On an Irish Island

by Robert Kanigel

  30 Cut turf, collected seaweed: Nuala Uí Aimhirgín, interviews.

  31 Place they called Barraderry: Memories, 188.

  32 An islander marooned ashore: Fragment of unidentified newspaper article, Blasket Centre.

  33 A man of one book: Ó Faoláin, “Irish Magic.” Daniel Binchy held to the same view: “With his remarkable powers of observation he should find materials for many more books in his experiences during the second stage of life—the ‘twenty years a-blooming’ (fiche blian fé bhláth)—on which he has now entered” (“Two Blasket Autobiographies,” p. 557).

  34 An appalling book: Titley, in Reflections.

  35 The quirky humour: Titley, e‑mail correspondence.

  36 But what good was that?: In Reflections, p. 46.

  37 Contribution to the original: Titley, in Reflections.

  38 Had to take him by the arm: George Thomson, “The Irish Language Revival,” p. 8.

  39 He’d cycle for miles: Nuala Uí Aimhirgín, Breandán Feiritéar, interviews.

  40 Life in the bee world: Máire Llewelyn Kavanagh, interview.

  41 Disappointment followed: Matson, “Blasket Lives.”

  42 Sixty pounds a year: Thomson to Katharine, Sept. 15, 1945, Thomson Archives. The book did well thereafter, too, being reprinted in an Oxford World’s Classics edition in 1953, reprinted again and again all through the sixties and seventies, then by Oxford University Press beginning in 1983, with whom it has remained in print ever since.

  43 Pink glow: Máire Llewelyn Kavanagh, interview.

  44 The journey from Liverpool: Account follows Thomson to family, Sept. 7, 1945, and subsequent letters, Thomson Archives.

  45 All turned white: Photo in Eighty.

  46 This academic year: See Thomson date books, University of Birmingham Special Collections.

  47 Maurice drowned: Telegram displayed at Blasket Centre. (O’Sullivan died the same day the Korean War broke out.)

  48 Máire, six years old: Máire Llewelyn Kavanagh, interview, also in Eighty.

  49 Four days before his death: Garda Museum/Archives, Dublin record, in Ceiliúradh an Bhlascaoid 5, devoted to Muiris Ó Súilleabháin.

  50 A strike was on: Ibid., 187.

  51 Killed himself: Nuala Uí Aimhirgín, interview. “It’s still an open question,” says Margaret Alexiou. Her father, she says, “couldn’t get it out of his mind that it might have been suicide.”

  52 I think he had a heart attack: Maurice’s daughter, in Eighty.

  53 Sixty I may be: Máire Ní Shúilleabháin [Máire Llewelyn Kavanagh], “Do Mhuiris,” An Caomhnóir, vol. 25 (2004), p. 3.

  54 Barely able to speak: Katharine, in Eighty.

  14. A DREAM OF YOUTH

  1 Maybe it will come: Thomas, p. 82. Or, as George Thomson says, in Another: “What has happened to the Blasket Islands has happened, or is happening, to hundreds of other small communities” around the world. The Blasket books “raise questions in the reader’s mind about the future of his own culture.”

  2 Film stars: LísLetters, p. 56.

  3 A great man … great anger against civilisation: Flower to Bell, June 1, 1932, British Library.

  4 Neal O’Moore, Dublin medical student: Account and quoted dialogue from Men of Ireland, directed by Dick Bird.

  5 That Film is not about my father-in-law: LísLetters, p. 57.

  6 Filmed in a Dublin studio: Scannán: The Islandman, 1937.

  7 Dreamy voluptuous gaiety: Synge, The Aran Islands, p. 76.

  8 Off the death … all coroners and morticians: Kiberd, Inventing Ireland, p. 173.

  9 The beauty … all precarious or dying things: Ibid.

  10 Tangled world of to-day: Robin Flower, The Western Island, p. 6.

  11 Only a few remaining corners: Quoted in Ó Giolláin, p. 137.

  12 Having acquired the doubtful blessing: Binchy, “Two Blasket Autobiographies,” p. 553.

  13 It was only the other day: Robin Flower, The Western Island, p. 70.

  14 Within the space … transformed by literacy: George Thomson, Island Home, p. 62.

  15 It is strangely ironical: “The Blaskets,” Irish Times, June 12, 1931.

  16 What about giving friends: Lís, Nov. 17, 1938, vol. 1944, p. 42.

  17 We used to be sitting: Cited in Enright, introduction, Cross, p. 6.

  18 Kearney’s Hotel: LísLetters, Oct. 14, 1932, p. 51.

  19 Remind you of a Nice, France: See Robert Kanigel, High Season (New York: Viking, 2002).

  20 The Village: McCarty and Hockings documentary.

  21 Literature of escape: Quoted in Ó Giolláin, p. 138.

  22 And the fashion of life: Robin Flower, The Western Island, p. 106.

  23 It is a strange world: Seán O’Crohan, A Day in Our Life, p. 47.

  24 Their collective narrative … haunted … the Irish imagination: O’Toole, p. 9.

  25 Fifty thousand visitors: Dáithi de Mórdha, e‑mail.

  26 It was a simple culture: George Thomson, Island Home, p. 85.

  27 Failed in the work: Thomson, in Eighty.

  28 We were poor people: Translation from Peig Sayers, Peig, in O’Leary, p. 160. See also English translation by MacMahon, p. 211.

  29 May be a broken-down culture: Thomas Barrington, p. 120.

  30 It was only when he found Innismaan and the Blaskets: Yeats, “Synge and the Ireland of His Time.”

  31 I am greatly taken with this place: Quoted in Celtic, p. 113.

  32 Recognises neither the realities of poverty: Hidden, p. 46.

  33 To him … dream of his youth: Celtic, p. 226.

  34 As he was speaking … got up and paced the room: Ibid., p. 166. See also interview with Margaret Alexiou in Eighty: “I can remember how in his declining years he became a different person when somebody Irish came in the room and had the Gaelic. ​. ​. ​. You would see in his face it became like it was when he was a young man.”

  35 They haven’t much worry about material things: McCarty and Hockings documentary.

  36 Spent the most wholesome part: Lís, vol. 1945, p. 53, March 4, 1952.

  37 The long years have vanished: O’Guiheen, p. 82.

  38 Would walk and walk … pick every bright flower: Ibid., p. 87.

  39 It is sad to think … Raheny will be swallowed up: Thomson to Katharine, Sept. 9, 1937, Thomson Archives.

  40 Whatever happens on the Island … one gifted thing: LísLetters, p. 88.

  41 The Island will be in my head: Seán Ó Guithín interview, in Memories, p. 174.

  42 It wasn’t from laziness: O’Guiheen, p. 120.

  43 It is as fresh as ever: Thomson to Katharine, Sept. [7?], 1937, Thomson Archives.

  Selected Bibliography

  SEE BELOW FOR IRISH-LANGUAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Aeschylus. The Oresteia Trilogy. Edited by Robert W. Corrigan. Translated with a special introduction by George Thomson. New York: Dell, 1965.

  Agostini, René. “J. M. Synge’s ‘Celestial Peasants.’ ” In Genet, ed., Rural Ireland, Real Ireland?, pp. 159–73.

  Alexander, S.M.D. “The Birds of the Blasket Islands.” Bird Study, vol. 1, no. 4 (December 1954), begins p. 148.

  Alexiou, Margaret. “Fifty Years Later ​. ​. ​.” In Ní Chéillechair, ed., Seoirse Mac Tomáis, pp. 132–135.

  ———. “George Thomson: The Greek Dimension.” In Ní Chéillechair, ed., Seoirse Mac Tomáis, pp. 52–74.

  Almqvist, Bo. “The Mysterious Mícheál Ó Gaoithín, Boccaccio and the Blasket Tradition.” Béaloideas, vol. 58 (1990), pp. 75–140.

  ———. “C. W. von Sydow agus Éire: Scoláire Sualannach agus an Léann Ceilteach.” Béaloideas, vol. 70 (2002) (English summary, pp. 45–49).

  ———. “The Scholar and the Storyteller: Heinrich Wagner’s Collections from Peig Sayers.” Béaloideas, vol. 72 (2004), pp. 31–59.

  Almqvist, Bo, and Pádraig Ó Héalái. Peig Sayers: I Will Speak to You All. Dublin: New Island, 2009. In English and Irish.

  “An Seabhac Had to Sign
Name in English.” Irish Independent, December 29, 1952.

  Barrington, Richard M. “Report on the Flora of the Blasket Islands, Co. Kerry.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. iii (1883).

  Barrington, Thomas. “Telescope and Microscope.” Bonaventura, November 1937, pp. 114–23.

  Beaslai, Pieras. “An Seabhac—A Giant of the Gaelic Movement.” Irish Independent, December 2, 1964.

  Bell, H. I. “Robin Ernest William Flower, 1881–1946.” Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 32 (1946), pp. 352–79.

  Binchy, D. A. “Two Blasket Autobiographies.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, December 1934, pp. 545–60.

  ———. “Norse Scholar Whose Irish Dictionary Caused a Furore,” Sunday Independent, January 16, 1966, p. 6.

  Bird, Dick. Men of Ireland [also known as Island Man and West of Kerry]. Irish National Film Corporation, 1938.

  Biuso, Thomas. “The Poet’s Ring.” An Caomnhóir, umh 26.

  ———. “Looking Into Blasket Island Photographs.” Eire-Ireland, Winter 1987, pp. 16–34.

  ———. “Tobar an Phuncain: A Story from the Great Blasket Island & Hungry Hill, Springfield, Massachusetts.” Irish America Magazine, June 1990, pp. 38–42.

  ———. “Blasket Islanders in Springfield.” An Caomhnóir, 2004, pp. 4–6.

  Blasket Roots, American Dreams. Video documentary, directed by Breandán Feiritéar. Radio-Telefis Éireann, 1997.

  Boyd, Ernest. “Twenty Years’ Romancing.” The Nation, vol. 137, no. 3555 (August 23, 1933), p. 221.

  Brathnach, Ciara. The Congested Districts Board of Ireland, 1891–1923. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005.

  Briody, Mícheál. The Irish Folklore Commission 1935–1970. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2007.

  Browning, Robert. “George Thomson and Modern Greek Studies in England.” Typescript of talk given at Colloquium on the Life and Work of George Thomson, January 7, 1989. Thomson Archives, Birmingham.

  Burns, Maggie. George Thomson in Birmingham and the Blaskets. Birmingham, U.K.: Birmingham Library Services, 2000.

  Carney, Mike. “From the Blaskets to Springfield.” Irish Echo, n.d.

  Castro del Rio, Plácido. Journal of visit to the Blaskets, c. 1928. Typescript translation, Blasket Centre.

  Chambers, George. The Lovely Line and Other Verses. Colchester, U.K.: Oyster Press, 1950.

  Coleman, Michael C. “ ​‘Some Kind of Gibberish’: Irish-Speaking Children in the National Schools, 1850–1922.” International Review of English Studies, January 1, 1998.

  Coman, B. J. “The Last of His Tribe.” Quadrant, vol. 49, no. 3 (March 2005).

  “Conference on Galway University College: Report on the Conference, 1926.” National University of Ireland, Galway.

  Corish, Patrick J. Maynooth College, 1795–1995. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1995.

  Crane, C. P. Kerry. London: Methuen, 1914.

  Creedon, Ted. “The Currach—Oldest Seagoing Craft in Western Europe.” Cork Holly Bough, Christmas 1981.

  Crohan, Martin J. “ ​‘The Great and the Good … The Worthless and Insignificant’: A Case Study of Tomás O’Crohan’s The Islandman.” In Genet, ed., Rural Ireland, Real Ireland?

  Cultural Committee of the Irish Workers’ League. “Culture in Ireland To-day: The Present Position and What We Should Do About It.” Typescript, August 1952, Thomson Archives, Birmingham.

  Davis, Natalie Zemon. “Women and the World of the Annales.” History Workshop Journal, vol. 33, no. 1 (1992), pp. 121–37.

  Delargy, J. H. “The Gaelic Story-Teller.” Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 31 (1945), pp. 177–221.

  de Mórdha, Dáithí, ed. Cuisle Deoil na nOileán. Proceedings of Ceiliúradh an Bhlascaoid 11. Baile Átha Cliath: Coiscéim, 2008.

  de Mórdha, Mícheál. “Bryan MacMahon, Peig Sayers, and the Publication of Peig in English.” In Gabriel Fitzmaurice, ed., The World of Bryan MacMahon (Cork: Mercier Press, 2005).

  de Mórdha, Mícheál, ed. Bláithín: Flower. An Daingean: An Sagart, 1998.

  ———, ed. Na Lochlannaigh. Proceedings of Ceiliúradh an Bhlascaoid 12. Baile Átha Cliath: Coiscéim, 2008.

  Diskin, Patrick M. “Professor George Thomson.” Typescript, National University of Ireland, Galway.

  Doan, James E. “Revisiting the Blasket Island Memoirs.” Irish Studies Review, vol. 9, no. 1 (2001), pp. 81–86.

  Dunnett, H. McG. Eminent Alleynians. Cranbrook, Kent, U.K.: Neville & Harding, 1984.

  Eastlake, John. “Orality and Agency: Reading an Irish Autobiography from the Great Blasket Island.” Oral Tradition, vol. 24, no. 1 (2009), pp. 125–41.

  ———. “The (Original) Islandman?: Examining the Origin in Blasket Autobiography.” In Nessa Cronin et al., Orality and Modern Irish Culture (Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), pp. 241–56.

  Enright, Tim. “George Thomson: A Memoir.” In George Thomson, Island Home.

  ———. Introduction, Seán O’Crohan, A Day in Our Life.

  ———. Introduction, Tomás O’Crohan, Island Cross-Talk.

  ———. “Padraig Keane—King of the Blasket.” Evening Echo, February 25, 1984.

  Feiritéar, Breandán. “The Last Days of the Blasket Community As Seen from the Mainland.” Typescript of talk given at Colloquium on the Life and Work of George Thomson, January 7, 1989.

  Ferriter, Diarmaid. Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland. London: Profile Books, 2009.

  Fitz Gerald, Joan. “From Orality to Literacy on the Blasket Islands.” In Giuseppe Serpillo and Donatella Abbate Badin, eds., The Classical World and the Mediterranean (Cagliari, Italy: Tema, 1996), pp. 284–93.

  Fleming, Deborah. “A Man Who Does Not Exist”: The Irish Peasant in the Work of W. B. Yeats and J. M. Synge. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.

  Flower, Patrick. “My Father.” In Mícheál de Mórdha, ed., Blaíthín.

  Flower, Robin. Foreword, Tomás Ó Crohan, The Islandman, pp. v–xi.

  ———. Eire and Other Poems. London: Locke Ellis, 1910.

  ———. “An Irish Island: The Story of the Blaskets.” Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1931–32, pp. 1–33.

  ———. The Western Island. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

  ———. The Irish Tradition. Dublin: Lilliput Press,1994.

  ———. Poems and Translations. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1994.

  Foley, Patrick. The Ancient and Present State of the Skelligs, Blasket Islands, Donquin and the West of Dingle. Baile Átha Cliath: An Cló-Cumann Teóranta, 1903.

  ———. History of the Natural, Civil, Military and Ecclesiastical State of the County of Kerry. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker, 1907.

  Foster, John Wilson. “Waking the Dead: The Islandman and the Irish Revival.” Irish Renaissance Annual, Spring 1982, pp. 47–58.

  ———. “Certain Set Apart: The Romantic Strategy—John Millington Synge.” In John Wilson Foster, Fictions of the Irish Literary Revival: A Changeling Art (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987).

  ———. “The Island Man: The Rise (and Fall) of the Peasant Author—Tomás Ó Crohan.” In John Wilson Foster, Fictions of the Irish Literary Revival: A Changeling Art (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987).

  Garvin, Tom. “The Politics of Language and Literature in Pre-Independence Ireland.” Irish Political Studies, vol. 2 (1987), pp. 49–63.

  Gathercole, Peter. “Aeschylus, the Blaskets and Marxism: Interconnecting Influences on the Writings of George Thomson.” In The Lure of Greece: Irish Involvement in Greek Culture, Literature, History and Politics, eds. John Victor Luce, Christine Morris, and Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood (Dublin: Hinds, 2007).

  Genet, Jacqueline. “Yeats and the Myth of Rural Ireland.” In Genet, ed., Rural Ireland, Real Ireland?, pp. 139–57.

  Genet, Jacqueline, ed. Rural Ireland, Real Ireland? Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, U.K.: Colin Smythe, 1996. />
  “Gentle, Gracious and Gifted—Peig of the Blaskets.” Irish Independent, January 12, 1952.

  “George Thomson.” Feras, ed. In L. Varcl and R. F. Willetts, pp. 11–17.

  Goldring, Maurice. Irlande: Idéologie d’une révolution nationale. Paris: Éditions Sociales, 1975.

  Gorky, Maxim. Autobiography of Maxim Gorky. London: Elek Books, 1953.

  Greene, David. “Carl J. S. Marstrander (1883–1965). Studia Celtica, vol. 1 (1966), pp. 204–5.

  ———. The Irish Language. Published for the Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland at the Three Candles, Ltd., Dublin, 1966.

  ———. “A Warm and Generous Friend.” Sunday Independent, January 16, 1966, p. 6.

  Greene, David H. “J. M. Synge—A Centenary Appraisal.” In J. M. Synge: Centenary Papers, ed. Maurice Harmon (Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1971).

  Greene, David H., and Edward M. Stephens. J. M. Synge, 1871–1909. New York: New York University Press, 1989.

  Gregg, Gerry. George Thomson: Eighty Years A-Growing. Video documentary. Dublin: Vermillion Films for RTÉ, 1998.

  Gregory, Lady. Our Irish Theatre. New York: Capricorn Books, 1965.

  Grene, Nicholas. Synge: A Critical Study of the Plays. London: Macmillan, 1975.

  Grene, Nicholas, ed. J. M. Synge, Travelling Ireland: Essays 1898–1908. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2009.

  Hamsun, Knut. Growth of the Soil. Translated by W. W. Worster. Sioux Falls, S.D.: NuVision Publications, 2008.

  Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D’Urbervilles. New York: Modern Library, 1951.

  Harris, John. “Orality and Literacy in Tomás Ó Criomhthain’s Narrative Style.” Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 19 (1993), pp. 20–30.

  Harris, P. R. A History of the British Museum Library, 1753–1973. London: British Library, 1998.

  Harrison, Alan. “Review Article: Blasket Literature.” Irish University Review, vol. 31, no. 2 (2001), pp. 488–94.

  Hart, Peter. Mick: The Real Michael Collins. New York: Viking Penguin, 2006.

  Headlam, W. “Greek Lyric Metre.” Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 22 (1902), pp. 209–27.

  Hearn, Mona. “Life for Domestic Servants in Dublin, 1880–1920.” In Maria Luddy and Cliona Murphy, Women Surviving (Dublin: Poolbeg, 1989).