Why does Irish writing enjoy outsized influence in the literary canon? One explanation might be that anyone growing up in Ireland in the period ca. 1850-1990 was steeped in not one, but two, absolutist ideologies – nationalism and Roman Catholicism. Growing up to learn that one’s intelligent and competent elders are in thrall to a dogma might be a fillip to an inquiring mind. And there were rich stories to be mined in a society where the following type of event occurred:
In 1957 an Interchurch couple, Sheila and Sean Cloney, living in Fethard-on-Sea in south Wexford were visited by the local Roman Catholic clergy and informed that the children “will go to the Catholic school”. The Church of Ireland wife disagreed with such an edict and took herself and the children to Belfast and on to Scotland. The local Catholics were convinced that a mere woman could not have managed this without help from her Protestant neighbours and relatives. They then instigated a boycott of the Protestant owned shops and farms. Even the elderly lady giving piano lessons had her young Catholic pupils withdrawn. The main boycott lasted for five months, from the end of April 1957, although many local Catholics continued the boycott for many years. The local Roman Catholic Bishop completely supported the boycott and Bishop Browne of Galway preached on the virtues of the boycott. The local Knights of Saint Columbanus and the Gaelic Athletic Association policed and enforced the main boycott." (source: https://sharedfuture.news/mixed-emotions-a-short-history-of-mixed-marriage-in-ireland/; see also: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/woman-at-centre-of-infamous-fethard-on-sea-boycott-dies-1.794436)
Writers like John McGahern were masters at harvesting real-world stories like this one and had the wisdom to recognize that these stories would have all the more power if written without outrage. Instead they couched them in an understated tone that brought the reader into that parochial mindset that could turn a blind eye.
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