Aubane Historical Society Book Launches, Saturday 19 April

by Browser Mon Oct 20, 2008 16:04

There's a long review of the "Notes on Eire" book in the October issue of Books Ireland.

by Browser Sun Apr 20, 2008 13:35

Did anybody turn up either at the Aubane or Irish Times book launches? There
was a small,slightly sniffy article in yesterday's IT about the launch Lenihan attended.

by Ethnicity guru Wed Apr 16, 2008 06:41

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was a hardboiled mystery writer ("Farewell my lovely" and other novels) whose mother Florence was from a Quaker family in Waterford. He was born in the USA, spent early years in Nebraska etc. then moved back with his divorced mother to the family roots in Waterford, where he lived some years before an uncle sent him to Dulwich College in London. Spent most of the rest of his life in the States.

He is considered an American quick-read writer. No reason Waterfordians shouldn't claim his Irish ancestry for local history purposes, but Chandler's themes weren't remotely Irish, so he can't be included in the Irish Canon.

Bowen, Trevor et al can be claimed for the Irish Canon because much of their writing is about or draws inspiration from Irish life. There can be mixed influences on writers. Oscar Wilde was undoubtedly Irish but drew his literary inspiration from English middle and upper class life and idiosyncracies. His themes are not Irish, but we include him in the Canon on account of his Dublin birth and upbringing. Joseph Conrad was Polish but spent his life abroad and wrote novels that have no bearing on polish life. What Canon does he belong to?

Conor Cruise O'Brien (woof, woof, snarl!) once described an Irish writer as somebody who is involved in the Irish situation and gets mauled by it. And he loved mauling his political and intellectual opponents, begorra. I suppose that eminence gris controller of the Irish Times is Irish too, though he doesn't seem to have written any literary masterpieces for the Irish Canon. Thank God he'll never be on the Leaving Cert syllabus.

by Dunsany Le Fanu Wed Apr 16, 2008 00:32

What about William Trevor? Should he be excluded from the Irish literary canon also. He left Ireland at an early age and he was, like Bowen, from Cork? Whats the criterion being used for an 'Irish writer'?
Bernard Shaw? Lafcadio Hearn? James Hanley?

by Thin Man Wed Apr 16, 2008 00:24

A list for starters Iron Man. Then there was that diplomat in the early 50s who promoted anti-partition for the Irish News agency, who in the 1970s promoted a theory similar to the BIC&O twee nations theory. Take a bow CCO'B! Aithnionn ciarog amhain ciarog eile! It's one big political bed orgy in recent Irish history.

by Blackbird Tue Apr 15, 2008 18:11

And all worthy of detailed study, assessment and evaluation, - including Bowen, I presume.

by Browser Tue Apr 15, 2008 16:47

Elizabeth Bowen was a British spy who nevertheless defended Irish
neutrality in the "New Statesman".
Francis Stuart was a Nazi German Propagandist.
Samuel Beckett was a member of the French Resistance.

All great Irish writers.

by Blackbird Tue Apr 15, 2008 16:44

It appears Bowen was an Anglo-Irish novelist and a British spy, and quite good at both callings.

by Browser Tue Apr 15, 2008 15:34

"The controversy about how to describe Ms Bowen goes to the heart of what Ireland and Irish culture is, and this book is as good a starting place as any for those who seek the middle path between the Scylla of bigoted nationalism and the Charybdis of West British globalism."

Really? I thought Bowen was just a good Anglo-Irish novelist, and I don't
see how denying she had any Irish identity will help anything.Will
it help Peace in Northern Ireland, end poverty or lower crime?

That's interesting, Starkadder. I didn't know Clifford was active in
the British Far Left (Michael McCreery's group) before he joined the
Irish Communist Group.

by Iron Man Tue Apr 15, 2008 14:52

And while we're at it, let's have it out about when and why -
- FF did or did not commemorate the Rising,
- the Provisionals did or did not recognise the Leinster House regime,
- the Labour Party did or did not agree with Coalition,
- Fine Gael did or did not agree with Dominion status,
- (the list of unprincipled turncoats and sellouts is endless).

by Browser Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:07

Iron Man:

"Will Clifford and Lane be at both Friday & Saturday? Let's go along and challenge them, once and for all. Enough of this hole-in-the-corner stuff!"

Yes, it would be interesting to attend and ask Clifford and Lane some questions
about why they moved from one position (Unionism) to another (Nationalism).

There's an urban legend I once heard, that David Trimble allegedly has a
full set of B&ICO and Workers Association books in his library. I don't
know if its true, but Dean Godson's biography of Trimble shows he was
an enthusiastic reader of B&ICO material.

by Starkadder Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:55

Some months ago I read the pamphlet “Differentiate between
sham & genuine Marxism-Leninism”, by the Communist Party of
Ireland (Marxist-Leninist). This is a scathing attack on
the B&ICO, and it is of interest because it reprints part of an autobiographical
essat by Brendan Clifford. In this Clifford states he was once part of the
Communist Party of Great Britain.He left them in October 1963 and joined Michael McCreey’s
Committee to Defeat Revisionism for Communist Unity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_Defeat_Revisi...Unity

After the CDRCU went into decline, he joined the
Irish Communist Group, whose other members included Liam
Daltun and Eamonn McCann. Later, as is well known, the ICG
split into the Irish Workers' Group and the Irish Communist Organisation. The pamphlet also says the ICO walked out of the "Necessity for Change" conference organised by the
Maoist Hardial Bains, which the CPI (ML) attended. the
1960s.

On another subject,
Jack Lane was a member of the Cork Vietnamese Freedom Association
along with Jim Blake (later in the ITGWU)* and his near-namesake,
Jim Lane ( Cork Workers' Club, Irish Republican Socialist Party and
father of Fintan Lane) in the 1960s.

*See,for instance, the Irish Times, Oct. 1967.

by Yellow Grundel Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:13

I think Eoghan Harris is behind all this myself. Did anyone ever notice that they all come from Cork?? I'll be there Friday & Saturday!

by Iron Man Tue Apr 15, 2008 08:57

Will Clifford and Lane be at both Friday & Saturday? Let's go along and challenge them, once and for all. Enough of this hole-in-the-corner stuff!

by Jimmy Johnstone Tue Apr 15, 2008 07:41

See also
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87144
where they are having another launch - a history of the Irish Times in Liberty Hall, Friday night.
I intend to put my money where my mouth is, attend BOTH launches, and make these OBVIOUS points! Charlatans!

by Starkadder Tue Apr 15, 2008 00:05

Why are they still promoting the Elizabeth Bowen book? Every academic
who reviewed it (including Eibhar Walsh, Neil Corcoran and Maud Ellman)
ripped it to shreds for its factual inaccuracies (ignoring Bowen's
defense of Irish Neutrality in WW2),hysterical Anglophobia and shoddy production. Will
these be fixed in the second edition?

On another note, I found this interesting comment while reading The Constitutional History of
Eire/Ireland” by Angela Clifford (Brendan's missus):

“In those days [the 1950s] the “Irish Times” kept up a
liberal criticism of the Catholic State. Since the appointment of
Douglas Gageby as editor it has been motivated chiefly by
a detestation of Ulster Unionism, and has been anxious to explain
away the Catholic State in order not to be saying the same thing
as the Unionists.”

Pg. 184.

So when Gageby was alive, B&ICO/Aubane regarded him as a traitor for
not supporting the Ulster Unionists.

by Spinning Quickly Mon Apr 14, 2008 18:02

I wouldn' t be surprised if the B&ICO crowd go full circle and go back to the position they had forty years ago!!!

by Bunk Moreland Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:11

Girvin not in BICO no more....Clifford and Lane scamming Irish republicans through Aubane.

by League of Nations Mon Apr 14, 2008 06:21

So Girvin is still in BICO? The others have moved on?

by un Mon Apr 14, 2008 00:47

Girvin - now a neo-con - has condemed irish neutrality during WW2

by Frank Sabotka Sun Apr 13, 2008 20:11

Professor B. Girvin is of course a former comrade of Mr. Clifford in the British and Irish Communist Organisation, when Clifford and Lane were contemptuous of the Irish nationalism, including the wartime neutrality that they now defend. Long memories these BICO chaps....