Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Stair, Neamhstair, agus Athstair i Fontenoy, le Liam Mac Cóil.

"Stair, Neamhstair, agus Athstair i Fontenoy, le Liam Mac Cóil"

Brian Ó Broin
Ollscoil William Paterson, NJ
William Paterson University

Litríocht na Gaeilge agus Stair na hÉireann - Irish Language Literature and the History of Ireland
Lehman College, Bronx, Nua Eabhrac (New York City), Márta 2016

Achoimre

Is Dia é an scríbhneoir, agus sin atá an scéalaí seo ag iarraidh a rá linn.
"Tá tús maith curtha againn leis an scéal mar sin, agus fúmsa atá, go cinnte, a shocrú cé acu ab fhearr: ligean daoibh éisteacht le tuilleadh den sárú seo [a chloisteáil, nó eile]. . . Is rífhurasta scéalta a cheapadh. (51)

Tá príomhcharachtair an leabhair seo, An Sáirsint Ó Raghallaigh agus Voltaire, ag insint scéal as a gclaontacht féin, agus tá ár scéalaí, guth a chruthaigh Liam Mac Cóil, chomh claonta céanna. Tá cruacheisteanna le freagairt, agus cuireann an scéalaí iad:
cé méid den chúlántas Gaelach seo faoi ndear claoninsint na staire ina dhiaidh sin?
cé méad den insint sin a eascraíonn as cinsearacht na haicme a fuair an lámh in uachtar?
cé méad ar cheist teanga é?
agus cé méad den stair a bhaineanna le cás lucht labhartha na teanga sin i láthair na huaire? (153-154).

Táthar ag caint linne. Timpeall orainn tá daoine ag léamh Harry Potter, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Irish Times, Diarmuid Ferriter. Agus bímis ionraic faoi seo: tá muide á léamh freisin in áit na bhfoinsí Gaeilge, más ann dóibh. Cheana féin tá an lámh in uachtar faighte ag an mBéarlóir ar stair na nGael.

Faoi dheireadh tuigeann Ó Raghallaigh cé hé an fear seo.
"Seo é an fear a chruthaigh Fontenoy." (185)
Ach gan ach tagairt ghágach amháin do na hÉireannaigh.

Níl fearg ar Ó Raghallaigh. Tá a chlár oibre féin ag Voltaire. Sin an fáth go gcaithfidh Ó Raghallaigh é féin dul i mbun pinn. Dar leis
"sa deireadh is dócha tá gach pobal freagrach as a stair féin." (188)


 Agus tuigimidne anois cé hé an scéalaí tríú pearsa seo. Ní hé stair Fontenoy atá ar siúl anseo, ach athghabháil stair na nGael, cibé áit ina bhfuilimid, athghabháil na staire a goideadh uainn agus a chaithfimid goid ar ais, fiú más gá an stair sin a chumadh.


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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Brian Ó Broin. Review of Mac Cóil, Liam, An Chláirseach Agus an Choróin. H-Albion, H-Net Reviews. September, 2012.

https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=36929

Citation: Brian Ó Broin. Review of Mac C óil, Liam, An Chláirseach agus an Choróin. H-Albion, H-Net
Reviews. September, 2012.



While this book ostensibly analyzes the seven symphonies of the Anglo-Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), written between 1876 and 1911 as Ireland lurched towards Home Rule and civil war, it is much more a work of historiography, trenchantly questioning the way in which Irish history continues to be viewed as a subset of British history.

As he did in his brilliant novel Fontenoy, Mac Cóil is writing an alternative history of the Gael, taking that right away from the victor-colonialist. He is putting the Gael alongside Anglophone culture and removing him as a subset of that culture (this has yet to happen in America, where Irish studies is almost always  a subset of British studies). Because he knows that history is fiction, and that it is used as a political tool, he very consciously (and very rightly) proposes that the Gael rewrite history. As he says, most profoundly, his feet firmly planted on the floor of Club Ráth Chairn, his local community center, gineann muid ár sinsear [agus] ní bhíonn duine gan aird i measc a phobail féin (we beget our ancestors, and nobody is overlooked in his own community) (324). It is a thought-provoking first step towards a reevaluation of Ireland on its own terms, not those of anglophone colonialists or outsiders.

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