Expressions of Nationhood in Bronze & Stone

Expressions of Nationhood in Bronze & Stone PDF Author: Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch
Publisher: Merrion Press
ISBN: 1788550684
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 441

Book Description
At the time of his death in 1945, Albert Power was the leading nationalist sculptor in the Irish Free State, yet within a few decades he was almost forgotten. This first major examination of his life and career tells of one artist’s contribution to national identity before and after political independence. In sculpture, at that time, the emphasis was on creating a pantheon of ‘new’ Irish heroes by means of monumental and portrait commissions. Power’s work, however, sprang from deeply held nationalist beliefs and he felt that subject matter alone was insufficient to ensure a distinctive Irish art. Wherever possible he deliberately chose native stone, believing that this best conveyed a nationalist sentiment, such as the limestone he used in the beloved monument to Padraic Ó Conaire in Galway. His political commissions from 1922 onward reveal the new State’s desire for a national political and cultural identity, and in this book Power’s sculpture is explored both at the time of its production and within the broader context of writers and artists who wished to contribute to the new nation’s cultural identity, a legacy that modern Ireland enjoys today.

So Once Was I

So Once Was I PDF Author: Warren Farrell
Publisher: Merrion Press
ISBN: 178537513X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
‘Remember now as you go by, as you are now so once was I ...’ From unmarked plots to striking monuments, Glasnevin Cemetery has become home to a microcosm of Irish society since it opened its gates in 1832. Every grave has a story to tell, but with more than a million souls resting there, many of these stories have been long forgotten. So Once Was I sets out to celebrate the quirky, strange and sometimes unbelievable tales of lesser-known figures in Ireland’s famous cemetery. Representing all threads of Irish society’s rich tapestry, from lion tamers to pioneering aviators, the mistress of the macabre to a mysterious, murderous count, forgotten revolutionaries to the mammy of Irish cooking, the cemetery’s population is reanimated in this book through vivid retellings of their lives. This intriguing tour through the national necropolis brings back to life those Joyce called the ‘faithful dead’, an intricate mosaic of stories rediscovered among the grandeur of Glasnevin’s famed monuments.

Ireland: The Matter of Monuments

Ireland: The Matter of Monuments PDF Author: Colleen M. Thomas
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1802075208
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
This collection considers Irish monuments from the medieval to the modern era. The essays presented here acknowledge the plurality of values associated with Irish monuments. Taking a holistic approach to the topic, the volume contains contributions from art historians, archaeologists, historians and heritage practitioners. The multidisciplinary and intersectoral contributions are placed in dialogue with one another, providing a discussion of Irish monuments that is unique in its comprehensiveness. The integration of research on early Irish monumental work with that of the more modern period, situating all Irish monuments on a continuum of shared concerns, is a significant pioneering element in this field. The range of perspectives represented in the book reflects the complexity of cultural heritage in contemporary life and opens the conversation to include a wider range of views. It will be a valuable resource for scholars, students, learned societies, public bodies, communities in Ireland and for anyone interested in sculpture. An Open Access version of Kathleen James-Chakraborty's chapter 'New states and old statues: Ireland's monuments in an international context' is available on the Liverpool University Press website.

Commemorating the Irish Civil War

Commemorating the Irish Civil War PDF Author: Anne Dolan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521026987
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
After civil war, can the winners commemorate their victory, hailing their conquering heroes with the blood of their former comrades still fresh on their boots? Or should they cover themselves in shame and hope that the nation soon forgets? In this book, Anne Dolan explores the tensions between memory and forgetting in twentieth-century Ireland. By examining the memory of winning the Irish Civil War, she discusses the extent to which it has been used to serve party political ends, where private grief finds consolation when the dead have fallen from political favour, and how the dead are remembered when no one wanted to fight the war. The book addresses the Irish Civil War at its most public point: at the statues and crosses, and in the ritual and rhetoric of commemoration. It will be of central interest to all students and scholars of European history and politics.

Remembering the Revolution

Remembering the Revolution PDF Author: Frances Flanagan
Publisher: Oxford Historical Monographs
ISBN: 019873915X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
Remembering the Irish Revolution chronicles the ways in which the Irish revolution was remembered in the first two decades of Irish independence. While tales of heroism and martyrdom dominated popular accounts of the revolution, a handful of nationalists reflected on the period in more ambivalent terms. For them, the freedoms won in revolution came with great costs: the grievous loss of civilian lives, the brutalisation of Irish society, and the loss of hope for a united and prosperous independent nation. To many nationalists, their views on the revolution were traitorous. For others, they were the courageous expression of some uncomfortable truths. This volume explores these struggles over revolutionary memory through the lives of four significant, but under-researched nationalist intellectuals: Eimar O'Duffy, P. S. O'Hegarty, George Russell, and Desmond Ryan. It provides a lively account of their controversial critiques of the Irish revolution, and an intimate portrait of the friends, enemies, institutions and influences that shaped them. Based on wide-ranging archival research, Remembering the Irish Revolution puts the history of Irish revolutionary memory in a transnational context. It shows the ways in which international debates about war, human progress, and the fragility of Western civilisation were crucial in shaping the understandings of the revolution in Ireland. It provides a fresh context for analysis the major writers of the period, such as Sean O'Casey, W. B. Yeats, and Sean O'Faolain, as well as a new outlook on the genesis of the revisionist/nationalist schism that continues to resonate in Irish society today.

The Quest for the Irish Celt

The Quest for the Irish Celt PDF Author: Mairéad Carew
Publisher: Merrion Press
ISBN: 1788550110
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
The Quest for the Irish Celt is the fascinating story of Harvard University’s five-year archaeological research programme in Ireland during the 1930s to determine the racial and cultural heritage of the Irish people. The programme involved country-wide excavations and the examination of prehistoric skulls by physical anthropologists, and was complemented by the physical examinations of thousands of Irish people from across the country; measuring skulls, nose-shape and grade of hair colour. The Harvard scientists’ mission was to determine who the Celts were, what was their racial type, and what element in the present-day population represented the descendants of the earliest inhabitants of the island. Though the Harvard Mission was hugely influential, there were theories of eugenics involved that would shock the modern reader. The main adviser for the archaeology was Adolf Mahr, Nazi and Director of the National Museum (1934–39). The overall project was managed by Earnest A. Hooton, famed Harvard anthropologist, whose theories regarding biological heritage would now be readily condemned for their racism. Mairéad Carew explores this extraordinary archaeological mission, examining its historic importance for Ireland and Irish-America, its landmark findings, and the unseemly activities that lay just beneath the surface.

Education and Celtic Myth

Education and Celtic Myth PDF Author: Pádraic Frehan
Publisher: Brill
ISBN: 9401208654
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 355

Book Description
The book examines one aspect of the national self-image of Ireland as it was trans-generationally transmitted in the Irish National School environment through the medium of the Celtic mythology tales. Celtic mythology embodied a unique Irishness without being contentious in the wider social and political spheres and the texts had the capability to impart a national self-image, a character and ideological model for the young generation to follow and exemplify, while concurrently act as a sanctuary in which a unique, neutral, Irish self-past and contemporary self-image could be connected to. From 1922 onwards a state-run National School curriculum was set up to propagate a national ideal through the teaching of the Irish language, Irish history and a rekindled awareness of Ireland’s unique past. The mythology tales were employed to portray this unique past and their inclusion in the textbooks provided a platform for the policies of the inculcation of national pride, self-respect and self-image in the Irish nation, official government and Department policy following the Second National Programme Conference and Report in 1926. The aim of this book is an imagological one focusing on what made these tales ideological. The study incorporates a triangular approach: contextual, intertextual and textual. It is at the point of intersection between 4 specialisms: the historical study of Irish nationalism; the history of culture and education in 20th century Ireland; imagology and corpus linguistics. The conclusions drawn are based upon factual, statistical information garnered from the analyses conducted on the corpus and utilise information that is concrete and not hypothetical. This volume is of interest for all those working in Irish school literature, Irish studies – especially cultural, intellectual and educational history of Ireland, imagology and European studies.

Ireland's 1916 Rising

Ireland's 1916 Rising PDF Author: Mark McCarthy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317112865
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 568

Book Description
In light of its upcoming centenary in 2016, the time seems ripe to ask: why, how and in what ways has memory of Ireland’s 1916 Rising persisted over the decades? In pursuing answers to these questions, which are not only of historical concern, but of contemporary political and cultural importance, this book breaks new ground by offering a wide-ranging exploration of the making and remembrance of the story of 1916 in modern times. It draws together the interlocking dimensions of history-making, commemoration and heritage to reveal the Rising’s undeniable influence upon modern Ireland’s evolution, both instantaneous and long-term. In addition to furnishing a history of the tumultuous events of Easter 1916, which rattled the British Empire’s foundations and enthused independence movements elsewhere, Ireland’s 1916 Rising mainly concentrates on illuminating the evolving relationship between the Irish past and present. In doing so, it unearths the far-reaching political impacts and deep-seated cultural legacies of the actions taken by the rebels, as evidenced by the most pivotal episodes in the Rising’s commemoration and the myriad varieties of heritage associated with its memory. This volume also presents a wider perspective on the ways in which conceptualisations of heritage, culture and identity in Westernised societies are shaped by continuities and changes in politics, society and economy. In a topical conclusion, the book examines the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the Garden of Remembrance in 2011, and looks to the Rising’s 100th anniversary by identifying the common ground that can be found in pluralist and reconciliatory approaches to remembrance.

Contexts for Frank McGuinness's Drama

Contexts for Frank McGuinness's Drama PDF Author: Helen Lojek
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 9780813213569
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Book Description
Contexts for Frank McGuinness's Drama is the most complete consideration of the playwright yet published, including discussion of his original stage work through Gates of Gold (2002) and highlighting the connections between McGuinness's creativity and the biographical, geographical, social, and literary factors that have shaped his world."

Beckett and Ireland

Beckett and Ireland PDF Author: Seán Kennedy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521111803
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Book Description
A volume of essays to provide compelling evidence of the continuing relevance of Ireland to Beckett's writing.