Eugene McCabe and Irish Postcolonial Gothic (original) (raw)

Clare Abbey, Clann Chraith and the coarb of St Breacán

Studia Hibernica, 2023

A poem on the life of St Breacán sheds light on the use of literary devices to advance proprietorial interests in the late medieval diocese of Killaloe. The poem enumerates land grants and dues that, taken together, represent a charter of rights owed to the saint and his coarb (comharba). Previous analysis of the poem indicates that it was produced at Clare Abbey under the auspices of Clann Chraith (the McGrath lineage), who were the hereditary abbots during the 15th century. An assessment of the available evidence not only adds weight to this proposal but also reveals the probable impetus behind the poem: a need to bolster allegiances and revenues owed to Clare Abbey by neighbouring ecclesiastical sites in the face of waning influence. A comparative analysis of a poem on the rights of St Molaise of Devenish, Co. Fermanagh, will show that the use of hagiographic poetry as a tool of policy was not unique to Thomond and was in use in other late medieval Gaelic Irish lordships. 1

Nineteenth-Century Anglo-Irish Cervantine

Abstract: To commemorate the fourth centenary of the publication of the first part of the Spanish masterpiece of all times Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, this article approaches in an introductory manner some of the literary productions which sprang from Cervantes’s original within the Irish context. In the case of Ireland the Cervantine inspiration, albeit minor and neglected, has also been present; and, it is most probably the nineteenth century which provides the most ample and varied response to Cervantes’s masterpiece in many a different way. Our aim is to see briefly how the legacy of Don Quixote found distinct expression on the Emerald Isle. Indeed, all these Cervantine contributions from Ireland during the nineteenth century were also deeply imbued with the politics of literature and society in a country which experienced historical, social and cultural turmoil. The reference to Cervantes as a key writer in Spanish letters will not only be reduced to his masterpiece of all times; but, will also be tackled in critical pieces of importance in Ireland. Key Words: Don Quixote, Cervantes, The Dublin University Magazine, Chenevix, Maxwell, Wellington, Anglo-Irish

La Joie de la Cort (Érec et Énide), Mabon, and Early Irish síd [peace; Otherworld]

Arthuriana, 2007

The several anomalies of the Joie de la Cort episode in Chrétien de Troyes's Érec et Énide are addressed through the dual semantics of Irish ¡id, the equation of radiance and joy in the Celtic languages, and Mabon's imprisonment in the 'Bright Fortress' of Caer Loyw. (WS) The last ten years have seen continued scholatly and critical attention paid to Chtetien de Troyes's romance Erec et Enide, with no fewer rhan fifty studies devoted in whole of in patt to this eatly work. Yet none of these addtesses what was once recognized, particularly from the mid-1960s through the mid-'yos, as an enigmatic 01 simply puzzling constituent of the romance, the episode that, with tepeated explicirness, is called la foie de la Cort} Attention then was focused on possible antecedents for the stoty of Maboagtain and his lady, his knightly service in challenging all knights who penetrate theit sequesteted orchard, and the joy that was to tesult in his eventual defeat and telease from rhe rash promise to do his lady's will and never leave her side. As with so much ofAtthutian romance, Celtic analogues suggested themselves fairly promptly. Affinities with the ttadition of early British Mabon and Bran the Blessed wete advanced and the cor [hotn], the winding of which would signal the end of the adventute, was equated (unconvincingly) with Celtic hotns of abundance. In the most multiply atticulated solution, the Btitish name Bran, which meant 'raven,' was reproduced in Old French as cor< Latin corpus [taven], but then undetstood as cor [hotn]. But with some little exception, scholats have not challenged the specific match between the adventure and its name. The episode, with or without the name, is anomalous within the latget romance. The chief charge that may be leveled against it is from the petspective of thematic unity.2 The self-contained adventute is encounteted and pursued by Erec: 1) aftet his physical tecovety and fully realized re-entty into the knightly life, 2) on the conclusion of Enide's personal trials, and 3) when the couple has been teconciled and is seemingly on their way back ro Arthut's coutt. In fact, Etec's immediately pteceding severe wounds and caprure, plus the loss of his chatget (anothei symbolic disempowetment), represent a nadir in the romance, the te-ascent from which can only be arthuriana 17.2 (2007) La foie de la Cori? compromised by his pursuit-and the author's introduction-of what, divorced from context, would be another run-of-the-mill adventute.3 This is perhaps an overly harsh judgment on the episode, which is recounted in solidly ctafted fashion, with natrativized pteviews in the description of the thteat in rhe orchard given by King Evrain, rhe blow-by-blow account of the single combat, the teconciliation of the combatants after Erec's victory, and the subsequent account of the duel that he gives King Evrain, an account that Chtetien, in a common authotial feinr, declines to teptoduce in full. Yet, some details invite renewed criticism. The knight's exttaotdinaty height appears to have little beating on the outcome and, once mentioned, is not tecalled. The reconciliation between Etec and his opponent, tevealed as Maboagrain, nephew of Evrain, is based on the coincidence of a pteviously unrecognized commonality of past experience at the court of Etec's fathet, King Lac. In patallel with this inward-looking aspect of the episode, Maboagtain's lady is nevet named, yet Enide can deduce that she is a cousin. From the self-contained encountet, Erec takes only anothet victoty and Enide the brief encountet with a kinswoman. Maboagtain and his lovet ate freed i) from their self-imposed inner exile in the orchard, 2) from the tepugnant exetcise of attacking, killing, and beheading all knights who ventute thete, and 3) ftom what can only have been the growing sttain between the couple, both victims of a foolish wish and rasher promise of complete fidelity, but they do not accompany Erec and Enide to Arthut's coutt. This excludes them from the tale's conclusion and deprives the monarch of a fine stoty-to take the petspective of the need for renewed royal enrertainments. More telling, no reference to this adventute figutes in Érec's account to Arthur of his knight-errantry with his wife (6416-38). These several anomalies will nor immediately be putsued in the following but do serve to highlight the exceptional contextual status of the episode. The adventure also has a degree of self-referentiality rarely met in Chtétien's wotk. The trial is named la joie de la cort, and then named and named again, even by the townspeople for whom this would be unnecessaty. Similarly, the word joie is repeated to the point of annoyance, and tandom juxtapositions with the word cort or equivalences are conrrived, quite distinct from their union in the adventute's name.4 For example, early in the episode, King Evrain receives the couple: An la chanbre antrent main a main, si con Ii rois les i mena,