O'Sullivan, Mercier, Notes

This is really, maybe, a 'Libraries Prequel...' I wrote these notes last month to answer some of the queries I get about my piece on Mercier's The Irish Comic Tradition...

http://www.mediafire.com/view/pdv44q6atlon2tw/2004%2C%20O'Sullivan%2C%20On%20First%20Looking%20into%20Mercier's%20The%20Irish%20Comic%20Tradition.pdf

http://www.mediafire.com/view/guug7tjjtid184k/2015%2C%20O'Sullivan%2C%20Mercier%2C%20NOTES.txt

January 2015 

Some notes on 

Article (OSulliv2004First) 

O'Sullivan, P. 

On First Looking into Mercier's The Irish Comic Tradition 

New Hibernia Review, 2004, 8, 152-157 

1. 

John Bayley
I have just heard the news of the death of John Bayley, who is mentioned in my piece. Where his name is spelt 'John Bailey'. I do not know how that happened. Might even be the Curse of Autocorrect, as the text was passed from hand to hand. For such a small piece this article needed a lot of negotiation with editors. Witness the correct academic American English usage in 'an homage'... 

 John Bayley, who was a kind and good teacher, is mentioned in my article as, perhaps, denotative of a certain approach to texts, involving close, sensitive reading. He was a decent man. 

Here is The Guardian's Obituary...

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/22/john-bayley

2. 

Kensington Library, Liverpool
is the little local library remembered with gratitude. When I was writing the piece I looked around for some pictures of the building, partly to prompt memory. I was writing for an austere academic journal - so no pictures could be used. At one point in the writing of the piece there was a danger that it would become a study of the libraries rather than of the book. Finding pictures has become much easier with the passage of time. It was, and still is, a very fine little building. There is a note about the building by Reg Towner, and a very nice drawing at 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/townerassociates/15362517188/

Reg Towner also directs us to a photograph... 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/townerassociates/6079754979/in/set-72157632645145124

Designed by Thomas Shelmerdine for Liverpool City Council, funded by Andrew Carnegie, of course. Built 1890, modified 1897 - with the addition of that bigger wing. Which I like - I like the off balance look of the building. 

The Victorian Society has a useful leaflet at 

http://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/regions/LI-Liverpool_newsletter_Dec_2011.pdf

And a web search for Thomas Shelmerdine will find more odds and ends. The Everton Public Library, Liverpool - also designed by Shelmerdine - is used by Alistair Black for some general pontification. Which I do not object to...

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/victorian_review/v039/39.1.black.html

Everton Public Library 

Alistair Black 

Victorian Review Volume 39, Number 1, Spring 2013 pp. 40-44 

He summarises some of the discussion about these buildings, and these resources. All under threat, now. 

It was there, when we needed it, where we needed it... 

3.
Picton Reading Room, Liverpool, and Bodleian Library, Oxford

It is easy enough to find pictures of these places online. 

The Picton Reading Room and the surrounding buildings have recently, 2010-13, been given a make-over... 

http://www.shepherd-construction.co.uk/newsitem/full-glory-of-liverpool-central-library-picton-reading-room-re-emerges-as-work-progresses_p238_c3.aspx

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpools-new-central-library-revealed-3324449 

Hard to judge from photographs - but have they done something to the floor levels within the Picton Reading Room? 

When I gave up being a probation officer I went to the Bodleian Library - to repair my prose style. There I did the reading and the research to write 

Incollection (OSullivan1989literary) 

O'Sullivan, P. 

Swift, R. & Gilley, S. (Eds.) A literary difficulty in explaining Ireland: Tom Moore and Captain Rock, 1824 

The Irish in Britain: 1815-1939, Pinter, 1989, 239-74 

Which was given that daft title by our esteemed editors. People keep asking me what that title means - I have no idea what it means. 

The point of places like the Picton Reading Room or the Bodleian Library is that any thought, any thought, can be followed into the research record. 

4.
Do note that the two chapters from The Irish World Wide, which are mentioned in my Mercier piece, are available on that free MediaFire.

That is, Barry Coldrey on the Christian Brothers, and my own chapter, 

'The Irish joke'... 

O'Sullivan, P. 

O'Sullivan, P. (Ed.) The Irish joke 

The Creative Migrant, Leicester University Press, 1994, 3, 57-82

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ooj5btdttc9y4/Documents

Patrick O'Sullivan 

Armenians and Libraries

Some things I have been writing recently have made me think about libraries...

And I found myself sharing notes with Khachig Tölölyan, historian of the Armenian Diaspora, founder and editor of the journal DIASPORA...

A web search will find much stuff, including a video of a conversation with Robin Cohen...

http://vimeo.com/25020401

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/diaspora_a_journal_of_transnational_studies/

When we shared notes, Khachig was in Venice.  And I remarked that I must be one of the few people in the world who has visited both the library at San Lazzaro degli Armeni, in the lagoon of Venice, AND the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia.  Maybe the only non-Armenian...?

Khachig emailed back, 'Colour me impressed...'

San Lazzaro degli Armeni has its own Wikipedia entry...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Lazzaro_degli_Armeni

In 1717 the Republic of Venice gave the island to the Catholic Armenian Mechitarist religious order - the monks had fled westwards after the Ottoman invasion of the Morea (the Peleponnese).  The most famous visitor to the island was most probably Byron - though the present day monks seem a little puzzled that fewer and fewer people have heard of Byron.  I was especially interested in the place of Venice, and the island, in the development of Armenian printed books.  All in all, a fascinating example of the vagaries of diaspora, and struggle for the survival of culture and knowledge...

This is the Wikipedia entry for the Matenadaran...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matenadaran

As all the world knows, I am not a happy traveller.  But whenever I do travel, and wherever I travel, I make pilgrimage to the libraries...

As a further example...  A long time ago I was travelling in the Scottish Borders. And I came across a sign, pointing sharply up a minor road:  Library.  And so, in that bleak upland place, I found the Leadhills Miners' Library...
http://www.leadhillslibrary.co.uk/

The Leadhills Miners Reading Society was founded in 1741, and is the oldest subscription library in the British Isles.  The miners bought books with their own money - the rules of the society are really worth reading.  Working class self-organisation.  Again, poignant, significant, the struggle for knowledge...

Patrick O'Sullivan
January 2015

Song: Autobiography of a Navvy

The lyric of this song can be found in my song lyric book, Love Death and Whiskey...

See, for example...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Death-Whiskey-Patrick-OSullivan/dp/095678240X

I made it my contribution to TradConnect's Songwriter Showcase with Christy Moore...

http://tradconnect.com/profiles/blogs/songs-61-65-songwriter-showcase-with-christy-moore

http://tradconnect.com/profiles/blogs/songs-56-60-songwriter-showcase-with-christy-moore?xg_source=msg_mes_network

I wanted to show support for TradConnect and Tony Lawless - this was a nice, straightforward project, clearly meant to be a service to TradConnect's members, making no attempt to exploit us.

My lyric seemed to fit within the rules of the Songwriter Showcase, as they were at the beginning of the project, or as I understood them.  We were required to put a sung version of the song on Soundcloud.  So, I did.  But I also persuaded Stephanie Hladowski to put an austere version of the song out there...

https://soundcloud.com/saltduck-1

The lyric connects with various projects to do with my development of Irish Diaspora Studies.

The title of the song is a kind of homage to Patrick MacGill (1889-1963), 'The Navvy Poet'. There is a hint, too, of the grimmer songs of work and diaspora, like An Spailpin Fanach.  It is a grim lyric

The lyric also connects with a small research project conducted by the charity, Leeds Irish Health and Homes, which looked at precisely where in Ireland the Leeds Irish come from. Mostly the Irish of Leeds come from Mayo, and have well-established links and networks.

But the charity also found a number of elderly men, from many different parts of Ireland, living isolated lives in bedsits in Leeds. These were the navvies, still living where they happened to be when the last contract ended, and when the body could no longer do the work.

My lyric uses some 1970s navvy words, like 'lump' and 'subby'.

The lyric will go to the tune that in Ireland is known as 'The Croppy Boy', and in England is known as 'Lord Franklin' - and is very like the tune used by Bob Dylan in 'Bob Dylan's Dream'. But the lyric has a very simple, strong structure, and could be set in any number of ways.

Tony Lawless's and TradConnect's Songwriter Showcase has now closed...

Patrick O'Sullivan

January 2015

Patrick O'Sullivan, ed., The Irish World Wide - 4000 downloads

At the beginning of this year, 2014, I made available the texts of...

The Irish World Wide, History, Heritage, Identity,

6 Volumes,  Edited by Patrick O'Sullivan

on this free MediaFire web storage site...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ooj5btdttc9y4/Documents

In fact, working out where to put the texts, and how to display them, was a little 2013 New Year Eve project - before joining the family downstairs to welcome the New Year in...

So, the simple download counter supplied with the free version of MediaFire began counting on December 31 2013.  And since December 31 2013 it has - as of today, December 7 2014 - counted exactly 4000 downloads.

Since that start, on New Year's Eve, nearly a year ago, I have added other pieces of writing to that MediaFire site, as they became available.  So, it is not only The Irish World Wide that has been downloaded.  So far I have put there only my Irish Diaspora Studies works - interpreting that label a little vaguely.  For example, you will find there my song lyric book, Love Death and Whiskey - it does contain much 'Irish Diaspora' material, and it reminds me to get more song lyrics finished.

There is on MediaFire a little cluster of items which first appeared in Irish Studies Review, from 1992 onwards.  There are a number of names perhaps over-represented in the early issues of Irish Studies Review.  The Founding Editors were, in those years, still finding their way - seeing quite where to pitch the journal - and a number of us were supportive, and did what the Editors asked us to do.  For example, the Editors decided to publish a short story of mine, 'The Fiddler's Apprentice' - the text, as published, complete with errors, is on that MediaFire web site.

I am told that the Editors were later to bitterly regret publishing that short story - for, they say, they were thereafter swamped by unsolicited short stories.  What can I say?  Not my fault, not my fault...

That story, 'The Fiddler's Apprentice' was picked up by BBC Radio - I have put the audio file of the very good BBC version on MediaFire...
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/lckrf8paym1n9/Music_%26_Audio

Later Irish Studies Review was to morph into a standard academic journal...

There are a few other Irish Diaspora Studies bits and pieces still out there, which I might hunt down.  I have decided that, for the moment, I should put only Irish Diaspora material there, on the MediaFire site.  And, for the moment, I am happy enough with the level of visibility.  There is evidence that a number of teachers and courses have bookmarked my MediaFire files - we get sudden spurts of downloads at the beginning of academic terms.  So...  4000, and counting...

Patrick O'Sullivan
December 2014


PS
March 2015
On March 1 2015 the download counter at MediaFire clicked over 8000...
Now, 8000 and...  I think I will stop counting...
P.O'S.

PPS
April 2015
I might stop counting, but the download counter sticks to its task.  As the end of April 2015 approaches, it lists 10,005 downloads...

June 19 2015 11,000 downloads

Stephanie Hladowski sings The Sailor’s Dream

Fans of Stephanie Hladowski's lovely singing voice can hear her, singing, on the new Simogo game, The Sailor’s Dream - the game is released tomorrow...

Simogo, Simon Flesser and Magnus “Gordon” Gardebäck, are based in Malmo, Sweden - they make computer games and 'game-like things'.  Things that do not involve killing real or imaginary creatures...

Some links and comments below...

http://simogo.com/about/

http://simogo.com/work/the-sailors-dream/

http://toucharcade.com/2014/10/27/the-sailors-dream-release-date/

'That trailer gives me chills. Again, Simogo has been coy in regards to any solid details about the game itself, but their latest blog post does hint towards how important music and sound will be to the experience. There are a few new screens at their blog, but my recommendation is to not read any previews or reviews until you've been able to play the game for yourself. Simogo's talent is to surprise, delight, unnerve, and make you feel a whole range of real feelings while you experience their games. Ruining any of that would be doing a disservice to yourself, so mark a big red X on your calendar for November 6th when you'll be able to experience The Sailor's Dream firsthand.'

http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/28/5944915/the-sailors-dream-ios-simogo-year-walk

"We want to tackle a more philanthropic story, and instead of creating a feeling of suspense, we want to communicate something that feels warmer, yet melancholic," the developer wrote. "We're throwing out some more traditional game challenge-elements; in fact, The Sailor's Dream won't feature any puzzles at all. That doesn't mean you won't find playful things in the game, though — there are plenty of things to touch, play and tinker with.

"It's a fractured story told in different ways, from different perspectives. When it comes to telling the story, we're drawing inspirations from both books, radio plays and even musicals."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoyU78ub4Vw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSxLP3F3J5k

The Irish World Wide - Bibliographic

I have made a little addition to the files stored - and freely available - at

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/f9ccfk929abbj/Irish_World_Wide

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ooj5btdttc9y4/Documents

In the Folder, The Irish World Wide - Bibliographic

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/xir2otrzepj2t/0._Irish_World_Wide_-_Bibliographic

In the 'Outline of the Series' text file...  I said...

'An odd problem that I have noticed is that some bibliographic software systems seem to have trouble generating good references for the individual chapters of The Irish World Wide.  Google Scholar, in particular, seems to have trouble grasping the concept of a multi-volume, multi-authored work. This is a problem I had not anticipated, in 1993. I can only apologise. For day to day references I now use a Bibtex file in Jabref - it is open source, sturdy and forgiving. When I have a moment I will generate a Bibtex file for the entire Irish World Wide series, which can then be absorbed into any standard bibliographic system.'

Well, I have now - September 2014 - made a Jabref/Bibtex file of the entire Irish World Wide series.

And I have made that file available on that MediaFire web site - it is the .bib file... 

The file contains 72 entries: 6 books, 1 General Introduction to the Series, 6 separate volume Introductions, and 59 Chapters. 

Volumes 1 to 5 each contain 10 chapters. Volume 6, The Meaning of the Famine, has 9 chapters, some of them very substantial - that volume also had to contain the Cumulative Index to the series. 

In the ABSTRACT field of Jabref I have put the opening paragraph or so of each Introduction and each Chapter - this is just to give some feel for the content and approach, and to give SEARCH something to bite into.

I have also made available different versions of my original Jabref/Bibtex file - in html, csv and ris, plus a pdf of the tidy html file.  How these will work will depend on how you have your own computer set up - but in theory you should be able to import the references into your own standard bibliographic software. 

Patrick O'Sullivan osullivan@villanous.ie

Laurie Lee... And me...

Whenever I see a new book about Laurie Lee I always look inside - just to see if I am in it...

Like you do...

As far as I know, I still I have not appeared in any book about Laurie Lee.  Since no one else will tell the story...

In the late 1960s I entered a poem in the Guinness Poetry Competition at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature and the Arts.  And a letter arrived, saying that my poem had reached the short list - so, an expenses paid trip to Cheltenham, to read my poem one evening, alongside the other finalists...

What year was it?  I remember that Arthur Koestler was there, and he admired my coat.  So, that makes it 1969, the year Arthur Koestler spoke at the Cheltenham Festival...

My coat was indeed a lovely coat, of purple William Morris curtain material, made by John Stephen, Carnaby Street, London, and bought in Carnaby Street.  I still have that coat - it is in the back of the wardrobe and will one day be bequeathed to a less portly person.

And a copy of my poem from 1969 has now come (back) into my hands.

The poem is called 'In Praise of Lizzie Cotton'.  And it is long...

The main influence was Christopher Smart.  But William Blake is also there - especially in the little lyrics - and Walt Whitman and T. S. Eliot. The idea of making a long thing by stitching together a sequence of short things.  Mostly it is Christopher Smart.

It is a praise poem.  As the title says.  That is what it is - a praise poem...  We study these things, they are an important part of literary history  - and every now and again we should write one...

That evening in Cheltenham a small man in a brown suit approached me, and explained that he used to be connected with the Cheltenham Festival of Literature and the Arts, but was no longer involved, and that he used to be a judge on the Poetry Competition, but was not a judge this year.  But he had read my poem, and he really liked it, and he hoped I would win.

And I said, Thank You...

By an accident of alphabet, I was the last person to read.  And we had had, by then, some pretty intense stuff.  I could only do my best.  My poem was long, yes - but it was funny, whimsical, entertaining.  The audience began to relax, to laugh, and be entertained.

So, I finished.  An allowed myself to go to the bar and have a drink.  Where people surrounded me, congratulating me on having won the competition.  Now, throughout that evening I was really, really good - I knew enough to know that chickens must not be counted.  I said, calmly, that we had heard some very fine poems - we must await the decision of the judges...

Back in the hall, the judges announced the name of the person who had come third in the competition.  It was not me.  And the person who had come second.  Not me.  And the first prize.  Not me.

And the audience revolted, led by the small man in the brown suit.  Who revealed himself to be Laurie Lee.

And Laurie Lee called me over, and instituted there and then a special Laurie Lee poetry prize.  (I remember two notes - two twenty pound notes?  But memory has maybe inflated for inflation.  Private Eye says 'ten quid' - so two five pound notes...)

And I went to the bar, where I bought two double whiskeys.  I took them back into the hall, gave one whiskey to Laurie Lee, and I toasted him with the other.

On the stage I could hear one of the judges say, 'Well, if you like rhetoric...'

Which, maybe, dates the event fairly precisely.  I went back to the bar and I took no further part in the proceedings...

I don't know if there are newspaper accounts of Laurie Lee's gesture that evening.  The incident was certainly mentioned in Private Eye.

After Cheltenham I was invited to a number of poetry events.  I particularly remember an evening at the Poetry Society.  And feeling that I really, really did not want to be part of this.  But that is another story...

Patrick O'Sullivan


Notes:

Arthur Koestler, Literature and the Law of Diminishing Returns, The Cheltenham Lecture, given at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, November 1969, is collected in Arthur Koestler, The Heel of Achilles: Essays 1968–1973, 1974. 

John Stephen's archives are now with the V & A.

This is The Guardian obituary...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/feb/09/guardianobituaries.veronicahorwell

There is a book, Jeremy Reed, The King Of Carnaby Street: A Life of John Stephen, 2010.

A snippet view on Google Books of Private Eye 1969 gives that 'ten quid' detail.

There are now many books - and web sites - about Laurie Lee.  None of them mention me.