Between Two Shores/Idir Dha Chladach.Writing the Aran Islands

摘要

This volume of the Reimagining Ireland series, like others, deals with literature from Ireland's coastal islands that speaks to the significance of islands here and elsewhere as cultural repositories, the old ways, including here often the old language, having survived in such isolated locations. Two authors from the now-abandoned Great Blasket Island, Tomas O'Crohan and Peig Sayers, have been celebrated in Reimagining Ireland. Together with Maurice O'Sullivan they published autobiographies between 1929 and 1936, now key works for students of Irish (in both senses) literature and for those interested in island life. Their fame led to the 'Blasket library', a canon including books from other islanders that may not have been published without the interest in this particular island. Irish island literature study became somewhat dominated by Great Blasket, and the appearance of Mairead Conneely's book on the Aran Islands is welcome. Aran is Irish speaking and is often considered and certainly marketed as a quintessential example of traditional Irish life. The literary heritage is strong, its range wider than Great Blasket. Conneely's book focuses on two visiting and two local writers. Emily Lawless, from an aristocratic mainland family, a 'forgotten writer' (p. 10), wrote Grania, the Story of an Island (1892); John Millington Synge, the Dublin playwright, after four summers on Aran, especially Inis Meain, published The Aran Islands in 1907. The locals are from Inis Mor: Irish language works from Liam O Flaithearta, his collection of short stories, Duil (1953) and the poet Mairtin O Direain's, Danta: 1939-1979 (1980).