Irish Democrat August - September 1994

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IRISH
BOOKS
The most unmanageable
revolutionary
LIZ CURTIS
The Gonne-Yeats Letters
1893-1938: Always Your
Friend. Edited by Anna
MacBride White and
A.Norman Jeffares.
Pimblico, £12.50, pbk.
This is a doorstopper of a
book, more than 500
hundred pages long, a
real treat for admirers of Maud
Gonne, and a must for students
of the Irish cultural and
political revival at the turn of
the century.
Maud Gonne, known as
"Ireland's Joan of Arc," was
born in 1866 and in her late
twenties became one of the
most charismatic figures in
Irish political life, campaigning
first for evicted tenants in
Donegal, then for "treasonfelony
prisoners" held in
Britain's bleak Portland jail.
She ran a political paper, L'-
Irlande Libre, in France, and lectured
widely on Irish affairs.
Six foot tall, she was a
woman of remarkable beauty
who attached little importance
to her looks, and had a lifelong
instinctive concern for the
poor and those in distress.
Trapped in France in the First
World War, she nursed
wounded soldiers. She hated
the war, and feared such work
might encourage it, but wrote
to Yeats, "& yet, & yet, one
cannot remain with hands
folded before suffering."
The daughter of an English
army officer of Irish descent,
she had an independent income
which she spent
generously on the Irish cause,
and which allowed her to
employ various people to
maintain her household.
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Views expressed by book
reviewers are not necessarily
those of the editorial committee
of the Irish Democrat.
The letters in this book
are almost all from Gonne to
Yeats. His to her were, according
to the dust-jacket,
"destroyed by the Free Staters
when they ransacked her
Dublin home."
Writing in the midst of a
busy life, she frequently signs
off with the words "in great
haste." She is chatty, gentle
and modest: she laments that
her letters "say so little of what
one means," while his "are always
interesting and beautiful
though sometimes they make
me very sad." She talks of her
lecture tours, of her travels, of
her spells of ill-health, and
often of her pride in her
children.
The letters are marred
only by a trace of anti-Semitism,
all too common in the
period and shared by Yeats,
stereotyping Jews as grasping
financiers.
Despite Gonne's
reticence about personal matters,
the letters reveal much
about her relationship with
Yeats. She appreciates his
friendship: "such a charming
restful thing," thanks him for
the poems he often sends
which are invariably "beautiful,"
and encourages his writing
. She takes a lively delight
in demonstrations against the
authorities, and sees his role as
different: "You have a higher
work to do - With me it is different.
I was born in the midst
of a crowd." As time passes,
his elitism contrasts more and
more sharply with her
democratic instincts.
Gonne chats matter-offactly
about their occult experiments:
"1 will come & have
tea with you & we will try and
get some visions but I will not
be in London more than a day
or two as I ought to have been
in Paris 10 days ago." The turn
of the century was a time of
ferment sometimes likened to
the 1960s, and occultism was
common among intellectuals,
who were seeking alternatives
to the established religions.
Yeats and Gonne, with their
interest in Irish nationalism,
invoked beings from Celtic
mythology, such as sun god
Lug and the goddess Brighid.
The letters also give
glimpses of how Gonne tactfully
tried to discourage
Yeats's passion for her. "Your
letter distressed me a good
deal -1 don't want you to give
me so much place in your life,"
she tells him in 1897. At thi:
time she was having a secre:
love affair with Lucien Millevoye,
a French right-wing
revolutionary, who was married.
She had two children
with him: a son, Georges, who,
to her great distress died aged
17 months, and a daughter,
Iseult, whom she pretended
was her niece. In December
1898 Yeats and Gonne had
simultaneous dreams that
they had kissed one another.
But Gonne once again told
Yeats she could not marry him,
and went to confess the story
of her relationship with Millevoye.
Millevoye left her for a
singer, and Gonne continued
to have difficulty - as did other
prominent women activists of
the time - in forming satisfactory
domestic relationships
with men. Perhaps the most
distressing section of the book
concerns her brief marriage to
John MacBride.
Her husband was a hero
of the Irish Brigade that fought
for the Boers against Britain in
the South African War. In
1902, aged 35, she wrote to her
sister: "I am getting old and oh
so tired and I have found a
man who has a stronger will
than myself and who at the
same time is thoroughly
honourable and who I trust."
In 1903, despite warnings
from their friends and
families, they married, and
Gonne's disillusionment was
rapid.
MacBride proved to be an
inveterate drunkard, causing
embarrassing public scenes,
but worse was to come. In
19C4 Gonne was told by
several members of her
household in Paris that he had
behaved indecently towards
them while drunk - even terrifying
10-year-old Iseult in
this way - and had committed
adultery with her seventeenyear-old
half sister. A long
and bitter divorce case followed,
as Gonne desperately
tried to ensure that MacBride
would not get access to their
baby son Sean. It was not until
after he was executed following
the Easter Rising of 1916
that she could safely return to
Ireland. His execution partly
redeemed him In Gonne's
eyes: "Major MacBride by his
death has left a name for Sean
to be proud of," she wrote to
Yeats.
At the height of the Black
and Tan terror in 1920 she told
Yeats he should not keep his
distance from the conflict,
reminding him of "the unspeakable
warfare being carried
on by Government orders
by the most debased riff-raff
from English jails & wardrunk
soldiers & officers,
these torturings of prisoners,
these floggings and & shootings
of unarmed men & burning
of homes of women &
children."
After the establishment
of the Free State in 1922,
Gonne's and Yeats's political
paths diverged even further,
and their letters became much
fewer, with her reprimanding
him for voting in the Senate
for repressive laws. More of
Yeats's letters from this last
period survive, and his final
one, written five months
before his death in January
1939, he invites her to tea and
ends with the words, "I have
wanted to see you for a long
time, but -."
Most of the biographical
material came from Margaret
Ward's book, (reviewed on
the right.)
Old analyses, same problems
Alex Reid
The Communists and the
Irish Revolution. Part One.
The
Russian
Revolutionaries on the Irish
National Question,
1899-1924. Edited by D.R.
O 'Connor Lysaght.
Litereire Publishers, Dublin.
£7.99pbk.
This is the first complete
collection of source texts
on the issue, according to
O'Connor Lysaght. He has
brought together essays, letters,
newspaper articles and
selections from all the important
figures of the Bolshevik
revolution including Lenin,
Trotsky and Stalin as well as
statements from the Communist
International.
Marx and Engels
believed that social struggle in
Ireland would directly affect
the the advances of socialism
in Britain. Marx wrote in an
American newspaper:
"The English working class
will never accomplish anything
until it has got rid of
Ireland."
Lenin, whose writings take
up the greater part of this book,
uses this quotation when clearing
up the misunderstanding
of Marx's position on the national
question. There were
those, Rosa Luxemburg
among them, who argued that
national self-determination
was economically impossible
and who interpreted Marx as
saying that the national struggle
should always be subordinated
to the class struggle.
Maud, Sean and Iseult Gonne.
A long campaigning life
Maud Gonne, A Life by
Margaret Ward. Pbk. £8.40.
Published by Pandora.
Ms Ward's stated aim in a
boqklet, was to put Irish
women into Irish history,
as both traditional and
revisionist historians had ignored
their role.
The writer choose Maud
Gonne rather than, say,
Markievicz, Sheehy Skeffington
or Despard, because Maud's active
political life dated from
1885 to 1953, whereas the others
started their public activities
later and died earlier.
Maud's first political activities
were at meetings in
Mayo when the Ladies' Land
League were building cabins to
house evicted families This was
when the male leaders of the
Land League were all in jail and
Maud was addressing large
meetings denouncing the
landlords and the government.
Lenin, on the other hand,
consistently shows the importance
of linking the fight for
national independence and
the struggle for economic
emancipation.
Stalin debates with two
leading social democrats who
tell us that every national
movement is a reactionary
movement: "That is not true,
Comrades. Is not the Irish
movement against British Imperialism
a democratic movement
which is striking a blow
against imperialism?
The Bolsheviks' understanding
of the situation in
Ireland and of Britain's role at
the time is quite striking. The
Dublin Lock-out, the Easter
Rising, rural develop nent, the
Home Rule Bill and the British
governments subsequent surrender
to the Unionists are all
given careful consideration.
Lenin reminds us:
"Socialists must explain to the
masses that the English
socialist who fails to struggle
as part of his work, for the
freedom to secede for Ireland .
. . is a socialist and internationalist
only in name, but a
chauvinist and an annexationist
in fact."
Her charismatic personality ensured
large audiences.
Maud's politics were like
that of ordinary working
people, based on everyday life
rather than theory. Her eclectic
brand of nationalism meant she'
was willing to make alliances
with anyone who was actually
doing something about poverty,
political prisoners or Irish'
freedom. So she worked at one
time with Griffith and, later,
with Connolly.
After the treaty she supported
the pro-treatyites until
the death of Griffith and Collins.
From then on she was in
the forefront of opposition to
the Free State. Both Charlotte
Despard and Maude helped
Roddy Connolly to set up the
Workers' Party of Ireland.
I leave readers to discover
for themselves the details of the
many other political campaigns
Maud Gonne took a leading
part in.
G.C.
In his introduction, the
editor offers some criticism,
not altogether unjustified, of
the lack of political action undertaken
by the Communist
Party of Great Britain on the
issue of Ireland. Personal experience
illustrates that still
today there are those in the
communist movement in
Britain who tend to leave the
political work of campaigning
for British disengagement
from Ireland to their Irish comrades
or to those who know
about the issue.
O'Connor Lysaght should
be congratulated in bringing
this collection together, an invaluable
reference book and
guide to action.
onnolly
IR
raff
James Connolly was the last of the Easter Rising leaders to
be executed. Gravely wounded in the fighting at the GPO,
he was taken on a stretcher to the execution yard at Kilmainham
jail at dawn on May 12th, 1916, strapped to a chair and shot
by a firing squad. Arthur Murnaghan and Charles Carroll, both
of the Royal Dublin Fusileers, took care of Connolly's body after
the execution. Mumaghan later told his sister that Connolly
took the spindle of the chair with him, so great was his death
struggle. They were both killed in France in 1917.
The man was all shot through that came to-day.
Into the barrack square;
A soldier I -1 am not proud to say
We killed him there;
They brought from the prison hospital
To see him in that chair,
I thought his smile would far more quickly call
A man to prayer.
Maybe we cannot understand this thing,
That makes these rebels die;
And yet all things love freedom and the Spring
Clear in the sky.
I think I would not do this deed again,
For all that I hold by;
Gaze down my rifle at his breast - but then,
A soldier I.
They say that he was kindly - different too
Apart from all the rest;
A lover of the poor, and all shot through.
His Wounds ill drest.
He came before us, faced us like a man,
Who knew a deeper pain
That blows or bullets - ere the world began;
Died he in vain?
Ready, present. And he just smiling - God
I felt my rifle shake.
His wounds were Opened, out and round that chair
Was one red lake;
I swear his lips said Tire when all was still,
Before my rifle spat
That cursed lead - And I was picked to kill
A man like that.
Join the Connolly Association!
The Connolly Association is the premier Irish
organisation in Britain campaigning for civil liberties
and fair employment in the Six Counties and for a
repeal of the British claim to sovereignty over Northern
Ireland. Membership costs a mere £10 a year (£12 for
couples, £6 unwaged couples and £5 for individual
students, unemployed and pensioners) and includes a
free subscription to the Irish Democrat
NAME
(By kind permission)
ADDRESS
I enclose a donation of £.
Liam MacGabhann
Postcode
. towards the campaign
ffftnffrff
Slievenamon
Alone, all alone on the wave washed strand,
All alone in the crowded hall,
The hall it is gay and the waves they are grand
But my heart is not here at all.
It flies far away, by night and by day,
To the time and the joys that are gone,
And I never can forget the sweet maiden I met,
In the valley near Slievenamon.
It was not the grace of her queenly air,
Nor her cheek of the roses glow,
Nor her soft black eyes, nor her flowing hair,
Nor was it her lily-white brow.
Twas the soul of truth and of melting ruth,
and the smile of summer's dawn,
That stole my heart away, one mild summer day
In the valley near Slievenamon
In the festive hall, by the star-watched shore,
My restless spirit cries:
My love, oh my love, shall ne'er see you more.
And my land will you e'er uprise.
By night and by day I ever, ever pray,
While lonely my lite flows on.
To our flag unrolled and my true love to enfold,
In the valley of Slievenamon.
The Spanish Lady
As I went down to Dublin city,
At the hour of twelve at night,
Who should I meet but a Spanish lady
Washing her feet by candlelight.
First she washed them, then she dried them
Over a fire of amber coal
In all my life I ne'er did see 1
A maid so sweet about the soul
CHORUS:
Whack fol the toora, toora, laddy,
Whack fol the toora loora-lay
Repeat chorus
As I came back through Dublin city
At the hour of half past eight
Who should I spy but the Spanish Lady
Brushing her hair in the broad daylight.
First she tossed it, then she brushed it,
On her lap was a silver comb
In all my life I ne'er did see
A maid so fair since I did roam.
CHORUS
As I went back through Dublin City
As the sim began to set
Who should I spy but the Spanish lady
Catching a moth in a golden net.
When she saw me then she fled me
Lifting her petticoat over her knee
In all my life I ne'er did see
A maid so shy as the Spanish Lady.
CHORUS
By Charles J.Kickham
I've wandered north and I've wandered south
Through Stonybatter and Patricks Close
Up and around the Gloster Diamond
And back by Napper Tandys house.
Old age has laid her hand on me
Cold as a fire of ashy coals
In all my life I ne'er did see
A maid so sweet as the Spanish Lady.
CHORUS
Traditional
PETER
PEEPSHOW
MULLIGAN'S
Disposable
workers
NORTHERN IRELAND ELECTRICITY
Since privatisation in June last year 500 jobs have gone
and 200 more are to be 'released' in the next year. All this
against increased domestic tariffs up by 6.6 per cent and
increasing profits, up 27.6 percent to £74.9m. Sir D.
Lorimer the Chairman of NIE is pleased.
UNEMPLOYMENT
At the first public session of the newly appointed
Northern Ireland select committee, the Northern Ireland
economic minister Timothy Smith, told MPs he wanted to
bring unemployment 'down to the level in Britain but he
could not direct companies where to invest.' The Guardian.
NB. Government statistics show that 13.3 per cent are
jobless. That is 99,000 registered for work. 55 per cent of
those have been out of work for over a year and 29 per
cent for more than three years. Corresponding figures for
Britain are 37 and 11 per cent. (The number of people in
Britain with income below half the national average was
3.3 million in 1977. It is now 11.4 million - one in five of
the population.)
UNEMPLOYMENT 2
Paul McGlinchey brother of Dominic McGlinchey had
a job selling insurance policies in Belfast for Cornhill. The
secret service found out and told his employers who
promptly sacked him. They then released the story to the
press and Cornhill sponsors of the test match had to make
some nifty excuses. The Independent.
PROFIT V JOBS
Albert Reynolds has attacked the Bank of Ireland
group, accusing them of profiteering. He claimed that
their profit was at the expense of jobs. The Bank of Ireland
has announced an annual profit of IR280m (£274.5m) an
increase of 125 per cent. The Independent
LOYALISTS REACTION TO PEACE
A Republican ceasefire is likely n to be perceived by
loyalists as an indication that the IRA is edging towards
a political victory, history suggests that the response
would be sharp and bloody." The Times
MORE COLLUSION
Neil Irwin, 24, a private in the Royal Irish Regiment
(part of the British Army) has been charged with killing a
Catholic man and membership of the UVF. Independent on
Sunday
SOLUTION
"In the rapidly changing conditions of to-days world
the achievement of a united Ireland by consent would
provide the best and most lasting solution, politically,
economically, and culturally, which would be in the long
term interests of the people of both traditions on this
island." Taoiseach* Albert Reynolds. The Times
GOING HOME
"I can't help thinking there will be a lot of people in
high places who will see the Mull of Kintyre crash as the
last straw. (10 RUC Special Branch, six top MI5 officers, 9
military intelligence experts) It is a dramatic signal that
the time has finally come to cut our losses and get out of
Northern Ireland for good." Richard Ingrams writing in
the Sunday Observer
LAST
WORD
Tone's Grave
"In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave,
And freely around it let winter winds rave.
Far better they suit him - the rain and gloom -
Till Ireland a nation, can build him a tomb."
Thomas Osborne Davis. Irish Pot (1814-1545)
IRISH DEMOCRAT A U Q U S T / S E P T E M B E R 1994 page 7
IRISH DEMOCRAT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1994 page 6