It is an ill wind...
I have just bought myself the catalogue of the new Irish exhibition, The Art of a Nation, at the Federation of British Artists Mall Galleries, in London. Sadly I don't think I am going to be able to visit the exhibition itself...
The background is that when 'The Nation' rescued the Irish banks, in the middle of that debacle, 'The Nation' found itself in possession of Allied Irish Banks' art collection - a commercial bank acting like a Renaissance prince. The collection has monetary value, of course - but any sum realised would, really, have been comparatively tiny in the midst of that crisis. And AIB's collection is an important contribution to The Nation's own history. So, the Nation has held on to it...
This is the Mall Galleries' web site...
http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/art-nation
'The Art of a Nation is the first major exhibition in London for 30 years that celebrates the story of Irish art from 1900 to the present day.
Drawing on the incomparable, award-winning collection of paintings, photography, tapestry and sculptures from the Allied Irish Banks and Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, this exhibition will include over 70 works by many of Ireland’s greatest artists...'
This is the Introduction to the Catalogue by Lewis McNaught, Director, Mall Galleries... Lewis McNaught does not put it like this, of course, but there is an Irish Diaspora Studies dimension here - studied by Lucy Cotter and others - where we need to understand the ways in which London and its art markets has shaped, and shapes, the development of Irish art. And artists...
http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/about-us/blog/art-of-a-nation
'In recent years, we have had too few opportunities in this country to explore and evaluate the merits of Irish Art. Apart from a few commercial galleries that provide exhibition space for living, Irish-born painters, sculptors and photographers, it may surprise you to learn there has been no wide-ranging survey or other single exhibition in London providing an historical dimension to Irish Art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries for more than 30 years...'
This is the Guardian's report on the exhibition...
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/13/hidden-history-irish-art-mall-galleries
'The paintings and sculptures all come from a collection assembled over decades by Allied Irish Banks (AIB), begun when it moved in 1980 to a grandiose new HQ. The collection was unusual because the bank set out not just to commission boardroom portraits but to collect backwards – to assemble a collection that traces the history of Irish art back into the 19th century. As Frances Ruane, who advised on acquisitions, notes in her catalogue introduction, the collection outgrew the lobbies and meeting rooms until the bank’s thousands of employees became accustomed to pictures hanging on almost every wall. The bank bought the work of young contemporary artists, which was cheap, as well as the work of Yeats, Orpen and Lavery, which even in the 1980s was not. Louis le Brocquy, who has several paintings and two glowing tapestries in the show, would become the first living Irish artist to smash the £1m barrier at auction...'
There is a really interesting Sean Keating, visible on the web pages.
The home of the collection is the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork - so maybe I will get to see it some day...
Patrick O'Sullivan
FIDDLER'S DOG
Patrick O'Sullivan's Whole Life Blog
Thursday, 14 May 2015
Monday, 20 April 2015
The Fable of the Autoharp in the North NOTES
The Fable of the Autoharp in the North NOTES
I have been told that my Fable of the Autoharp in the North has become curiously invisible on the web. So, I have put the text here on my blog, where a web search will find it. The Fable was written as part of the lead-up to the Gargrave Autoharp Festival 2014.
And here are some notes...
Obsessive narratologists will recognise that the Fable of the Autoharp is a version of the very old story of the Sailor and the Oar – except that I have turned it on its head.
In the story the Sailor who is tired of the Sea – or is afraid of the Sea – puts an Oar on his shoulder, and walks inland, until he meets a passer-by who has never seen an Oar. The passer-by says, ‘Where are you going with that threshing flail?’ Or some such. And so the Sailor knows that he is finally safe from the Sea.
In literature most people come across the story in Homer, The Odysssey, where it is not so much told as foretold - twice.
First, during Ulysses' foray into the Underworld, where the blind (and dead) poet Tiresias tells Ulysses how he can make peace with the God of the Sea, Poseidon - he must journey, with an Oar, until he reaches a people and a land with no knowledge of the Sea, and there he must erect an altar to the God of the Sea.
Second, Ulysses himself tells the story to Penelope, that he must in the future make this one last journey out of Ithaca. These foretellings make for an odd choice of tenses.
Our guide to the background is William F. Hansen, who - in two splendid articles - shows that the story of the Sailor and the Oar is one of those widely spread folktales absorbed by Homer into Homer. Hansen shows the same story told about Saint Elias and Saint Nicholas, and turning up in the present day in anecdotes and in jokes - a pattern that will be familiar to readers of my own chapter, 'The Irish joke'.
Hansen pauses to note the oddity that many translations of Homer have the inlander mistaking the oar, not for a 'chaff-wrecker', a threshing flail or a winnowing shovel, but for a winnowing fan or a winnowing basket. Then the story is wrecked - no one can mistake a long wooden thing for a kind of basket.
When I was working on my version, the Fable of the Autoharp, my wife and I quickly worked out what kind of thing an autoharp might be mistaken for - 'cheese-grater' is the usual insult. The autoharp certainly has its limitations, and it would help if the thing would stay in tune. It is a difficult instrument for musicians to get their heads round, when they meet it first. With most musical instruments you are creating chords - with the autoharp you are unpacking chords
Hansen is very good on the notion that the 'Oar Test' works through silence. The Sailor just has to carry his thing, and walk, until others speak to him. Dialogue, Hansen wisely points out, would protract the tale 'uncomically'. And so it is with my Fable.
All this arose from my thinking through what it was we were trying to achieve with the Gargrave Autoharp Festival - the creation of a place where the autoharp would be known and be made welcome. Albeit with Yorkshire bluntness.
Patrick O'Sullivan
References
Incollection (Hansen1990Odysseus)
Hansen, W. F.
Edmunds, L. (Ed.)
Odysseus and the Oar: A Folkloric Approach
Approaches to Greek Myth, Approaches to Greek Myth, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, 241-274
I have been told that my Fable of the Autoharp in the North has become curiously invisible on the web. So, I have put the text here on my blog, where a web search will find it. The Fable was written as part of the lead-up to the Gargrave Autoharp Festival 2014.
And here are some notes...
Obsessive narratologists will recognise that the Fable of the Autoharp is a version of the very old story of the Sailor and the Oar – except that I have turned it on its head.
In the story the Sailor who is tired of the Sea – or is afraid of the Sea – puts an Oar on his shoulder, and walks inland, until he meets a passer-by who has never seen an Oar. The passer-by says, ‘Where are you going with that threshing flail?’ Or some such. And so the Sailor knows that he is finally safe from the Sea.
In literature most people come across the story in Homer, The Odysssey, where it is not so much told as foretold - twice.
First, during Ulysses' foray into the Underworld, where the blind (and dead) poet Tiresias tells Ulysses how he can make peace with the God of the Sea, Poseidon - he must journey, with an Oar, until he reaches a people and a land with no knowledge of the Sea, and there he must erect an altar to the God of the Sea.
Second, Ulysses himself tells the story to Penelope, that he must in the future make this one last journey out of Ithaca. These foretellings make for an odd choice of tenses.
Our guide to the background is William F. Hansen, who - in two splendid articles - shows that the story of the Sailor and the Oar is one of those widely spread folktales absorbed by Homer into Homer. Hansen shows the same story told about Saint Elias and Saint Nicholas, and turning up in the present day in anecdotes and in jokes - a pattern that will be familiar to readers of my own chapter, 'The Irish joke'.
Hansen pauses to note the oddity that many translations of Homer have the inlander mistaking the oar, not for a 'chaff-wrecker', a threshing flail or a winnowing shovel, but for a winnowing fan or a winnowing basket. Then the story is wrecked - no one can mistake a long wooden thing for a kind of basket.
When I was working on my version, the Fable of the Autoharp, my wife and I quickly worked out what kind of thing an autoharp might be mistaken for - 'cheese-grater' is the usual insult. The autoharp certainly has its limitations, and it would help if the thing would stay in tune. It is a difficult instrument for musicians to get their heads round, when they meet it first. With most musical instruments you are creating chords - with the autoharp you are unpacking chords
Hansen is very good on the notion that the 'Oar Test' works through silence. The Sailor just has to carry his thing, and walk, until others speak to him. Dialogue, Hansen wisely points out, would protract the tale 'uncomically'. And so it is with my Fable.
All this arose from my thinking through what it was we were trying to achieve with the Gargrave Autoharp Festival - the creation of a place where the autoharp would be known and be made welcome. Albeit with Yorkshire bluntness.
Patrick O'Sullivan
References
Incollection (Hansen1990Odysseus)
Hansen, W. F.
Edmunds, L. (Ed.)
Odysseus and the Oar: A Folkloric Approach
Approaches to Greek Myth, Approaches to Greek Myth, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, 241-274
See also
Article (Hansen1977Odysseus)
Hansen, W. F.
Odysseus' Last Journey
Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, JSTOR, 1977, 27-48
Incollection (OSulliv1994Irish)
O'Sullivan, P.
O'Sullivan, P. (Ed.)
The Irish joke
The Creative Migrant, Leicester University Press, 1994, 3, 57-82
Available at
Hansen, W. F.
Odysseus' Last Journey
Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, JSTOR, 1977, 27-48
Incollection (OSulliv1994Irish)
O'Sullivan, P.
O'Sullivan, P. (Ed.)
The Irish joke
The Creative Migrant, Leicester University Press, 1994, 3, 57-82
Available at
http://www.mediafire.com/view/g6bfrjro1fk4kwk/IWW3-3,_O'Sullivan,_The_Irish_joke.pdf
One printed version of the Fable can be found here...
Fable of the Autoharp in the North
with charming illustrations by Gargrave artists, Jo Ball and Alan Poxon...
One printed version of the Fable can be found here...
Fable of the Autoharp in the North
with charming illustrations by Gargrave artists, Jo Ball and Alan Poxon...
The Fable of the Autoharp in the North TEXT
The Fable of the Autoharp in the North
The story so far…
An autoharper put his autoharp into its bag, slung the bag
over his shoulder and began to travel north.
He came to a small and pretty village, took out his autoharp— but he did
not play it. He sat on a bench, and put
the autoharp on the bench beside him.
So, they sat there, the man and his autoharp, until a passer-by passed
by. I cannot tell you much about this
passer-by — but I can tell you this: he
had a very big nose. The passer-by
paused, gave a nosy look, and said, ‘That’s a strange looking chili-dryer…’
The autoharper said not a word, packed his autoharp into its
bag, slung the bag over his shoulder, and travelled on, north. He can be criticised for this, I know. But I think that his behaviour is
understandable. In the circumstances.
And he came to a charming town, sat on a bench, took out his
autoharp – but he did not play it. He
put the autoharp on the bench beside him.
And they sat there together, the man and his autoharp, ignoring each
other. Until a passer-by passed by. I cannot tell you much about this passer-by —
but I can tell you this: he had one eye
bigger than the other. The passer-by
paused, aimed a beady eye, and said, ‘That’s a strange looking pasta machine…’
And the autoharper sighed, and packed up his autoharp, and
travelled, north.
Then he came to another pretty town, and — as before — sat
and waited, with his autoharp beside him.
And there was a bystander. I
cannot tell you much about this bystander — but I can tell you this: he needed a shave. And the bystander pointed a whiskery chin, and
said, ‘That’s a strange looking cheese grater…’
And the autoharper said not a word, not a word. He packed up his autoharp and travelled on,
still north.
And he came to a very pretty village, with everything you
would want, a pub, an old stone church, an old stone bridge over a clear river,
a tea shop. And the autoharper took out
his autoharp, and put it on the bench beside him. And he waited. And there was a passer-by. I cannot tell you much about this passer-by —
but I can tell you this: she had a very
good ear. And she said to the autoharper,
‘Are you going to play that autoharp or not?’
And by this he knew that he had finally reached Gargrave,
where everyone knows what an autoharp looks like. And they like to hear the autoharp played, in
the pub, in the church and in the tea shop.
And, of course, in the Gargrave Village Hall.
And the autoharper picked up his autoharp, cuddled it to his
chest, and played and played and played.
Until his fingers bled.
Which was not wise.
But is understandable. In the
circumstances.
© Patrick O’Sullivan 2014
Friday, 17 April 2015
Article Published: Visualising the Emigrant Letter
An article reporting on the first parts of the Irish Emigrant Letter projects has at last been published in the Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales (REMI)- there were many delays on the journal side, and the article finally appears with a 2014 publication date.
Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 2014, 30
(3 & 4), pp. 49-69
Emma Moreton, Niall O’Leary and Patrick O’Sullivan
Visualising the Emigrant Letter
ABSTRACT - see below..
The article, as published, is a compact summary of much discussion, and incorporates many different kinds of expertise from the research network - notably of course the expertise of the three co-authors...
Emma Moreton
Linguistics, digitalisation and annotation...
Niall O'Leary
IT/Digital Humanities Consultancy, Visualisation
Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish Diaspora Studies - for example at...
You can see some of Niall O'Leary's visualisations at
For me participation in the research network was part of the neverending quest for enlightenment - in this case, a better understanding of the Digital Humanities. I have written formally to Emma Moreton, thanking her for that.
So, yes, I wanted a better understanding of the technologies and the processes, but in the back of my mind there were two questions:
did the amount of effort that had to be put into a Digital Humanities project genuinely answer existing research questions, and explore research issues?
did that effort create new research questions and new methodologies for the traditional humanities?
The answer to both questions is, Yes.
This becomes very clear, easily clear, within Irish Diaspora Studies.
I am currently writing the more considered, 'Irish', version of the material, with a much larger word count, which can expand on the detail. We like detail.
The journal, the Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, has made its entire collection, dating from 1985 to 2001, available online at Persée.fr. Since 2002 every issue published has been added to the free public portal Revues.org,
funded by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Ministry of Research, and designed to be a home for the most prestigious French journals in the field of the Humanities and Social Science. The latest issues published are available for online sale at Cairn.info, with a three year restriction. I am sorry about that - but at least the French are making an effort.
Patrick O'Sullivan
Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 2014, 30
(3 & 4), pp. 49-69
Emma Moreton, Niall O’Leary and Patrick O’Sullivan
Visualising the Emigrant Letter
ABSTRACT
Emigrant letters are a rich resource for
teaching and learning, transcending disciplinary and methodological boundaries.
They are expressive and indicative of correspondents’ identities, values,
preoccupations and beliefs, providing a powerful source of information about
migration issues and shedding light on processes of language change and
variation. Although many emigrant letter collections have now been digitised,
not all are properly archived; some are reduplicated and others are in danger
of being lost. The documentation and preservation of such letters is,
therefore, a particularly pressing need. In 2013, an AHRC research network was
established to look at ways of improving interconnectivity between digital
collections of migrant correspondence. This paper reports on work carried out
so far, focusing on how emigrant letter projects might move beyond the
digitisation stage to exploit text content and enhance usability and
searchability through the use of visualisation tools.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Irish Community in England, ANALYSIS OF 2011 CENSUS DATA
It is wrong to be entirely cynical about the Irish Government's new publication, and its new diaspora policy...
Global Irish Ireland’s Diaspora Policy March 2015
https://www.dfa.ie/media/globalirish/global-irish-irelands-diaspora-policy.pdf
Though a web search will find much cynical, or at least cautious, comment. Here is the Irish Times...
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/generation-emigration/first-ever-irish-diaspora-policy-published-by-government-1.2124286
And all small nations have learnt to be be cautious about relationships with diasporas...
A useful corrective is a sensible piece of analysis by Louise Ryan and colleagues......
ANALYSIS OF 2011 CENSUS DATA
Irish Community Statistics, England and
Selected Urban Areas
REPORT FOR ENGLAND
Louise Ryan, Alessio D’Angelo, Michael Puniskis, Neil Kaye
July 2014
Global Irish Ireland’s Diaspora Policy March 2015
https://www.dfa.ie/media/globalirish/global-irish-irelands-diaspora-policy.pdf
Though a web search will find much cynical, or at least cautious, comment. Here is the Irish Times...
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/generation-emigration/first-ever-irish-diaspora-policy-published-by-government-1.2124286
And all small nations have learnt to be be cautious about relationships with diasporas...
A useful corrective is a sensible piece of analysis by Louise Ryan and colleagues......
ANALYSIS OF 2011 CENSUS DATA
Irish Community Statistics, England and
Selected Urban Areas
REPORT FOR ENGLAND
Louise Ryan, Alessio D’Angelo, Michael Puniskis, Neil Kaye
July 2014
Patrick O'Sullivan
March 2015
March 2015
Sunday, 22 February 2015
Louth Navigation Trust epetition - please sign
Louth Navigation Trust need to clarify ownership of the waterway, in order to continue the work of restoration...
1.
1.
Louth Navigation
Trust epetition
Louth Navigation
Trust to have full access to restore and operate the Louth Canal
Responsible
department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
To allow the Louth
Navigation Trust, a registered charity to restore the full length of the Louth
canal and bring watercourse back into full operational use. This would
encompass renovating or renewing existing locks and associated canal structures
including banks together with an operational depth put in place for boats/craft
to use as a navigable waterway.
2.
Louth Navigation Trust
The Louth Navigation Trust was formed in 1986 to promote the canal as an amenity, and has established a base in a restored canal warehouse in Louth. A feasibility study for restoring the canal for navigation was commissioned in 2004, and the Trust is hoping that this could be a reality by 2020.
The Louth Navigation Trust was formed in 1986 to promote
the canal as an amenity, and has established a base in a restored canal
warehouse in Louth. A feasibility study for restoring the canal for navigation
was commissioned in 2004, and the Trust is hoping that this could be a reality
by 2020.
3.
Louth Navigation
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
A gentleman and a poet
A number of times recently I have found myself acting as The Spouse at my wife's formal events. It is not hard. I can do it.
At one such event, a young woman came and sat next to me and said, 'Are you the gentleman who is a poet?'
Where to begin? With John Ball, perhaps, and William Morris:
When Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then the gentleman?
http://morrisedition.lib.uiowa.edu/dream.html
Is a gentleman simply some man who has stolen our assets? Or, another introduction to the delicate weave of English culture around that word, Elizabeth Bennett, during that walk in the wilderness, confronts Lady Catherine de Bourgh, on rumours of an engagement: 'He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal.' Would I, by accepting that word, be claiming equality with Colin Firth?
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ppv3n56.html
Many times in the day, of course, I am relieved to accept the categorisation. Recalling, then, Jonathan Miller on that 'unpunctuated motto', 'Gentlemen lift the seat'. 'Is it a sociological description - a definition of a gentleman which I can either take or leave?'
At one such event, a young woman came and sat next to me and said, 'Are you the gentleman who is a poet?'
Where to begin? With John Ball, perhaps, and William Morris:
When Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then the gentleman?
http://morrisedition.lib.uiowa.edu/dream.html
Is a gentleman simply some man who has stolen our assets? Or, another introduction to the delicate weave of English culture around that word, Elizabeth Bennett, during that walk in the wilderness, confronts Lady Catherine de Bourgh, on rumours of an engagement: 'He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal.' Would I, by accepting that word, be claiming equality with Colin Firth?
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ppv3n56.html
Many times in the day, of course, I am relieved to accept the categorisation. Recalling, then, Jonathan Miller on that 'unpunctuated motto', 'Gentlemen lift the seat'. 'Is it a sociological description - a definition of a gentleman which I can either take or leave?'
(Kate Bassett, In Two Minds: a Biography of Jonathan
Miller, 2014, reminds us that the quote comes from the monologue about trousers lost on London's railways.)
Moving along, to the second part of the question... It is true that I have written and do write poetry. For example, I did write an elegant villanelle when I was wooing my wife. These things are unavoidable.
And it is true that I have published Love Death And Whiskey, a book of my song lyrics.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Death-Whiskey-Patrick-OSullivan/dp/095678240X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
In my own world I make a distinction between my song lyrics and my poems. Simply put, a song lyric is a thing of gaps, gaps for other creative people to fill. But people have chosen to speak of my song lyrics as 'poetry'. Terry Jones, on Amazon and on Twitter, said of my book, ' a great book for those nervous of poetry. They are simply wonderful lyrics...' If we analyse this deeply (everything said by Terry Jones can be analysed deeply...) there seems to be some sort of problem around 'poetry' that my work addresses.
Sometimes people have said to me that they like my 'poems', and I have tried to explain my song/poem distinction - thereby, absurdly, quarrelling with people who like my work. Some have fought back, gamely, reading out loud my own work to me, in order to prove to me that my song lyrics are 'poems'. At this point it is clear that I have misunderstood the argument, and should just shut up.
Yet, readers of this blog will know that I am uncomfortable with some of the exercises required of a 'poet' - see below, by way of contrast, my happy encounter with Laurie Lee.
Would I be happy, then, to be called a poet? I am, I suppose, happy with the word, a doer, a maker, a Makar - as the Scots have it.
And so, after what you might well think was insufficient consideration, I did answer the question. 'Are you the gentleman who is a poet?' I said, Yes.
Patrick O'Sullivan
February 2015
And it is true that I have published Love Death And Whiskey, a book of my song lyrics.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Death-Whiskey-Patrick-OSullivan/dp/095678240X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
In my own world I make a distinction between my song lyrics and my poems. Simply put, a song lyric is a thing of gaps, gaps for other creative people to fill. But people have chosen to speak of my song lyrics as 'poetry'. Terry Jones, on Amazon and on Twitter, said of my book, ' a great book for those nervous of poetry. They are simply wonderful lyrics...' If we analyse this deeply (everything said by Terry Jones can be analysed deeply...) there seems to be some sort of problem around 'poetry' that my work addresses.
Sometimes people have said to me that they like my 'poems', and I have tried to explain my song/poem distinction - thereby, absurdly, quarrelling with people who like my work. Some have fought back, gamely, reading out loud my own work to me, in order to prove to me that my song lyrics are 'poems'. At this point it is clear that I have misunderstood the argument, and should just shut up.
Yet, readers of this blog will know that I am uncomfortable with some of the exercises required of a 'poet' - see below, by way of contrast, my happy encounter with Laurie Lee.
Would I be happy, then, to be called a poet? I am, I suppose, happy with the word, a doer, a maker, a Makar - as the Scots have it.
And so, after what you might well think was insufficient consideration, I did answer the question. 'Are you the gentleman who is a poet?' I said, Yes.
Patrick O'Sullivan
February 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)