WEALTH OF IRISH TALENT

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 17

WEALTH OF IRISH TALENT

The Macmillan Dictionary of Irish Literature. Edited by Robert Hogan. Macmillan, 1980. 815 pp. $76.

(Reviewed By Richard Corballis)

In his- introduction to this book Robert Hogan ponders the prodigality of literary talent in Ireland and attempts to explain “why there were so many (writers) who. were- so good.” One reason that he does not. give is that the publishing house of Macmillan has devoted an enormous amount of time, energy and money to the promotion of books by and about the Irish. It is not without irony that a firm which produced a Conservative Prime Minister should have done so much for Ireland. But there it is; they hold a virtual monopoly on Yeats and O’Casey, and their lists contain a veritable host of studies of other major and not-so-major authors.

Now Macmillans have crowned their endeavours with this fine “Dictionary of Irish Literature.” “Dictionary” is really too mild a word. James Joyce is discussed in a 20-page article (by Zack Bowen), and all the big names get extended treatment, which is often (in Boucicault’s case,- for example) quite original, and always sound. And the sort of bland neutrality which often afflicts reference books is notably absent — especially when the editor-in-chief himself, Robert Hogan, is in action.

One cannot but admire ’the character of a work which is prepared to assert that Paul Smith’s “Come Trailing Blood” “vies with Christy Brown’s ‘A Shadow on Summer* for being the worst, most pretentiously written

modern Irish novel.” . (The ' fact that Professor Hogan finds nice things to say about much of the other work by both these authors testifies further to his ; character and his critical integrity). Each entry concludes with an authoritative bibliography of works by and about the subject ■ The quality of. the entries is matched by their quantity. The net has been . flung wide enough to- catch expatriates such .as Congreve, Sheridan, ; Goldsmith and Beckett as well as foreigners who have written important books about Ireland — J. P. Donleavy and J. G. Farrell, for example. Important institutions (e.g. The Abbey Theatre), journals (e.g.“The Bell”) and topics (e.g. Irish Folklore)’ get separate entries; their less illustrious counterparts (e.g. the Belfast journal “Threshold,” ia.pale imitation of which turned up in Christchurch recently) are not treated separately, but references to them can be located by means of the excellent index. ........ /.. .

One might almost complain of. an embarras de riches. Consider; for example, the 80-odd pages which precede the “Dictionary” itself. Professor Hogan gives us a preface, an introduction and a “Note on the History of Irish Writing in English” as well as a chronology at the end of the book. These sections all overlap, to some extent, and , now and then (on the subject of J. M. Synge, for example) they conflict with material provided by other contributors in the main body, of the ’‘Dictionary”. Moreover, there are- times (at the end of the introduction) when the strain of writing so much seems to have

affected the normally admirable lucidity of Professor Hogan’s prose. In another sense, too, he may be accused of having overdone things a bit. I was pleasantly suiprised to-find 1 entries for a few major historians, political writers, literary critics and other (dare I say?) non-creative writers. But my pleasure turned to frustration when I found, for example, that historians of the stature of F. S. L.’ Lyons and J. C. Beckett were not included. It might have been better to omit the- non-creative . categories altogether.. Among creative writers there is only one significant exclusion, and it is a deliberate one. The “Dictionary” itself. does not feature writers whose sole medium was Irish (Gaelic); instead we' are given a preliminary chapter on “Gaelic Literature,” written by Seamus O’Neill. His essay is admirable (so far as I can judge), but I really cannot see why he was not commissioned to compose individual, entries for the “Dictionary” proper. If the Irish writings of bilingual authors like Brendan Behan can be discussed there I see no. reason for excluding the Irish writings of monolinguists. Evidently Professor Hogan is safely out of reach of our zealous Human Rights Commission — not to mention the I.R.A. •

Perhaps there was a minor failure of fact here, but at least “Gaelic Literature” was not neglected altogether. This is still a dictionary of Irish — and not just Anglo-Irish — literature. It is bound to prove an indispensable reference book, and one hopes that Macmillans will produce occasional supplements to keep it up to date.