CAROLINE WALSHwith the week's literary news round-up
What a wonderful week for Irish literature
It's been quite a week on the literary front with Dublin becoming a Unesco City of Literature and two novels by Irish authors making the Man Booker longlist: Emma Donoghue's Room and Paul Murray's Skippy Dies.
One of the other 13 writers on the list is the inaugural Unesco Cities of Literature international writer in residence Christos Tsiolkas for his novel The Slap, about what happens when a man strikes another person's child. Australian Tsiolkas, who has been in residence near Edinburgh since May visits Dublin on Wednesday (August 4th) to read from The Slapand discuss it with novelist John Boyne in County Hall, Dún Laoghaire at 7.30pm. Tickets €5 from (01) 231 2929.
Sad loss of brave and brilliant Peter Hart
One of the delights of editing the book pages is the banter with reviewers, some of whom swing by to say hello when they're in downtown Dublin. One such was Canadian historian Peter Hart, chair of Irish Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, who died last week after an illness, aged 46. It's been salutary reading back over his reviews for The Irish Times, none more so than his review in 2007 of Paul Bew's Ireland: The Politics of Enmity 1789-2006(OUP) which appeared under the headline "Do We Really Have a Happy Ending?".
With news this week of a new faction of the Continuity IRA , it was cautionary to read again Hart’s closing paragraph: “So does 2007, with all its historic handshakes, mark a happy ending? Bew concludes with his own question: ‘Is it really possible that the enmities of Irish history are losing their power to hurt and destroy?’ Hopeful, yet wary: perhaps not surprising in someone who didn’t just observe recent history, but helped to make it. Don’t forget, AJP Taylor once thought it was all over as well.”
Commenting on his death, historian Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at Oxford, praised his work on Irish nationalism and republicanism, which explored themes of commitment, contradiction, revolutionary ethics and communal tensions. “These are issues which arouse strong feelings in Ireland, and the fact that his early work concentrated on some controversial incidents during the Anglo-Irish War in Cork guaranteed that there would be aggressive reactions from local historians and pietists of various kinds. When he did take part in controversies, Peter was notably restrained, careful, polite and judicious: qualities which were not replicated by his opponents, whose grasp of historical verities was also very different from his.’’
It was a heartache to think of losing someone so young, gifted and brilliant when he had still so much to contribute to intellectual life and the life of the academy. “Peter’s finished work has left an enduring mark on the interpretation of the Irish revolution, and that has to be some consolation for the work left unwritten.’’
Diarmaid Ferriter, professor of modern Irish history at UCD, said Hart would be sorely missed. “In seeking to bring fresh perspectives, Hart proved himself to be a historian of exceptional ability and originality and his work bristled with energy and determination as through forensic research, he found it necessary to remove the halos from some of Ireland’s revered patriots.” He subjected the ideology of early 20th-century Irish republicanism to a serious scrutiny and succeeded in re-opening the whole debate about the meaning and methods of the War of Independence. “He was brave in facing down highly personalised attacks from those he accused of promoting faith-based or creationist history.’’
Omagh book wins 2010 CWA Gold Dagger award
Ruth Dudley Edwards has won the 2010 CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction worth £2000 for Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing the Families' Pursuit of Justice. The judges praised her "detailed account of the successful struggle, with the assistance of lawyers, to achieve recognition of those responsible" for the 1998 atrocity.
