Part I - question 7
The terms 'having' and 'being' were utilized as a descriptive dualism in Collins" book to draw a distinction between
the traditional Irish society and the colonizing Anglo-Saxon culture. The reference is from Eric Fromm's To Have
or To Be, which characterizes a 'having' culture as one interested in the acquisition of material goods, money,
and power. Whereas the 'being' society is one that is not so intent on material wealth, but instead fixates on
sustenance, and having accomplished that, with the values of spiritual enrichment. The Irish Gaelic preposition
ag translates as 'at', which is used to determine placement, define ability, quality or knowledge, to show a
visitation both as destination and action. Psychologically its greatest significance comes from the agency it gives
both to animate/inanimate objects as well as abstracted qualities or abilities.
In a 'being' society, as opposed to a 'having' culture, there is a blurring of the dichotomy (some would say all
dichotomies) between the subject and object. In a 'having' culture this separation allows for the possession of objects,
which in turn allows for the valuation of them and their accumulation. In a 'being' society there is a degree of
animism to both the animate and inanimate, as well as to abstracts like emotion or talent, making their objectification
morally difficult. The preposition ag is reflective of this valuation, for the music is at me, it not some talent I own,
or, the cat who is at me, I can no more own than the knowledge in my head. In a 'being' society the unique is valued,
not objectified, and consequently devalued and commodified. This dichotomy is at the root of our disassociation from,
and destruction of the natural environment.
Part I - question 10
Medb's quarrel with Ailill, in the Tain, in Condren's, and Cahill's books, are very different in the points they
make. In Condren, there is little mentioned of Medb, and no mention of Ailill or their quarrel. In Cahill, the text of
Kinsella's translation is taken, nearly complete, and used to show a 'window on the Iron Age'. It is indicative of the
authors' bias where these differences lie.
Condren's depiction of Medb is as a tutelary goddess of the land who is responsible for mating with (or, as Thomas
O Maille suggests, offering the grail to) the high king, to insure fertility during his reign. In a footnote she suggests
that the Tain is a satire designed to denigrate the Goddess, and is, as Kinsella suggests in his introduction,
an 'ironic anti-feminist poem'. Thus her silence on Ailill and their argument is understandable.
Cahill uses the text from Kinsella's translation to show the relations of men and women in ancient Ireland. Besides
missing a key element, which would show a more complete, albeit less palatable story, he uses this depiction from
the Tain, as a backhanded attack on the morality of the early Irish, while praising the strength of the women and
the agency of the entire cast. The thing that glaringly stands out in omission is Ailill's suggestion that he came to
claim the kingship through his mother's lineage.
The vitality and realism of the characterization is as much a testament to Kinsella's ability as a poet, as it is to the
power of the Tain. None the less, the anti-feminist nature of the work is hard to discount. For, even though
Medb stands out as a 'gigantic figure' her portrayal, particularly her possessiveness and bloody finale, is distinctly
derisive.
Part I - question 11
Cyclic form is a way in which the Irish view time, one which is distinctly different from the linearity with which we view it.
This particular form of time is one, which allows continuity and a connection linear time can not offer. "Turning and
turning in the widening gyre", is the first line from Yeat's poem The Second Coming. The image used is the
shadows of dessert birds whirling around the Sphinx in wide circles, or the falcon ascending in widening circles from
the falconer.
Cyclic time is a process and not a destination, much like the ascent of the falcon. As the wheel of the year turns
from light to dark, the seasons mark a procession, which observes the year, not as months counted in a one-way trip,
but as an agricultural round. In the image of the ever turning cycle each point lines up as a spoke connecting to the
same time in the previous round, connecting in progression as well as systemically. The perception of time as cyclical
tends to shatter the idea of an individual ego and thus counters a fear of mortality. For in this cyclic process we are
dissolved and reconfigured as the wheel turns.
The gyre works in the same way but has a corollary gyre turning in opposition, like a spinning ginny, an image
Yeats used in the poem, Fragments. As the gyre ascends in ever widening circles, its center cannot hold, and in the
collapse creates a secondary gyre descending in reverse, which in turn collapses, starting the whole process again
The gyre is an example of cyclic time in a more complex form. The gyre suggests like cyclic time, we are capable of
catching the repetition of history as it winds its way round and runs across the bobbin (ourselves), and thus we can
alter it.
Part I - question 15
Foreshores are the meeting place or barrier edge where the land meets the sea, specifically the intertidal regions.
This edge is the conjunction of the elements of earth and water where water predominates. Wells are the barrier
edge where water breaks through to the land. This edge is also a con unction of the elements of earth and water,
but here earth predominates.
Edges tend to be fertile places where the cooperation of different environmental systems creates niches for biological
multiplicity. Foreshores are sustenance providers, where little work is required to reap benefits. On the foreshores
the seas deposit huge amounts of seaweed that was used for compost in agriculture and as a condiment in soups.
Shellfish can be harvested with as little work as digging tubers and the sea leaves other treasures behind as well.
The respect of the seas for those who lived near it was as great an awe as there could be, for here be monsters, as
well as the fruits of the sea.
Wells are the place where water can be brought up from the depths of the earth. As the sea's treasures are to the
foreshore, the earth's treasures are to the wells and springs. Barring perhaps air, on no other element are we more
dependent for life than water. Wells are the place where mysteriously this all-important necessity is provided. The
reverence of sacred springs and wells to this day suggests that the animism of ancient Ireland's spiritual beliefs is
still lurking somewhere just beneath the surface. For as Collins suggests the Gaelic relationship with the natural
world was one of the more unique aspects of their worldview, one which we have use of in today's environmental
tragedy.
Part II - question 5
With the words, "Kill all Harpers where found" the Tudor Queen Elizabeth I struck a blow to the Irish, a blow so
insidiously powerful that it destroyed the cultural heritage of thousands of years. The Harpers were the upper
echelons of the Bardic order and thus they were the culture bearers. The quote is from Sean's lectures where she
has likened them to the information technologies of their time, for they were multimedia storehouses of vast
amounts of knowledge, from musical styles, to poetics, to history and genealogy - they were the reference library the
people turned to for who they were.
Collins suggests that at the time this campaign of annihilation took place, the Bardic order was developing a modern
form of Gaelic nationalism. One which was devoid of religiosity or territorial nationalism, oriented instead on an
ethnicity intent on establishing its own historical precedents; it was a nationalism which was 'emphatically that of
rebellion'. The Bards had intervened previously on behalf of Gaelic culture at two important points where colonizing
forces, Christianity and the Normans, were grafted onto, and in turn Gaelicised. Queen Elizabeth was inevitably
terrified of the political power the Bards had in their use of satire, for had the Bardic order survived her fatal blow,
the Irish would have probably earned their freedom much sooner than they did.
If there was one theme which this program is hinting at it is this Gaelicizing, in an attempt to graft the older oral
traditions onto our own literary and academic pursuits. As Sean learned from Joe Heaney, who learned from his
grandmother, we are learning from her - and the line of transmission continues on into the 21st century. The Harpers
have been dead and gone for centuries, but we can still attempt to sprout new forests from the seeds they have left
us.
Part II - question 9
John Scotus is the author of this quote; he was a member of the Irish learned class who influenced the course of
Christian thought, at least until they were condemned by the Roman Church for what it deemed their "heretical"
nature. It was mentioned in Patrick's lecture on Irish cosmologies in reference to the Cahill book. The quote in q
uestion comes from the text Paraphision.
The indigenous form of Christianity was heavily influenced by the Druidic belief, so prevalent in Irish society, of the
intrinsic animism in all of creation. The world was one huge writhing fecund body of divine multiplicity, and in the
Irish worldview there was no distinction between subject and object, or as Scotus said, "God was all in all". No one
aspect of creation was honored above any other, for all was necessary for the continuation of the processes of life.
The early Irish Christians felt that the message of good news was for the creatures, as much as it was for the humans.
One can see this relationship in the vegetarianism of the Irish monasteries, or the frequency with which animal
motifs are utilized in their illuminated manuscripts.
The ancient Irish revered their natural environment, in it they saw the loving hand of a creator and magical forces
outside their knowledge or control. In their worldview the entire cosmos was sentient and imbued with the same
spiritual energy as everything else. Unlike our own western culture where there is a distinct separation between
one's concept of self and one's concept of the cosmos, the Irish felt a tremendous connection to the animals and plants
that shared the planet. As well, they saw a connection to the other elements that make up our environment. Only
recently has Western society recognized the biosphere as animate and worthy of recognition, dare I say reverence.
Part II - question 11
This quote is from the last lines of the John Hewitt poem, The Scar. It has been read several times by Patrick,
especially in relation to the text Paddy's Lament. It is reflective of the importance hospitality plays in Irish
society. In the Tain, the Iron Age morality could be paraphrased with the words, gracious, generous, and
glorious. 'She who by her nature' represents all of these qualities. Gracious, to accept the diseased into her home,
as the ritual of hospitality requires, knowing that death followed in his wake. Generous, as she offers someone less
fortunate, a bit of her own luck in having food during the 'great hunger'. Most important though she is glorious,
because in her death she characterizes the one greatest element of the Gaelic worldview, hospitality and community.
During the 'great hunger' the famine was so insidious because in most cases this hospitality, the connection to one's
community, was utterly shattered; destroying a moral code that had shaped the Irish culture for thousands of years.
In this national crisis, the desire to reach out and help those who were part of one's society was turned against itself.
For this reason the author reflects on how this selfless act confirmed on him his own heritage. In her sacrifice she
shows a living example of the Christian maxim, "greater love than this no man has than that he should lay down his
life for his friends."
We live in a time where neighbors no longer know one another, and communities are under siege from their own
disaffected. Instead of opening our doors to one another, we withdraw into the shells of our little cages and cower at
the sounds of screams outside our windows. We can learn much from taking up this moral code, the mantle of Irishry,
as Dark Eileen described it on her husband's grave, "gentle, handsome and brave."
Part III - question 2
The Irish worldview of the cosmos and their part in it is one of permeability. The barrier edges between elements is
a place of importance both physically and spiritually. The dualism of Augustine is one of dichotomy, not conjunction.
Cahill hints at this Irish cooperative dualism or permeability of boundaries when he discusses the works of Pelagius
and Scotus. Both of these Gaelic philosophers saw little distinction in separating humanity from god, or humanity
from the natural world, much less the men from women. Patrick discussed the work of Mathew Fox, a contemporary
Christian philosopher who suggests this indigenous Irish Christianity is worth recovering today.
The Collins book suggests that the Irish Bardic order infused a Gaelic character to this early indigenous Christianity.
St. Patrick uses Druidic forms of education and worship to suggest cooperation instead of competition with the
Christian and Pagan religious traditions. Had that barrier not been crossed the Irish and/or Christianity would be
drastically different from what we have, and worse yet, we wouldn't have a model for their interaction. It is this cross
hybridizing which in turn allows for the formation of the Green and White martyrdom discussed in Cahill and the
film Celtic Monasteries.
The great chain of being for the Irish wasn't a hierarchical division as it was for the Greeks or Romans, instead it
reflected their recognition of the immanence of all creation, a spiral path turning, not a pyramid to be climbed on
the way to God/dess. The early Irish religious traditions recognized the necessity for male and female representations
of the divine as Condren discusses. Brigid's investiture as a bishop is another intentional crossing of those
boundaries, as is the dual monastic structure of many of the early monasteries.
The early Irish spirituality recognized the importance of the elemental interaction in the environment. Rebecca
suggests the conjunction of elements at some of the sacred springs represents the importance the elements
interactivity played in designating sacredness; the tree as representative of air, the rock as representative of earth,
and the spring or well as representative of water. The places where humanity was capable of perceiving the
sacredness of creation was in this interactivity of elements, these boundary crossings, hilltops and mountains - air
and earth, foreshores - water and earth, and springs - earth and water. It was in the last two that mysterious
sustenance was supplied by the beneficence of divine forces, as shown in the movie Man of Arran.
In the Tain, we see a most important boundary permeability, which was significant, both in respect to the
ability for women to take on the roles of power, as well as the polyandry/polygamy of early Irish sexual mores. In
Sean's lecture on sexuality we see an image of this most significant cornerstone of the Irish worldview in Cuchulainn's
weapon the Gae Bolga. Only usable in the boundary of water and earth, specifically a river's ford, it provides
another instance of this boundary crossing, that of the air and the earth. For in the lightning, a fire from the heavens,
the Sky God and the Earth Goddess dissolve their individuality into a duality and provide the fourth element fire.
It is this fire that the early Irish used to show their reverence for the divine. On hilltops they lit great bonfires to
mark the passage between the dark and light halves of the year. For in their worldview these boundary crossings
were the juncture between the temporal and spiritual worlds. The dead walked among the living and the fertility of
humanity became the fecundity of the earth. Cycle upon cycle, crossing these boundaries kept the Irish in touch
with their environment (life) and their community (love).
Part III - question 6
To look at history as power relations devoid of cultural expressions, and to look at cultural mentifacts without
historical antecedents brings only a fraction of the awareness and understanding a holistic approach gives. The edge
between boundaries is a fertile ground where new and unique connections produce concepts neither could generate
on their own. This connectivity offers a richer and more diverse field from which to learn.
I have a greater understanding now of Yeats and his verse, knowing the political background to several themes in
his works. Having an insight on some of his own political activities requires me now to separate him into two persons;
as to not throw the baby out with the bath water. For in the one there is a nationalist turncoat drinking tea with the
MP when the revolution came, and who refused to aid an old love out of the prison's hole, instead of freedom he sent
blankets. While in the other there is the poet extrodinare capable of linguistic turns of genius.
In 'The Rose Tree', 'Easter 1916', 'Statues', and 'Sixteen Dead Men', there are references
to the Easter Rising of 1916, and the 16 martyred Republican men. Taking these verses by themselves gives little
vitality to their persons, and casts only an ominous pallor over their actions. Reading Umanageable Revolutionaries
puts these terribly beautiful sacrifices into perspective, No longer are Connolly and Pearse, McDonagh and McBride
names in a list of the dead, but men full of grim purpose, reflecting the Iron age morality of Dark Eileen's "generous,
handsome, and brave." What we get to see, more than the vitality of these recklessly courageous men, is the bias of
the poet; wishing he could write a satire but confined to record them as the martyred sacrifices they were.
Another important political understanding which is lacking in Yeats' verse but central to the Ward book is in the
person of Maud Gonne. Yeats is embittered by his unrequited love of Maud and it comes out in poems 'On A Political
Prisoner' and 'A Prayer For My Daughter' his words drip venom, and his satire has found a target. It is
hard to think he could pen 'The Old Age of Queen Meave' or Cathleen ni Houlihan and have the subject
be the same. His opinion of Maud's intellect was desultory, yet he suggests "there is no high story about queens / in
any ancient book but tells of you." This contradiction could have an answer in Cathleen's line, put in Maude's mouth
by the poet himself, "With all the lovers that brought me their love I never set out the bed for any."
In the 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' the line fragment "deep hearts core" was tied to an understanding of
Linguistics and how/where sound is formed in the mouth/throat. The vowel progression I - A - 0 in the line is a
magickal formulae which Yeats would have learned about in the Golden Dawn. Without the linguistic associations
Charlie pointed out, I would not have seen this imbedded gem of immense worth and significance.
In Mick Maloney's performance two songs, among the many incredible songs he played, related to information from
our readings and lectures. The song 'Paddy's Lament' has been a favorite of mine since first hearing it, yet
to put it in context with Gallagher's work makes the song resonate with the anguish its name suggests. "A hush me
boys", stop and listen my wee ones here is something bordering on the miraculous. A Harper named T.O. Carlin
grafted Irish Harp music onto European Baroque, by itself this isn't terribly notable, but in context to what we learned
about the suppression of the Bardic order, the destruction of Gaelic culture, makes having heard his work all the
more joyful and unique an experience. It was beautiful and haunting as well as a fragment of legendary rarity.