ENG 150: National Identity in Modern Irish Literature- Student Curated Display

Review by Nick Floyd

"The postnationalist crisis: Theatrical representations of Irish anxiety, identity and narrative in the plays of Martin McDonagh and Marie Jones" Chapter Review

Postnationalism in Ireland had a great effect on how Ireland adapted to globalization and becoming their own free nation. Through the chapter by Catherine Rees The Postnational crisis: Theatrical Representations of Irish anxiety, identify and narrative in the plays of Martin McDonagh and Marie Jones, many different themes are characterized and spoken about. The theme of globalization talked about by Martin McDonagh can be characterized in two different ways Rees explains. On the other hand the anxiety and violence shown in Ireland had a great influence on the nation and how globalization was exemplified.

In McDonagh’s plays it is shown that there is a difference between personal and direct encounters in the media. The way that globalization is portrayed can be very decentralized and watered down in a sense. Rees goes on to explain, “For example, a character in The Beauty Queen of Leenane asks: ‘Who wants to see Ireland on telly? All you have to do is look out of your window to see Ireland. And it’s soon bored you’ll be. “There goes a calf ‘” (Rees 226). The way that Ireland is portrayed to the rest of the world is not vivid but dull, and the Beauty Queen asks why would people want to see Ireland when it is not important or intriguing to many. This can also be compared to the term “Disneyfication” where the media tries to make Ireland look more intriguing than it really is and the Irish do not want people to immigrate and come to their home country.

The themes of violence and anxiety are shown through the actions of Irishmen that do not want people to immigrate to their county and that refuse to acknowledge the globalization and change happening in the world. Rees talks about another essay and says, “Neville Douglas writes about the process of communal identity formation: ‘As identity is expressed and experienced through communal membership, awareness will develop of the Other – identities and groups with competing and often conflicting beliefs, values and aspirations. Recognition of Otherness will help reinforce self-identity, but may also lead to distrust, avoidance, exclu-sion and distancing from the groups so defined’” (Rees 227). The way that Douglas explains the rebuttal to change from the Irish and how they do not want their way of life to change due to different cultures and other factors effecting their ways of life. The effects of this change come to discrimination and violence from the Irish towards the immigrants and the new cultures that are introduced to Ireland.

The globalization and violence that comes hand in hand with each other created a big struggle for the Irish and the people immigrating to the nation of Ireland. The actions taken by the Irish to try to prevent their ways of life changing and for the immigration and globalization to stop only created violence and anxiety for all. For the Irish, the entire world was changing before their eyes as shown by Douglas, Martin, and Rees.

Review by Patrick Bronander

"'Who put the ball in the English net?’: The privatisation of Irish postnationalism in Dermot Bolger’s In High Germany " Chapter Review

The text opens up with a short introduction of what the meaning behind Dermot Bolger’s play In High Germany is along with what other notable names think of when talking about Ireland and nationalism: “In the same way in which Jürgen Habermas identifies Margaret Thatcher as ‘the first genuinely “postmodern” politician’, given her claim that there is no longer ‘any such thing as society’,” (103). These notable names believe that Ireland’s national identity has changed for the worse, and Bolger’s play In High Germany expresses these beliefs towards the Ireland of this time.

Part I begins with a short background of Dermot Bolger, what he has accomplished, where he is from, and more information about his background. Along with this, it opens up with what Bolger supports, what his passions are, and how some of these representations of Ireland no longer connect with the younger generation and is a different depiction from the Ireland he knew. Bolger claims how, “Traditional nationalist representations of Ireland and Irishness no longer resonate with most young people” (104). Bolger uses his play to give his sort of perspective on what has become of Ireland’s national identity. In Bolger’s play he uses the topic of sports teams to argue what he believes about Irelands national identity. The text continues on talking about Ireland's history with England, in 1949 both nations played each other in an international football game that ended with the Irish on top with a score of 2-0. This match was significant because England and Ireland had a very tense relationship. Using the value of Ireland’s football team Bolger is able to connect with the reader through experiences that take place throughout the play.

Bolger is using sports like football to dissect the Irishness that “manifested itself in the late 1980s Ireland” (106) through his play. Part II goes on to talk about the play In High Germany, the play's main character is a man named Eoin, who is a man who moved away from Ireland to find work. Eoin follows the Irish football team to make him feel like he is in his youth again, but he later realizes that he can never be back to his youth because it does not exist anymore. Bolger is using this play to express his view of postnationalism in Ireland by showing how Ireland has lost its sense of identity. The description of the play goes on to talk about this Irish football team's history and how it started, but he relates this to what Ireland is known for. Bolger writes how during this time Ireland is known for many things such as literature, but there are not many things that can relate to the character like Eoin, and his friends. So, in place of these things there is the football team, but it is not like this for everyone in Eoin’s life. There are people like his teacher that do not support this passion, “Irish nationalisms greatest problem has always been the fact that Gaelic games are simply no good for projecting the idea of the Irish nation into the global realm” (108). These people believe that these games are not helping, and this is why the play In High Germany is so significant. Bolger then explains how he believes there is a split between his generation and the generation of his parents, because of the split, different generations have different beliefs in what to be nationalistic.

Part II continues on talking about Eoin and his pals, the night before the match against England. This scene is significant because it represents those during this time that were not like Eoin and were against the Irish team’s goals and wanted to bury them, expressing the argument of the two sides. There is great tension between Ireland and England, the next scenes of the play continue on talking about how the Irish people like Eoin and his friends are trying to get advantages over their neighboring country and showing signs of being nationalistic. But Eoin and his friends are not only mad at them, they are also mad at their own people. The play goes on to talk about Eoin’s past, then Eoin talks about how the football teams have opened up his eye and have given him a new view on nationalism. Part II ends with Eoin talking about the future and how all of this fun with the support of the football teams is going to come to an end whether they like it or not. It cuts off with a scene with a ticket holder on the train, and how he was like Eoin and grew up in the generation that remembers the football team as their nation and not the streets.

Part III starts off with Bolger’s history with plays, where In High Germany was first performed. But also talks about another Bolger play The Holy Ground which is about a wife who rebels against her husband and poisons him. But there is a connection with these two plays, in that both relate to Ireland in the ways that concern nationalism. The text continues to talk about the connections between the plays and how they can sort of represent Ireland in some ways. There is another play, one of Bolger’s most famous, The Lament For Arthur Cleary and which is also in relation to the other two plays and Ireland. The rest of part III references back to part I and II and the significant meanings behind things like the train station and more. But this part also talks about what Bolger’s goals were for this play, what he wanted to accomplish not only in regard to post-nationalism. “By bringing football to the stage, Bolger is questioning assumptions about what drama and dramatics should be addressing” (118). Part III wraps up with what Bolger passions and motives were in creating In High Germany.

Part IV ties together the whole chapter as it talks about the meaning behind Dermot Bolger’s play, how the readers should be depicting these different interactions with Eoin and his pals. How this play represents Bolger’s view on post nationalism in Ireland.

Post-nationalism is present in the text because Bolger uses examples like the Ireland football team to show how the nationalism is fading. He uses characters like Eoin to express how in his life along with others as time goes on the idea of nationalism is changing and the nation is losing that passion for itself. Bolger uses these examples greatly because it shows how this happens and how nations like Ireland are losing their nationalism.

Review by Jackson Crutchfield

"‘Scattering us like seed’: Dermot Bolger’s postnationalist Ireland" Chapter Review

Dermot Bolger, Born in Finglas in 1958, is an extremely important writer to come from Ireland. He was the founder of the Raven Arts Press, which gave a platform for many instrumental authors like Paul Durcan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Muchael Hartnett and Roddy Doyle. The press gave these writers the ability to talk about important problems, which included emigration and unemployment. Murphy wrote, “When Bolger began to write, it was with what appeared to be a conscious aim to give a voice to the Dublin that he knew as opposed to the one found in film and literature of the time” (182). He wrote about immigration, homosexuality, suburban life, and Irish diaspora.

The chapter discusses the parallax perspective, and how it interacts with the viewer or readers understanding of a timeline. Paula Murphy explains that “In the post-industrial world, knowledge has become splintered into more and more small areas of knowledge, without coherence under any umbrella discipline, artistic or scientific. The same can be said about history, and its current focus on multiple viewpoints rather than the search for a single authoritative one, and also narrative, which has shifted from the singular, omniscient perspective of realist fiction to the multiple narrative perspectives associated with postmodernism” (185). This represented postmodernism in its “acceptance of the impossibility of any completely objective representation”. Irish writing was becoming more interpretational and often criticized older nationalist views. In The Holy Ground a play by Dermot Bolger, he criticizes Catholic nationalism. He does the same in In High Germany.