“The Eyes of The Dead” - A Short Story by Daniel Corkery - 1917 - Brief Observations On Irish Literature

Irish Short Story Month VIII

For the last seven years I have dedicated much of my March posting to the Irish Short Story.  Through this I was lead to read many great works and meet a lot of wonderful people.  Thís year I am  devoting parts of March and April to Irish Short Stories. 

In any international literary shootout The Reading Life stands with the Irish.  This year I am devoting a lot of time to classical European works trying to increase the depth and width of my reading.    It is my strong belief that understanding with any depth the literature of one country requires you have a basis for comparison through diverse reading and study.  In the past I have generalized about what I saw in the 100s of Irish literary works I have read and I do not see how one can do that without at least a bit of Multiculturalsm.  Reading Indian and Filipino short stories has made me a better reader, I hope, of Irish literature.  

I have done Q and A sessions with nearly 100 Irish writers and I hope to do many more.   If anything is of lasting value on The Reading Life it is the Q and A sessions.  

Daniel Corkery (1878 to 1964-Cork, Ireland) was a teacher at several schools. At the close of his career he was Professor of English at University College Cork where Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faolain were among his students.  He was active in the Irish language revival movement.   He was also a playwright, wrote a novel, and some cultural works but he is mostly read now for the short stories he wrote about the lives of people in Cork.   He published several collections of short stories in his life. I have previously read and posted on two of his stories, "The Priest" and "The Awaking", both, as is this story, included in his collection, A Munster Twilight.  Today’s story, “The Eyes of The Dead” is also included.

Ireland’s proximity to the sea is one of the oldest and deepest influences on Irish Literature.  One of the ways we see this is manifested in “The Eyes of The Dead”.  Work was hard to find in Cork.  Many young men went to sea.  The hope  being you would be away from Ireland, sometimes for years, then return home with enough with enough money to stay in Cork.  As we learn in the story, almost every Cork family has a son, father, husband or brother who has gone to sea.  In “The Eyes of The Dead” a young man has returned after three years.  He has an amazing story to tell.  His ship sank and he was the only survivor.  Everyone wants to hear his story.  He is back living with his parents, he has become very quiet, lost in thoughts.  Then a mysterious strange shows up at the house, who is also a ship wreck survivor.  The question increasingly becomes is the son a ghost or is the other man.

Corkery does a very good job creating the atmosphere of the times.  

Here is hoping I get to feature him again next year for ISSM IX.

Mel u

"THE PLOUGHING OF LEACA-NA-NAOMH" by Daniel Corkery (1917) - Some General Observations on Irish Literature

General Blatherings on Irish Litersture and other Matters.

My Posts on Irish Literature 

For the last four years I have dedicated much of my March posting to the Irish Short Story.  Through this I was lead to read many great works and meet a lot of wonderful people.  Thís year I am just devoting a few days to the Irish Short Story.  It is not from lack of love for Irish literature.  In any international literary shootout The Reading Life stands with the Irish.  This year I am devoting a lot of time to classical European works trying to increase the depth and width of my reading.  I want to read a few stories around Saint Patrick's Day to keep growing in my reading of the Irish short story and to show respect.   It is my strong belief that understanding with any depth the literature of one country requires you have a basis for comparison through diverse reading and study.  In the past I have generalized about what I saw in the 100s of Irish literary works I have read and I do not see how one can do that without at least a bit of Multiculturalsm.  Reading Indian and Filipino short stories has made me a better reader, I hope, of Irish literature.  Last year in the company of Max u, I made my first visit to Ireland.  I admit to being very moved to be in Dublin, to see the grave of William Butler Yeats, met some great writers and eat way to much awesome food!  

I have done Q and A sessions with nearly 100 Irish writers and I hope to do many more.   If anything is of lasting value on The Reading Life it is the Q and A sessions.

For my first Irish short story for this year's observation I read a very beautifully done story with just exquiste prose by Daniel Corkery, "The Ploughing of Leaca-Na-Naomh". 

Daniel Corkery (1878 to 1964-Cork, Ireland) was a teacher at several schools. At the close of his career he was Professor of English at University College Cork where Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faolain were among his students.  He was active in the Irish language revival movement.   He was also a playwright, wrote a novel, and some cultural works but he is mostly read now for the short stories he wrote about the lives of people in Cork.   He published several collections of short stories in his life. I have previously read and posted on two of his stories, "The Priest" and "The Awaking", both, as is this story, included in his collection, A Munster Twilighf". 

The "Ploughing of Leaca-Na-Naomh" is narrated by a calaoguer of Irish heritage.  He has gone on a visit to a rural homestead in a Irish speaking area, trying to meet the head of a family of very ancient lineage.   A Leaca is a flat stretch of land on a mountain, in Irish tradition a Leaca was a holy place, to be treated with respect and veneration.  The story turns on the tragic events that transpired when the landowner and family scion decided he would plough the Leaca.  I want to quote the opening paragraph as it shows the poetic beauty of Corkery's prose.

The story brings to life many old Irish folkways.  It is very much worth reading. 

Mel u

         

                             Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Ruprect, Rory and Carmela

"The Awakening" by Daniel Corkery

"The Awakening" by Daniel Corkery  (1917, 17 pages)

 Irish Short Story Month Year III

March 1 to March 31

Daniel Corkery

Cork

In 1917 the British Prime Minister Lloyd George announces that England is ready to offer self-government to the parts of Ireland that want it, excluding six northern counties that do not want it.  

Daniel Corkery (1878 to 1964-Cork, Ireland) was a teacher at several schools. At the close of his career he was Professor of English at University College Cork where Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faolain were among his students.  He was active in the Irish language revival movement.   He was also a playwright, wrote a novel, and some cultural works but he is mostly read now for the short stories he wrote about the lives of people in Cork.   He published several collections of short stories in his life.  Last Year during Irish Short Story Month I posted in his excellent short story, "The Priest".   

"The Awakening" centers on a fishing boat owned by the widow with a son who will soon become the captain of the boat.   The story is a master work in the way it shows the bonds between the men who work the boat, their constrained emotion and by the very clear picture it paints for us of what it was like to work on a fishing boat off the coast of Galway.  The description of the smell of the boiling fish and potatoes on the boat made me hungry.    The captain was the best friend of the owner.  For a long time he has run the boat for his widow and he has always be scrupulously honest with her.    Her son works the boat also and he is to take over as captain at the end of this voyage.   I will quote a bit so you can get the feel for the prose style of Corkery.

"It was very dark. Everything was huge and shapeless. Anchored as she was, tethered besides, clumsy with the weight of dripping fish-spangled net coming in over the gunwale, the nobby was tossed and slapped about with a violence that surprised him; flakes of wet brightness were being flung everywhere from the one lamp bound firmly to the mast. Yet the night was almost windless, the sea apparently sluggish: there must be, he thought, a stiff swell beneath them. What most surprised him, however, was to find himself thinking about it. That evening coming down the harbour, he would not have noticed it."

I read this in  Classic Irish Short Stories edited by Frank O'Connor.  

"The Priest" by Daniel Corkery

"The Priest" by Daniel Corkery (1929, 11 pages)

Irish Short Story Week Year Two

March 12 to May 1

Stories about Priests

April 1 to April 7

Resources and Ideas for Irish Short Story Week

My Prior Posts for ISSW Year Two

Please consider joining us for Irish Short Story Week Year Two, now  set to run until May 1.   To participate all you need do is to post on one Irish Short story or a related matter and let me know about it.   You are also welcome to guest post.  You need not follow my schedule at all.  I am updating all posts by participants periodically and at the end of the event I will do a master post spotlighting the blogs or writings of each participant and it will have  permanent place on the fixed pages below my header picture.


There is a strong cultural link between the Philippines and Ireland in that both are predominately Catholic countries which have been for long periods been exploited colonies of largely Protestant countries.   In both cases English became the language of the ruling class and in time of most literature.  Priests also play a big part in the day to day lives of the people, especially those in smaller towns. 

"This event has hit a new low, a week
about priests?, I will be back when it
is over"- Carmilla

I have decided in observation of Holy Week to post on four stories about priests, written by Irish Authors.   We will also have our first guest this week.   I will be posting on what Julian Barnes said Frank O'Connor regarded as Anton Chekhov's most Irish of short stories, "The Bishop".  I read this story twice and if you asked me to guess where it was written for sure I would say Ireland.   Chekhov will be traveling to Dublin via schooner, departing in 1902 from St. Petersburg,and will spend the rest of Irish Short Story week in Dublin as the guest of Lord Dunsany.  Our next guest, representing the Irish Americans, will be the very Catholic   Flannery O'Connor.

Daniel Corkery

Daniel Corkery (1878 to 1964-Cork, Ireland) was a teacher at several schools. At the close of his career he was Professor of English at University College Cork where Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faolain were among his students.  He was active in the Irish language revival movement.   He was also a playwright, wrote a novel, and some cultural works but he is mostly read now for the short stories he wrote about the lives of people in Cork.   He published several collections of short stories in his life.  (I read this story in William Trevor's anthology The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories.  His work is not yet in the public domain but will, under the laws of Australia at least, soon be.)


"The Priest" is a first rate story about a sixty-two year old priest with a small mostly rural parish.   He somehow feels he never really connected with the people of his parish.   I really could relate to the opening few lines of this story

"Ok Carmilla, Ruprect is
coming back soon"-Rory

"Because Father Reen had been reading all day the rain had meant little for him.   Since breakfast time he had not been disturbed, his housekeeper had not even entered, and he had reached an age-he was sixty-two, when a day of unbroken quiet was the best kind of holiday".

This story has an abundance of references to the beauty of the country side and the priests real love for it.   He likes peace and quiet and solitude.   His parish is a pretty good size one so he spends a lot of time on his horse, doing his priestly duties.    His two most important duties after conducting masses are hearing confessions and preforming  last rites.   

An Irish Breakfast

Father Keen has been informed that one of his parishioners is near death.   The man lives ten miles away, a long horse ride, so he has a lot of time to think about his life and his role as a community priest while on his way.   Father Reen arrives at the home of the dying man.   All of his children, adults now, and his wife are there waiting for him.   Corkery does a very good job of showing us how this feels to the priest, who has done the exact same thing many times before and lets is see how the family acts.   They are in sorrow over their father, a less than perfect man, but their father nevertheless, and they are also concerned over how the property he leaves will be divided up.  They do not want to fight in front of the priest.


"The Priest" lets us see how it might feel to be a 62 year old priest in rural Ireland in 1929.  For sure it took a lot of faith and determination and it was a very lonely life for the very educated priest among the country people.   It lets us see the great sadness in the heart of the priest as he wonders whether or not he has really made a difference in the lives of the people he tends to.  


There is another story by Corkery in Frank O'Connor's Classic Irish Short Stories and I hope to post on that during during Irish Short Story Week Year Three which I plan to begin on March 1, 2013.  


The next priest story I will post on will be "Death in Jerusalem"  by William Trevor.


Mel u