The Irish Literary Renaissance and the New Irish Theatre: Consciously Represented Irish National Aspirations
"Part of the problem with Ireland is that everything is
named after someone. In Dublin, there is a railway station called Sydney Parade,
and for many years, I thought Sydney Parade was one of the leaders in the 1916
Rising."
Joseph O'Connor (1963 - )
Though Irelandwas a part of the British Isles, like Wales and Scotland, the Irish people
considered themselves as different and were contemptuous of British Suzerainty.
Eventually, by the late 19th century
the Irish had lost faith in political solutions to Ireland’s problems and
turned to cultural nationalism instead. They revolted against British
exploitation and ruthless suppression of Irish national aspirations, in spite
of Irish representation in British parliament. The British overlords,
domineering over the Irish grew more ruthless when the Irish Republican Army
went underground to organize the relentless struggle for Independence. Read More Drama Thus Irish
nationalism was born and sought expression in Irish literature that consciously
represented Irish national aspirations. Read More Drama The Catholic faith
and pagan beliefs of the Irish people too had a pervasive influence that
inspired rebellion against the protestant English rulers.
In 1893 Eoin Mac Neill and Douglas Hyde founded the Gaelic
League to restore Irish as the spoken language of the country; the organization
eventually became the driving force for the assertion of Irish identity. The
search for Ireland’s lost Gaelic heritage ushered in a period known as the
Irish Renaissance in the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade
of the 20th century.
Towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Century the patriotic
Zeal of W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore, George Russel, Edward Martyn
and Maude Gonne created a literary movement. Its intention was to find the sources for a
new Irish literature in the Irish countryside and in Irish myth. The new Irish Theatre and the Irish plays of Synge and others helped this movement create a
sort of awareness that led to Irish Renaissance. These new plays used the
language spoken by the Irish peasant workers and fishermen whose life and
experiences formed the nucleus of the plays.
The new Irish Theatre and the new Irish drama did not aim to appeal to the senses; they meant
toappeal to the intellect and the spirit, eventually furnishing a sort of
vehicle for the expression of the nationalist thought and ideals. Read More Drama Its end was a
revival of Irish cultural traditions and a renewal of national onsc1ousness
that merged in the organized movement against the English. All the plays
written and Staged with this aim did not quite succeed. Two dramatists, Synge
and Sean O’Casey, fulfilled their roinmitment and made Irish literary
Renaissance proud with their contributions.
Drama, however, was the literary form that
best captured the ideals of the Irish Renaissance and established Ireland's
literary reputation. Read More Drama Yeats, Lady Gregory,
and playwright Edward Martyn published their Irish Literary Theatre manifesto
in 1899, promising to create a national theatre for Ireland. The Irish Literary Theatre, which opened that year, was succeeded in 1902 by the Irish National
Theatre Society. In 1904 the Society opened the Abbey Theatre, whose purpose
was to present Irish plays about Irish subjects. The plays it produced
dramatized Irish myth and history and portrayed Irish peasant life
realistically.
In its first year the Irish Literary Theatre produced Yeats's The Countess Cathleen and Martyn’s realistic
drama The Heather Field. The Countess Cathleen aroused
controversy, especially among Catholics, because its heroine sells her soul to
feed her starving tenants during a famine. One of the theatre’s biggest
successes was Cathleen nà Houlihan (1902), produced in the theatre’s
fourth season. Read
More Drama Now accepted as written by both Lady Gregory and Yeats but
originally attributed to Yeats alone, Cathleen nà Houlihan dramatized a
myth of blood sacrifice that transforms a poor old woman, a symbol of Ireland,
into a young girl. That same year Lady Gregory’s translation of the Ulster
Cycle’s Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902) provided writers of the Irish
Renaissance with access to material from that saga. Lady Gregory's other
nationalist play, The Rising of the Moon (1907); her comedies Spreading
the News (1904) and The Workhouse Ward (1908); and her tragedy The
Gaol Gate (1906) also enjoyed success at the Abbey.
References
1. W. B. Yeats, man and poet : Jeffares, A. Norman : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/wbyeatsmanpoet00jeff
2. A History Of English Drama 1660 1900 : Allardyce Nicoll : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.58964
3. Bentley, Eric. "Abbey Theatre." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.
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