Irish Renaissance

The Irish Renaissance was a non-political movement that was envisioning a revival of Anglo-Irish literature. The movement was supported by artists like W.B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, George Russell (AE), Douglas Hyde, T.W. Rolleston, Standish O´Grady, John Millington Synge, George Moore, James Stephens, Edward Martyn, James Joyce, Padraic Colum, William Boyle and others. The revival started off with romanticizing the early legends and trying to establish new Irish heroes based on folklore. It was believed that political and economic independence is not sufficient but needs the promotion of Irish cultural awareness. This included to establish a common picture of Irishness and the revivalists pictured their country as “a poor old woman who would become queen once more only when men became as chivalrous as Cú Chulainn and thought her worth dying for” (Mc Carthy 2001, p. 246).

Before the Irish Renaissance

Before the Irish Renaissance there were two kinds of literature coming from Ireland: On the one hand the Gaelic literature which was literature of the past, folk tales, Irish myths and saga, Fenian stories (telling about Fionn mac Cumhaill) and heroic stories of Cuchulain written in Gaelic. On the other hand Anglo-Irish literature that developed after about 1800 existed. This trend was mainly coined by narratives and the central topic of the love-hatred for Ireland. These narratives were often full of exploitations of the local color of Ireland, the English stereotypes of the Irish peasants and Irish stereotypes of the landlord, uncritical patriotism and sentimentality. The beginning of the Irish Renaissance

There are different opinions on when the Irish Renaissance began, a movement steering away from the former what had been there and moving towards a new and distinctive national literature. There are opinions that the movement started around 1885 when W.B. Yeats met John O´Leary, a political activist and a famous man among Irish nationalists, and a friendship started between them. This is when Yeats was inspired by O´Leary´s Irish books and he discovered his own Irishness (see Fallis 1978, p.4).

In general it was already before the 1885s that in Anglo-Irish literature a distinctive voice could be discovered: Some suggest the year 1842 as the start of the movement since it was when Thomas Davis began to publish “The Nation” and a group of young writers and thinkers called “Young Ireland” wrote ballads and patriotic poetry with the emphasis on political statement. Also 1878 stands out as an important date since it was when Standish O´Grady published “History of Ireland: Heroic Period”. This book included stories of ancient Ireland, among others those of Cuchulain and led to the excitement of the imaginations of some Irish writers.

The first ideas of the Irish Renaissance

The reason why John O´Leary stood out as a major figure in the birth of the Irish Renaissance were his ideas on how literature should be like: To him it was important that literature is not meant to just serve the nationalistic cause while sacrificing artistry. Therefore, the relationship between literature and nationalism had to be clarified and this needed a writer who was willing to commit himself to the Irish nationalism and helps to create a distinctive Irish national imagination. O´Leary argued that the topics and style of that new literature must be Irish. One problem was that literature written in Gaelic did not seem appropriate due to the lack of language proficiency of authors as well as the audience. Therefore, writers had to use the English language, but, it was suggested by O´Leary, could find the Irish subject and style by studying mythology, the legend of ancient Ireland, folklore and the history of modern Ireland and by listening to the Irish English. This should help to create a literature so Irish with a national imagination that it would balance out the lack of propaganda in promotion of nationalism and prepare the country spiritually for the political liberation to come. (see Fallis 1978, p. 5f).

These ideas showed that the Irish Renaissance was born out of the conflict between Anglo-Ireland and Celtic Ireland and left its mark on artists like Yeats, Hyde and Russell (mainly known as AE). All of them had to work to understand and become someone who would be thought of as the typical Irishmen - especially since all three were from English decent. There was a growing interest in the idea of Celticism and the idea developed among many writers that there is a distinctive kind of national or racial imagination among the Celtic peasants of Ireland. The turn towards Ireland´s older Celtic inheritance also seemed important at the time of the indictment of Anglo-Irish nationalism after the fall of Charles Stewart Parnell (see Fallis 1978, p. 56).

The first display of these ideas in art was the book “Poems and Ballads of Young Ireland” in 1888 with some of Yeats´s early poems, poems by Hyde, Rolleston and others. It could be seen that the emphasis was not on patriotic sentiment and political matters, but on craftsmanship, ancient Ireland and the Ireland of folklore. Consequently, the movement “at least in the first phase of the Irish Renaissance would find a continuing sustenance in the Gaelic Ireland that was past or passing” (Fallis 1978, p. 11), thus in the myth, legend and literary inheritance (Gaelic narratives and poetry and Anglo-Irish achievements in writing). It also became clear that a literary revival of the past of the Gaelic tradition would be more successful by a group effort and a close personal contact among the writers.

How to create a literature distinctively Irish?

There were many solutions to that question by different writers.

W.B. Yeats, remaining the best-known figure of the movement, went through different stages in his works: In the first years, the 1890s after having gathered many folk materials, he blended personal concerns and Celtic imagery in the old Anglo-Irish style and his beliefs in the supernatural became an important part in his poems. Yeats also experimented with a mixture of Celtic imagery and French symbolist technique and found his style that reminded of Gaelic folksong. In many of his poems and also of those of AE it can be seen that an intimate connection exists between their poetry and nationalism.

J.M. Synge (The Playboy of the Western World (1907)) was very familiar with European dramatic techniques and combined this with folklore from Wicklow, Kerry and Aran. His plays however were often criticized, as Irish nationalists condemned that he portrays peasants as brutal, vulgar and small-minded and as a result destroyed a century of myth about the peasantry of the west of Ireland (see Fallis 1978, p. 105).

Lady Augusta Gregory, in contrast to most of the other writers, lived closer to the life of Gaelic- speaking Ireland and hence used her experience from both cultures with the French farce in some of her work. In her plays she also used the stage Irishmen and aristocratic attitudes towards the peasant but displayed it with rightness in them and was also sensitive to the darker side of the Irish experience.

George Moore wrote short stories that were full of sympathy for those oppressed and in his stories took ordinary Irish people seriously.

James Joyce used incidents from ordinary life. To embody this popular culture of his time he used symbolism and naturalism methods to write fiction. Hyde wrote English tale versions of Gaelic originals and also used a dialect which revealed the English spoken in Ireland and followed a process of preservation and innovation and thus emphasized the wealth of Gaelic works.

Later, after the turn of the century and politics shaping the literary landscape, poets once again had to deal with the problem of what is Irishness in subject and style. There were different opinions coming up anew and different answers to that problem: the old style but patriotic sentiment in language, mysticism and rhythms of the first phase of movement (Celtic Twilight), urban impressionism to show the Irish experience or something close to folk poetry.

A general expansion from glorifying Celticism to Urban themes and images took place and also an expansion from nationalism to more extreme nationalism by some poets or the dismissal of the nationalistic cause.

Results of the Irish Renaissance

The Irish Renaissance not only produced many literary works in form of poems, plays and fiction, but was also significant in shaping the cultural and political landscape of Ireland. First, Yeats, Martyn and Lady Gregory developed the first theatre willing to present serious Irish Drama, the Abbey Theatre, and second and even more important, it played a major role in the process of establishing a growing sense of Irish self-identity. While Irish politicians fought and were rather ineffective in the progress of becoming independent, especially after the fall of Parnell and his unified national movement, the Irish Renaissance and other movements like the Gaelic Athlete Association (GAA) and the Gaelic League, helped to give orientation and cater the intellectual needs of Ireland to preserve their nationality. Also many men and women leading the more extreme nationalist organizations that began to emerge developed a patriotism that had been fired by the works of the Irish Renaissance.

The end of the Irish Renaissance

The opinions on when the Irish Renaissance ended are diverse, but it could be claimed that the loss of the old energy around 1940 marks the end of the Irish Renaissance (see Fallis 1978, p. 264).

Sources:

Fallis, R. (1978): Irish Renaissance – An introduction to Anglo-Irish literature. Dublin. Gill and Macmillan.

Mc Cartney, D. (2001): From Parnell to Pearse 1891-1921. In: Moody, T.W. & Martin, F.X.: The Course of Irish History. Dublin. Mercier Press. pp. 245-259.

Moore, Christopher (1992): Introduction. In: W.B. Yeats – Selected Poems. New York/New Jersey. Gramercy Books.