On an Irish Island

by Robert Kanigel

  32 Máire Ní Chatháin: See Matson, “Blasket Lives.”

  33 She is a small, beautifully-formed woman: Synge, Travels, p. 88.

  34 Heard a story of Connaught man: Synge, The Aran Islands, p. 42.

  35 Country public house or Shebeen: Pierce, p. 172.

  36 Playboy Riots: See, for instance, Lady Gregory, Our Irish Theatre.

  37 Streeleen: Kiberd, Synge and the Irish Language, p. 52.

  38 one of the most beautiful and living figures: Percival Presland Howe, J. M. Synge: A Critical Study (1912), p. 168.

  39 Favors actress Molly Allgood: Ann Saddlemyer, e‑mail.

  40 Prototype: Greene and Stephens, p. 203.

  41 Puts him to bed: Synge, Travels, p. 90.

  42 Well, aren’t you … company of women: Ibid., p. 101.

  43 He was shy and inclined to silence: Greene and Stephens, p. 52.

  44 The direct sexual instincts: Synge, The Aran Islands, p. 77.

  45 As she put her hands on my shoulders: Synge, Travels, p. 95.

  46 Hadn’t enough material: Synge to Joseph Hone, Jan. 17, 1907, in Saddlemyer, ed., Letters of Synge, p. 283.

  47 The most intimate experience: Grene, ed., J. M. Synge, Travelling Ireland, p. xxi.

  48 Wonderful air, which is like wine in one’s teeth: Synge, Travels, p. 85

  49 Walked through a boreen: Ibid., p. 89

  50 Slights: KerryIsland, pp. 133–134.

  51 Emphasis on wildness suggests a primitive simplicity: Hidden, p. 45.

  52 Shows him … little of himself: Ibid., p. 46. In her doctoral dissertation, on which her book is based, Lucchitti writes, “ … gave nothing of himself.”

  53 A nicer thing: Synge, “Notes in Ballyferriter,” p. 24.

  54 I am sitting within the four whitewashed walls: Ibid., p. 26.

  55 They have an island and I have an ink-pot: Ibid.

  56 Awkward English: Mr. Pat Keane to Synge, Jan. 20, 1906, letter 233, TCD MS 4424, Trinity College, Dublin.

  57 Aspiring to simplicity: Agostini, p. 161.

  2. THE FINE FLOWER OF THEIR SPEECH

  1 All the bridges to the outside: Marstrander, p. 5.

  2 Children of nature: Ibid., p. 14.

  3 Superstitious and blinded: Ibid., p. 15.

  4 That the Almighty might lead your boats into destruction: Ibid.

  5 It’s from these evening gatherings: Ibid., p. 16.

  6 Healthy and high: Ibid., p. 20.

  7 I have never met … thinking back on them: Ibid., p. 21.

  8 Marstrander was the son: See Celtic, chap. 7; Olsen; Greene, “A Warm and Generous Friend,” and “Carl J. S. Marstrander”; Binchy, “Norse Scholar”; Oftedal obituaries; McGrath, “ ​‘The Vikings’ Great Gaelic Studies”; Ó Lúing papers, NatLib.

  9 London, not Athens: Bo Almqvist pointed this out at a conference devoted to Marstrander at the Blasket Centre, Oct. 2007.

  10 Hic Rhodus: Ó Lúing papers, NatLib.

  11 Fertile scholarly ground: Olsen, p. 55.

  12 Teetotal Hotel: Marstrander, p. 2.

  13 The living Irish: Seán Ó Criomhthain interview, in Memories, p. 90.

  14 I did not … difficult Irish language: Marstrander, p. 4.

  15 My enemy is just behind my ear: Seán Ó Criomhthain interview, in Memories, p. 90.

  16 An honest attempt to get my tongue right: See also, Robin Flower to Idris Bell, before July 17, 1910, in which he tells the story he heard from Marstrander himself.

  17 To learn the spoken tongue: Details offered in these pages do not reflect reading or speaking knowledge of Irish on my part but are drawn from a number of authoritative sources: Ó Cuív; Ní Chartúir; Ó Siadhail; Kenneth Jackson, “Some Mutations in Blasket Irish”; a variety of dictionaries, standard texts, and online sites devoted to the language. Thanks to Jennifer Hogan for a short course in Irish Gaelic given at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Jan. 2006; and to Ruth Uí Ógáin for reviewing this brief treatment.

  “I still find the same difficulty in understanding [the locals]: they all speak so terribly fast. ​. ​. ​. I never had such an experience before with language,” writes Richard Irvine Best in frustration while staying with Willie Long in Ballyferriter in 1908. “I attribute it altogether to the absurd antiquated spelling. The spoken word and phrase has no identity with the written word. That is why so few native speakers can read Irish. Again, final vowels are elided, terminations vanish, and words are quite obscured by accent or lack of accent.” (Ó Lúing, “The Scholar’s Path.”)

  18 When I … disgusted and pessimistic: Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, cited in Celtic, p. 114.

  19 After a fortnight in Balleyferriter: Marstrander, p. 5.

  20 The speech is like a big river: Ibid., p. 14.

  21 His business was to get the fine flower of the speech: Islandman, p. 224.

  22 Fine with him: Ibid.

  23 We’ll manage. I won’t refuse you: Seán Ó Criomhthain interview, in Memories, p. 91.

  24 Improving moderately: Marstrander to Richard Best, in Irish, Sept. 15, 1907, Ó Lúing papers, NatLib.

  25 Vocabulary lists: KerryIsland, p. 102.

  26 Rude sketches: Ibid., p. 88.

  27 Marstrander bridged this gap: Oftedal, “Carl J. S. Marstrander.”

  28 Had little … Healthy as a salmon: Seán Ó Criomhthain interview, in Memories, p. 90.

  29 Aboard their joined hands: Ibid., p. 91.

  30 Charms the young ones: Marstrander, p. 15.

  31 Accepted like … as an Islander: Ibid., p. 14.

  32 A fine man: Islandman, p. 224.

  33 Convinced … a special people: Marstrander conference, 2007.

  34 I haven’t heard … many a long day: Islandman, p. 225.

  35 One of the most … elemental phenomena: Ó Lúing, Kuno Meyer, p. 240.

  36 School of Irish Learning was already taking shape: For the early years of the school, see Ériu: The Journal of the School of Irish Learning (Dublin), beginning in 1904; Celtic; Ó Lúing, Kuno Meyer.

  37 Garden party: Bláithín, p. 26.

  38 Infixed pronouns; the vagaries of the copula: Robin Flower to Idris Bell, before July 17, 1910, British Library.

  39 By common consent: Bell, p. 362.

  40 Three weeks’ leave: Records of Standing Committee, 1910–1944, p. 2718, British Museum.

  41 What human beings … gift of eternal youth: Robin Flower to Idris Bell, c. July 1910, British Library.

  42 A bit of a trickster: Bo Almqvist, at Marstrander conference, Blasket Centre, Oct. 2007.

  43 Robin Ernest William Flower: See Bell; Robinson; Celtic, chap. 5; Prescott; Bláithín.

  44 String bag: Patrick Flower, p. 23.

  45 His pockets always bulged: Bell, p. 355.

  46 British Museum, Manuscripts Department: See P. R. Harris; Wilson.

  47 Home from home for the great reader: Patrick Flower, p. 25.

  48 His practice of wandering about the Department: Bell, p. 360.

  49 Pangur Ban: Robin Flower, The Irish Tradition, p. 24.

  50 I am safe here in the royal palace: Robin Flower to Idris Bell, Aug. 9, 1910, British Library.

  51 Tír na nÓg: Robin Flower’s poem is in his Eire and Other Poems.

  52 Talking with Cáit: Robin Flower to Idris Bell, Aug. 9, 1910, British Library. On Aug. 7, 1911, Cáit wrote the Flowers thanking them for the parcel she’d received from them, “but sorry to say I cannot ware it here, because they don’t ware such dresses in Kerry. I thought it rather tight around but I know they are the latest fashion.” (Delargy.)

  53 Two-week leave: Records of Standing Committee, 1910–1944, p. 2779, British Museum.

  54 Glorious time: Flower to Best, Aug. 9, 1911, NatLib.

  55 And did some rather nice sketches: See Robin Flower, The Western Island. Mrs. Flower was “much more observant in my view than her husband Robin in some respects,” suggests Muiris Mac Conghail in an RTÉ program aired Oct. 22, 2002.

  56 Pen-and-ink she made
… of the king’s house: Ibid., p. 43. An exhibit at the Blasket Centre represents this image.

  57 As good lodgings: Celtic, p. 127. But see Marstrander, p. 9, where he recalls being less pleased, recording that he had to ask his host, the king, to make a window for his room, that “the rain made small streams on the floor,” that mold grew “thick on my clothes after a couple of days.”

  58 In another country: Máire Mhac a tSaoi, interviewed on RTÉ, broadcast Oct. 2003.

  59 Posed beside the slipway: KerryIsland, p. 99.

  60 My high-spirited friend: As translated in Mac Conghail’s Another Island. For a variant, see KerryIsland, p. 138.

  61 You may imagine … ingenious and complicated: Robin Flower, The Western Island, p. 37.

  62 Foaming crests: Ibid.

  63 Dear young gentleman: Tomás Ó Criomhthain to Flower, Aug. 29, 1910, Delargy.

  64 A sudden feeling: Robin Flower, The Western Island, p. 12.

  3. BRIAN’S CHAIR

  1 Gaelic League teacher: Nic Gráinne, p. 94,

  2 In the Protestant school: “The origins of his literacy in Irish are more likely to derive from the legacy of the Protestant missionary school on the island,” which operated from about 1839 to 1863; the Roman Catholic primary school opened the following year (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Tomás Ó Criomhthain).

  3 Until I got a taste for the business: Islandman, p. 223.

  4 Calligraphic art: Ms. 15,785, NatLib.

  5 A cramped little house, roofed with rushes: Islandman, p. 2.

  6 My father … great man for work. Ibid., p. 3.

  7 The Troubles of Life: Islandman, chap. 20.

  8 I was told … like iron: Interview, in Another.

  9 Eveleen Nichols: See Ó Dubhshláine, A Dark Day on the Blaskets; Matson, Méiní, chap. 12.

  10 One day: Islandman, p. 197.

  11 He let out a scream: Ó Dubhshláine, A Dark Day on the Blaskets, p. 97.

  12 Dónall’s Scholar: Reflections, p. 6.

  13 Only island name: KerryIsland, p. 131.

  14 A small, lively man: Robin Flower, foreword, Islandman, p. ix.

  15 Tremendously close friends: In Another.

  16 Cross the Irish Sea: Tomás Ó Criomhthain to Mrs. Flower, Aug. 30, 1915. Delargy Centre.

  17 It is horrid work: Flower to Best, NatLib, in Seán Ó Lúing, Saoir Theangan (Coiscéim, 1989).

  18 Stood off to the side: Matson writes, in “Blasket Lives,” that when a ship went aground on the island in 1916, Tomás was not part of a regular crew, perhaps “because some of the fishermen did not regard him as being a regular fisherman or looked on him as an unusual person who might not fit in, or who might look on himself as a cut above them.”

  19 Roger Casement: This account broadly follows Mac Conghail, “Brian Ó Ceallaigh.”

  20 We understood each other: An Seabhac, “Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Fisherman and Author,” p. 30, RuthTransl.

  21 Are there limpets: Cross, p. 20.

  22 Printed word was not quite so alien: See, for example, Hidden, p. 110.

  23 Pebbles of language: Ibid., p. 195.

  24 Qualified to congratulate: Ó Criomhthain to Flower, Sept. 18, 1911, Delargy.

  25 Irish Professor: Ó Criomhthain to Mrs. Flower, n.d., Delargy.

  26 Everyone knows: Cited in Enright, introduction, Cross, p. 4.

  27 For people … uncomplicated existence: Kelly.

  28 Write about what you see at this moment: Ibid.

  29 The Voice in the Afternoon: An Lóchrann, Dec. 1917.

  30 You can’t live on scenery: Kelly.

  31 I don’t think: “Radharc na nIontas,” Fáinne an Lae, Oct. 12, 1918.

  32 The nights are getting longer: Quoted in Lucchitti, p. 117.

  33 Exacting in his standards: Bell, p. 367.

  34 He had an instinct … true literary taste: Eoin MacNeill.

  35 Cherished that pen: Account follows Seán Ó Criomhthain interview, in Memories, p. 113.

  36 He said it would be a pity if I were idle: Cited in Enright, introduction, Cross, p. 2.

  37 Sit down a bit: Islandman, p. 86. Another translation in KerryIsland, p. 141.

  38 Sheep killed by neighbors: A translation of this poem appears in Ó Scannláin, pp. 73–77.

  39 Phonetic script: Islandman, p. 87. “I set about scribbling down the words as they came out of his mouth. It wasn’t in the usual spelling that I wrote them, for I hadn’t enough practice in it in those days.”

  40 I thought it a pity: Kelly.

  41 Séamus and His Cravings: Cross, p. 11.

  42 Tadhg the Joker: Ibid., p. 12.

  43 The mountains were aglow: Ibid, p. 80.

  44 I have the seven cares: Ibid., p. 66.

  45 I had forgotten: Thomson to Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, Oct. 29, 1975, Thomson Archives.

  46 The great pearl: Reflections, p. 38.

  47 They lived there in each other’s shadow: Reflections, p. 39.

  48 He was a mason: Kelly.

  49 Wouldn’t it delight: Cross, p. 191.

  50 One crowned King: Ibid., p. 51.

  51 A currach: Ibid., p. 78.

  52 I am writing this: Cross, p. 208.

  4. NICE BOY WITH A CAMERA

  1 He occupied rooms: King’s College Archives.

  2 Classicist, below a budding mathematician: Ibid.

  3 Markby, and a French peasant girl: Markby, Thomson’s family generally, letters quoted, marriage certificate, and other family records, photographs, etc., from Thomson Archives.

  4 Derwentwater: Margaret Alexiou, interview.

  5 Lending library: Birmingham.

  6 Dulwich College: Dulwich College archives; Piggott; Dulwich College Register, 1629–1926, compiled by Thomas Lane Ormiston; issues of Dulwich College Alleynian.

  7 Six years of unbroken bliss: Piggott, p. 217.

  8 Forged a letter: Katharine Thomson, in Eighty.

  9 Chiton and sandals: Alleynian, 1921, Dulwich College archives.

  10 A production of the Oresteia: Thomson to Sheppard, June 27, 1929, Thomas Archives. See also Alleynian, Feb. 21, 1921: “J. T. Sheppard [O.A.], Fellow of King’s College, has the production of the ‘Oresteia’ of Aeschylus in his hands; the play is to be performed at Cambridge this month.”

  11 Sheppard: Wilkinson, pp. 194–95.

  12 At the risk of appearing sentimental or gushing: Thomson to Sheppard, June 27, 1929, Thomson Archives.

  13 Classics was second best: Margaret Alexiou, interview. See also Thomson to Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, Oct. 29, 1975, Thomson Archives, in which Thomson speaks of his youthful “intention to give up Greek for Irish. I was put off Old Irish by the specialists who (with the exception of Robin Flower) seemed to treat it as philology and nothing more.”

  14 During the last years: Statement by Thomson, in KathFrag.

  15 Tess of the D’Urbervilles: Thomson to Arnold Kettle, Sept. 22, 1953, Thomson Archives: “Ever since I read Tess at sixteen ​. ​. ​.”

  16 Rescued: George Thomson, “Thomas Hardy and the Peasantry,” p. 633.

  17 The burning anger: Thomson, China journal, May 24, 1955, Thomson Archives.

  18 Evokes so many forgotten memories: Ibid., May 18, 1955.

  19 I spent my holidays in Dorset: Thomson to Arnold Kettle, Sept. 22, 1953, Thomson Archives.

  20 Black-and-Tan terror: Thomson, China journal, May 24, 1955, Thomson Archives.

  21 An ardent Sinn Feiner: George Thomson, “Irish Language Revival,” p. 7.

  22 About seventeen: According to Thomson, China journal, May 24, 1955, Thomson Archives, it was “a year or two” after reading Tess of the D’Urbervilles for the first time, at age sixteen (see above note to p. 71), that he joined the Gaelic League in London.

  23 As soon as … cadet uniform: Katharine, in Eighty.

  24 The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne: In Blasket Centre library, as well as the others mentioned.

  25 Of “fear” and “ban” and “rann”: The t
hree Irish words meant “man,” “white,” and “verse,” while the final phrase referred to a rule of grammar. (“To con” meant to learn by rote.)

  26 Waley suggested: Thomson, in Another; Enright, “George Thomson: A Memoir.”

  27 Arrived in Dingle: See Raidió na Gaeltachta Collection, Blasket Centre, CD 0945 (04), RuthTransl.

  28 Just a slip of a school girl: Quoted in Enright, “George Thomson: A Memoir,” 119.

  29 Pointing to the pot rack: Ibid., p. 121.

  30 By listening to them reciting it by heart: Ray Stagles, interview.

  31 Their family name: On Irish names, see, especially, Matson, “Blasket Lives.”

  32 Six Seán Ó Cearnaighs: Matson, “Blasket Lives,” p. 2.

  33 He was … studious and introspective: George Thomson, foreword, O’Guiheen, p. vi.

  34 He’s a nice boy. He has a camera: Ní Loingsigh, entry for Sept. 7, 1923, RuthTransl.

  35 I have not seen the young Englishman: Máiréad Ní Loingsigh, entry for Sept. 2, 1923, RuthTransl.

  36 Beginish just behind them: Photograph, Blasket Centre.

  37 Because I’ve never seen my own picture: Máiréad Ní Loingsigh, entry for Sept. 29, 1923, RuthTransl.

  38 Maurice: See, for example, Twenty; Uí Aimhirgín, Reflections.

  39 That this girl … And they’d believe him: Máire Mhic Ní Shúilleabháin, interview by Mícheál de Mórdha, 1993, Blasket Centre, RuthTransl.

  40 Ghost in her coat: Ibid.

  41 Meeting George Thomson: Twenty, chap. 19.

  42 If everyone in Ireland … Gaels again: Twenty, p. 222.

  43 Happy as children: Ibid., p. 223.

  44 It is a pity … Not in the city of London: Ibid., p. 224.

  45 Daideo: Matson, “Blasket Lives.”

  46 If I had been listening with eyes closed: Thomson, China journal, June 14, 1955, Thomson Archives.

  47 Men meet but not the hills or mountains: Mac Conghail, “An English Scholar of Ireland and Greece.”