The Irish Identity: Independence, History, and Literature

The Irish Renaissance in the early 20th century was a remarkable period for arts, literature, and culture-and it sprang out of the legendary history of the nation. To help us understand this pivotal period, Professor Conner traces the course of Irish history starting with the ancient Celts and running through the Middle Ages.

It is impossible to understand Irish history without reflecting on its relationship with the English. Here, go back to the 1100s, when Ireland lacked a central king, and witness the Norman invasions that were the start of England’s dominion over Ireland. Trace several subsequent centuries of oppressive English rule.

Continue your study of the Irish political context with an examination of the rise of William of Orange, who restored Protestantism to England and enacted severe penal codes that oppressed Irish Catholics and created the Protestant Ascendancy. See how writers such as Jonathan Swift championed the Irish poor by promoting political values through art.

Follow Irish history through the age of rebellions sweeping across Europe and America, and find out how figures such as Wolfe Tone founded the quest for Irish republicanism. Delve into the cultural expressions of the 18th and 19th centuries, when poets and musicians kept ancient traditions alive.

One of the most famous people in Ireland’s struggle for independence is Daniel O’Connell, a 19th-century politician who led the charge for Catholic emancipation as well as the effort to repeal Britain’s Act of Union. Learn about his activism, and then see how the Great Famine completely devastated the nation.

The political tensions of the 19th century-from the Great Famine to Charles Stewart Parnell’s attempts to pass a Home Rule Bill-set the stage for the Celtic Revival. As you will discover, the interest in ancient Irish language, sports, and literature was far more than mere appreciation of past achievements.

Irish playwrights faced a conundrum in the 19th century: they could write in Irish and remain relatively obscure, or they could find success by adopting English, the language of the conqueror. Examine how George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde navigated their Irish identity on the London stage. Professor Conner provides political and artistic context to their major works.

If one person is at the heart of the Irish Revival, it is the great poet W. B. Yeats. In this first lecture about the bard, Professor Conner introduces you to the man and his quest for meaning in the two worlds of the Irish countryside and the English city. You’ll then consider Yeats’s connection to revolutionary leaders of the time.

Continue your study of Yeats, who became fascinated with the occult and sought the society of fellow searchers. After reviewing the mystical aspect of his poetry and his view of transcendence through art, you’ll consider the influence of his enduring and unrequited love for Maud Gonne.

Lady Gregory was one of the most important figures of the Irish Revival, and she had an astonishing impact on the movement. Born into the Protestant landowner class and widowed at age 39, she took an anthropological interest in Irish folk life and stories. Here, review her major works and her influence on Yeats.

The Aran Islands lie on the western edge of Ireland and remain an isolated folk community. There, the playwright J. M. Synge found a fleeting sense of beauty and wonder, of life lived to the fullest. Explore this unique place, and then survey Synge’s biography and his book about the islands.

James Joyce is perhaps the towering figure of both Modernism and 20th-century Irish literature. This first lecture on Joyce places him in the context of turn-of-the-century Dublin and his role as an artist in exile. Learn about the city as you examine his short story technique in Dubliners.

Take a detailed look at Joyce’s short stories “Araby, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” and “The Dead,” each of which reveals the dreariness and what Joyce perceived as the paralysis of Dublin. Then reflect on the possibilities of love, joy, and redemption that Joyce presents at the end of the book.

Lady Gregory, Yeats, and others recognized the need for a national Irish theater. Witness the founding of this great project in 1897, and meet some of the Abbey Theatre’s early playwrights. Professor Conner connects this beacon of Irish cultural heritage to the changing political landscape of the early 20th century.

Although perhaps not as famous as Yeats and Synge, Lady Gregory was one of the era’s finest playwrights. By analyzing her plays The Rising of the Moon, The Gaol Gate, and others, you’ll encounter her wit and intelligence-and gain a sense of her unique role in Irish history.

Revisit Synge and examine his role as a dramatist, which developed quickly after his experiences with the Aran Islands. Through studies of In the Shadow of the Glen and Riders to the Sea, you’ll appreciate the impressive range of this playwright. Find out why his portrayals of Irish country life were not always well received.

The Playboy of the Western World is now regarded as a classic of Modernism and one of Ireland’s defining plays, but when it premiered in 1907, it shocked Dublin and inspired riots. See what made this play so controversial to its original audience-and why the play is a truly great work of art.

Shift your attention back to the political sphere where, after the defeat of Parnell’s Home Rule Bill, rebellious organizers began pushing for reforms of their own. Dig into the events surrounding the Dublin lockout, including the Bloody Sunday massacre, and then consider Ireland’s role in World War I.

The Easter Rising is perhaps the definitive moment that led to Ireland as it exists today-but the event itself was something of a debacle. Professor Conner walks you through the complex events leading up to the Rising, sketches the details of the week of battles and skirmishes, and reflects on the aftermath-both political and artistic.

In this first of two lectures about Joyce’s first novel, encounter the ways that Parnell, the Home Rule movement, the Catholic Church, and other themes from the era’s history are key to understanding his Bildungsroman. Review some of the most important scenes in the first half of the book.

In this second lecture on Portrait, consider how the English language presents a great tension for Irish writers, and see how Joyce’s solution was to conquer the language of the conquerors. Then watch as the book’s hero, Stephen Dedalus, takes his first steps as an artist to “forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

While Joyce was sending his fictional hero off to become a great artist, Ireland’s great real-life poetic hero Yeats was making his own transition from a mystic and romantic dreamer to a modernist poet, with a little guidance from Ezra Pound. As you watch this transition, reflect on the Protestant Ascendancy world from which Yeats emerged.

The years after the Easter Rising saw a dramatic fight for a free nation. Michael Collins led a guerilla war against the forces of British rule, which finally created a window for negotiations. The eventual treaty between Ireland and the British, however, would be far from ideal to the hardcore nationalists.

After the controversial free-state treaty at the end of 1921, the country split into civil war, with republicans viewing the treaty as selling out their ideals. Trace the events of the yearlong civil war, including the tragic death of Michael Collins, and see how it finally resolved.

From 1914 to 1921, while Ireland faced revolution at home, James Joyce was abroad, slowly laboring on his great masterpiece, Ulysses. In this first of three lectures about this famous epic and its relation to Irish history, Professor Conner provides a lucid overview of the story, its characters, its style, and its structure.

Unpack the complexity of Ulysses by looking at three of its episodes: “Hades” (episode 6), “Nausicaa” (episode 13), and “Circe” (episode 15)-three of the most moving and compelling chapters in the novel. By studying these three episodes, you’ll gain a sense of how the book as a whole forms a crucial portrait of Irish identity.

Round out your study of Ulysses with a look at Molly Bloom, who gets the last word in the novel and recasts the day presented in the preceding 17 chapters. Her perspective tells us much about how Joyce viewed character and our relationship to the world-and ends with his great theme of regeneration.

As one of the true geniuses of Irish drama, Sean O’Casey is a master of the tragicomedy, bringing Ireland’s working class to life. Here, you’ll study three of his plays from the 1920s and find out not only what makes him a great writer, but also how history shaped the drama he produced.

Very few great artists were also great characters, but Lady Gregory was certainly outstanding on both counts. Reflect on her life and the tension she faced between her status among the Protestant Ascendancy and her love for the Irish peasantry. Follow her through World War I and the Irish civil war to the end of her life.

In his later years, Yeats created an enigmatic spiritual system, and his poetry continued to evolve. Take a tour of his later writing, including two books that became some of the most significant works of poetry in the 20th century-both for their artistic power and their lens on Irish history.

Journey to the rural southwest corner of Ireland, where the Blasket Islands lie on the edge of the wide Atlantic. There, a series of writers flourished in parallel with the high Modernism of Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Joyce. Meet several of these writers and learn about the region’s vanishing mode of life.

Dive headfirst into the complex, confusing, circular dream world of Finnegans Wake, Joyce’s final book. Professor Conner gives you a way into the work-which ostensibly tells the dream of a Dublin pub owner and family man-and you’ll come away with an understanding of how Joyce tapped into the mythic patterns of life within Ireland.

The Irish Renaissance had largely succeeded in bringing folk life to the center of cultural consciousness by the 1930s. At that time, the poet Patrick Kavanagh-hailing from the rural farmland-emerged with a critique of the sentimentality and nostalgia of Yeats’s generation. Explore how the next wave of poets carved out their own views of Ireland.

By the time of the Irish Revival, Dublin had become a city of growing artistic merit, with a national gallery, famed Georgian architecture, and a burgeoning crop of visual artists. Meet some of Ireland’s finest artists of the time, including Jack Yeats (brother to the poet) and stained glass maker Harry Clarke.

The 1930s were in many ways an era of disappointment, when the heady triumph of freedom met the mundane realities of self-governance. Trace the key events of this decade, including the gradual political break with England, the drafting of a new constitution, cultural isolation from the rest of the world, and economic malaise.

The work of Seamus Heaney, undoubtedly Ireland’s best poet from the second half of the 20th century, provides a fitting end to this course. Born on a farm in 1939, he understood the world of the Irish Renaissance, as well as the movement’s deep historical roots. Reconsider Irish identity while examining some of Heaney’s finest poetry.