On an Irish Island (46 page)

    
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 Information about him here is drawn from his own unpublished introduction to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: Lís, 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.

  
37
  I must get Peig Sayers to be my teacher: Jackson, in
Another.

  
38
  Is at once the Bible: W. B. Yeats, “The Message of the Folk-lorist,”
Speaker,
Aug. 19, 1893, p. 186.

  
39
  What we mean by folk culture: Kenneth Jackson, “The International Folktale in Ireland,” p. 264.

  
40
  Learning became popularised: Ibid., p. 265.

  
41
  The cinemas and wirelesses: Jackson, in
Another.

  
42
  Special leave: Records of Standing Committee, 1910–1944, p. 4651, British Museum.

  
43
  My visit is an extraordinary success: Flower to Idris Bell, annotated as “after 27 May 1930,” ff67, British Library.

  
44
  Ediphone: Demonstration and informational film furnished by Anna Bale, Delargy.

  
45
  Payment in cigarettes: Seán Pheats Team Ó Cearnaigh, interview with Mícheál de Mórdha, 1993, Blasket Centre, RuthTransl.

  
46
  Independent of time: Flower to Idris Bell, May 27, 1930, ff66, British Library.

  
47
  Folksongs enough: Flower to Idris Bell, annotated as “after 27 May 1930, ff67, British Library.”

  
48
  I give concerts: Ibid.

  
49
  Hearty laugh only rarely: Joe Daly, in
Another.

  
50
  Her changes of mood: W. R. Rodgers, introduction, Sayers,
An Old Woman’s Reflections,
p. xiii.

  
51
  Enormous power: Joe Daly, in
Another.

  
52
  Graduation requirement:
“I don’t think it is, or was, a book for teenagers,” said Cathal Póirtéir of Peig’s books. Póirtéir was being interviewed on RTÉ, May 1, 2008, about his production of
Blasket Island Reflections.
They “didn’t want an
old woman moaning about how hard her life was when really they were interested in the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and U2.”

  
53
  She was … most beautiful eyes: Jackson, in
Another.
See also
Reflections,
p. 18: “Those who knew
  Peig Sayers paint a picture of a woman noted for her good looks, earthy sense of humour and occasionally racy language.”
  Pádraig Ua Maoileoin refers to “her frankness in sexual discussions.” Almqvist says, “Peig was very far from the prude she has often been made out to be” (“The Scholar and the Storyteller,” p. 45).

  
54
  With a face scarcely lined: Mahon, p. 141.

  
55
  It was clear … a man’s woman: Ibid., p. 142.

  
56
  He had a big box: O’Guiheen, p. 79.

  
57
  Mary Kennedy: Biographical details translated and summarized from two Blasket Centre Irish-language articles, RuthTransl; also, “Gentle, Gracious and Gifted—Peig of the Blaskets,”
Irish Independent,
Jan. 12, 1952.

  
58
  Would never be satisfied: O’Guiheen, p. 78.

  
59
  So clean and finished a style: Robin Flower,
The Western Island,
p. 49.

  
60
  We used to peep in through the window: Máirín Bean Uí Bheoláin interviewed by Mícheál de Mórdha, 1993, Blasket Centre, RuthTransl.

  
61
  This one flung warm to the world: O’Hanlon.

  
62
  Is told in fine idiomatic Irish: Nic Gh., p. 93.

  
63
  “What Dublin Is Reading”:
Irish Times,
July 4, 1936.

  
64
  Because this inherited … it is not less literature: Nic Gh., p. 94.

  
65
  The day was beautiful: Seán Pheats Team Ó Cearnaigh,
Fiolar an Eireabaill Bháin,
pp. 41–42, RuthTransl.

  
66
  Some driftwood planks: Lockley,
I Know an Island,
p. 134.

  
67
  And oh Mr. Chambers:
LísLetters,
p. 33.

  
68
  Couldn’t even raise his hand: Seán Ó Criomhthain interview, in
Memories,
p. 116.

  
69
  On landing: In Lís, vol. 1943, p. 58, Eibhlís describes this as Ní Shéaghdha’s own translation of the Irish obituary she wrote for a local paper.

  
70
  Myles na Gopaleen: See his (writing as Flann O’Brien)
The Hair of the Dogma
(London: Grafton Books, 1977); Danielle Jacquin, “ ​‘Cerveaux Lucides Is Good Begob’: Flann O’Brien and the World of Peasants,” in Genet, ed.,
Rural Ireland, Real Ireland?,
pp. 223–33; “An Béal Bocht: Myles na gCopaleen (1911–1966),” in
The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature,
ed. John Jordan (Dublin: Mercier Press, 1977), pp. 85–96; Sarah McKibben, “
The Poor Mouth:
A Parody of (Post) Colonial Irish Manhood,”
Research in African Literatures,
vol. 34, no. 4 (Winter 2003), pp. 96–114.

  
71
  Took a bucket full of muck: Flann O’Brien, p. 16.

  
72
  Prolonged sneer: Flann O’Brien,
The Hair of the Dogma,
p. 181. See also Mac Conghail radio interview, Oct. 22, 2002.

  
73
  Two islanders and two visitors: Photo at Blasket Centre. Thanks to Dáithi de Mórdha for identifying the two islanders.

  
74
  Tonight is very fine:
LísLetters,
p. 79.

    
1
  The village I know best: George Thomson,
Marxism and Poetry,
p. 6.

    
2
  Runs a green Irish thread: Richard Martin, p. 87.

    
3
  He must have become immune to the noise: KathFrag.

    
4
  It shows him in profile: Thomson Archives.

    
5
  Katharine had seen the emergent Nazi Germany: KathFrag.

    
6
  Saw some good: Ibid.

    
7
  He was nearly always tense: Thomson, “Note on Wittgenstein,” Thomson Archives.

    
8
  We were … more to the left: KathFrag.

    
9
  Took to the chessboard: Ibid.

  
10
  Held up by throngs of children: Thomson, quoted in KathFrag. A slightly different version appears in George Thomson,
Aeschylus and Athens,
p. 297.

  
11
  Not only will these cultures: George Thomson, “The Irish Language Revival,” p. 11.

  
12
  There seemed no need for the question-mark: KathFrag.

  
13
  A photograph from this period: W. J. West, in
The Truth About Hollis: An Investigation
(London: Duckworth, 1989).

  
14
  I had a rather … her individualism is untenable: Thomson to Katharine, Sept. 11, 1937, Thomson Archives.

  
15
  Teach the barbarians: Quoted in KathFrag.

  
16
  We were both glad to get away: KathFrag.

  
17
  Common distaste: Thomson, “Note on Wittgenstein,” Thomson Archives.

  
18
  Surrealist painters: See
Surrealism in Birmingham, 1935–1954,
publication accompanying exhibit at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Dec. 9, 2000–March 11, 2001.

  
19
  Here I am: Thomson to Katharine, Jan. 11, 1937, Thomson Archives.

  
20
  Homer on Mondays: Date books, George Thomson, University of Birmingham Special Collections.

  
21
  Bound notebook: Courtesy of Eileen Naughten.

  
22
  Most valuable of the legacies: Review of Thomson’s
The “Oresteia” of Aeschylus,
D. W. Lucas,
The Nineteenth Century,
vol. 125, no. 744, 1939, p. 231.

  
23
  Direct, fluent, and dignified: Review of Thomson’s “The Oresteia of Aeschylus,”
Times Literary Supplement,
Nov. 12, 1938.

  
24
  The primitive collectivism: Joseph Needham, “Historical Materialism and the Ancient World,” journal article, no other information, p. 231.

  
25
  Notebooks he began to keep: University of Birmingham Special Collections.

  
26
  Blasket influence: George Thomson to Hubert Butler, July 21, 1951: “It has always seemed to me that Irish literature is a goldmine for the study of primitive society, but unfortunately very few of those who are qualified to study it know anything about primitive society, and so they don’t know what to look for”
(10304/75/364/205–209, NatLib).

  
27
  My own knowledge … I am a fluent speaker: George Thomson,
Aeschylus and Athens,
p. 390.

  
28
  Almost every face … continuous sobbing: Ibid., p. 381.

  
29
  From the
inside:
Seaford, from unpaged online version.

  
30
  Special debt: George Thomson,
Aeschylus and Athens,
p. vii.

  
31
  Progressively shaped and polished:
Quoted in Richard Martin, p. 88.

  
32
  Aesthetic judgments turn:
  George Thomson,
Studies in Ancient Greeek Society,
p. 539.

  
33
  Ragged peasants: Ibid., p. 540.

  
34
  The driest philologists: Alexiou, “George Thomson: The Greek Dimension,” p. 55.

  
35
  Indirectly but profoundly: Ibid., p. 57.

  
36
  I shall never forget: George Thomson,
Marxism and Poetry,
p. 5.

  
37
  Was something new in Irish literature: George Thomson,
The Blasket Homer.

  
38
  The true bard of the Blaskets: Richard Martin, p. 91.