ISBN: 978-0-86140-008-9
21.6 x 13.8 cm.    x, 257 pp. 1981   Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume  7

This volume was created to mark the centenary of the birth of Sean O’Casey. It covers every aspect of his life and work, with essays from leading scholars in the field of O’Casey studies: Ronald Ayling, Bernard Benstock, Mary FitzGerald, David Krause, Robert G. Lowery, William J. Maroldo, Alan Simp­son and Stanley Weintraub, to­gether with a Chronology and a list of productions of O’Casey’s plays, both by Robert G. Lowery. The subjects covered include O’Casey’s relations with the Abbey Theatre, Lady Gregory, W. B. Yeats, and Bernard Shaw together with assessments of the influence that James Joyce, politics, religion and Ireland had on the play­wright and his plays.

CONTENTS<br

SEAN O'CASEY: A CHRONOLOGY.  Robert G.Lowery<br

SEAN O'CASEY AND THE ABBEY THEATRE, DUBLIN.  Ronald Ayling<br

SEAN O'CASEY AND/OR JAMES JOYCE.  Bernard Benstock<br

SEAN O'CASEY AND LADY GREGORY: THE RECORD OF A FRIENDSHIP.  Mary FitzGerald<br

THE DRUIDIC AFFINITIES OF O'CASEY AND YEATS.  David Krause<br

SEAN O'CASEY: ART AND POLITICS.  Robert G.Lowery<br

EARLIEST YOUTH: PRISTINE CATHOLICISM AND GREEN PATRIOTISM IN O'CASEY'S IRISH BOOKS.  William J.Maroldo<br

THE UNHOLY TRINITY: A SIMPLE GUIDE TO HOLY IRELAND c. 1880-1980.  Alan Simpson<br

SHAW'S OTHER KEEGAN: O'CASEY AND G.B.S.  Stanley Weintraub<br

SEAN O'CASEY AND THE ABBEY THEATRE.  Robert G.Lowery<br

Index

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21.6 x 13.8 cm.     Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 19

O’Casey, the Dramatist is the first study to analyse each of Sean O’Casey’s plays in the context of the whole body of his work. His first plays were performed by the Abbey Theatre in Dublin until it refused The Silver Tassie, a rejection that brought about a most acrimonious debate, broke up friendships, and caused O’Casey to sever his links with the Abbey. Its directors were unable to understand the first of his experimental plays, and could not appreciate its true quality. Thence­forth O'Casey’s writing developed along new lines, mostly away from his Irish roots.

In popular estimation his best plays are those of the Dublin years – The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars – but many of his later works are greatly undervalued; indeed The Silver Tassie, Within the Gates, Purple Dust, Red Roses for Me, Hall of Healing, Cock-a-doodle Dandy and The Bishop's Bonfire are all masterpieces of modern drama, as this study shows.

Professor Kosok considers all the twenty-three extant plays, tracing O'Casey's development as a playwright through a chronological study and show­ing that his work can be divided into five periods, which are considered in this volume under the headings ‘Dublin as a Mirror of the World’, 'Experiments’, ‘Ideology and Drama', ‘Ireland as a Microcosm', and ‘Bitterness and Recon­ciliation’. He ends this study with a section headed ‘Continuity and Originality' in which he briefly summarises the findings of previous scholarship, suggests some additional answers to general problems, and indicates some avenues for future research.

7pp, 2 maps 62.0 x 44.3 cm folding to  22.3 x 15.8 cm    42 b&w illustrations  1989

A walking tour of Galway City, including all the features of historical and architectural interest.

"Medieval Galway is one of the most absorbing and attractive documents on Old Galway published for a long time. The first sheet has a present day street map (1:2500 scale) of present day Galway with a comprehensive index pointing out the medieval remains that are left and can be seen from the street. Most of the features are illustrated in fine line drawings. The second sheet shows reproductions of maps of Galway drawn in 1583, 1610 and 1651, each with an explanatory text. This map is a delight, a most enjoyable way to learn about Galway City's history and heritage. It can be used by everyone, schoolchildren, tourists and Old Galway experts." Galway Advertiser.

2 A2 maps

ISBN: 978-1-873821-10-7

The area around the popular town on Galway Bay, including the remains of Doorus House, home of Count de Basterot where Lady Gregory and W. B. Yeats sketched out a plan for the Irish Literary Revival.

A2 map

ISBN: 978-873821-11-1

1987, 7pp, 34 b&w illustrations.     A2 map, folded

Kiltartan Country: The little explored area of South Galway including Coole Park, the home of Lady Gregory, Thoor Ballylee, the home of W. B. Yeats, and the ancient monastic site of Kilmacduagh.

ISBN: 978-1-873821-09-1

Three Maps

Ballyvaughan
Ballyvaughan The heart of the Burren and the coast of Galway Bay. 1986, 7pp, 33 b&w illustrations. A2 map

The heart of the area on this map is the village of Ballyvaughan on the South coast of Galway Bay. It has a hotel, guest-house and many B & Bs and is the ideal starting point for exploring the Burren. It is the start of the Burren Way, a waymarked walk on footpaths and small roads, leading over the uplands from Ballyvaughan to the Western edge of the Burren, with spectacular views over the Atlantic, then leading to Doolin village and on to the well known Cliffs of Moher.

There are many old disused roads in this area, called green roads. One of the most rewarding walks on such a road leads around Black Head, the most Northern headland of the Burren. Here the visitor can climb to one of the most impressive structures of Ireland's Celtic past, the stone ring fort of Cathair Dhuin Irghuis, the stronghold of Fergus, a contemporary of Queen Meabh of Connacht. Made out of large blocks of limestone, standing on a high and bare plateau overlooking the open sea and visible from the Aran Islands, it may well have been used for signalling long distances by beacon fires, as well as the seat of a Celtic king. The area covered by this map contains hundreds of ringforts and enclosures which were the homesteads of farmers who lived in them from about 2,000 years ago up to mediaeval times. On the higher ground can be found the stone graves of Ireland's Neolithic people. The portal dolmen at Poulnabrone is a fine example. Another highlight is to visit some of the early medieval churches, of which there are many. A walk in the valley of Oughtmama near Bellharbour leads to three small churches within the remains of a monastic enclosure wall. The terraced gardens and earthen embankments constructed to carry water from a well to a now vanished mill can still be seen. Finally, there is Sancta Maria de Petra Fertilis (Saint Mary of the Fertile Rock) or, as it is more commonly known, Corcomroe Abbey. Built by Cistercian monks in the 12th century it is one of the most impressive sites in the Burren. These are just a few of the destinations awaiting the enthusiastic walker.

Kilfenora

The Burren - Kilfenora - The City of the Crosses The South Burren including the ancient religious site of Kilfenora with its seven carved medieval crosses. 1988, 7pp, 27 b&w illustrations.  A2 map

The town of Kilfenora lies at the south-west edge of the Burren. It has a long history as an important early monastic settlement and later as a religious centre from the 12-13th centuries. This is shown by the presence of five stone crosses which stand within or near the now ruined cathedral. It is a place to wander around slowly, looking at the beautiful stone carvings, such as the group of monks on the capitals of the 12th century East window in the cathedral, or wondering over the images on the 'Doorty' High Cross, which records the change in status of Kilfenora from a monastery to the centre of a diocese in 1152. 2001 saw the opening of a refurbished and enlarged visitor centre which has excellent displays on the forming of the Burren, its natural history, the lives of the people of the Burren from the first settlers, over 5,000 years ago, to medieval times and the history and folklore of the 19th century. Splendid examples of every type of antiquity can be found within a few miles of the town. Cathair Chonail is a very large and nearly perfect ringfort, close to the road from Kilfenora to Ballyvaughan. Closer to the town lies the small hamlet of Noughaval, 'new habitation or dwelling' in Irish, with its 12th century church. An outdoor altar made up of a simple cross slotted into a horizontal stone slab can be seen in the churchyard and a variety of ringforts and enclosures, wedge tombs and cairns can be explored to the South of the church. Finally, Lemeneagh Castle, about three miles east of Kilfenora, is a wonderfully evocative site with a highly romantic history. It is a five story 15th century tower house, later enlarged to a four story mansion in the 17th century. These are just a few of the places to see around Kilfenora; there are many others to be found by the adventurous traveller.

O'Brien Country The South West Burren including Doolin, Lisdoonvarna and the Cliffs of Moher. 1989, 7pp, 33 b&w illustrations.  A2 map

One of the most scenic walks in the Burren is to head South on the green road above Fanore, part of the Burren Way, with superb views out to the open sea, the Aran Islands to the West and the mountains of Connemara to the North.

The area depicted on this map faces the great sweep of the Atlantic and the landscape is the outcome of a long and complex battle between the forces of nature. The constantly eroding waves beat against the unprotected coastline and the results are dramatically evident, from the massive 200 metre high Cliffs of Moher to the extensive sand dunes at Fanore.

From earliest times the sea was a great roadway and the waters off the West Clare coast were the scene of constant boat traffic. It is thought that the first people arrived here by sea. Primitive tools such as stone choppers, hand axes and hammer stones have been found near the village of Doolin, left by the Mesolithic people who lived here between 7000-3500 BC.

Not far to the North is a stone structure, called a court cairn which was a tomb and also the site of prehistoric ritual. Many of the churches along the coast were founded by or dedicated to the saints associated with the Aran Islands. The ruined church at Crumlin is dedicated to St Columba, who arrived there, according to tradition, in a canvas boat called a curragh, similar to those still in use on the islands.
The ferry to the Aran Islands runs from Doolin and the village is world famous for the traditional music played locally. Of the twelve castle shown on this map eight were held, one time or another, by the O'Brien clan, descendants of King Brian Boru and for centuries the most powerful family in the area.

The most impressive is Ballinalackan Castle. Set on a high rocky plateau it is surrounded by a partly intact bawn wall, which has a round-arched gateway. Finally, in the nearby 19th century Ballinalackan House, now a hotel, the weary walker can sit by a fine marble fireplace, carved out of a single slab, and relax over tea or stronger drink.

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21.6 x 13.8 cm.     viii, 350 pp.   1990   Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 36   IASAIL-Japan Series (ISSN 0267-6079) volume 3

This collection of essays looks at a variety of responses by writers to the problems of their motherland. Includes essays on Swift, Burke, Ferguson, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Joyce, Shaw, O'Casey, Parker and Egan, as well as Northern Irish poets and playwrights. Essayists include Vivian Mercier, A. Norman Jeffares, Lorna Reynolds, Maurice Harmon, John S. Kelly, Declan Kiberd, Christopher Murray, Brian Arkins, and Augustine Martin.

CONTENTS<br

INTRODUCTION. Masaru Sekine<br

ENGLISH READERS: THREE HISTORICAL 'MOMENTS'. Vivian Mercier<br

SWIFT: ANATOMY OF AN ANTI-COLONIALIST. A. Norman Jeffares<br

EDMUND BURKE: A VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS. Lorna Reynolds<br

THE ENIGMA OF SAMUEL FERGUSON. Maurice Harmon<br

W. B. YEATS: POLITICS AND HISTORY. Donna Gerstenberger<br

ASCENDANCY NATIONALISM, FEMINIST NATIONALISM AND STAGECRAFT IN LADY GREGORY'S REVISION OF KINCORA. Maureen S.G. Hawkins<br

THE FIFTH BELL: RACE AND CLASS IN YEATS'S POLITICAL THOUGHT. John S. Kelly<br

KINESIS STASIS, REVOLUTION IN YEATSEAN DRAMA. Augustine Martin<br

JAMES JOYCE AND POLITICS. Heather Cook Callow<br

SAINT JOAN: FABIAN FEMINIST AND PROTESTANT MYSTIC. Declan Kiberd<br

THE 'MIGHT OF DESIGN' IN THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS. Christopher Murray<br

THE WILL TO FREEDOM: POLITICS AND PLAY IN THE THEATRE OF STEWART PARKER. Elmer Andrews<br

TOO LITTLE PEACE: THE POLITICAL POETRY OF DESMOND EGAN. Brian Arkins<br

WHO WE ARE: PROTESTANTS AND POETRY IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND. David Burleigh<br

THEATRE WITH ITS SLEEVES ROLLED UP. Emelie Fitzgibbon<br

Notes<br

Notes on Contributors<br

Index

21.6 x 13.8 cm.   200 pp.   1984   Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 20

The Double Perspective of Yeats’s Aes­thetic offers penetrating insights into the poet’s aesthetic principles. These are characterised, Professor Komesu demon­strates, by a polarity of perspective. He argues that Yeats envisaged life as both unity and conflict, and regarded art as an embodiment of both experience and knowledge. The peculiar nature of this Yeatsian polarity is that the conflicting perspectives are not irreconcilably at war, but exist in a complementary relationship, in which one lives the other’s death, and dies the other’s life. This polarity sometimes led the poet into a logical impasse out of which he tried to struggle in vain. But from it, nonetheless, he gained the dramatic force and tension which enabled him to create a world of poetic vision and experience, one with a magnitude which is all its own. Professor Komesu finds this polarised perspective inherent in the literary theory of the West, constituting a discernible tradition that shapes such divergent artistic movements as Classicism and Romanticism. He contends that Yeats’s place must be found within this tradition.

CONTENTS<br

Preface

PART I<br

1. Introduction<br

2. Knowledge or Experience<br

3. The Saint or the Artist

PART II <br

4. Brahman or Daimon<br

5. The Flower or the Gyre<br

6. The Flower That Never Bloomed<br

7. Conclusion<br

Notes <br

Index

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21.6 x 13.8 cm     xvi, 256 pp.   1983     Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X)  volume 17

Eighty years ago, in a letter to John Quinn, that benefactor in so many ways of the Irish Literary Revival, Yeats wrote that ‘if Finvara, that ancient God, now king of Faery’, were to offer him a gift, ‘I would say, “Let my plays be acted . . .” ’

In spite of, and perhaps because of, the recognition that Yeats has received as a major poet, his wish is still largely unrealised. Thus A. S. Knowland’s critical guide to those plays of Yeats that appear in Collected Plays does have an emphasis on their theatrical viability. He studies each play, dividing them between the lour stages in the playwright's development, Early Stages, Plays of Transition, The Central Achievement, and Last Stages, as well as adding an Epilogue, and including a postscript about one play not in Collected Plays, but which should fairly be discussed in a volume of this nature, Where There is Nothing.

Cyril Cusack has written a Preface in which he recalls performing in Yeats's plays at the Abbey and his reactions on meeting him.

`Deserves to take its place among the handful of recent studies that have taken the plays as plays...and explored them in terms of their theatre presentation.' Augustine Martin in The Irish Independent.

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See below for an Obituary of Josh Kirby

A limited edition portfolio of 1200 copies, signed by the artist. In a gold-blocked and sepia printed folder. Published in 1980 by Schanes & Schanes, San Diego. Containing six full-colour varnished plates depicting an interplanetary Messiah – 'Departure', 'Arrival of the Ark', 'Adoration of the Imag', 'Death of a Spaceman', 'Deposition', and 'Assension'. An extremely rare and sought after item £95.00

From The Independent of 5 November 2001

Josh Kirby27 November 1928 – 23 October 2001

The artist Josh Kirby was best known and appreciated for the lushly crowded cover paintings he created for Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, from The Colour of Magic in its 1985 paperback to this year's Thief of Time. Kirby's career as a professional artist began much earlier, though, as did his love of the fantastic.

Born in 1928 in Waterloo, Lancashire, he was christened Ronald William Kirby and acquired the nickname Josh while studying at the Liverpool City School of Art: "Some wag thought I painted like Sir Joshua Reynolds!" After a period of commercial work in film posters, he began selling book- and magazine-cover art in the mid-1950s. Fondly remembered early paintings include the jacket for the first Pan paperback of Ian Fleming's Moonraker in 1956, and a rousing space battle on a 1957 issue of Authentic SF magazine – illustrating a story by the up-and- coming science-fiction writer Brian Aldiss. "My first cover," Aldiss remembers. "It was a great event."

 Kirby's SF painting style tended to feature bulbous, organic-seeming machines and strange lines of force. His list of acknowledged book covers, published in his 1999 art book A Cosmic Cornucopia, meticulously includes every painting with a touch of the fantastic, futuristic or horrific, while omitting "categories like War, Cowboy, Adventure, Romance . . . they don't hold any delights for me. And were done under sufferance so I could survive and paint on a daily basis." Thus his painting for a novelisation of The Camp on Blood Island (1958), highly regarded by connoisseurs of paperback art and even included as a vignette on Hammer's film poster, remained unacknowledged. Nevertheless his official list runs to more than 400 cover paintings.

A generation of British science-fiction fans remembers the 1960s Kirby covers for Ray Bradbury's The Silver Locusts and others, includingThe Illustrated Man – whose framing device, a man with animated tattoos that tell stories, particularly fascinated the artist. His string of paintings for Alfred Hitchcock's (usually ghosted) horror/suspense anthologies rang the changes on the director's familiar, bulky appearance, often building up the face from suitable images of horror, somewhere between that tattooed man and an Arcimboldo figure. Later portraits of Pratchett likewise show him as an illustrated man, his features alive with Discworld characters.

 22.9 x 15.3 cm.         

Rudyard Kipling claimed that he never wrote 'the bland drivel of the globetrotter'. As a journalist for seven years in India, he watched tourists scurry across the land and then publish their superficial impressions. Ironically over the course of his life, Kipling too became a tourist, visiting and describing six continents.

Kipling was just twenty-three years old when he reached San Francisco in May 1889; he immediately began recording the sights and sounds of boom-town America. For four months he toured the United States, publishing accounts of his journey in the Pioneer, a major newspaper in western India. A few years later, when he lived in Vermont (1892-1896) with his American wife, Kipling wrote several syndicated articles published in both England and the U.S. Then in 1899 he revised and abridged the Pioneer versions and published them in From Sea to Sea. The second series of syndicated articles he collected in Letters of Travel (1920). Most of these travel writings are now out of print.

In Kipling's America, Professor D. H. Stewart brings all of these articles together and reproduces the original printed versions; he sets the context with an engaging introduction and helpful annotations. Readers are provided with the opportunity to hear again Kipling at his cocky and often opinionated best. From Kipling's perspective, America unleashed the chaotic energy latent in human beings, and he was uncertain whether this energy inevitably would be productive or destructive.

That some of his impressions were one-dimensional is undeniable, but equally undeniable is his gift of language—his access to a ready lexicon often composed of what he termed a 'perpetual Pentecost' to describe the 'talking in tongues' heard in British Overseas Clubs throughout the Empire. This hodgepodge of European languages (counter-pointed with pidgin English, Chinese, Hindi, American) produced a symphony (or cacophony) of bountiful word play deployed in his fiction and journalism. While some may see it as unsettling, a kind of 'Kiplingo', most will enjoy the virtuoso prose performances.

The accounts in Kipling’s America: Travel Letters, 1889-1895, reminiscent of a photograph album from a century past and shrewdly prophetic of today’s America, will intrigue Kipling scholars, students of American history and general readers alike.

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21.6 x 13.8 cm.   viii, 361 pp.      2002     Ulster Editions and Monographs series (ISSN 0954-3392) Volume 11

As the first major book-length study of the poetry of Derek Mahon, this volume of fourteen essays represents a long overdue account and assessment of one of the foremost living English-language poets not only in Irish poetry but world-wide.

The essays demonstrate the variety and complexity of Mahon’s work. It is a poetry of the ‘ironic conscience’, sceptical, sophisticated, urbane; a poetry of transit between centres and margins. It breaks with a nationalist or regionalist thematics yet remains engaged with questions of identity, ‘belonging’, tradition and history. It identifies with outsiders, mavericks, ‘the unreconciled, in their metaphysical pain’. It includes some of the best poems of the Troubles, yet reflects a basically metaphysical, universal frame of reference. It ranges widely in time and space, yet excels in the minute particularising of human experience and the phenomenal world. We are in ‘one place only’ but ‘We might be anywhere’. The poet moves from the formal intensities of the ‘well-made’ poem to experiment with mixed styles and more open, confessional and epistolary-style forms which incorporate more of the detritus of everyday life.

In considering the central issues of Mahon’s poetry – the relation between poetry and politics, the conflicting claims of art and nature, the representation of gender, the importance of place, the poet’s response to violence, despair and decadence, his characteristic techniques of displacement, ambiguity and intertextuality – these essays also represent a variety of critical approaches to the poetry. Some of this criticism is rooted in Mahon’s own critical and aesthetic vocabulary, which is largely reflective of canonical values and the New Critical ideal of the ‘well-made poem’ – an orthodoxy which his recent poetry challenges and enlarges. Other essayists construct their own critical terms and read ‘against the grain’ of the poetry to expose new possibilities of meaning. Thus, the volume includes New Critical ‘close reading’ of individual poems, examination of social, historical and literary contexts, consideration of Mahon as a translator, and the mobilisation of new critical paradigms such as ‘Men’s Studies’ and post-modernism.

The contributors are (in the order of the essays) Elmer Kennedy-Andrews, Edna Longley, Gerald Dawe, Bruce Stewart, Jerzy Jarniewicz, Eamonn Hughes, Michael Allen, Richard York, Hugh Haughton, Frank Sewell, John Goodby, Neil Corcoran, Stan Smith, and Patrick Crotty. A number of these essays were originally delivered as lectures at the fourth Ulster Symposium at the University of Ulster at Coleraine in 1998.

Elmer Kennedy-Andrews is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. His books include The Poetry of Seamus Heaney: All the Realms of Whisper (1988); (editor) Seamus Heaney: A Collection of Critical Essays (1992); (editor) Contemporary Irish Poetry: A Collection of Critical Essays (1992); The Art of Brian Friel: Neither Dreams nor Reality (1995); The Poetry of Seamus Heaney; Icon Critical Guides (1998), (editor) Irish Fiction Since 1960 (2004),  Fiction and the Northern Ireland Troubles: (De-) Constructing the North (2003), and Writing Home: Poetry and Place in Northern Ireland 1968-2008 (2009).

Front cover photograph: Derek Mahon, by John Minihan, courtesy of the photographer.

ISBN: 978-0-86140-284-7

19.7 x 12.9 cm.      [pbk edition of book first published in 1973]

Death has been the skeleton in the cupboard of organised religion for two millennia, and many churches have not been able to provide the comfort needed by the bereaved, or satisfactory answers to their questions.

While David Kennedy’s wife was still alive, they agreed that whoever died first would endeavour to prove that life after death was a fact. After her death, he showed his friends and associates in the academic world a written record of experiences that took place almost immediately after her passing: he wanted, initially, to be sure that his emotions had not clouded his reasoning. He was strongly advised that it should be published, and A Venture in Immortality was first published in 1973.

The story this book tells is simple: Ann is ‘alive’. Her survival has found expression, not just as a symbol of hope or as an endless prolongation of memory, but as a living, dynamic personality whose activities manifested themselves in such a way that the record of the following six months constitutes most powerful evidence for survival after death.

A Venture in Immortality is the result of David Kennedy’s endeavour to present his story and the evidence related to his Christian faith in such a way as to remove the fear of death from his readers. He does not minimise the agony of dying and the pain of parting from those we love, or the sense of physical absence, but he does not just give hope and promises as a palliative: he presents the simple and true facts of a life after death which we may not always understand, but which appears to be as real and as active an experience as anything we have known in this world.

To his narrative, the author added appendices on Prayers for the Dead; Mediumship in the Early Church; A Suggested Funeral Service; and Comments on and prints the Report of the Church of Scotland Committee on Supernormal Psychic Phenomena.

David Kennedy was a successful consulting engineer before he gave up his career and went back to university to study to become a minister in the Church of Scotland. Once he was ordained, his scientific background and logical mind, his deep sincerity and outstanding gift of oratory ensured that he became one of Scotland’s most widely known ministers.

21.6 x 13.8 cm.   xvi, 268 pp. 1988             Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 26

This is the first full-length critical examination of Sean O’Casey’s monumental six-volume autobiography. Beginning by tracing the extraordinary, twenty year evolution of the work’s composition, Professor Kenneally then makes some crucial distinctions between O’Casey’s unique self-portrait and related literary genres such as the memoir and the autobiographical novel. The study goes on to place O’Casey’s self-portrait in the context of autobiographical writing from St Augustine to George Moore.

With these critical perspectives estab­lished, the book examines O’Casey’s insistent experimentation with all aspects of autobiographical form: his blending of personal history with information on a host of secondary figures such as Parnell, Pearse, Yeats, Lady Gregory and Shaw; his various principles of selecting and arranging autobiographical materials; and, in particular, his innovative narrative strategies and changing stylistic modes of representation. O’Casey’s willingness to exploit the literary and artistic possibilities offered by the genre has produced multiple images of the self which provide insight into the complex nature of autobiographical identity. By pointing to the overall unity and governing vision of the work, Professor Kenneally confirms its stature as one of the century’s epic self-portraits in prose, a rich and challeng­ing literary creation that enhances our understanding of O’Casey the man and the writer.

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ISBN: 978-0-86140-310-3

21.6 x 13.8 cm       Studies in Contemporary Irish Literature volume 2    Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 43

This is the second of four collections of essays intended to be published under the general title Studies in Contemporary Irish Literature (only two were) which are devoted to critical analysis of Irish writing since the 1950s. When taken together, it is intended that the four volumes will provide a solid foundation for scholars and students interested in the extraordinary achievements of Irish writers over the past few decades. The first volume, Cultural Contexts and Literary Idioms in Contemporary Irish Literature, also edited by Professor Kenneally and published in 1988, mapped out aspects of the cultural, social and political context of contemporary Irish writing and examined predominant concerns within a given literary genre.

Essays in the present collection establish some of the defining characteristics of contemporary Irish poetry, examine common features of several groups of poets and present focused analyses of twelve individual poets. The contributors are Elmer Andrews, Rand Brandes, Rory Brennan, Terence Brown, Richard Allen Cave, Tom Clyde, Gerald Dawe, Peter Denman, Maurice Elliott, Eamon Grennan, Edna Longley, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, Kathleen McCracken, Peter McDonald, Ron Marken, Gerardine Meaney, Dennis O'Driscoll, Bernard O'Donoghue, Alan Peacock, Linda Revie, Robert Tracy, Stan Smith and Clair Wills.

Michael Kenneally, a native of Youghal, Co.Cork, received his post secondary edition in Canada. He is Professor of English at Marianopolis College, Montreal, and also teaches courses in Irish literature at Concordia University. He is author of Portraying the Self: Sean O'Casey and the Art of Auto-biography (1988) and edited Irish Literature and Culture (1992) as well as the first volume of the Studies in Contemporary Irish Literature series.

21.6 x 13.8 cm.     x, 196 pp.   1992     Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X)  volume 35

This volume deals with the illumination of literature through the study of other art forms. A diverse and absorbing variety of subjects are called in aid of literary analysis, including music, aesthetics, politics, rebellion, ritual, stage design, painting, sociology, cinema, and colonisation. The essays are adapted from papers given at the 1988 Conference of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies in Montreal, entitled `Cultural and Artistic Contexts of Irish Literature'.

Two essays, by Andrew Carpenter and Mary Helen Thuente, have been added to lend completeness to the collection. The other contributors are: Zack Bowen, Richard Allen Cave, Terry Egleton, John Wilson Foster, Richard Kearney, Declan Kiberd, Edna Longley, Patrick Rafroidi and Wolfgang Zach, with the conference opening address by Hiroshi Suzuki.

PREFACE. Michael Kenneally<br

OPENING ADDRESS. Hiroshi Suzuki<br

CHANGING VIEWS ON IRISH MUSICAL AND LITERARY CULTURE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ANGLO-IRISH LITERATURE. Andrew Carpenter<br

AESTHETICS AND POLITICS In EDMUND BURKE. Terry Eagleton<br

THE LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN. Mary Helen Thuente<br

THOMAS MOORE: TOWARDS A REASSESSMENT? Patrick Refroidi<br

MUSIC AND RITUAL IN ULYSSES. Zack Bowen<br

STAGE DESIGN AS A FORM OF DRAMATIC CRITICISM. Richard allen Cave<br

NO MORE POEMS ABOUT PAINTINGS? Edna Longley<br

CRITICISM, THEATRE AND POLITICS: BRIAN FRIEL'S THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY IN ITS EARLY RECEPTION. Wolfgang Zach<br

FATHERS AND SONS: IRISH STYLE. Declan Kiberd<br

MODERN IRISH CINEMA: RE-VIEWING TRADITIONS. Richard Kearney<br

CULTURE AND COLONIZATION: A NORTHERN PERSPECTIVE. John Wilson Foster<br

Notes<br

Notes on Contributors<br

Index

21.6 x 13.8 cm.     viii, 369 pp.   1988   Studies in Contemporary Irish Literature volume 1   Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 31

This is the first of four intended volumes (only two of which got published) devoted to critical analysis of Irish writing since the 1950s. Each was intended to present a collection of essays that, taken together, should provide a solid foundation for scholars and students interested in the extraordinary achievements of Irish writers in the last three decades.

The essays in this volume map out aspects of the cultural, social and political context of contemporary literature and predominant concerns within a given genre.

The contributors as Anthony Bradley, Terence Brown, Gerald Dawe, John Wilson Foster, Tamsin Hargreaves, Claudia Harris, Dillon Johnston, Colbert Kearney, Edna Longley, Arthur E. McGuinness, Christopher Murray, Fintan O’Toole, Andrew Parkin, Anthony Roche,  Michael Toolan,  and Walentina Witoszek and Patrick F. Sheeran.

The second volume in the series is Poetry in Contemporary Irish Literature, edited by Michael Kenneally.

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22.9 x 15.3 cm.

In her novels and short stories, May Laffan Hartley (1849–1916) depicts the religious and political controversies of late nineteenth-century Ireland. Eire’s own Helena Kelleher Kahn reintroduces us to Laffan’s vivid, witty fiction, rich in political and social commentary. Laffan did not offer clear-cut approval to one side or the other of the social and religious divide but weighed both and often found them wanting. She adds a missing dimension to the Irish world of Wilde, Shaw, and Joyce.

A woman of the age subtly embroiders the acute challenges and divisions of middle-class Ireland. As Kahn says, “she chose to write about the alcoholic ex-student, the impecunious solicitor, the farmer or merchant turned politician, and their often resentful wives and children. On the whole her world view was pessimistic. Rural Ireland was a beautiful intellectual desert. Dublin was a place to leave, not to live in.” This account of her life and work will be of interest to students of Anglo-Irish literature and history, as well as women’s studies.

Kelleher Kahn "provides a socio-historical context for middle-class Irish life that clearly articulates the principal issues of this culturally and politically dynamic period to both novice and academic readers of Irish fiction. Extensively researched with abundant endnotes, this book should be compulsory reading for those studying the marginalized Irish women writers of the nineteenth century." ―Victorian Studies, 48.4 (2006)

"I had never heard of May Laffan Hartley. Having now read one of her novels (Hogan MP, available as a free e-book on the ELT Press website) and Helena Kelleher Kahn’s erudite study of Laffan Hartley’s works, I find I’ve been provided the “missing dimension to the Irish world of Shaw and Joyce” Kahn predicted.... I highly recommend this work to aficionados of Irish studies." ―ELT, 49.3 (2006)

21.6 x 13.8 cm.   xii, 260 pp.  1997   Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 50

In 1829 Mrs S.C.Hall, an Irishwoman living in England, published a book of sketches set mainly in her native Wexford. Sketches of Irish Life and Character was an immediate success both with literary critics and the general public. A second series of Sketches appeared in 1831 and established Mrs Hall's reputation in  England as an interpreter of Irish character. Her later works on Ireland – Lights and Shadows of Irish Life (1838), Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1840) and The Whiteboy (1845) – reinforced this view, and were very popular with her English and Scottish readers. She collaborated with her husband, the journalist Samuel Carter Hall, in the writing of a three-volume guide to Ireland, Halls' Ireland, its Scenery, Character, etc. (1841-43), and this too was accepted as an informed description of Irish life and character.

In fact, Mrs Hall wrote as an observer imbued with colonial attitudes who believed in the superiority of everything English. Out of a genuine love for Ireland, however, she wished to make the country better known and understood in England, and she hoped through her writings to cure the Irish people of their faults. What makes her work interesting is the fact that it displays a tolerance and a lack of bigotry that was unusual for its time, and that she is openly critical (especially in her novel The Whiteboy) of government mismanagement and misrule.

CONTENTS

1. Ireland – 'The Great Mart of Fiction'; 2. Mrs Hall – Marriage and Markets; 3. Teaching – The Taste of the Times; 4. Sketches of Irish Life – The Voice of the Colonist; 5. Lights and Shadows – a melancholy book; 6. Stories of the Irish Peasantry – Correcting the 'evil habits of poor Pat'; 7. Halls' Ireland – 'Guidance for those who design to visit Ireland; 8. The Whiteboy –' 'A truly national novel'; 9. Three novelists with a common cause; 10. Assessments – then and now; Index.

Maureen Keane was educated at Dominican College, Eccles Street, Dublin, and University College, Dublin. After graduating with an M.A. she worked for a time as a teacher and then took up a career in journalism, first as a freelance and then as an editor. Returning to academic life, she received her Ph.D. from Maynooth College for a study of didacticism in the works of William Carleton, Mrs S.C.Hall and Charles Lever. This is her first book.

Chosen and Introduced by Joseph Ronsley

The second volume of the Irish Drama Selections series (ISSN 0260-7962), General Editors: Joseph Ronsley and Ann Saddlemyer.

Hardcover ISBN: 0-86140-123-9 / 978-0-86140-123-9 £30.00
Paperback ISBN: 0-86140-086-0 / 978-0-86140-086-7 £9.95

21.6 x 13.8 cm.

Contains: The Old Lady Says 'No! (with Curtis Canfield's list of titles and authors of poems used in its Prologue)', The Moon in the Yellow River, The Golden Cuckoo, The Dreaming Dust, The Scythe and the Sunset, bibliographical checklist.

Denis Johnston's first play, The Old Lady Says 'No!', was produced in 1929, and immediately made his reputation as a very talented, innovative and deeply thoughtful playwright. This description was confirmed by his later plays, four of which, The Moon in the Yellow River, The Golden Cuckoo, The Dreaming Dust, and The Scythe and the Sunset, with The Old Lady, are printed in this volume. Written in widely varying styles, Johnston's work presents his audience with issues that initially seem clear-cut, but by the end of each play there have been thought through to such an extent that basic assumptions have been thoroughly reorganised and transformed.

At the time of publication of this selection in 1983 Denis Johnston (1901-84) was justly considered to be the doyen of Ireland's dramatists. Chosen and introduced by Joseph Ronsley, this selection is the ideal introduction to Johnston's work, for use by classes and performers alike.

Joseph Ronsley taught at McGill University, Montreal. He is author of Yeats's Autobiography: Life as Symbolic Pattern, and has edited Myth and Reality in Irish Literature, and Denis Johnston, a Retrospective. He is co-general editor of the Irish Drama Selections series, and has been a President of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies.