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VIEWPOINT: The new volumes of the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing admirably rewrite relations between the literary canon…

VIEWPOINT: The new volumes of the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing admirably rewrite relations between the literary canon and the worlds from which it came, argues Bernard O'Donoghue

After their 10 years' gestation, the self-styled "madwomen in the annexe" have delivered, having set out to produce a volume which would redress the under-representation of women in Seamus Deane's monumental Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing in 1991. They stress that the redressing project was undertaken and executed with Deane's enthusiastic blessing and support (indeed, in the preface, his name is coupled with that of one of the major heroes here, Sara Wilbourne, of Cork University Press, who took over the production when it outgrew the Field Day Company's economic reach). By now, no hard feelings, it seems - despite the original accusation that the absence of a single woman among not only the central editorial threesome but any of the section editors meant that women writers were bound to be under- represented.

I don't think anyone now doubts that Field Day volumes I-III were a magnificent achievement by Deane and his stellar editorial team of the leading male Irish literary scholars of the age. But it is worth reminding ourselves that that work was not received with unvarying rapture on its first appearance, and it was never likely that the women's volumes would be. These reflections by a male Irish reader, going over familiar ground, were prompted by Eileen Battersby's lengthy and robust Irish Times reading of the women's section. Important issues were raised there, about the meaning of writing and the definition of literature and culture. But, perhaps not surprisingly given their largeness, I don't think those issues were very satisfactorily resolved.

It might seem adequate praise of the new volumes to say that they are eminently worthy to share the shelves with Deane's. There is no doubt that Field Day 1991 plus Field Day 2002 is a grander thing than the original volumes alone. But volumes IV and V are more than this, for cultural-historical reasons anticipated by Deane in his 1991 'General Introduction', where he notes the use of the term "writing" rather than the more narrowing term "literature"; IV and V are broader again.

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Field Day 1991 is a wonderful research resource, bringing together a huge, well-edited selection of canonical texts. It achieved two other crucial things: an unprecedentedly full representation of the Irish language, and this stretching of the coverage of the term "writing". Thus, its most commonly saluted sections nowadays are the most original ones, such as Tom Paulin's section on 'Northern Protestant Oratory and Writing', which came as far forward as Harold McCusker.

It is not surprising that the contributors to the new volumes - leading literary scholars, historians, folklorists and journalists - with 10 more years of development in cultural theory and historical reflection available to them, are in a position to do this more fully and more radically. And they do.

It would be impossible to illustrate the distinction of these volumes in any detail here (there are 3,210 pages, as against Deane's 4,044). It is true, as Eileen Battersby said, that Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha's sections on the Irish language, 'Medieval to Modern 600-1900' - 448 pages in total - are an awesome achievement which will be the best scholarly resource in their field. But the distinctive achievement and breakthrough here is in cultural history. These volumes rewrite the relations between the literary canon and the life out of which it emerges with unprecedented fullness and sensitivity.

For example, we all read the poetry and fiction of 1980s Ireland; but there is nothing I know that gives nearly as full a sense of what 1980s Ireland itself was like - its slowness to civilise its attitudes, despite its rapidly increasing affluence (remember Ann Lovett and Joanne Hayes) - as the section by Ursula Barry and Clair Wills here. Here, too, the brilliant writing of Nell McCafferty is a reminder that the incorporation of the journalistic is no more unliterary than it was in the 18th century.

It is striking - and sobering - to realise how much the degree of civilisation of Irish society (and presumably any society) is encapsulated in its treatment of women and, broadly, sexuality: a thought that comes to the reader's mind throughout - particularly in the several sections on women and religion since the Middle Ages, or the fascinating letters of Gráinne O'Malley (a lot less legendary than you might think) and Elizabeth Butler in the 17th century, both fighting legislative battles not so dissimilar from their modern counterparts.

I think I am stating the case cautiously when I say that the appearance of this book is the most important literary and cultural event in Ireland this year. It may simply be the most important historical event, raising what have recently seemed the most crucial questions and going a considerable way towards answering them. Perhaps in another 10 years a Field Day VI will appear and extend further the canon and analysis of who we are and have been. But in the interim the whole Field Day/Cork University Press complex has magnificently given us plenty to absorb and enlighten us.

Bernard O'Donoghue teaches English at Wadham College, Oxford. His next book of poems, Outliving, will be published by Chatto & Windus next year

The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing - Irish Women's Writing and Traditions, Volumes IV and V are published by Cork University Press, price €250. They will be launched in New York on November 7th