Vol. 1: Real, Herman J. and Heinz J. Vienken

Type: Article

Real, Herman J. and Heinz J. Vienken ‘Psychoanalytic Criticism and Swift: the History of a Failure’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 127-141.

Real and Vienken assess the contributions made to Swift scholarship by psychoanalytical critics of the twentieth-century. Psychoanalytic interpretations of Swift’s so called ‘scatological’ poems and of Gulliver’s Travels are challenged. The authors question the validity of the evidence used by psychoanalytical criticism to condemn Swift as having an obsession with ‘filth’, ‘anality’, and ‘sado-cannibalistic fantasies’. They also challenge popular myths concerning Swift’s marital status, his mental state, and his alleged predilection for scatology. The use of Freud’s ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ as a model for the psychoanalytical study of Swift, and the more recent controversy concerning the compatibility of applying psychoanalysis to literature are both considered. The article accepts the view of Norman O’Brown that scatology need not be the perverse product of a diseased mind but can legitimately function as a means of satirical shock therapy, but categorises the twentieth-century psychoanalytical study of Swift, in general, as a miserable failure.

Vol. 1: Craven, Kenneth.

Type: Article

Craven, Kenneth. ‘A Tale of a Tub and the 1697 Dublin Controversy’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 97-110.

This article considers the intellectual atmosphere of late seventeenth-century Ireland as ‘Modern’ methodologies of philosophy swept over Europe. The lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695 had allowed the publication of John Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious (London 1696) which was followed, in Dublin in 1697, by Peter Browne’s response, A Letter in Answer to a Book Entitled Christianity Not Mysterious, and what Craven labels ‘the 1697 Dublin Controversy’. The article discusses the public confrontation between Toland and Browne over Christianity and reason. These ‘unquiet spirits’ or ‘modern madmen’, as Jonathan Swift regarded his contemporary adversaries, fuelled Swift with satirical inspiration to become the focus of his attack in A Tale of a Tub. Swift had personal involvement with Toland and Browne, as well as with a third antagonist in the Dublin Controversy, Archbishop Marsh of Dublin. According to Craven, Swift had reasons to mock all three, for they ‘symbolized the modern invasion of Ireland’. The article shows how the Dublin Controversy enabled Swift to satirize epistemological issues of reason and mysticism simultaneously, finding in Browne and Marsh examples of those guilty of priestcraft and modernism.

Vol. 1: Deane, Seamus.

Type: Article

Deane, Seamus. ‘Swift and the Anglo-Irish Intellect’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 9-22.

The purpose of this essay is to provide a context for some of Swift’s writings and to ‘demonstrate the advantages to be gained from seeing him as a member of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy of the eighteenth century’. Moral philosophies and contemporary attitudes towards travel literature, as well as economic theories, consumption of popular fashion, Epicureanism, libertinism, benevolence, atheism, despotic power, and ‘national love’ are discussed in relation to Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal. These themes and their relation to Swift’s writings are further analysed within the context of the writings of Francis Hutcheson, Edmund Burke, the earl of Shaftesbury and John Mandeville. Also discussed are Swift’s A Tale of a Tub and John Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious. Deane’s wide-ranging essay indicates, in outline, the complexity and importance of the Irish intellectual tradition in the eighteenth century.

Vol. 1: Benson, C.J.

Type: Notes

Benson, C.J. ‘Anatomizing early printed books in Trinity College, Dublin’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 195-198.

Discusses the library’s method of cataloguing texts printed before 1900, and ways of accessing and using the information contained in the catalogues. Also provides a short history of the library’s early printed books cataloguing system.

Vol. 1: Robinson, Nicholas.

Type: Article

Robinson, Nicholas. ‘Caricature and the Regency Crisis: an Irish perspective’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 157-176.

This article discusses how caricaturists portrayed the two most important Irishmen in the Westminster parliament, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Edmund Burke, during the Regency Crisis of 1788-89. Robinson gives evidence of the immense popularity of caricatures in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Ireland and England, and suggests that caricatures are an important source of information for Irish history that are often neglected and overlooked by historians. He details the mental illness of King George III, the events that led up to the Regency Crisis of 1788, the ‘propaganda battle’ which ensued between the Tories and Whigs, and the ‘swift and scurrilous’ reaction of the caricaturists, particularly in their portrayal of the battle between Sheridan and Burke. Included are eight plates of caricatures of the Regency Crisis; Robinson summarizes and analyses each, noting the prejudice in the caricaturists’ depiction of ‘Irishness’. Also included are two appendices: A note on the Dublin print trade, and The caricaturists, containing biographical information on the artists noted in the text.

Vol. 1: O’Brien, Gerard.

Type: Article

O’Brien, Gerard. ‘The Grattan Mystique’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 177-194.

This article investigates the longstanding mystique surrounding the ‘patriot tradition’ of Henry Grattan. O’Brien challenges the view that ‘Grattan almost single-handedly won the free trade dispute and secured the leadership of the patriots’. O’Brien discusses the ‘hagiographical’ five-volume Memoirs of the Life and Times of Henry Grattan (1839-43) written by Henry Grattan Jr. which, due to the destruction of the personal papers of those Grattan corresponded with, became the chief source for biographers. O’Brien suggests that all Grattan’s subsequent biographers have contributed to the maintenance of the mystique with their ‘unimaginative and uncritical’ treatment of the politician. He questions the authenticity of Grattan’s 16 April 1782 speech, later published by Grattan Jr. in 1822, in which Grattan is said to have made the famous pronouncement: ‘Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your genius has prevailed; Ireland is now a nation’. O’Brien provides evidence to suggest that Grattan rewrote the famous speech which for all historians has been the touchstone of ‘patriot tradition’ and which, as printed, ‘contained phrases which were never uttered by him and forwarded ideas and sentiments which he did not, at the crucial period, entertain’.

Vol. 1: Berman, David.

Type: Notes

Berman, David. ‘Berkeley’s Siris and the ‘Whiskey Patriots”, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 200-203.

In Siris: A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions Concerning Tar-water (1744), George Berkeley recommends tar-water as a universal panacea; but the work is also part of the author’s campaign against ‘pernicious’ spirits and ‘Whiskey patriots’. Berman discusses Berkeley’s curious belief in tar-water as a universal medicine and ‘healthy alternative to spirits’.

Vol. 1: Williams, N. J. A.

Type: Notes

Williams, N. J. A. ‘Thomas Wilson, Francis Hutchinson agus Litriú na Gaeilge’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), .

This note is in Irish. It considers the catechism printed in a phonetic form of Irish in 1722 for Francis Hutchinson, bishop of Down and Connor, and asks whether this method of representing a Celtic language was copied from that used by Thomas Wilson, bishop of Sodor and Man, in his Manx Gaelic and English catechism of 1707.

Vol. 1: Ó Muirithe, Diarmaid

Type: Article

Ó Muirithe, Diarmaid ‘Dán in Ómós do Shilbheastar Ó hAllmhuráin, 1728-1807. (An Irish poem in honour of Sylvester O’Halloran, 1728-1807)’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 85-88.

This article, which is in Irish, prints the text of a poem written by Tomás Ó Míocháin in honour of one of the great surgeons of eighteenth-century Ireland, Sylvester O’Halloran. O’Halloran lived in Limerick and the poem was probably written in Ennis.

Vol. 1: Murphy, Sean.

Type: Article

Murphy, Sean. ‘Burke and Lucas: an authorship problem re-examined’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 143-156.

This article argues against biographers of Edmund Burke in their conviction that Burke was hostile to the Anglo-Irish nationalist, Charles Lucas. According to Sean Murphy, Burke’s political opinion of Lucas is significant: ‘the probability that Burke started his political career by supporting a forerunner of Irish nationalism such as Charles Lucas has important implications for the debate on whether Burke’s political thought is in essence ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative”. Various pseudonymous articles, some supporting Lucas, some opposing him, are examined. According to Burke’s early biographer James Prior, Burke satirized Lucas as ‘Epaminondas’, though Murphy asserts that there is no documentary evidence of this. Murphy asks whether Burke was the pseudonymous author of four pamphlets in support of Lucas signed ‘Free Briton’, and whether he was also the anonymous ‘B’ who composed five essays on patriotism printed in Lucas’s newspaper, the Censor? In answer, he provides evidence that Burke could only have written the latter, and concludes that Burke supported Lucas in a ‘cautious and moderate way’.

Vol. 1: Cullen, Louis

Type: Article

Cullen, Louis ‘Catholics Under the Penal Laws’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 23-36.

This article considers the impact of the penal laws of eighteenth-century Ireland on Irish catholics. Cullen discusses catholic interest in property and politics, career paths followed by catholics and levels of church organization to suggest that the impact of the penal laws has been exaggerated. He argues that not only was catholic interest strong in this period, but that, in some cases and regions it actually increased. The article looks at various regions and their landholding families, concluding that, aside from the north, where Ulster catholics were denied the right to worship or build churches, catholic interest and achievement was stronger and more complex in eighteenth-century Ireland than has previously been thought.

Vol. 1: Harrison, Frank Llewelyn

Type: Article

Harrison, Frank Llewelyn ‘Music, Poetry and Polity in the age of Swift’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 37-63.

This survey of popular music and poetry in eighteenth-century Ireland discusses a variety of works of Irish, English, Scottish and Italian origin. Harrison considers differences and influences, musical dialect, musicians and composers. He also explores the individual experiences and impressions of music formulated by Jonathan Swift, George Berkeley, Robert Clayton and Mrs Delany (Mary Granville). The article suggests that music and poetry in the age of Swift ‘affirmed and promoted the self-identification of the several ‘nations, interests, and religions’ into which the country was divided’. Harrison notes the differences in language and style between the operas being staged in London and Dublin at the time. In London, the agenda was strictly Italian operas, while in Dublin the stage was dominated by the English ballad opera. Included are samples of musical scores discussed in the text.

Vol. 1: Watson, Seosamh.

Type: Article

Watson, Seosamh. ‘Aortha: Ainmhithe agus Eile. (The Irish satirist’s power over animals and others)’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 89-95.

This article is in Irish. Watson considers the honoured position of poets in early Irish society : a position partially based on an almost universal fear of their power to satirize. The satire followed certain conventions, and this paper deals with some of these conventions, especially the characterisation of the victims as animals. The survival of Irish poetic satire into the post-classical period is also studied using examples of satires composed in south-east Ulster in the middle of the eighteenth century.

Vol. 1: Elias, A.C. Jr.

Type: Article

Elias, A.C. Jr. ‘Lord Orrery’s copy of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Swift (1751)’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 111-125.

This article gives an account of the copy of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Jonathan Swift purchased by the University of Pennsylvania Library in 1981. The copy came from Orrery’s library and includes not only the text but also eleven pages of manuscript letters. These letters are printed as an appendix to the article. The text of the Memoirs is a pirated version of Orrery’s own Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift (1751), which adds seven anecdotes about Jonathan Swift. The article assesses the importance of these anecdotes and of the manuscript correspondence between Orrery and Faulkner, which concerns the printing of the pirated Memoirs.

Vol. 1: Poppe, Erich.

Type: Article

Poppe, Erich. ‘Leibniz and Eckhart on the Irish language’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 1 (1986), pp 65-84.

This article discusses the interest of two German comparative linguists, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) and Johann Georg Eckhart (1664-1730) in the Irish language. Eckhart contributed to Irish studies with his partial edition of the Old Irish glosses from the Codex Paulinus Wirziburgensis. According to Poppe, Leibniz and Eckhart ‘show the range of approaches and interests in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century language-study; the speculative-comparative, the speculative-historical, the descriptive, and the interplay of the three’. Though these scholars found many links between Irish and Welsh, Basque and Frisian, Leibniz believed Irish to be an ‘isolated language’ : one that can be ‘used to illustrate not only the language of the British Isles before the coming of the Saxons, but also the language used in the North-German coastal areas before the coming of the Cimbric tribes…’ Included are Eckhart’s proposed etymologies of some Irish words, a full bibliography and translations into English of the Latin passages quoted in the article.