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a New Chapter of History: The Hidden Ireland1 Whether Mr. Corkery set himself the task of giving us a chapter of literary history or of social history, or yet a volume of literary criticism, it is not easy to say. He has given us none of those things, but something that is far better. What survives of our Gaelic literature has far too long been the spoil of the grammarian and the philologist.The poet has been a subject for all who would compare his dress with the garments of to-day, would praise the tailoring or expose the patches, but would never once give thought to the man and the soul and the spirit. a proud iNHeritaNCe Mr. Corkery concerns himself in this book only with the Munster poets of the eighteenth century. He could have chosen no better period for his study. for that age, when the Gaelic nation was an outlaw, when the stress of the long struggle was forcing it with relentless severity to break with its traditions, gave us men who in the fields and the hovels of Munster created for our literature the most superb examples inherited by any people of music conveyed in language. The message of the poets was not always weighty, their thoughts not always deep; but the music of their words, begotten of an unequalled delicacy of ear, will stand for all time as one of the proudest heritages of the Gael. our pride will be the greater and our pardon for shortcomings the more generous when we view that poetry as the work of an outlawed tribe, deprived of earthly goods and denied education; as the creation of farmers and labourers who could take up the pen only in hands wearied by the plough and the spade. a dyiNG poet Where else but in Gaelic ireland of the eighteenth century could one picture a dying, poverty-striken peasant take his leave of life with such a gesture as that of the lonely aodhagán Ó rathaille: Stadfad-sa feasta, is gar dom éag gan moill, Ó treascradh dreagain Leamhan, Léin, is Laoi; rachad-sa a haithle searc na laoch don chíll, Na flatha fá raibh mo shean roimh éag do Chríost.2 179 Mr. Corkery views those poets not as the grammarian might, but as the student of history, of a nation’s spiritual struggle, and of a people’s inmost heart, should. if he is over-severe in his condemnation of Lecky’s failure to touch upon the story of the hidden ireland of the eighteenth century it is because he can measure the mineral richness of the veins and seams whose very existence Lecky did not even suspect. He is scornful, too, of those who would teach us that all that was great and historical in that age had its origin and end in the doings of the planters’ parliament; but we can excuse his vehemence as being the reaction against a fashion that would have us accept the days and achievements of Grattan’s parliament as the Golden age, the period of supreme inspiration in irish history. a NeW LiGHt His book is one that can be read with profit and pleasure not only by those whose minds are steeped in the wells of Gaelic literature but by those who have as yet only caught a passing glimpse of its rivulets. He shows how the general history of the period influenced Gaelic thought, how it diverted the currents of literature from the natural course. it may, perhaps, be objected that he has allowed aodhagán Ó rathaille and eoghan ruadh and Merriman to overshadow their contemporaries more completely than their merits would justify; that he passes too rapidly over Seán Clárach and Seán Ó tuama and piaras MacGearailt; and that he has ignored Liam dall. But one cannot judge the enthusiast as one would the detached critic; and who that approaches the study of irish letters does not become the lover, ceasing to be the critic? The story of irish literature in the eighteenth century is an absorbing chapter in our history, full of pathos and of tragedy.The merit of Mr. Corkery’s achievement is that he has tried to shed a new light on its pages, to make it a human study. it is a merit that carries one headlong over his minor faults of criticism and evaluation. * * * Gaelic poets of Munster1 So much has been claimed for the Gaelic poetry of...

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