book project. For all these, I am extraordinarily grateful.

  I wish to thank Michael Carlisle, my agent, who has placed his affirming and high-minded soul in the service of this book—and to Dava Sobel and Robin Henig for pointing me to him. At Knopf, I’ve been fortunate to have been able to work, easily and agreeably, with editor Ann Close, as well as with her able and tenacious assistant, Caroline Zancan. A word of thanks, too, to Vicky Bijur, whose probing questions early in the book’s genesis helped me to see more clearly what I didn’t want the book to be as well as what I did.

  And Sarah, my dearest? I am she, and she is me, and we are all together.

  Notes

  I have supplied notes for most quotations as well as for most assertions of fact that might seem debatable, curious, or obscure, or that otherwise warrant reclamation from the great body of available material bearing on the Blaskets and its visitors. I have not, typically, supplied citations for amply documented historical events like the Irish Civil War, or well-known figures like Éamon de Valera; or for routine background information culled from gazetteers, university yearbooks, Web sites, maps, newspaper obituaries, or standard references such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

  INTERVIEWS

  In addition to the books and documents cited, these notes make reference to interviews, conversations, or, in the cases indicated, e‑mail correspondence with the following persons in Ireland, England, and the United States: Margaret Alexiou, Bo Almqvist, Kathleen Arduini, Anna Bale, Seán Cahillane, Mike Colles, Dáithí de Mórdha, Mícheal de Mórdha, Breandán Feiritéar, Linda Francis and Justin Elcombe, Patrick and Una Grogan, Máire Llewelyn Kavanagh, Frances and John Kennedy, Niall R. Livingstone, Gerry Long, Melissa Llewelyn-Davies (e-mail), Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Muiris Mac Conghail, Séamus Mac Mathúna, Sister Mary Justin, Leslie Matson, Brian McGuinness (e-mail), Kerby Miller, Eileen Naughten, Joe Nugent, Seán Ó Coileáin, Tadhg Ó Dúshláine, Father Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, Pádraig Ó Healai (e-
mail), Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha (nephew of An Seabhac), Sue Redican, Ann Saddlemyer (e-mail), Ray Stagles, Alan Titley (e-mail), Nuala Uí Aimhirgín, Niamh Uí Laoithe.

  MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

  Manuscripts, documents, images, and other materials were consulted at the following archives and libraries, or kindly made available by the individuals named:

  Alexiou, Margaret: See Thomson Archives, below.

  Almqvist, Bo: Correspondence and documents related to Marie-Louise Sjoestedt.

  Arduini, Kathleen: Personal papers and photos related to Mary Kearney.

  Blasket Centre/Ionad An Bhlascaoid Mhoir, Dun Chaoin, Co. Kerry: Library, archives, and interpretive center devoted to the Blaskets. Irish-language materials translated by Ruth Uí Ógáin.

  British Library: Idris Bell papers, mostly Add ms. 59510, ff. 46–108, corrrespondence with Robin Flower and other Blasket visitors.

  British Museum: Records of Standing Committee, 1910–1944; Index to Trustees Minutes, 1906–1946; Robin Flower papers

  Cahillane, Seán: Personal papers and photos related to Mary Kearney.

  Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore, University College Dublin: Robin Flower papers; Eibhlís Ní Shúilleabháin/George Chambers correspondence, manuscripts vols. 1943–45; Schrier notebooks, vols. 1407–11. Many thanks to Jonny Dillon for his extraordinary cooperation.

  Dublin City Library and Archive.

  Dublin Writers Museum.

  Dulwich College archives.

  Feiritéar, Breandán: Photos and other materials related to the Blaskets and neighboring mainland communities.

  Galvin’s Travel Agency, Dingle, Co. Kerry: Emigration records. Courtesy of Maurice O’Connor.

  Kennedy, John and Frances, Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Willie Long materials and other aspects of local history.

  King’s College Archives: materials bearing on George Thomson’s time at King’s.

  Mac Mathúna, Séamus, National University of Ireland, Galway: In the notes that follow I treat as interview material, rather than as documents, informal on-the-spot translations by Mr. Mac Mathúna of articles by M. Ó Flathartaigh and Risteard Ó Glaisne, in Inniu, January 16, April 17, April 24, and May 1, 1981, as well as of other Irish-language university documents related to Thomson’s time at University College, Galway.

  Matson, Leslie: Information supplementing his collection “Blasket Lives,” his account of 125 islanders and their families, available at the Blasket Centre; his comprehensive survey and summary of the letters of Eibhlís Ní Shúilleabháin at the Delargy Centre, Dublin.

  National Library of Ireland: Seán Ó Lúing papers; materials bearing on Seán an Chóta, Robin Flower, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, and other Blasket visitors; Tomás Ó Criomhthain letters to Brian Kelly; original manuscript of Fiche Blian ag Fás with George Thomson’s notes.

  Royal College of Physicians, Dublin: Materials bearing on Dr. Pádraig Grogan, courtesy of Robert Mills.

  Russel Library, National University of Ireland, Maynooth: Materials bearing on Dr. Pádraig Grogan, courtesy of Penny Woods.

  Sisters of Providence, Springfield, Mass.: Sister Mary Clemens (Mary Kearney), courtesy of Sister Mary Justin.

  Thomson Archives at the Birmingham Archives and Heritage Service, Birmingham Central Library: Accession 2007/144, “Papers of Katharine and George Thomson,” some of this material made available to me through Thomson’s daughter Margaret Alexiou in the period before they were actually transferred to the archive. Includes fragmentary, mostly handwritten biography of George Thomson, in the form of letters linked by text, by Katharine Thomson. Thomson’s letters to his wife, Katharine, found in this collection are normally addressed to “Katten,” but I identify them here by her proper name.

  Trinity College, Dublin: J. M. Synge notebooks; Robin Flower correspondence.

  University of Birmingham Special Collections: George Thomson.

  In the notes that follow, I have used the following shorthand to designate some of the more frequently cited books, archives, and other references. I hope readers find this system easier to navigate than the acronyms more typically seen (and which I, at least, can never keep straight):

  Another: Muiris Mac Conghail’s video documentary, Another Island: A Portrait of the Blasket Islands.

  Celtic: Seán Ó Lúing, Celtic Studies in Europe.

  Cross: Tomás Ó Crohan, Island Cross-Talk.

  Delargy: Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore, Dublin.

  Eighty: Gerry Gregg’s George Thomson: Eighty Years A-Growing, video documentary.

  Hidden: Irene Lucchitti’s The Islandman: The Hidden Life of Tomás Ó’Crohan.

  Islandman: Tomás Ó’Crohan’s The Islandman.

  KathFrag: Katharine Thomson’s fragmentary biography of her husband, Thomson Archives, Birmingham. Because its pagination is unclear and appears in handwritten and typewritten sections of unknown priority, the citation goes no further.

  KerryIsland: Muiris Mac Conghail’s The Blaskets: A Kerry Island Library.

  Lís: Three page-numbered volumes of Eibhlís Ní Shúilleabháin’s letters, vols. 1943–1945, located at the Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore, Dublin, of which her published Letters from The Great Blasket includes about a third. A foreword by George Chambers appears in vol. 1943.

  LísLetters: Eibhlís Ní Shúilleabháin’s Letters from The Great Blasket.

  Memories: Pádraig Tyers, ed., Blasket Memories. The untitled nine-chapter first half, pp.7–88, appears in the notes as “Seán Ó Criomhthain, in Memories.” The second half of the same volume, pp. 89–190, includes question-and-answer interviews with several other Blasket-related figures (including, again, Seán Ó Criomhthain). These are referred to in the notes as, for example, “Seán Ó Guihín interview, in Memories.”

  NatLib: National Library of Ireland.

  Reflections: Cathal Póirtéir, Blasket Island Reflections. Transcription from the audio if not otherwise indicated. Otherwise, with page number, English translation furnished in the accompanying booklet.

  RuthTransl: Irish-language materials wholly or partially translated for the author by Ruth Uí Ógáin.

  Thomson Archives: Thomson Archives, Birmingham Public Library.

  Twenty: Maurice O’Sullivan’s Twenty Years A-Growing,

  PROLOGUE

  1 Neolithic civilization: E. M. Forster, introductory note, Twenty, p. v.

  2 Looking after a sheep on the hill-side: Ibid., p. 220.

  3 Will know that the wildest sayings: Synge, preface, The Playboy of the Western World.

  4 I have done my best: Islandman, p. 244.

  5 If we put them all together: Thomson, in Another.

  6 Hurston: See Valerie Boyd, Wrapped in Rainbows (New York: Scribner, 2004). See also Tracy Mishkin, The Harlem and Irish Renaissances (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998).

  7 To express “darling”: Thomson to Katharine, April 18, 1939, Thomson Archives.

  8 Books of Irish verse: Several can be seen in the Blasket Centre.

  1. THE WEST

  1 Take advantage: Mrs. D. P. Thomson, p. 104.

  2 Jeremiah Curtin: Curtin journal entries (in English), in Uaitéar Mac Craith, “Turusanna Jeremiah Curtin I gCiarraí,” in Thaitin Sé Le Peig, ed. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta (Baile an Fhirtéaraigh: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1989).

  3 The most fertile and vigorous: Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, 3rd ed., p. 770.

  4 The Necessity for De-Anglicizing Ireland: See Pierce, pp. 2–13.

  5 Gaelic League: See McMahon, Garvin.

  6 Language as a neutral ground: Cited in Kiberd, Inventing Ireland, p. 153.

  7 It is very much alive now: Cited in Celtic, 192.

  8 The authentic Ireland: Whelan, p. 184.

  9 Part of the creation myth: Kevin Martin, p. 90.

  10 Synge: See Grene, Synge; Saddlemyer, ed., Letters of Synge; Greene and Stephens; quotation in Kiberd, Synge and the Irish Language.

  11 It gave me a moment of exquisite satisfactio
n: Synge, The Aran Islands, p. 11.

  12 So strange and silent: Cited in Foster, “Certain Set Apart,” p. 108.

  13 An almost Aeschylean: Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, p. 953.

  14 Willie Long: Interview, Frances and John Kennedy and census records; see also Richard Irvine Best letter, 1908, in Ó Lúing, “The Scholar’s Path”; Marstrander, p. 5.

  15 Of course my place is not an out-and-out Hotel: Long to Synge, July 27, 1905, letter 187, MS 4424, Trinity College, Dublin.

  16 Myself & household all speak Paddy’s language: Ibid.

  17 Narrow-gauge steam railroad: See Rowlands and McGrath.

  18 A confused mass of peasants: Synge, Travels, p. 72.

  19 Ah, poor fellow … in Saint Louis: Ibid., p. 73.

  20 As the night fell … heavy night smells: Ibid., p. 74.

  21 In the centre of the most Gaelic part: Saddlemyer, ed., Letters of Synge, p. 119.

  22 Suddenly on the … indescribable grandeur: Synge, Travels, p. 85.

  23 Even more primitive … joy at the prospect: Saddlemyer, ed., Letters of Synge, p. 120.

  24 I came off yesterday: Synge notebooks, Trinity College, Dublin.

  25 As we came nearer: Synge, Travels, p. 87.

  26 I have been here … most interesting place: Saddlemyer, ed., Letters of Synge, p. 122.

  27 Irish-tinged obscurities: Ibid., p. 124.

  28 He wrote to Yeats: Ibid., p. 125.

  29 Notes in Ballyferriter: Synge notebooks, Trinity College, Dublin.

  30 Perhaps from America: Breándan Ferritéar broached this possibility in an interview with the author.

  31 The little hostess: In Synge’s notebooks at Trinity and in his letters from the island, Synge refers to a little queen and sometimes to a princess—all “royalty” in the house of the king. In the published version, we meet only the little hostess, the notebook’s “queen”; the princess has mostly disappeared or perhaps melded with her sister. In a letter to Nathalie Esposito the following month (Saddlemyer, ed., Letters of Synge, p. 128), Synge recalls the king’s two daughters, one of whom “was married a few months ago and still lives in her father’s house—a curiously charming person.”