The Wrong
Country
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Poetry
SHELTERING PLACES
THE LUNDYS LETTER
SUNDAY SCHOOL
HEART OF HEARTS
THE MORNING TRAIN
LAKE GENEVA
POINTS WEST
SELECTED POEMS
MICKEY FINN’S AIR
EARLY POEMS
Prose
THE PROPER WORD
OF WAR AND WAR’S ALARMS
IN ANOTHER WORLD
Editor
THE YOUNGER IRISH POETS
EARTH VOICES WHISPERING:
IRISH POETRY OF WAR 1914–1945
THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO IRISH POETS
The Wrong
Country
ESSAYS ON MODERN
IRISH WRITING
Gerald Dawe
First published in 2018 by
Irish Academic Press
10 George’s Street
Newbridge
Co. Kildare
Ireland
© Gerald Dawe, 2018
9781788550284 (Cloth)
9781788550291 (Kindle)
9781788550307 (Epub)
9781788550314 (PDF)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Interior design by www.jminfotechindia.com
Typeset in Bembo 11.5/14.5 pt
Jacket design by River Design
Jacket front: Colin Middleton, The Holy Land, 1945 (oil on canvas), © Estate of Colin Middleton, IVARO Dublin, 2018.
CONTENTS
4. FROM THE GINGER MAN TO KITTY STOBLING
5. THE PASSIONATE TRANSITORY: JOHN MCGAHERN
6. FATAL ATTRACTIONS: JOHN BERRYMAN IN DUBLIN
7. HISTORY LESSONS: DEREK MAHON & SEAMUS DEANE
8. THE GREEN LIGHT: STEWART PARKER
9. DAYS OF BURNED COUNTRYSIDE: EAVAN BOLAND & EILÉAN NÍ CHUILLEANÁIN
10. STORY OF THE REPUBLIC
11. ETHNA CARBERY IN H BLOCK
12. FROM DUSTY BLUEBELLS TO PARALLAX
13. BASHŌ, THE RIVER MOY AND THE SUPERSER
14. THE PRACTICE OF WRITING
EPILOGUE: FITTING IN
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
In memory of
Gerard Fanning
1952–2017
‘You can’t be afraid of saying the opposite, even if you look like a fool and everybody thinks you’re in the wrong country, speaking the wrong language.’
Hugo Hamilton, The Speckled People
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The book was completed in Pembroke College, Cambridge, thanks to the good offices of Dr Mark Wormald, to whom kind acknowledgement is made for his hospitality and the opportunity to think things over in the serene environment of Pembroke College Library; and to the staff there, particularly Ms Patricia Aske, and for the home from home at Botolph Lane. Acknowledgements also to the organisers of several academic conferences/literary gatherings where many of the issues and subjects explored in The Wrong Country were first aired: Paul Delaney, School of English, Trinity College Dublin for a symposium on ‘Identity and Cultural Diversity’ (Hugo Hamilton); ‘Reading the Fifties’, with Darryl Jones, School of English and Trinity Long Room Hub, as well as lectures given to the John McGahern Conference, Carrick-on-Shannon (John Kenny); Stewart Parker Commemorative Conference, School of Drama, Queen’s University Belfast (Mark Phelan); Trinity
