‘That, an Anglo-Irish Literature, worthy of a special designation, could come only when English had become the language of the Irish people, mainly of Gaelic stock, and when the literature was from, by, of, to and for the Irish people.
That the ways of life and the ways of thought of the Irish people—the manners, customs, traditions, and outlook, religious, social and moral—have important differences from the ways of life and of thought which have found expression in other English literature.
That the English language in Ireland has an individuality of its own, and the rhythm of Irish speech a distinct character.’
Sources:
MacDonagh, Thomas. Literature in Ireland. Studies in Irish and Anglo-Irish Literature. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1916. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
]]>Thomas MacDonagh's work of literary criticism.
MacDonagh’s book collects 8 essays (or ‘Studies’ as they are deemed) along with a selection of ‘Poems of the Irish Mode’. Some portions of Literature in Ireland previously appeared in The Irish Review and in An Macaomh (the journal produced by P.H. Pearse at St. Enda’s College) and in The Leader. The ideas in this book were likely rehearsed by MacDonagh during his lectures at University College Dublin. Rumor has it that MacDonagh was correcting the proofs of Literature in Ireland while besieging Jacob’s Biscuit Factory during the days of the Easter Rising. Whereas this anecdote may well be a conflation in biographies and accounts which appeared in the aftermath of the Rising, on the other hand it may testify to the hurried process through which the ‘Studies’ were turned into a book swiftly published a month after MacDonagh’s execution. According to Johann A. Norstedt, the study has several shortcomings, such as MacDonagh’s lack of a critical attitude and method, his moralizing outlook, and his Romantic notion of the poet who is conceptualized as a seer spiritually or divinely inspired. However, Norstedt demonstrates how MacDonaghs’ argumentative approach makes the book iconic and a powerful assertion of Anglo-Irish literature and language as a ‘happy compromise between the Gaelic past and the predominance of English in Ireland’s future’. MacDonagh, in the Preface to Literature in Ireland dated January 1916, sets out to demonstrate three theses in his study:
‘That, an Anglo-Irish Literature, worthy of a special designation, could come only when English had become the language of the Irish people, mainly of Gaelic stock, and when the literature was from, by, of, to and for the Irish people.
That the ways of life and the ways of thought of the Irish people—the manners, customs, traditions, and outlook, religious, social and moral—have important differences from the ways of life and of thought which have found expression in other English literature.
That the English language in Ireland has an individuality of its own, and the rhythm of Irish speech a distinct character.’
Sources:
MacDonagh, Thomas. Literature in Ireland. Studies in Irish and Anglo-Irish Literature. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1916. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
Sources:
MacDonagh, Thomas. Literature in Ireland. Studies in Irish and Anglo-Irish Literature. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1916. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
]]>Thomas MacDonagh's fourth collection of poems.
This collection is MacDonagh’s fourth collection of poetry after Through the Ivory Gate (1902), April, May and Other Verse (1903), The Golden Joy (1906). According to Lawrence William White, even if borrowing its title from Walt Whitman, Songs of Myself showcases the ‘intensely subjective poetic voice characteristic of MacDonagh’s oeuvre, in preference to a Whitmanesque identification of the self with the representative man’. Johann A. Norstedt notes that this poetic work is one of MacDonagh’s more accomplished collections, displaying a commitment to devising a more original style. The poems in Songs of Myself reflect significant moments in his life such as the death of his mother and his journey to Paris during the summer of 1910. The collection includes frequently cited poems such as ‘John-John’ and ‘Envoi’.
Sources:
MacDonagh, Thomas. Literature in Ireland. Studies in Irish and Anglo-Irish Literature. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1916. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
Sources
MacDonagh, Thomas. “Metempsychosis: or A Mad World. A Play in One Act” The Irish Review. February 1912. 585-599. Print.
Nolan, Jerry. ‘Edward Martyn’s Struggle for an Irish National Theater, 1899-1920’. New Hibernia Review. Vol. 7, N. 2, Samhradh/Summer 2003. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
]]>Thomas MacDonagh's second play Metempsychosis (1912)
First printed in The Irish Review, the play is a satire of theosophy and occultism. It was first performed on 18,19, 20 April 1912 by the Theatre of Ireland, a company formed in 1906 from a number of intellectuals and practitioners dissatisfied with the Abbey Theatre aesthetic and including Padraic Colum, P.H. Pearse, and Edward Martyn among others. Critics often focus on the main character Earl Winton-Winton de Winton who provides a unmerciful caricature of W.B. Yeats. However, Norstedt notes how the other character ‘Stranger’ is also satirized and argues that the ‘Stranger could be seen as a parody of MacDonagh’s initial reverence for Yeats (later regretted) and of MacDonagh’s own ideas of immortality expressed in some of his poems. White also notes how the play was misinterpreted as a serious comment on the topic of transmigration of souls.
Sources
MacDonagh, Thomas. “Metempsychosis: or A Mad World. A Play in One Act” The Irish Review. February 1912. 585-599. Print.
Nolan, Jerry. ‘Edward Martyn’s Struggle for an Irish National Theater, 1899-1920’. New Hibernia Review. Vol. 7, N. 2, Samhradh/Summer 2003. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
“My writings have been only the prelude to my other work. […] Sooner that you think, Frances, politics will be dropped here, and something better will take their place […] You will not know yourself in the Ireland that we shall make here.” (Pagans)
The character of John was played by Thomas MacDonagh’s brother John, active in the Irish Theatre as actor and manager.
Sources
MacDonagh. Thomas. Pagans. A Modern Play in Two Conversations. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1920. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
]]>Thomas MacDonagh's Third Play, Pagans (1915)
Pagans is Thomas MacDonagh’s third play after When the Dawn Has Come (1908) and Metempsychosis (1912) and was first produced in April 1915 by the Irish Theatre in Hardwicke Street for a run of six nights. It is the story of husband and wife, Mr. John Fitzmaurice and Mrs. Frances Fitzmaurice, who have been separated for three years and who reunite in her Dublin house to realize that, despite their love for eachother, they can’t make a fresh start. The play is almost a dramatic version of MacDonagh’s poem ‘John-John’ (Songs of Myself) with the protagonist’s final nationalist speech as arguably one the major structural revision (Norstedt). The play is generally read as mirroring MacDonagh’s personal transition to military separatism (White), particularly due to its epilogue when John accepts the separation from his wife from his wife and announcing how
“My writings have been only the prelude to my other work. […] Sooner that you think, Frances, politics will be dropped here, and something better will take their place […] You will not know yourself in the Ireland that we shall make here.” (Pagans)
The character of John was played by Thomas MacDonagh’s brother John, active in the Irish Theatre as actor and manager.
Sources
MacDonagh. Thomas. Pagans. A Modern Play in Two Conversations. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1920. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
Both plays were produced for the first time in 1915. Pagans will only be published in book form in 1920, whereas Eimar O’Duffy’s The Walls of Athens appeared in The Irish Review in June 1914 and was published in book form in 1915 “on sale at the Irish Theatre” for the price of one shilling net. The setting of Pagans, a drawing room in the Dublin house of Mrs Fitzmaurice is in the Ibsenite style favoured by the Irish Theatre founders, whereas the historic setting of The Walls of Athens required the scenic effects of Jack Morrow (an Irish painter who contributed several plates for the Irish Review) and the costumes of the Dun Emer Guild.
]]>Playbill of the Irish Theatre in Harwicke Street (April 1915) for: Pagans by Thomas MacDonagh; The Walls of Athens by Eimar O’Duffy.
Playbill of the Irish Theatre in Harwicke Street (April 1915) for: Pagans by Thomas MacDonagh; The Walls of Athens by Eimar O’Duffy.
Both plays were produced for the first time in 1915. Pagans will only be published in book form in 1920, whereas Eimar O’Duffy’s The Walls of Athens appeared in The Irish Review in June 1914 and was published in book form in 1915 “on sale at the Irish Theatre” for the price of one shilling net. The setting of Pagans, a drawing room in the Dublin house of Mrs Fitzmaurice is in the Ibsenite style favoured by the Irish Theatre founders, whereas the historic setting of The Walls of Athens required the scenic effects of Jack Morrow (an Irish painter who contributed several plates for the Irish Review) and the costumes of the Dun Emer Guild.
In 1904 Thomas MacDonagh won the first price at the Dublin Feis Ceoil for a religious cantata that he wrote with music by the Italian pianist and R.I.A.M. singing teacher Benedetto Palmieri. The cantata follows the actions of the Israelites as recounted in the book of Exodus until their successful crossing of the Red Sea (Norstedt). It was first performed at the Royal University on the 19th of May 1904 with Palmieri as a conductor. Arthur Griffith’s periodical, The United Irishman, criticized the cantata because it didn’t address more specific Irish subjects. This criticism partly contested the rules in the Feis Ceoil competition which allowed works by Irish-born authors ‘or’ on Irish subject as opposed to works by Irish-born authors ‘and’ on Irish subject (Norstedt). The collaboration between MacDonagh and Palmieri seems to be undocumented. After five years at the Royal College of Music in London (1885-1890), Palmieri worked at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin from 1900 to 1914 before returning to Italy during the wars. Palmieri most notably gave singing lessons to James Joyce who also participated in the 1904 Feis Ceoil winning a third-place medal for tenor solo singing.
Sources
Hodgart Matthew H. J. C. & Ruth Bauerle. Joyce’s Grand Operoar: Opera in Finnegan’s Wake. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Print.
MacDonagh, Thomas (words) & Benedetto Palmieri (music). The Exodus: A Sacred Cantata. London: Doremi, 1904. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
“Benedetto Palmieri: Joyce’s Singing Teacher.” Music in James Joyce’s Dubliners. Online Exhibition of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. 2014. Web. Accessed 25 May 2015. [https://riamarchives.wordpress.com/music-in-joyces-dubliners/benedetto-palmieri/]
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
]]>1904 Vocal Score for Thomas MacDonagh's The Exodus: A Sacred Cantata (Words by MacDonagh, music by Benedetto Palmieri).
In 1904 Thomas MacDonagh won the first price at the Dublin Feis Ceoil for a religious cantata that he wrote with music by the Italian pianist and R.I.A.M. singing teacher Benedetto Palmieri. The cantata follows the actions of the Israelites as recounted in the book of Exodus until their successful crossing of the Red Sea (Norstedt). It was first performed at the Royal University on the 19th of May 1904 with Palmieri as a conductor. Arthur Griffith’s periodical, The United Irishman, criticized the cantata because it didn’t address more specific Irish subjects. This criticism partly contested the rules in the Feis Ceoil competition which allowed works by Irish-born authors ‘or’ on Irish subject as opposed to works by Irish-born authors ‘and’ on Irish subject (Norstedt). The collaboration between MacDonagh and Palmieri seems to be undocumented. After five years at the Royal College of Music in London (1885-1890), Palmieri worked at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin from 1900 to 1914 before returning to Italy during the wars. Palmieri most notably gave singing lessons to James Joyce who also participated in the 1904 Feis Ceoil winning a third-place medal for tenor solo singing.
Sources
Hodgart Matthew H. J. C. & Ruth Bauerle. Joyce’s Grand Operoar: Opera in Finnegan’s Wake. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Print.
MacDonagh, Thomas (words) & Benedetto Palmieri (music). The Exodus: A Sacred Cantata. London: Doremi, 1904. Print.
Norstedt, Johann A.. Thomas MacDonagh. A Critical Biography. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980. Print.
“Benedetto Palmieri: Joyce’s Singing Teacher.” Music in James Joyce’s Dubliners. Online Exhibition of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. 2014. Web. Accessed 25 May 2015. [https://riamarchives.wordpress.com/music-in-joyces-dubliners/benedetto-palmieri/]
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
Irish Review
Sources
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
]]>The Golden Joy is Thomas MacDonagh’s third collection of poetry. According to Lawrence William White, this volume symbolizes MacDonagh’s transition ‘from Christian mysticism to neo-platonism’ where the poet is conceived ‘as divinely inspired mediator between the spiritual world and the physical’.
Sources
White, Lawrence William. "MacDonagh, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Web.
Dr. Kurt Bullock is an associate professor at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Irish literature and critical theory and directs senior and master's-level theses. His area of scholarship is the work of Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett; he most recently published two chapters on MacDonagh and the Irish Review last summer: "From Revival to Revolution: Thomas MacDonagh and the Irish Review" in Ireland and the New Journalism (eds. Karen Steele, Michael de Nie); and "Literary Provocateur: Revival, Revolt, and the Censure of the Irish Review" in The Home Rule Crisis, 1912-1914 (ed. Gabriel Doherty).
See also Bibliography for further information on his scholarship
Dr. Kurt Bullock is an associate professor at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Irish literature and critical theory and directs senior and master's-level theses. His area of scholarship is the work of Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett; he most recently published two chapters on MacDonagh and the Irish Review last summer: "From Revival to Revolution: Thomas MacDonagh and the Irish Review" in Ireland and the New Journalism (eds. Karen Steele, Michael de Nie); and "Literary Provocateur: Revival, Revolt, and the Censure of the Irish Review" in The Home Rule Crisis, 1912-1914 (ed. Gabriel Doherty).
See also Bibliography for further information on his scholarship