Irish writers

Irish literature

Let's learn about irish literature history and its most iconic writers

​Irish Literature – a brief history

​The earliest recorded Irish Gaelic was found in 4^th Century inscriptions cut into wood and stone, with 6^th Century manuscripts preserving Ireland’s rich folklore, making Irish literature one of the oldest traditions, behind only that of Greek and Latin literature.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Elegy-of-St-Columba​

Irish literature falls into two distinct categories. Written in the Irish language, the first category includes bardic poems and Celtic sagas. The second category, Irish literature written in English, includes what is often called Anglo-Irish literature, this phenomenon can be explained by England’s historical colonization of Ireland and the acceptance of Irish writers within the British literary tradition.​

Multiple Choice

Irish literature is considered...

• one of the newest literary traditions

• one of the most sofisticated literary traditions

• one of the oldest literary traditions

• one of the easiest to understand

Open Ended

How can we categorize the Irish literature? Why?

Irish literature over the centuries

The advent of the printing press at the end of the 15^th Century opened new literary horizons throughout Europe, but a changing political landscape saw the demise of Gaelic. Ireland continued to earn worldwide respect for its great literary tradition, but through English-language.

Ireland’s history of conquest and colonization, of famine and mass emigration, and of resistance, rebellion, and civil war marked its literature with a series of ruptures and revivals. Since the 17th century, Irish society has also simultaneously been a colonial one and an independent, national one. That hybridity has been the source of endless cultural tension in Irish writing, which has repeatedly coalesced around four issues: land, religion, nationality, and language.

Open Ended

During the 15th Century, in which langugage did Irish authors write? Why?

Multiple Choice

During the 17th century, which were the four main themes in Irish literature?

• Protestanism, Catholicism, Judaism and Polytheism

• Famine, destruction, war and sadness

• Identity, nationalism, patriotism and republicanism

• Land, religion, nationality and language

18th Century​

Although Irish writers are recognized for their contributions to poetry and drama, Irish writers beginning in the eighteenth century contributed also to the rise of the English novel. Irish writers also played a large role in the evolution of the English novel throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Very little eighteenth century Irish fiction deals with Irish subject matter. On the contrary, Irish fiction deals with humor, the sense of the grotesque and fantasy, the significance of anecdote, and the importance of the storyteller, all of which categorize the constructs of the Irish novel. (This is called Anglo-Irish literature).

It was not until the 19^th Century that a revival of Gaelic literature occurred and the Irish-language authors of the 20^th Century took their work to the rest of the world.

Fill in the Blank

When did the revival of Gaelic literature take place?

Multiple Choice

Irish writers contributed to the rise of the English novel.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Much of the 18th century themes in literature deals with Irish matters

• True

• False

In Belfast in 1792 there was an unprecedented gathering of Irish harpers, the aim was to revive “the Ancient Music and Poetry of Ireland.” Musician and folk-song collector Edward Bunting transcribed the music played at the festival and published A General Collection of Ancient Irish Music in 1796, which was followed, in 1809 and 1840, by two expanded editions.

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​The 19th century

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Multiple Choice

When did the harpers meet in Belfast to revive ancient Irish folklore?

• In 1972

• In 1672

• In 1792

Multiple Choice

Who transcribed the music played at the festival into a collection?

• Edward Bunting

• John Brooker

• Sam Beckett

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Irish nationalism and the Great Potato Famine

Ireland, as in other parts of Europe, in the mid-19th century saw renewed expressions of nationalism. These, however, coincided with the greatest catastrophe experienced by the Irish people: the Great Potato Famine, or An Gorta Mór (“The Great Hunger”), of 1845–49.

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Irish Potato Famine, (1845–49)Famine that occurred in Ireland when the potato crop failed in successive years. By the early 1840s almost half the Irish population, particularly the rural poor, was depending almost entirely on the potato for nourishment. Reliance on only one or two high-yielding varieties made the crop vulnerable to disease, including late blight,which ruined the crop. The British government provided minimal relief to the starving Irish, limited to loans and soup kitchens. The famine was a watershed in Ireland’s demographic history: about one million people died from starvation or famine-related diseases, and perhaps as many as two million emigrated. Population continued to decline thereafter, and by independence in 1921 the Irish population was barely half of the 8.4 million it had been before the famine.

Open Ended

In your opinion, there is a connection between the raise of nationalism in Ireland and the famine? Why?

​5 QUESTIONS TO UNDERSTAND THE GREAT FAMINE

What caused it?

​The Great Famine was caused by a failure of the potato crop, which many people relied on for most of their nutrition. A disease called late blight destroyed the leaves and edible roots of the potato plants in successive years from 1845 to 1849.

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What were its effects?

As a direct consequence of the famine, Ireland's population fell from almost 8.4 million in 1844 to 6.6 million by 1851. About 1 million people died and perhaps 2 million more eventually emigrated from the country. Many who survived suffered from malnutrition. Continuing emigration and low birth rates meant that by the 1920s Ireland's population was barely half of what it had been before the famine.

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Why were the potatoes so important in Ireland?

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The potato plant was hardy, nutritious, calorie-dense, and easy to grow in Irish soil. By the time of the famine, nearly half of Ireland's population relied almost exclusively on potatoes for their diet, and the other half ate potatoes frequently.

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How did the potato blight happen?

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​The Irish relied on one or two types of potatoes, which meant that there wasn't much genetic variety in the plants (diversity is a factor that usually prevents an entire crop from being destroyed). In 1845 a strain of water mold accidentally arrived from North America and thrived in the unusually cool moist weather that year. It continued to destroy potato crops from 1846 to 1849.

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How many people died?

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About one million people died during the Great Famine from starvation or from typhus and other famine-related diseases. An estimated two million more emigrated from the country.

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Poll

Were you paying attention? Are you ready for some questions?

• YES

• NO

Open Ended

Why do we call it "The Great Famine"?

Open Ended

What caused it?

Open Ended

Connected to the topics we have dealt in class, is potatoe still central in the Irish's diet?

Open Ended

Which were the causes that led to a population decline in Ireland for 1920s?

​20th Century

As the 20th century drew near in Ireland, a new nationalist cultural revival stirred. It would come to be known as the Irish literary renaissance and would change modern Irish history, but first it had to make sense of the Irish past. In 1878 Standish James O’Grady, considered by his contemporaries the “father” of this revival, published History of Ireland: The Heroic Period. More a fantasia than a history, it nonetheless introduced a new generation of nationalists to the myths and legends of early Irish history.

https://youtu.be/lawx8YoLEIY​

Let's learn about

the most known Irish writers in history

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Irish writers

Critically acclaimed, Booker Prize-winning Banville was born in Wexford in 1945. His 18 novels, short story collections, plays and non-fiction also include work written under his pseudonym, Benjamin Black. His most celebrated book is The Sea, as well as The Book of Evidence and its sequel, Ghosts.

​John Banville

​Beckett is best-known for his plays, but he also wrote many poems and novels. He spent most of his adult life in Paris and wrote in both English and French, joining the French Resistance in 1940 and receiving two medals for his bravery. Born in Dublin in 1906, he died in Paris in 1989 and his great legacy remains the masterpiece Waiting for Godot, a two-act play, which first opened in 1953 and is still regularly performed today.

Samuel Beckett

​Binchy is loved around the world and her numerous bestsellers include Circle of Friends and Tara Road. Born in Dublin in 1939, she died in 2012, and despite her Dublin roots, many of her novels depict rural and small-town Ireland. In a career spanning 50 years, she has written 16 novels and four collections of short stories, her work translated into 37 languages.

Maeve Binchy

Multiple Choice

Which of the three wrote under a pseudonym?

• Samuel Beckett

• John Banville

• Maeve Binchy

Multiple Choice

Whose work has been translated into more than 30 languages?

• John Banville

• Samuel Beckett

• Maeve Binchy

Multiple Choice

Who wrote the play "Waiting for Godot"?

• John Banville

• Samuel Beckett

• Maeve Binchy

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

The invention of the relatively young genre of Irish fiction written in English is most often credited to the Trinity College Dublin graduate and cleric Jonathan Swift. Best known for his 1726 satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels, Swift’s writing is said to have influenced everyone from Voltaire to James Joyce. As well as fictional works, Swift also penned several pamphlets championing Irish independence from English rule in his capacity as dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Open Ended

OPINION: What do you think of the poem's title? And topic? Can you relate to it?

Think about the author's background.

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849)

Anglo-Irish author Maria Edgeworth was a prolific novelist, known for her astute portraits of domestic life in rural Ireland. Born in England, Edgeworth moved to Ireland as a child with her father, who later homeschooled her in law, politics, literature and other subjects. Her first novel, a realist satire of Anglo-Irish landlords published in 1800, is regarded as the first regional novel. Edgeworth’s work greatly influenced the likes of Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen.

Lady Sydney Morgan (1781-1859)

Novelist Lady Sydney Morgan was quite possibly Ireland’s first overtly feminist writer – one of the last projects she worked on, titled Woman and Her Master (1840), examined the mistreatment of women at the hands of men throughout history. A highly successful author making her own money at a time when that kind of independence for a woman went very much against the grain, she made waves in 1806 with the publication of The Wild Irish Girl – an epistolary novel in support of Catholic emancipation. Other works included the 1814 novel O’Donnell, widely considered her best.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Oscar Wilde (born October 16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland—died November 30, 1900, Paris, France) was an Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose enduring fame rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Oscar Wilde was a notable Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, recognized for his sharp wit and flamboyant personality. Born into an affluent family in 1854, Wilde received an exceptional education, excelling in classical studies at Trinity College, Dublin, and later at Magdalen College, Oxford.

WB Yeats (1865-1939)

Symbolist poet WB Yeats was Ireland’s first Nobel Laureate, winning the prize in 1923 – the year after the country gained independence from England – for poetry that was said to “give expression to the spirit of a whole nation”. Considered one of the greatest poets of his time, Yeats also produced many plays throughout his lifetime. Arguably his best and most influential works are those in which he attempted to make sense of the events of the Irish struggle for independence from 1916 onwards, taking place when the writer was in his early 50s.

James Joyce (1882-1941)

Ulysses (1922) author James Joyce once wrote to his brother that, “When you remember that Dublin has been a capital for a thousand years, that it is the ‘second’ city of the British Empire, that it is nearly three times as big as Venice, it seems strange that no artist has given it to the world.” Joyce made it his mission to do just that, writing about his home city even after immigrating to Europe. Becoming a touchstone for Irish literature, Joyce is now regarded as one of the most important writers in history.

Claire Keegan (born 1968)

Claire Keegan (born 1968) is an Irish writer known for her short stories, which have been published in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Granta, and The Paris Review. She is also known for her novellas, two of which have been adapted as films: The Quiet Girl (2022) and Small things like these (2024).She has published only five books in the last twenty-five years, starting with two collections of short stories, Antarctica and Walk the Blue Fields, then a stand-alone long story, Foster, which was made into an Irish-language feature film in 2022 called The Quiet Girl. Right from the first, Keegan has won awards such as the William Trevor Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, and The Paris Review and has been translated into more than twenty languages.