ENGL 495 Lecture 16: ENGL 424 26 February
4 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
26 February, 2018
Denis Johnston
- Anglo-Irish, therefore biased when writing about IRA
- Began as a playwright, play is very talkative, in the tradition of George Bernard Shaw
(another Anglo-Irish playwright)
- Also wrote: The Old Lady Says No, put on in The Gate Theatre in 1929, romantic
fantasy, blend of past and present
- Gate Theatre = founded in 1928, initially part of Abbey Theatre (Abbey Theatre is
part of Irish National Theatre in 1904), Gate Theatre moves in 1930 to Rotunda,
which is maternity hospital complex
- The Moon in the Yellow River, blend of cinematic influences, premiers at the Abbey
Theatre in 1931
- Gets at something about industrialisation and modernity in Ireland
- About an attempt to blow up an electricity factory → why would you want to blow
it up? What would be the utility?
The Moon in the Yellow River
- Woman giving birth throughout the play is a reference to the Gate’s move to the
Rotunda; also about giving birth to a nation, what will this newborn child (& Ireland) grow
up to be; one episode of Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) includes a woman giving birth upstairs
(Oxen of the Sun), episode traces evolution of English language
- Reference to Cathleen ni Houlihan, 1902 work by Yeats -- woman as symbol, figure of
free Ireland
- Johnson is thinking back through Irish literary history, summing up how far Irish state has
come, expectations of how the state can modernise; Irish free state, 1922-1937, 1937 =
writing of Constitution, Ireland becomes independent state Eire
- Ireland becomes a dominion → dominion = colony with self-administering
government, but still subject to the Crown
- 1931, dominions granted higher degree of independence by statue of
Westminster
- Play is about what is the state of Ireland in the political sense; changes in
statehood from within and without the borders, what is structure going to be for
colonial regime
- Ireland is undergoing rapid industrialisation; can a state go from agrarian to
industrialised?
- Act 1 and 2 have an overlap of about a few minutes, but they exist in two different
spaces; between acts 2 and 3, there’s a couple hours delay -- problem of time and
temporality
- Ireland as modernising state → is it out of sync of in sync with other dominions?
With britain? With europe?
- A lot vaudevillian pranks in the play
- Potts and George trying to make shells, but they drop one, but it doesn’t go off --
possibility of violence, comic aspect of bomb not exploding
- But then bombs do explode
- Johnston is almost critical about revolution
- Play is about nationhood, revolution leading to independence; concerted thinking
about ends and aims of revolution during this period; idea of revolution as
beneficial or not
- Each character has a different idea of what revolution is, whether it should be
suppressed or promoted, how it should be promoted, violent or not
- Aunt Columba believes in permanent revolution, revolution for the sake of
revolution
- Dobelle is an ex-engineer, built bridges around the world, disaffected, not
much opinion on efficacy of revolution
- Potts & George are haphazardly committing acts of revolution, just kind of
wander into the house, comic revolution, revolution that does not know
what it’s doing
- Lanigan was in the IRA, now an officer
- Tausch is German engineer, but believes that he is just committed to
progress, not necessarily revolution, but he’s an outsider
- Death at the end seems gratuitous, violence for the sake of violence as
revolution
- Columba is a propagandist, hands out pamphlets, makes speeches
- positions herself as propagandist for liberation of peasant class
- concerned with being controlled and controlling her own destiny, freedom
at all costs, doesn’t like people touching her things or invading her space
- Proud in their pride shall be laid low -- biblical language, from Isaiah;
Columba is not poor and downtrodden herself, but speaks on their behalf
- Spurs revolution, hides the shell that ultimately blows up hydroelectric
works
- Activist that wants change, particularly for peasantry
- Blenaid = young adolescent, looks like her mother, father refuses to educate her
- Figure of emerging Ireland -- lost her mother, neglectful father, wayward
without being directed, innocent and lovely, speaks a little bit of gaelic
(only Irish character that does) → blank slate on which the future of
ireland is to be written
- Not revolutionary, but she is what the revolution is about
- Blenaid speaks Gaelic -- 1911, 17.6% of population spoke Gaelic; Gaelic
League, founded 19??, Gaelic is minority population, move to revive
Gaelic; Free State years, government starts promoting Gaelic education
in school; Blenaid speaks a little bit of gaelic = sign of future orientation
- Darryl Blake = IRA rebel, continues to rebel for sake of rebellion
- Living in the past, out of touch with 1931 ireland, not suitable for current
affairs
- Play is extremely topical, expressing political state of affairs from 1931
