On an Irish Island

by Robert Kanigel

  51 among the most important life-stories: Irish Times, Nov. 26, 1962.

  52 Profoundly skeptical: Binchy, “Two Blasket Autobiographies,” p. 552.

  8. INTERMINABLE PROCESSION

  1 Thatched-roof house: The following account is drawn from Sjoestedt, “L’Irlande d’aujourd’hui” (my translation).

  2 It is towards … rare parishes: Ibid., pt. 1, p. 842.

  3 Hills as supportive … Corsican maquis: Ibid., p. 844.

  4 Magnificent chorus: Ibid., p. 845.

  5 I see him … alone in his canoe: Ibid., p. 849.

  6 Deprived: Ibid., p. 857.

  7 To all that is powerful or strange: Ibid., p. 858.

  8 They appear suddenly: Ibid., p. 841.

  9 You are in love, my boy: Twenty, p. 238.

  10 Offered to pay her way: Kathleen Arduini interview.

  11 Patrick J. Grogan: Account of Grogan built up from Patrick Grogan (Dr. Grogan’s nephew) and his wife, Una, interview; records of Royal College of Physicians; local history references.

  12 As Pádraig Séamus Ó Gruagain: Thom’s Almanac, 1928 and 1929, lists Grogan in this way. Thom’s also tracks his moves during these years.

  13 Rubbed red and raw: Kathleen Arduinim, interview.

  14 Dr. Grogan and his wife were good to her: Breandán Feiritéar, interview.

  15 Studio portrait: Courtesy of Kathleen Arduini.

  16 “The Illegitimate Child,” “Getting On in the World”: Thomson’s two stories were enough to inspire Philip O’Leary’s opinion in Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922–1939, p. 213, that Thomson “dealt sympathetically with the issue of illegitimacy.”

  17 On Dublin’s doorstep: Ferriter, 56.

  18 Between 2 and 3 percent of recorded births: Ferriter, 56, 126; see also Luddy.

  19 Almost 30 percent: Ferriter, 101.

  20 Ten to fifteen pounds: My estimate based on Hearn as a whole.

  21 Compared favorably: Hearn, 151.

  22 A hundred thousand in Ireland: Hearn, 148.

  23 Day when a little girl: Marie-Louise Sjoestedt (1900–1940): In Memoriam, 71.

  24 Hand of Father Paddy Browne: In an interview, Father Pádraig Ó Fiannachta supports this scenario: “There’s no other way she would have been able to get that job” with Dr. Grogan. Likewise, Dr. Grogan’s nephew says that the most natural way for his uncle to secure the services of a maid would have been through the priests at Maynooth. In an interview, Muiris Mac Conghail also sees the involvement of Paddy Browne as likely.

  25 I visited the Blasket girl: Thomson to his family, Sept. 5, 1961, Thomson Archives. Just when George met Mary in Maynooth is uncertain, not least because George’s own correspondence is contradictory. For example, in this letter he writes that he visited the Blasket girl in Maynooth two years before visiting Father Paddy Browne at Saint Patrick’s College in 1926, making it about 1924. But in an earlier letter to his wife and children, on Sept. 7, 1945, he writes that he first set foot in Dublin only in 1925.

  26 Poem by George: 24 March 1928 issue. RuthTransl.

  27 More likely, it enacts: This possibility was suggested by Breandán Feiritéar at Blasket Commemoration no. 4, Account RuthTransl.

  28 Arrangements for departure: Based on surviving record books at Galvin’s today, courtesy of Maurice O’Connor.

  29 October 22, 1929: This and subsequent chronology is not certain but very likely, pointed to from several directions, including Galvin’s record books, the known Atlantic schedule and ports of disembarkation of the Scythia, the Stagles audiotape interview of Sister Mary Clemens, interview with Kathleen Arduini, and Sisters of Providence records pointing to an approximately three-month period in America before Mary took the veil.

  30 Queenstown: See St. Leger; Sjoestedt, “L’Irlande d’aujourd’hui,” pt. 1, pp. 839–41; Schrier notebooks, Delargy; site visit, Cobh emigration museum.

  31 Mary’s first time in Queenstown: Account largely follows Stagles, audiotape interview.

  32 His father died: KathFrag. “One of my greatest happinesses,” his father wrote him on Aug. 16, 1929 (Thomson Archives), “is that I have been able to give you help in some small way to enable to you do work you liked. You have repaid me a thousandfold.”

  9. WORKING AT IRISH

  1 The wife of a … everybody who is anybody: Eighty.

  2 I felt drawn irresistibly: Thomson to his family, Sept. 7, 1945, Thomson Archives.

  3 Moya Llewelyn Davies: Melissa Llewelyn-Davies, both citations in bibliography; e‑mail correspondence; Lowth.

  4 Dazzling blue eyes: MacDowell, p. 18.

  5 In an open-topped car: Melissa Llewelyn-Davies, unpublished personal reminiscence.

  6 Believing she looked more desirable by candlelight: Ibid.

  7 He’d loved her: KathFrag.

  8 Watermill. See Dennis McIntyre, The Meadow of the Bull: A History of Clontarf (apparently self-published, 1987): “The ‘Water’ roads come from the local Naniken ‘waterway’ with the ‘mill’ being adapted from an old mill which once operated on the river close to today’s Watermill Bridge.” See also photographs, Birmingham. Saint Annes Park was part of a fifty-two-acre site purchased by the Guinness family, of beer fame, in 1835; see also photos, EMF/27/450 and 452, King’s College Archives.

  9 Shining wet sand: Thomson to his family, Sept. 7, 1945, Thomson Archives.

  10 Painted bright green: Ibid.

  11 The velvety peace: Thomson’s mother to Thomson, Oct. 26, 1931, Thomson Archives.

  12 I expect … but we mustn’t expect: Forster to Thomson, Aug. 1, 1931, Thomson Archives.

  13 Every day: George Thomson, “Irish and the Intelligentsia.”

  14 “Barra na Trá”: In Thomson, Gach Órlach De Mo Chroí, RuthTransl.

  15 I in the Guard’s uniform: The following account draws largely from Twenty, 247–77.

  16 The unknown world: Binchy, “Two Blasket Autobiographies,” p. 559.

  17 Square into the camera: In Eighty.

  18 An unhappy man: My account of Maurice’s Guard service is built up from Uí Aimhirgín interview.

  19 His whole nature: George Thomson, “The Irish Language Revival,” p. 8.

  20 He didn’t have enough to do in the winter: Thomson, in Eighty.

  21 Nothing would go unnoticed: Thomson, “Fiche Blian ag Fás,” RuthTransl.

  22 He made the attempt … we discarded it: Thomson, in Another.

  23 Keep writing: Ibid. Maurice wrote George later that he was indeed observing everything, “even the fly flitting past his ear.”

  24 But a beginning should be made: Preamble, “Conference on Galway University College: Report on the Conference, 1926,” University College, Galway.

  25 University College emissaries: Account of Thomson in Galway is generally drawn from Mac Conghail, “De Blaghd agus Mac Tomáis”; Mac Conghail, Aghaidheanna Fidil agus Púicíní, RuthTransl; Mac Conghail, interview; Celtic, chap. 10.

  26 I would say almost the most fanatic: Sjoestedt, “L’Irlande d’aujourd’hui,” pt. 2, p. 175.

  27 Went to the blackboard: Mac Conghail, “An English Scholar.” He tells a similar story in Eighty.

  28 Will you humour me: Mrs. Thomson to George, Oct. 26, 1931, Thomson Archives.

  29 To bury his talents: Quoted in Enright, “George Thomson: A Memoir,” p. 128.

  30 Two or three students: Mac Mathúna interview.

  31 Sjoestedt visited: Diskin.

  32 Caressing words into sweetness: Mac Mathúna interview.

  33 Corrib Lodge: Site visit; Eileen Naughten interview and subsequent correspondence.

  34 Bench: See Thomson and Forster, Sept. 1932 photo, EMF/27/541, King’s College Archives.

  35 There is no doubt but youth is a fine thing: Twenty, p. 1.

  36 It was delightful to listen: Ibid., p. 27.

  37 My grandfather … Castle Summit: Ibid., p. 75.

  38 Next day the quay: Ibid., p. 142.

  39 I took a car to Dunquin: Ibid., p.
297.

  40 I hadn’t known … makings of a writer: Thomson, “Fiche Blian ag Fás,” RuthTransl.

  41 The opportunity to edit it: Ibid.

  42 Evidence of mentorship: Nic Gráinne, p. 97.

  43 Select and condense: Thomson, notes on O’Sullivan’s manuscript, G1309/1, NatLib.

  44 Reminded the author: Enright, “George Thomson: A Memoir,” p. 129.

  45 I didn’t add to it: Quoted in Muiris Mac Conghail, “Ollan a Chíoradh …,” Blianiris, 2003, pp. 198–215, RuthTransl.

  46 Are not credible: Kiberd, in Reflections, disc 2.

  47 Looking after a sheep: Twenty, p. 220.

  48 Maurice descending with a donkey: See Raidió na Gaeltachta Collection, Blasket Centre, CD 0945 (02), RuthTransl; Máire Llewelyn Kavanagh, in Eighty; Pádraig Ó Fiannachta interview.

  49 Poetic truth: See Raidió na Gaeltachta Collection, Blasket Centre, CD 0945 (02), RuthTransl. Says Father O’Fiannachta of Thomson, in an interview with the author, “He would admit that Muiris had a wonderful imagination.” Here was a potentially tedious account of a routine climb up from the slip, so Maurice refashions it: “He makes the meeting magical.”

  50 What he gives us: George Thomson, Island Home, p. 65.

  51 An original approach: Muiris Mac Conghail interview.

  52 It’s full of people … better rendition: Kiberd, in Reflections, disc 2.

  53 Editorial squabbles: See Mac Conghail, Aghaidheanna Fidil agus Púicíní, RuthTransl.

  54 Cannot possibly be … egg of a sea-bird: Forster, introductory note, Twenty, p. vi.

  55 Was done in some haste: Thomson, notes on O’Sullivan’s manuscript, G1309/1, NatLib.

  56 Intervals of nausea: “A Sea-Bird’s Egg,” p. 562.

  57 A part of the world where rain, dampness, and depression: Boyd, p. 221.

  58 The scream of a gull: Roger Pippett, in Daily Herald, May 4, 1933.

  59 For those to whom … lilting pages: Hutchison.

  60 The life is hard … Land of the Ever Young: O’Faoláin, “A Wild Bird’s Nest.”

  61 The story moves like a piece of music: George Thomson, Island Home, p. 59.

  62 Lay beyond Muiris’s experience: Ibid., p. 60.

  63 George took numerous photos: These and others can be found in George Thomson, Island Home.

  64 As I stood … a score of eyes: Synge, Travels, p. 100.

  65 Were bound to one another: George Thomson, Island Home, p. 84. See also p. 74, where Thomson quotes tellingly from F. E. Hardy’s Life of Thomas Hardy: “London appears not to see itself. Each individual is conscious of himself but nobody is conscious of themselves collectively.”

  66 Full length in the dust, his horsemanship forgotten: George Thomson, Marxism and Poetry, p. 35.

  67 I went to Ireland: Ibid.

  68 The language embodied: George Thomson, “The Irish Language Revival,” p. 7.

  69 On the other hand: Ibid.

  70 I conceived the idea: Ibid., p. 8.

  71 If we began: Quoted in Enright, “George Thomson: A Memoir,” p. 132.

  72 High hopes and ambitions: Mac Mathúna interview.

  73 I had not proceeded: George Thomson, “The Irish Language Revival,” p. 9.

  74 The authorities: Ibid.

  75 I was working to save: George Thomson, Marxism and Poetry, p. 55.

  76 Ulcer acted up: KathFrag.

  77 I am sorry: E. M. Forster to Thomson, Jan. 31, 1933, Thomson Archives.

  78 Would and could still take you back to King’s: E. M. Forster to Thomson, April 30, 1934, Thomson Archives.

  79 My mind in turmoil: Quoted in Celtic, p. 169.

  80 I was determined to follow her: Thomson to his family, Sept. 5, 1961, Thomson Archives.

  81 Mary arrived in Boston: This account follows Stagles, audiotape interview; Seán Cahillane and Kathleen Arduini, interviews and photographs and documents furnished by them; Sister Mary Justin, Sisters of Providence, telephone interview; McGrath, “The Nun of the Blaskets.”

  82 Over my dead body: Stagles audiotape interview.

  83 This thing would be … a place for me: Ibid.

  84 Going around like a record: Ibid.

  85 I knew he was sweet on me: Ray Stagles interview.

  86 Sisters of Providence went back: See Liptak and Bennett.

  87 She alone could actually speak Irish: Stagles, audiotape interview.

  88 Great, great smile: Kathleen Arduini, interview.

  89 Katharine Stewart: KathFrag, source for details of their brief courtship.

  90 Could you come to tea: Letter quoted in KathFrag.

  91 “Callino Casturame”: Alexiou, “George Thomson: the Greek Dimension,” p. 56.

  92 Katharine’s sister Frida: See Angela Jackson.

  93 We did feel this instant sympathy: Katharine, in Eighty.

  94 Hits you in the eye: Letter quoted, in KathFrag.

  95 I am thinking of you: Thomson to Katharine, Oct. 30, 1935, Thomson Archives.

  96 Ways of saying “darling”: Thomson to Katharine, April 18, 1939, Thomson Archives.

  97 George had told me: KathFrag.

  98 Whence we could watch the leaping salmon: Ibid.

  99 As soon as the villagers: Katharine to her mother, Jessie Stewart, Aug. 7, 1935, quoted in KathFrag.

  10. VISITORS, STRANGERS, TOURISTS, FRIENDS

  1 George Chambers: Seán Ó Coileáin, who edited, and wrote an introduction to, the published LísLetters, says of Chambers in an interview that he “remains a kind of shadowy figure.” Information about him here is drawn from his own unpublished introduction to Lís’s letters in Delargy; from a kind of “implied biography” I’ve pieced together from Lís’s many specific and detailed references to him in her letters; from photographs he took while on the island; from his published poetry; and from a few references to him in accounts by Lís’s daughter Niamh—for example, Raidió na Gaeltachta, broadcast, Jan. 3, 1995, CD 0999, RuthTransl. On the internal evidence of the letters, Chambers was probably born in March 1873, and died sometime after 1957.

  2 Temple Fortune Lane: Seán Ó Coileáin, introduction, LísLetters, p. 1.

  3 Get the fisherfolk: LísLetters, p. 8.

  4 A bleak, impoverished and scattered village: Ibid.

  5 Wore neither shoes nor stockings: Ibid., p. 10.

  6 Was it chance or divinely planned: Chambers, p. 8.

  7 Eibhlís Ní Shúilleabhháin: See Matson, “Blasket Lives.” “Certainly he took a fancy to her,” said Seán Ó Coileáin, editor of the published letters, in an interview with the author.

  8 Daly house for a picture: KerryIsland, p. 70.

  9 Verminous: Chambers foreword, Lís, vol. 1943, [p.] d.

  10 I love to read your letters: Lís, Nov. 28, 1931, vol. 1943, p. 33.

  11 At great cost: For example, Lís, Oct. 1, 1932, vol. 1943, p. 40: “Ah, you understand how hard it is to me to put english sentences together and trying to write them, imagine if you were to write to me an Irish letter, of course it would be hard on you. So dear Mr. Chambers you shouldn’t be hard on me for not having very long letters sometimes. I always must have a couple of hours to spare to write you a long one. I always do my best for you, and I’m glad of it.”

  12 Today again is a rather bad day: Ibid., Jan. 12, 1932, vol. 1943, p. 35. The week before, she’d written in what seems a similar, if coyer, vein: “Pardon me for saying so. Something was a pity. Would you ever guess what would it be. Now it is time that I should say funny things too to you. If you would visit Blaskets 20 years ago and by at the same time I would be 20 would anything strange happen I don’t know? Lost time is never found again so there is no use in getting talking now.” (Ibid., Jan. 3, 1932, vol. 1943, p. 34.)

  13 My heart came to my mouth: Ibid., Feb. 14, 1932, vol. 1943, p. 36.

  14 I would love to answer all your questions: Ibid.

  15 I met Kenneth Jackson: LísLetters, p. 50.

  16 My best friend, I have every thought of getting married: Lí
s, April 27, 1933, vol. 1943, p. 15.

  17 I love my husband: Ibid., May [?], 1933, vol. 1993, p. 16.

  18 Just a Line … my whole Heart’s desire: Ibid., p. 17.

  19 There are many visitors: LísLetters, p. 50.

  20 Manny the strangers: Tomás Ó Criomhthain to his son Thomas, Nov. 15, 1931, Blasket Centre.

  21 Fall from a horse: LísLetters, p. 26. On June 21, 1932, Flower writes Idris Bell from the Aran Islands, tells of being thrown when the horse, Silver Mane, broke into a gallop on the beach (British Library).

  22 It was a great Loss: LísLetters, p. 27.

  23 Within the space of four years: Binchy, “Two Blasket Autobiographies,” p. 548.

  24 There is a time … scrape a finger: Ní Shéaghdha, p. 67.

  25 Of all years: LísLetters, p. 53.

  26 Ridge after ridge: O’Cahill, p. 145.

  27 A pompous old man: O’Faoláin, An Irish Journey, p. 143.

  28 Innocent elation: Ibid., p. 144.

  29 Throbbing with interior distress: Celtic, p. 226.

  30 Grave courtesy: Meyerstein to R. N. Green-Armytage, “Vigil of Easter Day,” 1931, Blasket Centre.

  31 An old woman: Celtic, p. 227.

  32 has shown me … what is wrong with me: Ibid., p. 228.

  33 We feed together: Ibid., p. 226.

  34 More enthusiasm than they had Gaelic: Binchy, “Two Blasket Autobiographies,” p. 559.

  35 All these … are folktales: See Kenneth Jackson “Scéalta ón mBlascaod”; Wagner and Mac Congáil.

  36 Irish folklore: See Delargy; Briody; Ó Giolláin; Kenneth Jackson, “The International Folktale in Ireland”; Clodagh Brennan Harvey, “Some Irish Women Storytellers and Reflections on the Role of Women in the Storytelling Tradition,” Western Folklore, vol. 48 (April 1989), pp. 109–28; Alan Dundes, ed., International Folkloristics: Classic Contributions by the Founders of Folklore (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999); Kathleen Vejvoda, “ ​‘Too Much Knowledge of the Other World’: Women and Nineteenth-Century Irish Folktales,” Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 32 (2004), pp. 41–61.