The Ireland Anthology edited by Sean Dunne Introduction and notes by George O'Brien Gill & Macmillan 455pp, £19.99
`This great Irish stew," as the publisher calls this magnificent collection of poetry and prose, should make Irish readers proud to be Irish and many other readers wish they were. Due to no fault of my own, I am only half Irish by birth, so I am entitled to be only half proud, but I have lived for almost a quarter of a century in West Cork, and this book will be of immense help in my programme of self-Hibernianisation.
There are more than two hundred choice samples of Irish literature gathered here, representing every period of written Irish history and every class of Irish men and women, urban and rural, in every mood. I cannot imagine how this collective portrayal of the country, the people and their philosophy and art could be more satisfyingly complete.
The anthology serves as a memorial to the late Sean Dunne, the poet, autobiographer and literary editor of the Cork Examiner (before it dropped Cork from its title). He finished planning the book shortly before he died at the age of thirty-nine. George O'Brien, a Wexford-born Professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington, has written a thoughtful introduction and notes which set Dunne's wideranging, disparate selections in a secure academic framework. In addition to presenting the topography, history and religion of Ireland, Dunne attempted, with remarkable success, O'Brien says, to map the "inner geography" of Irishness:
"It is a map shaped by memory, culture and experience," he believed. "The geography varies from person to person and evolves over generations. It includes songs, stories, jokes, poems, politics, works of art, sporting events, local loyalties, parochial enthusiasm ..."
Dunne's editing expresses a feeling for what his sympathetic explicator describes as "the under stated yet overwhelming allure of the local". Viewing his native land from the other side of the Atlantic has enabled George O'Brien to give the anthology cohesion and depth.
Ireland is a small country with a small population, he acknowledges, but the anthology reveals a nation of "unique complexities" that have been perceived by outsiders as well as natives since Ptolemy first mapped the place eighteen hundred years ago. Without busloads of foreign tourists, "like rajahs on elephants", in O'Brien's opinion,
"the country might still be not quite visible; its textures, idiosyncracies, ancient stories, holy sites and scenic place might just be looked on as part of the commonplace, instead of occasions of relish and wonder and pride ..."
The rich variety of contributions to the anthology similarly refreshes vision and understanding.
Though it is impossible to list all the writers whose works are represented, it can be promised that most of the famous names are here - as various as John Millington Synge, Oliver St John Gogarty, Brendan Behan, Elizabeth Bowen, William Trevor, Derek Mahon, Aidan Higgins, Thomas Moore, Somerville and Ross, Yeats, John McGahern, Sean O'Faolain, Swift, Louis MacNeice, Benedict Kiely, Molly Keane, Beckett, Edna O'Brien, John Banville and Sean Dunne himself.
Some of the excerpts given are tantalisingly brief but should serve to stimulate readers to seek complete texts. The book will be useful in schools to provide an introductory smattering of almost all Irish literature of importance and delight.
There are some surprises, such as Myrtle Allen's recipe for Ballymaloe Brown Bread and Ian Paisley on Open-Air Preaching. The editor did not flinch from farce and horrors; inevitably, there are painful passages on famine and sectarian violence. However, the overall balance is positive, sustained by what O'Brien calls "the diverse and illustrious roll-call of Irish patriots".
There is an optimistic quotation from President Robinson's inaugural address. She said she would be representing "a new Ireland, open, tolerant, inclusive." Furthermore, she added later, she would be proud to represent a global constituency of seventy million people who claim Irish descent. They too would all certainly appreciate this anthology.
Patrick Skene Catling is a novelist and critic