MARTIN MCDONAGH’S THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE

MARTIN MCDONAGH‟S THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE: NOSTALGIA, MYTHOLOGY, TERRORIST VIOLENCE, AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF A NATIONAL LITERATUREby Brian James Stone B.A., Southern Illinois University, 2007 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of the Arts Department of English in the Graduate School Southern Illinois University Carbondale June 2008 August 2008 1456858 1456858 2008 THESIS APPROVAL MARTIN MCDONAGH‟S THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE: NOSTALGIA, TERRORIST VIOLENCE, MYTHOLOGY AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF A NATIONAL LITERATURE By Brian James Stone A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the field of English Approved by: Michael Humphries, Chair Mary Bogumil Ryan Netzley Clarisse Zimra Graduate School Southern Illinois University Carbondale June 6, 2008 AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Brian James Stone, for the Master of the Arts degree in English, presented on June 6, 2008, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: Martin McDonagh‟s The Lieutenant of Inishmore: Nostalgia, Mythology, Terrorist Violence, and the Problematic of a National Literature MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Mary Bogumil Since the opening of Martin McDonagh‟s The Lieutenant of Inishmore at London‟s The Other Place in April of 2001, there has been little critical agreement as to how this play should be read. There seems to be a problematic discourse surrounding this apparently “Irish” play written by a playwright who is difficult to identify by way of nationality. McDonagh has successfully divided the world of Irish theatre criticism into those who believe his play perpetuates Irish stereotypes, those who believe it subverts them and those who believe the play‟s dark, satirical form and content provides us with no significant literary contributions what so ever. By looking at critical responses to McDonagh‟s play as well as audience responses in a global context, we see that “Irishness” becomes something to be of less concern. Moreover, by looking at McDonagh‟s treatment of the impulse to identity in “Irish” literature, we can come to see McDonagh‟s place in Irish literature; which may not be “in” Irish literature at all, but in postmodern literature. The intertextual nature of the play can be taxonomized as that which Fredric Jameson calls pastiche, that is, the emergence of cannibalized stylistic forms in the space of the text. These traces no longer have meaning for us as we are unable to come to understand, in this era of late capitalism, Jameson tells i i us, not only an authentic history, but an authentic present as well. The allusions to historical events and to other works of literature emerge in such a way that we cannot take them seriously or identify with them at all. Seeing McDonagh‟s work in this light, as being postmodern and not “Irish,” whatever that means, brings us to see that identification by nationality is inadequate, but more importantly, that it is impossible. i ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................i CHAPTERS CHAPTER 1 – A Postmodern Situatedness: Martin McDonagh............1 CHAPTER 2 – Identity Politics, Nostalgia and Mythology....................35 CHAPTER 3 –The Emergence of Myth in Pop-Culture........................57 CHAPTER 4 – Conclusion...................................................................66 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................67 VITA .............................................................................................................68 iii the “Irish” playwright. South Western Ireland. In the twenty first century. His experiences in places such as Galway and Connemara can be said to have provided him with the setting of the plays he would come to write later in his life. The Celtic Tiger is not without importance in this identification. It is the emergence of the postmodern culture. McDonagh‟s play. His parents were Irish Catholics. as well as looking at the play itself and critical reception of it globally. The post modern condition is born of the globalizing world economy and we can with confidence identify McDonagh‟s style as such. because. Irish parents. Frederic Jameson. And. national literatures. or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” discusses America‟s role in the transformation of culture globally: Yet this is the point at which we must remind the reader of the obvious. “I don‟t feel I have to defend myself for being English or for being Irish. namely that this whole global. . This discourse. the era of the postmodern. yet American. living in London. Such an understanding of the global economy in the twenty first century brings with it a deconstruction of the distinctions of national cultures and ultimately. Martin McDonagh. first generation. McDonagh said. postmodern culture is the internal and superstructural expression of a whole new wave of American military and economic domination throughout the world. (Jameson192) Jameson‟s stance is of course a Marxist one. and the same is true of his work. in “Postmodernism. on the question of both its and McDonagh‟s nationality. a writer for The Guardain. I‟m both” (Chambers 3). both Irish and English and also neither nor. the foremost postmodern scholar in America. particularly The Lieutenant of Inishmore. I don‟t feel either. of course. remains deadlocked. This economic booming of American style capitalism in the late twentieth century in Ireland transformed the cultural landscape of the island. Along with the expansion of American style capitalism.1 CHAPTER 1 A POSTMODERN SITUATEDNESS The question of a national identity has become important within the discourse of Irish theatre criticism surrounding the plays of Martin McDonagh. The Lieutenant of Inishmore. He grew up in London and as a boy spent many of his summers in rural. on March 26. comes a transformation of culture. This situatedness has also provided critics of his work with much to talk about as debate has ensued regarding whether or not McDonagh identifies with the English or the Irish culture. the question of national identity is not quite so clear cut. It can be shown that it is the impulse to a national identity that this play reveals as being problematic. I will argue that McDonagh is a postmodern playwright. 1970 to working class. London. not least in Ireland. in a way. McDonagh can be said to be neither a Londoner nor an Irishmen. perhaps demonstrates this thesis the most adequately. in another way. In discussing McDonagh‟s situatedness. and yet describes himself as both. was born in Camberwell. When discussing his national affiliations in an 2 interview with Sean O‟Hagan. stuck on the question of the play‟s perpetuation or subversion of Irish stereotypes. This is an allusion to much other Irish drama. It abandons national 3 identity and renders problematic the impulse to sentiment that provides for the condition of this identity. We get “A clock somewhere on back wall along with a framed piece of embroidery reading „Home Sweet Home‟” (McDonagh 7). Many critics have seen McDonagh‟s work as a satire or as a parody of the romanticizing tendencies of much Irish drama of the early twentieth century. would not necessarily be what we identify as an “Irish” literary tendency. Synge did so in an attempt to parody the work of many other Irish dramatists at the time who saw the rural villages of Ireland as harboring this vanishing authentic Irishness. (Jameson 328) In the postmodern world. It is an ironic statement. Such a treatment of an identity held dear. Irish setting: “A cottage on Inishmore circa 1993” (McDonagh 7). but the literature which sentimentalized and mythologized such violence as well. an Irish theatre critic. For here. a place commonly romanticized in Irish literature for its pastoral beauty and for being a place where authentic “Irishness” has been 4 preserved. quite . indeed fought to the death for by many Irish. McDonagh is not just alluding to specific instances of violence in Ireland‟s history. One cannot acknowledge the justice of the general poststructuralist assault on the so-called „centered subject. and McDonagh‟s play-text demonstrates this tendency. McDonagh‟s play demonstrates such a postmodern tendency as it renders problematic the sentimental mythology which provides for this Republican political position. In The Lieutenant we get a rural. McDonagh writes within the structure of Irish literature to reveal its tendency to glorify violence in order to establish itself as a national literature. particularly that of John Millington Synge. Despite allusions to other “Irish” writers within McDonagh‟s play-text. His play is not necessarily “Irish” but is written through the Irish. Jameson discusses the problem or national and cultural identity in “Third-world Literature”: Nor can I feel that the concept of cultural „identity‟ or even national „identity‟ is adequate. Christopher Murray. individual identity is impossible and cultural or national identity is impossible as well. The setting is rural as Inishmore is in the southwest of Ireland.Postmodernism abandons the notion of identity. for this “Irish” national identity. who utilized rural Irish villages in his work. be it individual or national. This setting is important also. and then resuscitate this same ideological mirage of psychic unification on the collective level in the form of a doctrine of collective identity. as the rurality is meaningful.‟ the old unified ego of bourgeois individualism. These influences are not without importance but also do not render McDonagh‟s play as something necessarily Irish. domestic. The inside of the cottage is humble. The motif of the domestic setting is one that is common in McDonagh‟s work. in “The Cripple of Inishmaan Meets Lady Gregory” discusses these dramatic traces in McDonagh‟s plays: “I think we have probably heard enough about Synge for the present. This embroidery is interesting when considering the absurdly graphic violence that will ensue upon this stage. to this 5 play. To do so tends to lead to the mythologizing of acts of violence that have. like parody. Jameson‟s concept of pastiche helps us to understand this more clearly. The laughter we hear in the playhouse. That these traces would show up in McDonagh‟s work certainly does not render it not postmodern either. speech through all the masks and voices stored up in the imaginary museum of a now global culture” (Jameson 202). of these voices. as noted particularly those of John Millington Synge. as they are laughable of themselves in a post modern 6 world. led to the perpetuation of further violence. is also comparable to The Lieutenant as it caused quite a similar reactions concerning the English and Irish . and it thematically reveals the danger of the impulse to identify a literature. Pastiche. drama and poetry. The Cripple of Inishmaan. The discussion of these traces of Synge and others have become tedious they are so frequent. has comes to take the place of what we once may have defined as parody. these traces. Most critics speak of Irish traces.” In fact. “[T]he producers of culture have nowhere to turn but to the past: the imitation of dead styles. a style of modernism. This is exactly what we see in The Lieutenant. While Murray is discussing McDonagh‟s play. is motivated by an attitude that is critical toward the original while pastiche is merely an aping. we laugh at McDonagh‟s jokes. in McDonagh‟s work. Jameson states. in the postmodern world. reveals much about our situatedness and the nature of the play. we cannot identify McDonagh‟s play as a satire. song. these tendencies seen in his work are not limited. this is a theoretical contradiction. in productions across the world. Parody. it is global. as such. amputated of the satiric impulse” (Jameson 202). that find their way into The Lieutenant and are used as a means to make an audience erupt with laughter and do so effectively. Within this postmodern understanding. With this understanding in mind. often compared to McDonagh‟s The Cripple of Inishmaan. a parading of these precursors. in the discourse surrounding it. in this understanding. McDonagh need not satirize th ese voices.recently a reviewer of DruidSynge in Edinburgh gave the usual list of modern playwrights indebted [to Synge]. The literary precursors of McDonagh show up in his work inevitably. or an artist. without any of parody‟s ulterior motives. This is a frequent phenomenon in discussion of his work in general. all of these genres. including McDonagh” (Murray 79). the imitation of a peculiar mask. but ourselves as well. Jameson will always ask us to historicize not only a text we are interpreting. Yet even though Murray recognizes McDonagh as a postmodern playwright. We can say with confidence that ideologies which serve to provide for the form of McDonagh‟s play-text are quite post modern and a far cry from anything solely or easily identifiable as “Irish. he still insists upon his Irishness. Pastiche then. The Playboy of the Western World. is a demonstration. Jameson defines his conception: “Pastiche is. the play‟s form is no longer something Irish. but as pastiche. speech in a dead language: but it is a neutral practice of such mimicry. Synge‟s play. Although it is not parody. in turn. It is a postmodern phenomenon. by his friends in the stalls launching in a rousing chorus of „God Save the King‟. Synge‟s play opened on the twenty-ninth of January in 1907. The killing of innocent civilians is a laughable situation to these Irish characters. is a case in point. however. however. about whether or not he bashed in the head of a cat. in the Irish audience. in the small village in the West of Ireland. notorious for shooting the eyes out of cows from a great distance and who is in love with Padraic. The portrayal of Mairead. This sounds familiar. The force of the plays violence and its humor is driven by these allusions. the battering of which led Padraic back to Inishmore and serves as the catalyst of the play. This has undoubtedly been the case with The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Morash describes the events of that evening. The pit was full of rowdy drunks and the police had to be called in to remove individuals who would not heed the pleadings of Yeats. even to a young girl such as Mairead. Riders on the Sea: “which 7 also dealt with a death in a small community in the West of Ireland” (Morash 131). discusses prevalent tendencies in Synge‟s work. Gregory and Synge to calm down and let the actors perform. in a quite postmodern manner. The production of The Playboy at the Abbey. While the intentions of Yeats and Gregory in establishing this theatre was to have an “Irish” theatre. The play was stopped early due to the unruly crowd who carried this spectacle into the street. His The Playboy of the Western World. is reliant upon them.problematic upon its premiere. author of A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000. as well as violence enacted upon the Irish by the English. Christopher Morash. following a successful run of his Riders to the Sea. the theater was full. The questions of 8 national identity and the concern of stereotyping or insulting the culture come to the fore. Davey. which alludes to instances of IRA terrorist violence. a cat. the leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Not only does she take delight in hearing . the question of loyalty was not absent from these performances. distinct from other theatre. the character whose name sake is Padraic Pearse. One drunken man who was out of hand was arrested. caused a bigger ruckus than even McDonagh could aspire to. While the case of McDonagh is not quite so extreme. The opening night caused such controversy that each subsequent night was a sell out. a young aspiring militant. The interesting thing here is that this particular event demonstrates the prevalence of these conflicting ideologies in the audience of the Abbey theatre. she is portrayed as a bit sadistic: “It was on no news. and when do you ever watch the news unless there‟s been a bomb in England gone off you can laugh o‟er?” (McDonagh 19). we can see his play as rousing similar reactions from the theater goers of Ireland. he was not alone in his actions: “He was forestalled. which was matched by an equally energetic version of „God Save Ireland‟” (Morash 135). most frequently cited as that which surfaces in McDonagh‟s work is similar to his preceding play. When talking to her brother. tensions between English and Irish were provoked as individuals cried out from the pit. Like McDonagh‟s work. The Lieutenant begins with the death of Wee Thomas. The Monday following open night. one that permeates Irish society to a degree unimaginable to those on the outside. one cannot go so far as to accuse McDonagh of writing from a singularly English perspective either. a specific case in point occurred in 2001. Through this humorous dialogue. Padraic is portrayed here as a coward as he would prefer to ineffectively bomb a potato chip shop than take his chances in getting caught or killed by attacking a legitimate target. That sounds like something the fecking British‟d do. The three characters.) Because chip shops aren‟t as well guarded as army barracks. Joey expresses his disdain for having to batter a cat: Joey. such as an army barracks. Christy. were not made well enough. like on Bloody Sunday. but she does not watch the news. who are actually responsible for the death of Padraic‟s cat. really. The bombs he planted were not of a high enough quality. Do I need your advice on planting bombs?” (McDonagh 15). One could see why many Irish critics have seen this play as aligned with the English perspective. who is the self-appointed lieutenant of a splinter group of a splinter group of the INLA. because there is no credit in battering a cat. However. we have Padraic. has taken ill. In the dialogue between these characters we get a perspective of the English as being senselessly violent themselves. They engage in the kind of 9 small talk that all fathers and sons may have: “I haven‟t been up to much else. Once again. to even go off. Protests against Catholic schoolgirls. There‟s no guts involved in cat battering. one that refers to an immense history of terror and bloodshed. An over bearing father gives advice to his son and the son expresses frustration. despite the claims of numerous critics. She does not understand the situation or take steps to. (Pause. did they. a post-modern 10 playwright. Padraic is portrayed as a moron. and who killed it so that they could lure him back to kill him. There is more joking about bombings by McDonagh‟s Padraic. Brendan and Joey.of these incidents. The domestic nature of this conversation is what is perhaps the most disturbing. that is actually thought dead. I won‟t claim credit for battering a cat. He can be seen as being located in an emergent global culture. she merely delights in the atrocities. Brendan. Christy? . Round up some poor Irish cats and give them a blast in the back as the poor devils were trying to get away. Padraic‟s father. McDonagh makes light of IRA violence. calls to tell him his cat. They never shot cats on Bloody Sunday. In scene 2. I put bombs in a couple of chips shops. taking a route home through Protestant neighborhoods speak of the seriousness of this issue. Davey. Battering a cat is easy. are portrayed as morons themselves. we are struck by the humor of a silly joke. Moreover. They are members of the INLA splinter group from which Padraic has splintered. torturing a young man for selling marijuana to Catholic school children. Murals mark the walls and alleys of Belfast with constant reminders. He is portrayed as an idiot who would rather kill civilians than risk his own life. Within this domestic conversation. but they didn‟t go off. Songs sung in pubs express the prevalence of the matter. The revolutionaries of 11 today are portrayed as individuals who cannot be taken seriously. that are not authentically graspable to either the characters or to us. has splintered from a splinter group of the INLA. The members of the splinter group from which McDonagh has splintered reveal this disconnection in their banter. This is a direct reference to a particular event. He was too mad for the IRA: “Isn‟t it him the IRA wouldn‟t let in because he was too mad?” (McDonagh 10). in which Irish civilians were killed by British soldiers in 1972. This bit of dialogue is telling. a respected authority on the history of the IRA. They take orders willingly without question and the authentic meaning of their nation‟s history is out of their grasps. It is not treated seriously. These revolutionary voices of the past. to denote a member of Goulding‟s organization. as did the term „Stiky‟. This is an aspect of pastiche. This event was never separated from revolutionary activity in Ireland. these individuals later became martyrs. Indeed. “provisional IRA” is itself an allusion to the rising. but hasn‟t . We see the question of an “official” IRA and problems arising between different IRA groups in McDonagh‟s play-text. relates here the discrepancy we see represented in McDonagh‟s play-text. Padraic‟s cat. to commemorate the 1916 rising. The name. 12 Padraic. We are given allusions to these historical events that are without weight. Coogan. This banter not only makes us laugh. When discussing the killing of the supposed Wee Thomas. those that throughout modern revolutionary literature in Ireland were looked to for an understanding of national identity. it stuck. in his book The Troubles explains this connection in discussion of the IRA of the late 1960‟s: By the end of a year the new IRA had consolidated itself and dropped the word Provisional. despite the initial repulsion of the Irish public to the events of Easter 1916. Both wings wore Easter lily emblems at Easter. The discrepancy amongst these Irish revolutionaries ultimately working toward the same goal is related humorously. Historian Tim Pat Coogan. in the play-text. are without import. (The term had been chosen to make a connection with the 1916 rising leaders. but reveals the ignorance of the characters who do not understand their own history. (Coogan 96). This is the emergence of a voice “stored up in the imaginary museum of a new global culture” as Jameson would have us put it. It‟s the same principle I‟m saying. who had declared a provisional government. This is why we have Padraic as our anti-hero. ya thick. which has come to be known as Bloody Sunday. Any IRA identity includes necessarily a sentiment for the Easter rising. (McDonagh 26). they reveal not only their inability to agree but their impossible struggle to understand history and revolutionary philosophies: Christy. Joey-o. which regarded itself as the „Official‟ IRA.) However.Joey. Padraic Pearse is the martyr of the Republic and of all revolutionary activity. We none of us enjoyed today‟s business. or „Stickies‟. there is no nationalistic fervor related in this line. The Irish can be said to take seriously their revolutionary heroes. but ignorant. The revolutionaries represented in the play-text do not have their fundamentals down and argue like children. They are members of a splinter group of a splinter group. They humorously volley back and forth in senseless. Connolly and the nine other fighters killed following the rising. This blatant disrespect for the IRA. As noted. This speech was passionate. now? I think it was. Easter 1916 was a turning point in Irish nationalism. It wasn‟t Marx. whose activities led to the Irish Civil War in 1922 and to the eventual establishment of the Irish Republic. a Civil War veteran and prominent member of the IRA. and who has been mythologized as the Irish hero. particularly Pearse. It wasn‟t Marx. dramatic and inspiring for generations of young militants. All subsequent revolutionary activity was inspired and motivated by the change in public attitude that followed the executions of Pearse. at an IRA convention. is another aspect of the play-text that makes it difficult for us to come to identify it as Irish. childlike argument. Emmett is most famous amongst Republicans for the speech he made to Lord Norbury and the bar at the Session House in Dublin at the time of his execution in 1803. They cannot get along with themselves and presumably cannot with others either. None of them knows what it was Marx did say either. Enda‟s. Who was it then? Brendan. Similarly. they are humorous as they are devoid of authentic meaning. . Seán MacDiarmada. Brendan and Christy cannot agree on whether the ends of their acts justify the means. we are not able to access them as such. „Don‟t the ends justify the means?‟ Wasn‟t it Marx said that. This allusion is also of importance 13 historically as socialism played an integral role in the revolutionary consciousness and political ideologies of the IRA. during Robert Emmett‟s insurrection of 1803” (Coogan 10). I don‟t know. is all I‟m saying. Coogan discusses the activities of Pearse and others: “Padraig Pearse. Brendan. Pearse himself was inspired by the mythology surrounding the rising of 1803 in Kildare known as “The Emmett Rising” as it was led by Roger Emmett. (McDonagh 26) Joey. no. announced the call for a new direction for the IRA. In 1925. Joseph Plunkett and many others were to give their lives in a tradition of revolutionary activity which had flickered sporadically and unsuccessfully since Wolfe Tone‟s rebellion in 1798. called “the hermitage. Instead. Peadar O‟Donnell. now. While these historical allusions are presented to us.” as 14 the location of his Irish boy‟s school known as St.the plan worked? And like the fella said. In this scene we also get an allusion to the role of speech in Irish revolutionary ideology. something to be discussed at length later. The IRA was to break away with governmental ties and as Coogan explains: “[T]o direct its energies into a leftward path of socialist republicanism inspired equally by O‟Donnell and Karl Marx” (Coogan 38). This rising inspired Pearse to such an extent that he sought out Emmett‟s place of hermitage. McDonagh was clearly aware of the socialist aspirations of the IRA. Christy. they are not only dangerous. “That‟s what Padraic doesn‟t understand. In scene five of the play-text we see once again this pastiche as we see the speech emerge from this cultural museum. Christy. The tradition and sentiment for the great speech of the revolutionary here is related in the form of a farce. The language of this speech is certainly dead. This. The genre of speech is a great source of inspiration for the IRA. The disparity amongst these individuals is pushed further as Christy‟s speech is rudely interrupted. in the sense of a deeply felt or experienced. The character giving the speech. That this text. the first ever written on the Irish civil war. Liam Greenslade. No. That McDonagh seems to be in between cultures was mentioned earlier. it is Mitchell‟s definition. We see this romanticization of Ireland occurring in nineteenth century ballad poetry. Such a romanticization is common of the Irish 15 literary tradition. Let no man blaspheme the cause that the dead generations of Ireland served by giving it any other name and definition than their name and definition‟” (Neeson 13). (McDonagh 27). it is hard to identify McDonagh‟s play as Irish. It is a place where junkies. I was making a good speech there and you ruined it! Brendan. Here. Christy. Also. He ruined your speech on you.” comments upon what may be termed cultural betweenness: Isolation. And for the cat batterers on top of it! Christy. Given this treatment of a rich tradition in Ireland. 19221923. the call to free Ireland and for whom to free it. This is something alluded to within the play-text frequently.in the preface to the Irish historian Eoin Neeson‟s. while discussing the slaying of Wee Thomas. we are given a quote of a speech by Padraic Pearse at the graveside of a fellow revolutionary. It is also a further jibe at Irish society that serves to distance us from a romanticized vision of the place that revolutionaries fight for. This moment reveals further the disparity and lack of agreement amongst the revolutionaries. as well as his audience. the speech of the revolutionary is inauthentic to us as we know that Ireland is not some ideal place. cannot be taken 16 seriously and do not see eye to eye. re-tellings of ancient mythology and the work of Yeats. the thieves and the drug pushers too!” (McDonagh 27). begins with a speech is telling. It is Rossa‟s definition. it isn‟t only for the school kids and the oul fellas and the babes unborn we‟re out freeing Ireland. once again. thieves and drug pushers dwell. Aye. this passage shows how the definition of freedom. the definition of freedom is in dispute. The Civil War in Ireland. classical . For us. Pearse‟s speech at O‟Donovan Rossa‟s graveside in August of 1915 also discusses the definition of freedom: “‟…we know only one definition of freedom: it is Tone‟s definition. Joey. it is lost. shows that these individuals cannot agree. They are disconnected from the past they seek to identify themselves with. is not understood. Here. It‟s for the junkies. goes into a speech that ends with. He did. something all Republicans have fought for. quoted in Aidan Arrowsmith‟s “Genuinely Inauthentic: McDonagh‟s Post-diasporic Irishness. This serves to further rupture this national identification. We can see this influence in the work itself. His films are a hodgepodge of numerous filmic styles including Japanese Kung fu films. the content of his plays are deeply influenced by American cinema. just not in Irish or English culture. In Werner Huber‟s essay “The Early Plays: Shooting Star and Hard Man from South London. rendered invisible and inaudible from the point of view of recognition. We can definitely identify this tendency in 18 Tarantino‟s work as pastiche. has a meaning any more” (Hughes 13). While McDonagh uses Irish theatrical form and Irish characters. He gives us a conception of a postmodern identity which is globalized and complex. Hughes goes so far as to suggest the emergence of Hollywood cinema as artistic colonization. Further problematizing this identification is McDonagh‟s tendency to borrow from American screen writers and directors such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. As Hughes says of the twentieth century.alienation is[…]characteristic of these people. not only is it inadequate. the more your identity is fixed by others. This is not only the nature of McDonagh‟s play. (Arrowsmith 16) Many post-colonial critics would cite this tendency as homelessness. In scene two of The Lieutenant we get a Tarantino style torture scene. and that culturally. He is neither Irish nor English. the less easy it becomes to investigate who you really are – investigate whether an 17 identity defined by nationality. This is an interesting comparison as Tarantino is a noted postmodern filmmaker himself. an Irish theatre critic. However. says of a twenty-first century Irish identity in “Who the Hell Do We Think We Still Are? Reflections On Irish Theatre and Identity”: “The More people agree on who you are and are not. How can we identify this play as “Irish” at all with such an understanding in mind? Tarantino‟s influence on McDonagh‟s work has been noted by many scholars.” McDonagh is noted as “The Quentin Tarantino of the Emerald Isle” (Chambers 20). As Declan Hughes. Spaghetti Western and even the pulp fiction novels of the twentieth century. but it perpetuates violence in the name of understanding itself. or geography. McDonagh is in-between. It was noted above that McDonagh‟s work shares many similarities with that of John Millington Synge. again for good or ill. we had all been colonized irrevocably by the first beam of light Hollywood had shone on us” (Hughes 9). Of course. but what he is in-between we can not pin down or accurately identify. Jameson would tell us it does not. yet it could be argued that Hollywood has had a greater impact upon him and his contemporaries than any of these Irish artists. it seems that McDonagh is quite at home. thematically it is the stance McDonagh‟s play is taking on a national identity. They belong completely to neither one culture nor the other and are caught between their parent‟s heritage and their present context. The stage directions describe the scene: . This is the point that McDonagh‟s play serves to illustrate. it was “The American century. and yet is both. the force of mise. in contemporary society. These serious historical instances are treated in a light hearted manner. He explains the aesthetic shifting that occurs within this postmodern cultural transformation: As for expression and feelings or emotions. Yet. The sheer violence. one must not only consider the content and its treatment. It breaks them out of their passive role as observers and makes this violence a part of their lived experience. hangs upside down from the ceiling. since there is no longer a self present to do the feeling (Jameson 200). The humor on stage under cuts the violence. these voices.” Jameson discusses such an emotional disconnection. Real guns. a barechested. Blonde “idles” back and forth before him. 19 In “Postmodernism. his hands bloody. his feet bare and bloody. but a liberation from every other kind of feeling as well. James. firing blanks. In fact. Padraic idles near him. Mr. from the older anomie of the centered subject may also mean. In The Theatre and its Double. Artaud relates this dramatic . these traces of real violence. the liberation. James is crying. as with the work of Tarantino. from various audience receptions of McDonagh‟s work. are common to every performance. This pastiche. it is a nipple that James is threatened with losing and it is toenails that he has already lost. not merely a liberation from anxiety. This serves to bring the audience into the reality of terrorist violence. the reflection upon the scene at hand. or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. undercuts the violence at hand. the dialogue in each example is driven by humour. they are quite humorous. bloody and bruised man. Both scenes are also set in warehouses that serve as “safe houses” or localities for illicit activities. production companies run through gallons of fake blood that is splattered all over the stage and onto the actors themselves. Also.en-scéne. Many of the productions of The Lieutenant have utilized Hollywood cinematic techniques on stage. In McDonagh‟s play. but also the spectacle upon the stage. (McDonagh 13) This scene is more than reminiscent of that in Reservoir Dogs in which a police officer is tied to a chair and doused in gasoline as Mr. In a given night. We are disconnected from any emotion. The humorous aspect of the scene. that is. is undercut by the humour. yet there is something in this 20 release of energy that shocks audiences. We can see. Blonde cuts off the officer‟s ear with his knife which he threatened him with before hand. The absence of an anxiety concerning “the troubles” in Northern Ireland brings us to see McDonagh‟s play as aligned with Jameson‟s postmodern definition. are brought to the audience in this way. The anxiety concerning the situation with the English is not present in McDonagh‟s work. Around Padraic‟s chest are strapped two empty holsters and there are two handguns on a table stage left. in each case.A desolate Northern Ireland warehouse or some such. the seed planted in the comic moment. wielding a cut-throat razor. that a feeling of disgust is not necessarily inspired by a confrontation with such scenes of torture and mutilation. are affectively brought to face the absurd spectacle of terrorist violence. McDonagh finished the play-text in 1996 and had difficulty getting it produced until 2001. without possible communication. To seek some kind of authentic or ultimate truth in such a postmodern production is an exercise in futility. Despite one‟s locality. As might be expected. yet it was not until the world was 21 awakened to the reality of Islamic terrorism that it became a success. (Artaud 82) Certainly the firing of blank rounds in a closed theatrical space would serve to have such an affect upon the audience. discussing the critical conversation in Irish theatre criticism that has remained deadlocked on McDonagh and his work‟s national affiliation in “Martin McDonagh. He claims “the difficulty for critics is not with establishing the truth of McDonagh‟s plays. Patrick Lonergan. it is not without importance to note that it was not until after the events of September the eleventh. Critical responses in the Irish media. For McDonagh. As fore-mentioned.technique: It is in order to attack the spectator‟s sensibility on all sides that we advocate a revolving spectacle which. subject matter such as terrorist violence and the brutal slayings of innocent civilians can perhaps only be dealt with theatrically through the medium of dark comedy. The play deals specifically with instances of IRA terrorist violence. in New York city. but in our insistence on applying the term Irish to work that can be fully understood only in a global context” (Lonergan 301). Of course. this approach has been successful as global productions of The Lieutenant and responses to them have shown. spreads its visual and sonorous outbursts over the entire mass of the spectators. truth is out the window along with other metaphysical notions. such . but what Artaud would call outbursts. within a postmodern understanding. Lonergan is accurate in his insistence that this play can only be understood through its numerous global productions. instead of making the stage and auditorium two closed worlds. This reveals that there is a theme at work here that is reflexive in that the theme of terrorist violence in The Lieutenant is vague enough that it cannot be corralled into a national category . a noted Irish theatre critic. confronted with these violent forces in the midst of laughter. the question of whether or not the productions of 22 McDonagh‟s plays in a globalized context would reinforce negative stereotypes of the Irish has been in the fore critically. The audience. These are not representations of terrorist violence. they are affective outbursts.” enters this conversation and identifies this problematic within this discourse. The play success didn‟t come until after the bombing of the World Trade Center towers. and Irish Theatre Criticism. that this play became pertinent. Also. The experience of such violence is global a look at the global receptions of this play reveals that the violence portrayed on stage has not been received as Irish despite the play‟s Irish setting and characters. this portrayal of real terrorist violence has led to a multiplicity of reactions from audiences. Yet. Globalization. untouched and unscathed. is important to our understanding of these receptions of the play. Padraic then gets the phone call from his father. We then move to a torture scene in which a man. what is important for us is to who does it comment and why. This is impossible and it is this tendency that McDonagh‟s play reveals as problematic. James. Even in this era of postmodern culture. One could see the way in which this play may inspire such reactions. it turns out that the splinter group from which Padraic splintered was out to get him. In scene nine of the play. Wee Thomas.as that of Michael Billington of the Guardian.” (Billington 12). particularly Irish revolutionaries. They devise a plan to break the news to the owner as smoothly as possible. a bloodbath ensues. ignorance and familial hatred. is taken ill. telling him his cat. the stage is littered in body parts as the survivors saw and hack through the dead bodies. individuals seek to understand an authentic past to tell them something of who they are today. hangs upside down by his feet while Padraic. historicization. and they are the ones who killed the cat. In the end. are worried about the incident as Padraic will be quite upset to learn of its death. in walks Wee Thomas. Davey and Donny. That these are Irish characters. then cuts down James to return home immediately. Padraic begins sobbing. holds a razor blade to 23 his nipples. When Padraic does find out. portrayed in such a way has led to extreme reactions from the Irish audiences. Two men. This moment comments upon terrorism fairly directly. This scene sets the tone for the play in establishing our inability to take the torturer. the representation of terrorists as mindless butchers is thought to be an impediment to the resolution of conflict. Patrick Lonergan summarizes the Irish reception of McDonagh‟s work: “In Ireland. In the midst of this grizzly scene. after the small talk about bombing potato chip shops. spite.” (Lonergan 300). In this way situatedness. Donny and Davey lose sleep worrying about how to break this news to the irate and explosively violent Padraic. In October 2003. Yet. Throughout this play we are given allusions to incidents of IRA terrorist violence as well as elements of popular culture which have served to perpetuate the mythology which fuels such violence. Donny. as Jameson would say. It had been the wrong cat all along: “So all this terror has been for absolutely nothing?” says Davey (McDonagh 55). Billington saw McDonagh‟s plays as revealing Ireland‟s reality as “murder. are revelatory of this anxiety. We begin with the death of a cat. It is this controversy over the treatment of Ireland‟s history that has brought McDonagh‟s play under fire by many Irish theatre critics. Padraic. the play was produced by the traveling Royal Shakespeare Company at the Dublin Theatre Festival and was deemed an over-simplification of the political conflicts of contemporary and historical Ireland. The play was received within t he context in which it was set as an immense over-simplification of generations of political and economic struggle. but the situation is quite different in a global context. self slaughter. The treatment of Irish culture in The Lieutenant is brutal. Productions of The Lieutenant in Dublin were received with similar negative reactions. seriously at all. 24 . with the pointed end sticking out of the back of his neck. Christy and Padraic are of the same religion. which Donny and Davey. describes an incident Ergen experienced while writing the press release for the premiere of The Lieutenant: “Mehmet Ergen was at home in Istanbul writing a press release when suddenly „everything went black‟: outside his window. The impact of terrorist violence in Istanbul shaped its audience responses. Padraic is sitting on Christy‟s corpse. That this conflict between the English and the Irish has been driven by feverous religious belief is clear. produced only a few months after the performance that caused such controversy in Dublin. night. 2003. They had all heard about people picking up body parts in the streets. This is also an important symbol within the play considering its reception in a global context after the events of September eleventh. and the “us against them” mentality that ensued after these events brought this religious perspective of the war on terror to the front. Turkey. hack away at to sizeable chunks. One can only imagine the way in which this play took on significance for Ergen . showing that situatedness does indeed affect one‟s interpretation and that these interpret ations of McDonagh‟s play were born of a stubborn refusal of the death of modernity and the emergence of the postmodern subject. blood-soaked also. The audience responses and critical receptions were quite different than those of the Irish. (McDonagh 46) The mise-en-scéne here is powerful. As Susannah Clapp. the street filled up with yellow dust. has been shoved the cross with „Wee Thomas‟ on it. It is the age old battle between the Protestants and the Catholics. The experience of terrorist violence in Turkey shaped audience responses and rendered the play a tremendous success. The stage direction for scene nine of the play describes the grizzly scene: Donny‟s house. As the scene begins the blood-soaked living room is strewn with the body parts of Brendan and Joey. yet they have senselessly come to this point of extreme violence. a theatre reviewer. of the same political beliefs. This is indeed the case. Through Christy‟s mouth. 2003. directed by Mehmet Ergen in December. The scene is grizzly indeed and one could see where this would be upsetting to those confronted with the realities of terrorist violence. the remnants of this mad 25 terrorist violence. wrote of the production in The Observer on November 30. dirt-soiled body. In the adjacent bare room. the play spoke to his particular experiences with terrorism directly before the production of the play began. Here. Padraic‟s two guns are lying on the table. The stage and the actors upon it are covered in blood as they hack away at body parts. The symbol of the cross here is important. stroking Wee Thomas‟s headless. the axis of evil. The talk of jihad. Mehmet Ergen directed a production of the play at Istanbul‟s National Theatre that opened on December 12th.” (Clapp 393).” (Clapp 392). the Republicans and the Loyalists. For Ergen.A point in case is a production in Istanbul. 2003. “Some of the cast thought they should cancel. This was the case with the terrorism experienced in Turkey before the production of this play. the play ends with body parts strewn over the stage. Susannah Clapp. this time writing for The Guardian. IRA terrorist violence is not much of a direct concern for Australian audiences. those in Australia were interpreted according to the situatedness and ideologies of the director. Neil Armfeld produced The Lieutenant at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Sidney. The question of Irish terrorism is absent from this discourse. were rendered such by the situatedness of not just the audience but the production cast as well. Ergen and Armfeld were situated in quite different cultural situations. In Sidney. In each case. those of cruelty and the economy of their power. a reporter. . As Clapp reports. as Davey says in the opening of scene nine.considering his situatedness in a hot bed of terrorist attacks. This country‟s involvement with the United States in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan shaped its responses to the performance. This situation was not just close in proximity for the cast. “You never see the INLA shooting Australians” (McDonagh 46). The violence was all too real for the actors involved in the production and we could say that the force of the mise-en-scéne of scene 9 of The Lieutenant was quite powerful. Brought to mind is the bombing of a Bali nightclub by Al Qaeda in Australia in October of 2002. relates Armfeld‟s intentions in directing the play in “Armed for a Laugh” which appeared in The Courier Mail on March 13. As productions in Turkey. an instance of state sanctioned terrorism as the phrase “to shock and to awe” revealed. it was close personally as well. understanding sympathy. it does reveal the director‟s situatedness ideologically and the impact this has upon the production. and it doesn‟t seem the right way to go. actors and audience. 2004: We‟re being taught values that don‟t seem to represent good parenting – where is the sense of the primacy of tolerance. generosity? […] we‟ve been yoked to the preemptive assertion of power. this play acted as a participant in the critical discourse surrounding Australia‟s involvement with America under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard in the occupation of Iraq. (McClean 4) While this statement is indefinitely paternalistic in nature. Australia in September 2003. there was no discussion of Irishness. 27 Sandra McClean. In this way we can see this “Irish” play become difficult to identify as Irish at all. Armfeld directed this play with a protest against Australia‟s involvement with America in mind. Terrorism had been a reality for citizens of Australia as well. They had all heard about people picking up body parts in the streets. This bombing was in retaliation to Australia‟s involvement with America in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. the play ends with body parts strewn over the stage. And the most recent bombs had come very close to them” (Chambers 393). The forces at work. “One of the actors from the country‟s National Theatre was killed as he was making his way to do a voice-over at a TV studio” (Chambers 393). and. yet each interpreted this apparently “Irish” play in a manner relevant to their situatedness. 26 The production cast and actors had hesitations about going ahead as well. Susannah Clapp describes their experiences: “[S]ome of the cast thought they should cancel. the discourse of Irish theatre criticism insists upon identifying this play. the advanced capitalist countries today are now a field of stylistic and discursive heterogeneity without a norm” (201). identifiable and stable Irish identity is impossible.” (Jameson 202). there is a tradition represented by figures such as Synge and O‟Casey of disturbing an audience in Irish drama. as Synge and O‟Casey. or even a homogenous national identity have been left behind in the era of late capitalism. the brute violence and horror of Titus Andronicus and King Lear to name only two. without a doubt. We are begged to ask the question of what it means to be Irish in the twenty first century. a tradition that embraces the „brutal‟ as a tool for engaging an audience” (Eldred 199). as incomparable as your won body (the very source. of stylistic invention and innovation) – the producers of culture have nowhere to turn but to the past: the imitation of dead styles. part and parcel of an illustrious tradition.Correspondingly. She unknowingly identifies the problem at hand: “Many critics have compared McDonagh to his forebears – to Synge. McDonagh‟s work demonstrates this. The Celtic Tiger. Laura Eldred. for an early Roland Barthes. we can come to see that identifying this play as “Irish” is impossible. transformed the economic and thus cultural landscape of Ireland in the late twentieth century. and as being a work of pastiche and not parody. The notion of a bourgeois ruling class. in her essay “McDonagh‟s Blend of Tradition and Horrific Innovation” tells us that McDonagh is participating in an Irish tradition. to Lady Gregory – with the sense that McDonagh is. Such a utilization of these forms of the past is an element of pastiche: For with the collapse of the high-modernist ideology of style – what is as unique and unmistakable as your own fingerprints. Considering this economic transformation in Ireland. It can also be said that. This sense of offensiveness is no doubt present and the same can be said of many Irish dramatists preceding McDonagh. . a single. as “Irish. While this may be true of these writers. to call this an Irish tradition is a bit ethnocentric. an Irish theatre critic. It is to dismiss the works of Shakespeare. speech through all the masks and voices stored up in the imaginary museum of a now global culture. however occasionally offensive. as was discussed above. In this understanding of postmodern literature we see McDonagh as participating in a global culture. a point re-enforced by those global productions. to say that McDonagh 29 participates in an Irish tradition is off the mark: “Certainly. As Jameson explains: “If the ideas of a ruling class were once the dominant (or hegemonic) ideology of bourgeois society.” This has led to an endless conversation 28 concerning whether or not McDonagh‟s work perpetuates or subverts Irish stereotypes. it is to dismiss a long line of predecessors pre-dating the opening of the Abbey. a talent to be proud of and claim as an Irish playwright” (Eldred 198). that they use brutality as a means to an end. which as has been pointed out can only be fully understood in a global context. However. utilize Irish characters from the rural west of Ireland. Understanding McDonagh‟s play as postmodern. McDonagh does. to O‟Casey. if one were to insist upon seeing this as a representation. demonstrates. ruthlessly lambasting Irish culture and history. This is limiting and misleading. Yet. While this speech. Afghani. could be read as a sincere patriotic mission. we get a culturally specific critique. . of the tendency of man to turn to nostalgia to understand a present condition. we get to the crux of the matter concerning violence in the theater. The political implications here need not be elaborated upon. Ultimately. This is what much of the discourse surrounding this play would seem to suggest. goes back indeed much further than anything called Irish theater. Y‟know. but not only within the structure of the Irish tradition. Scene eight. in which Padraic returns home to find his cat dead. presumably. Once again. in the context of this play. Mairead. this comment does go to show the problem which has grown from identification of McDonagh and his work as “Irish. it is important to note. leads to violence. be it Irish. after all. if present in McDonagh‟s work. this nostalgiac identity. Free for fellas and lasses to dance and sing. situatedness. of nationality. That McDonagh‟s work comments upon more than just Irish culture has been demonstrated by reference to Jameson‟s notion of pastiche.The styles of Synge and O‟Casey. this nationality. productions of the play in a global context have decisively shown the limitations of societies. Here. now? Was it?” (McDonagh 50). 31 Such a claim as Eldred‟s amongst Irish theater critics has led to heated debate. we know that this is completely absurd. often to show the limitations of Irish society” (Eldred 200). The terrorism he perpetuates makes his own father terrified of him. or American. which we could perhaps understand as the nature of tragedy itself. out of its context. which as Jameson tells us. Having demonstrated that such a tendency in drama. is global. is Padraic doing anything to free anyone from anything. Their meaning now is directly related to our historical and cultural. Many critics have posited McDonagh as an Englishmen. Free for cats to roam about without being clanked in the brains with a handgun. Free for kids to run and play. are now dead and meaningless in the context of their original inception. the IRA as parricidic madmen. an Englishmen. within this play-text where we have a madman torturing individuals for petty offenses and blowing up chip shops to avoid putting himself in harms way by attacking legitimate targets. In no way. Padraic returns to his father‟s house and after discovering that his cat. Eldred limits the inter-textual possibilities at work here to those of the Irish. Was that too much to ask. McDonagh is.” Moreover. 30 Eldred goes on to describe the import of such representation of violence: “Contemporary writers like Martin McDonagh and Patrick McCabe are part of the tradition – reaching back at least to Synge and O‟Casey – of using violence and brutality to disturb an audience. Padraic‟s short speech considering his intended ends as an IRA member perhaps reveal the root of this anxiety: “Ah. McDonagh‟s work is no doubt heteroglossic. all I ever wanted was an Ireland free. but for McDonagh to be conceived as showing the “limitations” of Irish society is perhaps problematic. even though the mention is made to this being done for Ireland. That she is Irish can perhaps be deduced from her reaction to the play. Since we are in a postmodern context. Davey. “Now shut up while I make me speech” (37). Luckhursts‟ situatedness does influence her interpretation of the play as well. of a man with a gun to his own father‟s head. I know. we see the emergence of what Jameson calls “dead voices” from the past. For one. “The weakness of this argument is the mistake of aligning Irish drama with political drama per se” (Rees 131). Remember that. Padraic then goes ahead to make his speech: 32 I will plod on. The bombing of innocents at pubs or of a builder. the sheer absurdity of the violence at hand. However. we see the emergence of a voice from the past. cannibalized and rendered in this new context. is that this is all a fella can be expecting for being so bad to an innocent Irish cat. egging me on. here. yet. who tells them. Padraic puts a gun to the men‟s heads and makes a speech. It limits meaning and our understanding of what the play is trying to do. What I want ye to remember. It is important to look at this moment as one of parricidical tendencies. has demonstrated a sense of anxiety over this type of perceived representation. Mary Luckhurst.” is dead. Yet. „This is for me and for Ireland. The speech emerges here and is treated in this new context as dubious.“Wee Thomas. is all done by Padraic for his cat and for Ireland. here we are confronted with the problem behind identifying McDonagh as an Irish playwright. an Irish theatre critic. “McDonagh is intent of avoiding the possibility of allowing informed politics into the play” and that “It is the sheer stupidity of McDonagh‟s characters that English audiences revel in” (Luckhurst 119). Me whole world‟s gone. This identification brings with it political baggage dating back to the twelfth century. Donny and Davey go back forth and interrupt Padraic. saying. attempts to kill his father. Donny and a neighborhood boy. (McDonagh 38) This speech is revelatory of what McDonagh is doing. One could see a man taking homicidal orders from a cat as being insane. who was perhaps rebuilding from other bombings. This is of course considering only the English productions of the play. Once again. but no sense to it will there be with Thomas gone.‟ as I‟d lob a bomb at a pub. or be shooting a builder. In “Martin McDonagh‟s 33 Lieutenant of Inishmore: Selling (-Out) to the English” Luckhurst says of the content of the play.” She says of Luckhurst‟s position. is undercut by the comic undertones of the moment. as the bullets come out through yere foreheads. as does Jameson. Padraic. what drama is not political? If we see. Catherine Rees responds to Luckhurst‟s claims in “The Politics of Morality: The Lieutenant of Inishmore. a trace. once again. . as a moment of glorying in the senseless murder of innocents and as an affective relation of terrorist violence. which is to destabilize the notion of identity. and he‟ll never be coming back to me. a history. the speech. it is the cat that reminded Padraic of this and egged him on. it does us no good to look for the meaning of what the cat may represent here. No longer will his smiling eye be there in the back of me head. As with the scene of torture discussed above. Counter to Luckhursts‟ position. Interpreting this play and this playwright as “Irish” keeps us within the circular enclosure of this argument. Nostalgia plays a role in national identification regardless of the nationality. Yet this has been the tendency of Irish literature since the nineteenth century. One‟s interpretation comes to bear 34 upon the play. no great nationality without literature” W. It affirms Irishness. recognizes and affirms. be it a director‟s.all literature as a socially symbolic act. 35 CHAPTER 2 IDENTITY POLITICS: NOSTALGIA. we must look at these dead voices that we see emerging in his work. MYTHOLOGY AND LITERATURE “There can be no great literature without nationality. Yeats To fully understand this reading of McDonagh‟s The Lieutenant.” Often what seems on the surface to be subversion turns out to be nothing more than containment. We must. A subversion of Irish stereotypes relies upon. Rees‟ claims that this play in fact subverts Irish stereotypes. In the postmodern era. then it must be political in nature. This national literature was to find its sources from the mythological . the existence of these stereotypes. to seek a national identity through a national literature. yet remains deadlocked in that she maintains that what McDonagh is doing is “Irish. actor‟s or audience member‟s interpretation. The play-text and the author are neither Irish nor non-Irish.B. historicize the elements of this pastiche within McDonagh‟s work. as Jameson directs. identifying a species of drama by nationality indefinitely brings us into the realm of the political. Moreover. such a retrieval of identity through nostalgia for an authentic past is impossible. Not only is this rendered as impossible. says in “Theatre of War? Contemporary drama in Northern Ireland. was. nostalgia for a violent past. and this phenomenon by no means begins here but dates back as far as we could possibly look. but as completely problematic in that of all these allusions that comprise McDonagh‟s pastiche. 36 Instances of violence that were terrible and bloody become moments of revolutionary inspiration and martyrdom. It was this event that led to the Irish Civil War in 1922 and the subsequent establishment of the Irish Republic. plays in Irish society. This particular myth and its re-appropriations in new contexts tell of the way in which numerous individuals have defined themselves against the English other by looking to the past. Our anti-hero. an Irish theatre critic. The myth of Cúchullain is one such myth. both whom . this impulse to sentiment has mythologized instances of violence which themselves were understood and justified according to an ancient mythology which gloried in the nature of the warrior. the commander-in-chief of the Easter Rising has become a mythologized figure himself in Irish culture. Ashley Taggart. Often times. This myth is not without importance in understanding McDonagh‟s playtext. Looking at Irish literature since the nineteenth century. Padraic. in which the history of aesthetic styles displaces „real‟ history” (Jameson 204). Ireland looked to its mythological and cultural past to understand something of what it means to be Irish in a present context. we can see that re-tellings of historical moments always seek to understand the present by a displacement of the actual historical event. Taggart is speaking of the role that cultural memory.” “The injunction is always. This has been the explicit role of literature in Ireland since the Celtic Revival movement of the early twentieth century. that martyr” (Taggart 68). tells us of the nature of such pastiche: “[I]n intertextuality as a deliberate. to „remember‟ this atrocity. built-in feature of the aesthetic effect. Pearse. named after Padraic 37 Pearse. not least is Easter 1916 in Irish history. As noted earlier.tales of Ireland‟s past. all the literary styles that combine within his play-text. in the songs and stories. McDonagh positions himself as a postmodern and also serves to illuminate the senselessness and impossibility of such a tendency. a seemingly authentic aspect of Irish history. By deliberately utilizing intertextuality as a feature of aesthetic effect. on the murals. Jameson. in my interpretation. Pearse was commemorated in the Dublin Post Office with a statue of Cúchullain. revealing the way in which Irish society perceived these martyrs of the Republic. or that victory. or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” the tendency in film to “remake” older films. when discussing in “Postmodernism. this victim. the presence of the rising has never left the revolutionary imagination. There are numerous allusions in McDonagh‟s playtext to individuals such as Sir Roger Casement and Padraic Pearse. sought to seek an authentic Irish identity by way of glorying in violent episodes of the past that ultimately served to justify violence in the present. and as the operator of a new connotation of „pastness‟ and pseudo -historical depth. but merely to demonstrate. have played a role in defining a national literature. and particularly that of his death.” from the cycles of the Red Branch Saga. (Jameson 205) This is precisely the case with McDonagh‟s play. This is indeed the case with the myth of Cúchullain. That the voices of these individuals emerge in the play-text reveals the pastiche comprising McDonagh‟s play as that of a national identity. Among other figures alluded to in the playtext are Brendan and Dominic Behan. is perhaps the most telling. through these inner contradictions. However. or how we interpret such a moment. I will demonstrate the manner in which these individuals looked to this past mythology to understand their present condition and the way in which others subsequent to them have looked to them. tells us much about the role nostalgia plays in formation of a national identity. It is seen as an authentic aspect of Irish history.were executed after the Easter Rising of 1916. Jameson sheds light upon this postmodern phenomenon: But this mesmerizing new aesthetic mode itself emerged as an elaborated symptom of the waning of our historicity. of our lived possibility of experiencing history in some active way: it cannot therefore be said to produce this strange occultation of the present by its own formal power. The question of whether McDonagh‟s allusions to these individuals and their work in the play-text render him an “Irish” writer will certainly be raised at this point. the question of identity is raised in this playtext. That Cúchullain‟s stories. and this event. it serves to hearken back to an Irish past before the invasions of the English. has emerged in much Irish literature of the nineteenth and twentieth century. which tells us something of what it means to be Irish in the twentieth century. A look at the narrativization of this myth in 39 different contexts shows us myth is best understood as a meta-genre which comes to be narrativized under certain circumstances. The myth of “The Death of Cúchullain. How does one fashion a representation of Irishness in the twenty-first century. In the case of the Cúchullain myth. in an originary moment. especially when considering that the history of such a fashioning itself has always relied upon mythologizing acts of violence? In a postmodern world one cannot. As a postmodern playwright. the enormity of a situation in which we seem increasingly incapable of fashioning representations of our own current experience. two important figures in Irish literary history and known IRA supporters and Republicans. and the manner in which McDonagh utilizes this pastiche. is something not at all uncommon to mankind. or the search there of. While the . and in fueling the fire of Republican terrorist activity. renders this nostalgiac tradition problematic. as well as national identity. That one seeks a truth about the present in the past. Such an emergence tells us about mythology itself. What it is we see. The re-tellings and re-appropriations of these myths tell us something of the nature of mythology. in a similar manner. but not by way of establishing an “Irish” or any other national identity. McDonagh is revealing the impossibility of such an 38 identity in the present situation. a Celtic origin. and of coming up with some tentative answers in narrative form” (Nagy 125). or of a nostalgia which seeks to understand origins. when we consider the emergence of these myths in the postmodern context. According to Nagy. In “Myth and Legendum in Medieval and Modern Ireland. we can see it as a conglomeration of numerous myths. and tracing the continuation of some of these mythological strands within the body of legend into the twentieth century” (Nagy 125). the accuracy of such a re-telling is completely beside the point. and showing how writers used and adapted them to suit ideological purposes” (Williams 307). In this essay. Joseph Falaky Nagy‟s methodological approach to the study of myth illuminates our understanding. Nagy examines “the way in which mythological themes or story patterns are converted in early Irish literature into the stuff of pious legend. the value of an original telling of a given myth is problematic. including ideology. In this essay. However. and perspectives to the task of articulating the 41 cultural questions in mythic terms. can be seen as a cultural conversation which is constantly changing and evolving. That they are present in the first place tells us something of the impossibility of defining or representing such an identity in that present context. in “Ancient Mythology and Revolutionary Ideology in Ireland. Contrary to Williams‟ claims. and a simple legend becomes a piece of propaganda” (Williams 313). “First. Martin Williams. McDonagh raises the cultural question of national identity. or retelling of a given myth. dealing with the cultural question of national identity and the nature of violence that has ensued in its name. whether working in a literary or an oral medium. This is of course to assume a value of an originary telling of the myth as well as to prescribe a truth value to such a telling. taste. have plenty of opportunity to apply their own ingenuity. the role of ideology in mythology may be more complex than Williams allows. mythology is a meta-genre in that it is all of the elements of a specific cultural situatedness. it is difficult to claim that a genre passed on primarily through an oral medium for centuries could really have any correct. plays an integral role in the formation of a national identity. an ivy league scholar and noted theorist of Irish mythology.value of origins. This conception of mythology posits myth not as a narrative which reveals ideology. originary telling and that thus re-tellings are inaccurate. in such an understanding of mythology. Williams perceives the emergence of mythologies 40 and their re-tellings in the twentieth century as distorted and propagandistic. Moreover. a pastiche. Nagy states that “individual storytellers. In discussing the Red Branch Saga.” Nagy. he discusses “the significance of the first English translations of the myths. and with his postmodern sensibility. Of course. but as an ideology which can come to be narrated. 1878-1916” adheres to such a problematic understanding of mythology. none is overtly „nationalist‟ in the sense of depicting Ireland as the focus of political devotion” and that “A few changes in detail and emphasis . Looking at McDonagh‟s play in this light. surrounding the narrativization. Williams states that. raises the . defines mythology as a meta-genre. The myth of Cúchullain. the mythology which developed around the heroes who led 43 the Rising served to inspire generations of Republican terrorist activity.” the brown cow. many great heroic deeds are related in this epic. for whom it is noble to die in battle or to emerge victorious with one‟s enemies head in one‟s possession. In the case of the myth of Cúchullain.question of the value of identity. The answer rendered by this particular narrativization of these numerous myths is one of disdain and absurdity. so fierce was his fury[…]In that style. that of risking death over practicality. His shanks and his joints. The other knights tell Cúchullain to wait and they shall all go into battle together. from the forces of queen Medb. the value of the warrior. then three hundred. It also reveals the reason why a statue of this figure was chosen to represent the soldiers of the Easter Rising of 1916 in the Dublin Post Office. head hunters. The ideologies which led to the telling of these myths. While the Easter Rising was initially a failure as the rebels were defeated. we can understand the meaning of such a conversation by looking at how this myth has changed in various representations and re-tellings of the twentieth century. shook like a tree in the flood of a reed in the stream[…]Malignant mists and spurts of fire – the torches of the Badb – flickered red in the vaporous clouds that rose boiling above his head. The myth of Cuchulain comes from the saga of the Red Branch. we must look at the way this myth has been re-told in Irish literature and the role it has come to play in formation of identity. from the epic Táin Bó Cuailnge. the name sake of McDonagh‟s anti-hero in The Lieutenant. and made him into a monstrous thing. then four hundred. (Kinsella 150-51) It is important to relate this passage as it reveals the warrior values of the ancient Celts. the troop of young boys of the knights of the Red Branch are killed by the forces of Queen Medb. of pride over woe. Cúchullain is the hero who defends Ulster and “an bó donn. be it national or otherwise. every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot. Of course. The Táin tells us of Cúchullain preparing for battle: The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn. In the story of The Táin. are dead to us and belong to an inaccessible past. he drove out to find his enemies and did his thunder-feat and killed a hundred. Cúchullain refuses and enters into battle on his own. The quest for national identity by way of nostalgia for a violent past is absurd. This myth was in particularly important to Padraic Pearse. We have one great and fearsome warrior taking on an entire empire. yet the one 42 which perhaps relates the greatness of this hero best is that of the killing of the boy troop. an entire army. . In this section. hideous and shapeless. then. of vengeance upon one‟s enemies is revealed. unheard of. Before looking at the emergence of this myth on McDonagh‟s postmodern stage. At this point. then two hundred. This mythological cycle relates the knights of the Red Branch as being fearless warriors. His heroic fury is great. and coming out victorious. The six counties of Ulster which they fled were then confiscated by King James the First. under the orders of Ailill. It is nostalgia for an authentic Irish past before the coming of the English. This poem refers to the death of Irish princes in the seventeenth century and the shame that would ensue had Fergus been killed by the English and not Irish warriors: O. He did many deeds in the court of Ailill and Medb. When rose his camp in wild alarm44 How would the triumph of his ranks Be dashed with grief! How would the troops of Murbach mourn If on the Curlew Mountains‟ day.Irish mythology becomes in the nineteenth century a nostalgia that lends itself to the formation of a national identity in opposition to the English other. Lugaid. the blind poet who also killed Cúchullain. Their prince‟s blood! This elegy was written about the death of the princes of Tyrone who. Mangan alludes to Fergus‟ death by the hands of Lugaid. Such is the case with Irish ballad poetry of the nineteenth century. Fergus was a great friend of Cúchullain. had the fierce Dalcassian swarm That bloody night on Fergus‟ banks But slain our chief. amid the fray. This defender of Ulster died by the hand of a jealous friend despite his loyalty to him: “It is by Fergus that the great cattle-raid was taken. A question we can see posed in these re-tellings of Irish myth is that concerning Irish identity. Mangan calls on these ancient values to bring to the reader the sense of injustice he felt had occurred in this situation that was contemporaneous to him. Such a betrayal as this was dishonorable and it was 45 grievous for a man of honor to die by unjust means. according to Charles Duffy. In “The Death of Fergus Mac Róich. the author of The Ballad Poetry of Ireland. and he and his men were more often abroad in the field than they are at court” (Koch 133). By shedding there. juxtaposing the . This nostalgia can be seen as comprising a discourse that plays a role in ideological formations and that in turn comes to be narrated in order to provide answers to cultural questions. In “A Lament.” by James Clarence Mangan. In this elegy.” Fergus is killed by his friend. Which England rued. In this ballad poem. mythology places such a role. we get a juxtaposition of historical moments that give us the sense that even the great Fergus would have mourned the loss of these princes of Ulster. Some Saxon hand had left them lorn. originally written in Irish Gaelic. “having fled with others from Ireland in the years 1607” were later killed in Rome (Duffy 91). This allusion also brings with it the chivalric sense of the warrior and his duty to his people. the same figure who killed Cúchullain. Mangan relates the impact of this shift in power by alluding to the myth of the death of Fergus Mac Róich. these would have been the only versions available to an English speaking audience.” One can see O‟Grady‟s Romantic tendencies throughout the text. this scene is portrayed quite clearly.” done by Standish O‟Grady in his History of Ireland published in 1878 and 1880. and Cuculain stood erect in the chariot. The “old heroic rage” which Cúchullain expresses is quite chivalric and is 47 perhaps not quite an accurate portrayal of the head hunting warrior we read of in the stories. the three witches. The title of this book is of interest in and of itself as it portrays these stories as being. Interestingly. Romantic values emerge in O‟Grady‟s retelling of Cúchullain‟s death. In this telling. the story was re-written for purposes of readability as well as entertainment. This would have fulfilled O‟Grady‟s intentions of making these stories available to a wider audience. (O‟Grady 336-37) On a practical level. As so many other re-tellings. Considering the title of this text. Up until the English translations by Lady Augusta Gregory. however. one could also see this title as implying that the death of Cúchullain was the end of an era in Irish history. . Williams relates O‟Grady‟s discovery of the myths: “O‟Grady had discovered Irish heroic mythology in 1872 when a wet afternoon in a country house led him to browse through the works of Sylvester O‟Halloran[…]He was inspired by what he read and determined to popularize this pre-history” (Williams 310). urging on the steeds. Seeing as how O‟Grady was seemingly relating this as a history. and Laeg unfolded and closed the glittering scythes. historical fact. and he cried. His translation is much longer than the manuscript. O‟Grady‟s translations venture far from the manuscripts of “The Death of Cúchullain. History of Ireland: Cuculain and his Contemporaries. looking southwards. are all left out. and heard the distant noise of battle. the story 46 of Cúchullain‟s death is given the simple name “The End. the geis and the planning of the witches to call Cúchullain forth. perhaps. and saw afar the lurid smoke of conflagrations. to see if they would work freely. in London in 1880.passivity of the people of Ireland with the loyalty and honor of the knights of the Red Branch. entitled. These nineteenth century poets would have most likely have been informed of these mythologies by way of the first popular translation of “The Death of Cuchulain. that of the great warriors and knights of The Red Branch. The romanticized language was the literary fashion of the time as well. In O‟Grady‟s text. Published in 1907.” which is fitting for the text over all as O‟Grady translates every story of Cúchullain‟s ventures available and does so in a chronological order from his birth to his death. it could be that those elements of Irish history were not something he wished to portray to his English speaking audience. The heroes are portrayed as chivalrous knights: It was about noon when Cuculain and Laeg beheld the first signs of the invasion. The old heroic rage burned in their hearts. Standish O‟Grady published his translations of The Red Branch Saga. That O‟Grady sought to portray a heroic past of Ireland in order to help establish a national identity can be seen clearly in that which he leaves out of the text. No where in the Gaelic transcripts is there such a reference to 48 a Christian Heaven. O‟Grady‟s text is an attempt at Anglicization and romanticization of this myth is in order to establish a history of Ireland which will serve to give an understanding of the Irish national identity in the nineteenth century. for his own literary endeavors focused on the Cúchullain myths. William Butler Yeats. seemingly Christian god. O‟Grady describes this abduction as having occurred in a Christian Heaven. There is also an interesting footnote in this section which relates O‟Grady‟s interpretation of the abduction into the otherworld of Cúchullain. His focus on these particular aspects of the myths deserves attention as it relates the ideological forces at work in the re-telling. on. This concern with Irish identity emerges in full force during the Celtic literary revival in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. he felt that a national literature was more important than the revival of the Celtic language. His focus within these mythological cycles was also limited to that of “The Death of Cúchullain” and the story of Cúchullain killing his own son. yet that which is added to the text is perhaps the most telling. it is that which McDonagh‟s pastiche is comprised of. As Yeats‟ part in the Celtic Revival is concerned. and her contemporary. Lu Lam-fáda on the right. It is this era in Irish literature. that in which Synge thrived. It would have been perhaps unfruitful. was also fascinated by this tradition. all powerful. Yeats believed whole heartedly in the . The answer the narrative seems to provide is that it is indeed honorable to do just that. It seems that the cultural question of the honor of fighting loyally for the Christian God is raised here. Yeats. while having an interest in Irish mythology in general. and on the left that mighty queen who rules over the gods. That which is left out is telling. O royal-hearted Laeg. such as witches and pagan practices. (O‟Grady 337-38) The implications here are that Cúchullain recognized a single. Cúchullain gives direction to Laeg on their way to battle: On. from which he escaped by doing the three great salmon leaps. in searching for a proud national identity in nineteenth century Ireland which would set one apart as distinct and independent from the English. to turn to a Pagan and barbaric past. As noted above. It is important to note that Yeats had no Irish and probably relied upon Lady Gregory‟s translations as his source. the Tuátha of Erin are around us this day. an interesting answer when considering the struggle of Catholics in Ireland at this time for emancipation from the English colonizers. These types of practices and beliefs were one of the aspects of Irish civilization which the English deemed as rendering them inferior and in need of colonization. and above us that strong god who showed his mercy upon me when I fell in the wilderness of Mid-lúhara. or narrativization of them. from which Cúchullain gloriously leaves. Lady Gregory was responsible for the first popular translations of the Cúchullain myths. This play was written in 1939 and we can see the way the events of Easter 1916 and the Irish Civil war of 1922-1923 have affected the questions that this play asks. It is interesting to look at this nature of myth in light of postmodern literature. fastened to the stone. The play begins with a meta-theatrical moment. no great nationality without literature” (Stock 68). This living faith. Cúchullain shows disgust and surprise at this. however. Here we get Yeats‟ Republican ideologies coming through. Can we imagine a great hero such as Cúchullain having his head taken by a blind beggar for such a measly price? Can we imagine the fall of such a hero in such a degrading manner? The answer implicit in the narrativization is clear. dangerous. speaking with Cúchullain. If we see this pastiche in McDonagh‟s work as a re-telling or re-narrativization of the re-narrativizations of mythologies by literary figures such as Yeats. we see the importance of nostalgia in the telling of one‟s past in order to understand the present. and McDonagh‟s work is a pastiche of numerous works that sought. it was essential. we can see here his relating this play to the Irish plight. was one of sheer violence. we can see the narrativization of 50 McDonaghs as revealing this postmodern ideology. Aoife confronts him and asks about the son they had had together that Cúchullain killed at Baile Strand. It will still have meaning for us. The myth is that which comes to be retold throughout time. The initial stage directions in Yeats‟ The Death of Cuchulain relate Yeats‟ conception of mythology and re-enforces Nagy‟s definition: “A bare stage of any period” (Finneran 241). While Yeats‟ perspective upon the Republican cause was complicated. In order for this national literature to thrive. but he was “more interested in revitalizing Ireland‟s ancient mythology to provide a living faith for modern Ireland” (Skene 21). We then get Eithne on the stage. As is the case with .49 importance of a national literature: “There can be no great literature without nationality. For the postmodern. and in McDonagh‟s play. For the modern writer Yeats. Of course. like Yeats. Here. McDonagh would disagree. It is this type of re-telling that is the most telling. This myth can be told through any setting. identity is impossible. An old man is on the stage and explains his decisions in producing the play. A beggar man comes in after her exit and tells Cúchullain he has been paid twelve pennies to take his head. once again. to seek a national identity through literature. his concern was not with accuracy or attention to the importance of an originary telling. If myth is an ideology that comes to be narrativized. this sheds light upon the nature of mythology in the postmodern era. One does not look to the past in order to understand the present but in order to reveal that one cannot understand the present in those terms if at all. In his retelling. in order for this national identity to thrive. The subject is no longer centered but is fragmented. it was essential to Yeats that Irish mythology be revived. taking on a new meaning each time without its value diminishing for us. We see this tendency in Yeats‟ work demonstrated in his Cúchullain play. Throughout much of this play. in any location and at any point in time. Cúchullain is injured fatally from Lugaid‟s blow and is awaiting death. is posed. holding the head of Cúchullain. With these restraints removed. The singer here. They are loathed and adored simultaneously by Ireland. the Knights of the Red Branch and the modern audience. two of them begin to pipe and drum. Despite the judgment of these men. This is similar to the theme we see in Yeats‟ poem “Easter 1916. Pearse and Connolly were fulfilling their roles as warriors and defenders of Ireland. the heroes the singer is referring to specifically become clear: Are those things that men adore and loathe Their sole reality? What stood in the Post Office With Pearse and Connolly? 52 What comes out of the mountain Where men first shed their blood? Who thought Cuchulain till it seemed He stood where they had stood? (Finneran 251) In this moment. a national identity is born from horrible. Here the reference is to the heroes whom are dead and that are no longer within her reaches. are mythologized in Yeats‟ play-text as heroes of Ireland. Emer and the head are gone…There is no one there but the three musicians. commanders and leaders of the Easter Rising.the opening stage direction. not either/or but both/and. we see them sharing a spatial realm and taking on a role in defending their country. a source of their pride and honor for their country which is beyond temporal restraints. They are in ragged street-singers‟ clothes. martyrdom. exits the stage. violence. 16). This is especially true of the mythologies surrounding the Easter Rising of 1916. There seems to be a mystical connection here between the two. is of importance as much mythology has been passed down in Irish culture through this medium. They cease. are aspects of a national identity and an independence one should value. and these heroes she both adores and loathes. Emer. Pearse and Connolly. for Yeats . The question of whether or not violence and death. there is a reality. In Yeat‟s play-text. That there is a reality beyond that which one adores or loathes is suggested. The stage brightens.” that of the “terrible beauty” (l. Yet. the valuing of their role in the Republican cause. beyond the flesh. This reference is not merely metaphorical. The stage darkens and music begins to play: “It is the music of some Irish Fair of our day. the final stage directions collapse the temporal 51 distance between Cúchullain. The Street-Singer begins to sing” (Finneran 250). It is terrible and beautiful. relating the rest of the play. the myth takes on a whole new meaning in light of this allusion. The singer begins the song and once again collapses the temporal gap perceived in the telling of this mythology: “That there are still some living/That do my limbs unclothe/ But that the flesh my flesh has gripped/I both adore and loathe” (Finneran 251). yet honorable. The answer seems to be yes and no. there are still some heroes left. He felt that both the Irish language and an Irish national literature were essential in the restoration of Irish culture. Describing his first book of poetry and his intentions in writing it. Campbell says. Enda‟s for such a purpose. Enda‟s engages with the breath of social issues from which the revolution sprang. Wild and unspoilt. This myth was performed as a pageant by the boys. Pearse founded St. Pearse was an activist in the Celtic Revival movement. It commemorates the role the aesthetic and educational theory. The mythology of Cúchullain played an integral role in the education of these boys at St. which McDonagh alludes to and which occurred in 1972. His activism went beyond his militaristic activities which immortalized him. This mythological trace emerges again in the 1960‟s around the time of the civil rights battle of the Irish Catholics in the north of Ireland. While Campbell was active in the Irish literary . he located the school at an estate known as The Hermitage which had been the retreat of Robert Emmett who led the failed Emmett Rising of 1803 in Kildare. plays and poetry. Enda‟s. As was noted previously. This was the era of Bloody Sunday. identifies Irishness according to the mythological past. is what we can see at St. We can see this in the poetry of Joseph Campbell who. In the inner courtyard there was a mural of Cúchullain‟s death. watered valleys. St. These school pageants were performed at the Abbey theatre under the approval and support of Yeats. Enda‟s. cultural nationalism and the appropriations of Irish mythology played in the creation of the revolutionary environment” (O‟Kane 85). He also believed whole heartedly in the importance of a distinctly Irish system of education. one can still hear Fionn‟s command to Oisin[…]It is out of this country this book has sprung. as these other authors and educators. who lectured on English at the school on occasion. it bears even to this day something of the freshness of the heroic dawn. or the re-telling of it under new ideological circumstances. Finola O‟Kane explains the way in which mythology worked to provide students with a strong national identity: “St. the myth of Cúchullain 54 was of great importance to Pearse and his understanding of an Irish identity which he sought to impart to the youth of the country. (Campbell 3) Campbell explains in the book‟s introduction the importance of this heroic mythology to his national identity. 53 Padraic Pearse himself saw the importance of the Cúchullain myth to an Irish identity. While Pearse never wrote about Cúchullain or mythology directly in his own stories. The mythology surrounding Emmett served to inspire Pearse and gave this place a special context in which to educate the young boys of Ireland. The appropriation of this mythology.also alludes to the fact that Cúchullain‟s statue has been placed in the Post Office in memory of this martyrdom. Clearly. a country of cairn-crowned hills and dark. Wandering in any field of it. Enda‟s reveals the role it played for him in understanding an authentic Irish identity. The placing of this statue in this location shows the way the Irish public identifies their more contemporary heroes according to nostalgia for a mythological past. March in companies of greyMiledh in his battle-car Father to the kings that are. Conor. but demonstrated in these few examples. Campbell describes “A fair field. from the public‟s consciousness. Soundless on a tide of sound. and aside from his involvement in the civil rights protests. That they march in grey gives us a sense that their memory is foggy and opaque. 7-8). Ireland is where these individuals are observed. from shepherds to scholars. in our understanding. pensioner/Scholar. “Shepherd. plougher. “the field. priest and labourer” (l. Luai‟s daughter. They emerge in a grey. prevalent in Irish literature. cloudy memory. who are the fathers of present kings. In Campbell‟s poem. At this point we can see Campbell as beginning to align himself with a postmodern understanding. He lists some of 55 the individuals in the field. Back of them the royal dead. Heroes of an older day. Here we are given individuals from all levels of society. have lost sight of this past and thus with who they are. Save by me who look with eyes Concsious of the mysteries. 18). Fergus.scene. These figures from the past are inaccessible. foggy. and once again. Ireland. . we are looking to the past to understand this. The poem continues. The heroes of the past. he was also involved politically with the Republicans and spent time in prison during the Irish Civil War in 1922. Cullan‟s Hound. Naisi‟s queen. Campbell reveals this unwittingly in that his intentions were to inspire the people of Ireland to look to this past to understand their revolutionary potential in the present. In an untitled poem in the collection. There is a sense that the rest of the people of Ireland. 56 everyone from the shepherd to the scholar. Loved and lover all unseen. It is this nostalgia for the past. We can see in his work the way in which this mythology informed his ideologies and poetry. Ireland is the field they tread. 1) which he sees.” is fair. full of folk” (l. The Poems of Joseph Campbell. There is something between this history and his historical moment. There is a tide changing in Ireland and they remain muted and forgotten. that emerges as pastiche in McDonagh‟s play-text. Fergus and Cúchullain. There is a gray substance shielding these heroes. are “Soundless on a tide of sound” (l. it would be impossible for them to do so. Conor. but is full of folk who neither hear nor see the importance of their mythological past. it can not be interpreted the same way at all. considering the song‟s place in the context of this play. McDonagh recognizes this and his cannibalization of literature which does just this tells us of the impossibility of an understanding of the past and the impossibility of representing the present. The love of one‟s land is a terrible thing. In scene six. Declan Hughes. This song. McDonagh‟s Padraic is extreme. this has been what most Irish literature of the nineteenth century has sought to do is to acknowledge the necessary violence that follows liberating oneself from the colonizing force. First. As with Campbell. That Pearse would look to the ancient mythological past in order to define an Irish culture in opposition to that of the English is an Irish tradition. This also re-enforces our understanding of mythology as a meta-genre and as all of the aspects of a given situatedness in re-telling these ancient tales. we have Mairead. in the Irish imagination. the young Mairead meets him getting off the boat upon his return to Inishmore. When she meets 58 him she is singing “The Patriot Game” written by the Behan brothers. Behan‟s literature is perhaps the most obvious example. in scene two we see him as a ruthless psychopath torturing individuals for petty offenses. an Irish playwright. The first and foremost example of this attitude towards mythologized Irish heroes is his treatment of his character Padraic. and it makes us all part of the patriot game” (McDonagh 29).57 CHAPTER 3 THE EMERGENCE OF MYTH IN POP-CULTURE We can see from these re-tellings the role nostalgia for the past plays in coming to define a national identity. Indeed. It banishes fear with the speed of a flame. It is this nostalgiac impulse that we can see giving form to McDonagh‟s play. it is the tendency of individuals in the twentieth century to look back to these mythologizers themselves in order to establish an Irish identity. Yet. The presence of this song in the play-text is not without importance. That this tendency can lead to the perpetuation of violence in the name of ancient heroic values is what is considered to be problematic. As was touched upon earlier. identifies this nostalgia and calls it “The Irish disease” (Chambers 97). a quite self-defeating form . notorious for shooting the eyes out of cows in political protest to their being slaughtered. is an acknowledgment of the terrible duty that attends a true patriot. It is also here that we get the domestic chit chat about bombing innocents. The lyrics go. “Come all ye young rebels and list while I sing. Padraic‟s just awarded himself a full blow lieutenantship. This song aside. Not only is this Padraic a lunatic who would kill his own father or a teenage girl over his cat. The tradition of mythologizing the fallen heroes of Ireland. This is perhaps not coincidental. „The Soldier‟s Song‟” (McCann 18). Now. Just awarded be Padraic. but for the cat being killed while under his care. This is humorously related in Scene nine of the play as Mairead explains her newly appointed position: “I‟m a second-lieutenant. threatening her “Tell me the fecking message now. in this context. In this postmodern world. we can understand the way in which this play distances us from any identity of the sort. we cannot relate to this impulse to identity. Dominic and Brendan‟s mother was involved in running weapon s for the IRA and this is the ideological environment from which their literary works emerged. The IRA here are portrayed as not only dangerously violent and ignorant. This song. We couldn‟t legitimately invoke this song at this point in the play-text as some kind of authentic reverence for Irish patriotism in that all of our revolutionaries in the play-text are bumbling morons who slaughter innocent individuals in the name of something they do not understand. one is named Brendan. The Behan family was active in the Republican cause since the nineteenth century. the age of modernism is dead. The context surrounding the emergence of this pastiche within the playtext renders the meaning of it different than it would be in any other context. In the past. meeting Padraic as he gets off the boat to come home to check on the health of his sick cat. This is a Padraic who puts a gun 59 to his father‟s head. but as completely illegitimate in that they themselves created this terrorist universe in which they exist. it is interesting that of the three characters who come back to Inishmore to kill Padraic. This is certainly the case for the Behan family. this allusion to the Behans is not 60 without importance either. ya bitcheen! Has me cat gone downhill or what the feck is it? Eh?” (McDonagh 31). Moreover. through the medium of song is a great one. Brendan. this was indeed the case. as the most famous of these brothers. is distanced from us.of protest and not without interest to our understanding of McDonagh‟s play-text.” which was like a . understanding Padraic Pearse‟s role in such an authentic patriotic identity as discussed above. Brendan was a member of “The Fianna. This is the Padraic who put a gun against the sixteen year old Mairead‟s head. According to Sean McCann in The World of Brendan Behan: “His uncle Peadar Kearney wrote the Irish National anthem. we see patriotism as a terrible thing in light of terrorist violence. in the world of modernism. and he deserves it” (McDonagh 47). The catalyst for the emergence of this song is not all there is to be considered. In this context. such as Pearse. we cannot possibly come to represent our present in order to form a coherent identity. The impulse to national identity is called into question. Such is the case with Padraic. and not for killing his cat. The Behan family‟s involvement with the IRA was immense. is an important figure in Irish literary and revolutionary history. but he is also a self appointed lieutenant. This is established in the poem by way of reference to Ireland‟s past. Enda‟s school. Brendan Behan was also a believer in the importance of the revival of the Irish language. The writers involved saw that their basic problem was that of using the resources of Irish to create a medium which would suit modern poetry. At a young age. yet his immersion in this culture brought him to be a part of the tradition of the likes of Campbell. It was published for the first time in Comhar. We can see in this idea a trace of Pearse‟s ideas in founding St. This poem mythologizes McCaughey‟s death: I had expected to witness a funeral With pipes of condolence droning their keen. even by suicide. an Irish language publication. (Kearney 49-50) Here the ancient heroic value of death in battle is brought to the present circumstance. Irish for collaboration.” originally written in Irish and translated into English by Behan himself. the great host of . This poem was written on the occasion of the death of Seán McCaughey an IRA leader who died on hunger-strike. This is not unrelated to the ancient Irish tradition of fostering. “The Fianna” of which Behan was a member as a boy. The problem with the literary endeavors of the Irish movement was largely that of an audience. In his creative endeavors he saw it as important to immerse 61 himself in Gaelic. The Gaels are delighted to carry their trophy. They were a group of men who hunted and trained for battle. Yet most of the writers[…]came from rural backgrounds and inherited a poetic tradition which was untouched by the twentieth-century city. (Kearney 51) Behan was a native English speaker. staying in Gaeltachta. these boys were “fed” on the mythology of Ireland in an attempt to get them to sympathize with the Republican cause. The Fianna were an ancient mythological band of warriors in Irish mythology. This is one reason why Behan wrote his major works in English. To die for one‟s country. and were highly respected in society. the movement did not gain much momentum. is noble. For pride is eventually stronger than woe. “Took members on hikes and fed them on legends of Ireland” (McCann 30). But. To welcome McCaughey back home to Ulster. 62 Had thought that the sound of guns would be mournful. protecting Ireland from any threats. a prevalent motif in all of ancient Irish mythology. increasingly urban in its preoccupations. Come from the Pale having crushed the invader. One poem which demonstrates the way in which Behan mythologized IRA figures is demonstrated in his “The Return of McCaughey. or rural Irish speaking areas of Ireland. With such a small audience of Irish speakers who could read the works.boyscout troop that trained young men to sympathize with the Republican cause. This also had a profound influence upon his literary endeavors. like the victorious host of O‟Neill. As Colbert Kearney explains. He was known for his lewd drunken behavior as well as his literary achievements. It is as if the understanding of the Republican cause has been destroyed by this . These works aside. sheer physical violence is the only way to go. Even after his active involvement in the IRA had come to an end. Dominic: Padraic. It was. His works included Confessions of an Irish Rebel. Having been exposed to mythology. sense of pride is stronger than woe. all permeated with the mythology at work in the formation of the Irish national identity. Irish identity. His presence within the playtext contradicts the assertion that it is Irish Catholics who solely perpetuate this 64 violence. however. These loyal Republicans are not extreme enough for Padraic. He had a knack for witticisms. this young. he also wrote many songs. “Why are the Irish or even a section of the Irish the only ones not permitted to use bombs?” (McCann 18). one common argument he made was. Padraic. Wasn‟t it one of the Behans wrote that? Mairead. after Sir Roger Casement. Behan was arrested and did prison time as a young man 63 for running weapons for the IRA. poems and plays as well. McDonagh‟s Padraic says of him and his brother. Mairead. She sings songs of this nature and named her cat Sir Roger. That “pride” is “stronger than woe” is prevalent in terrorist violence in Ireland. The Ulster Volunteer Forces. I still have respect for them. she is the next generation of terror. Sir Roger has been mythologized through song and there is a pub song about him that is popular with the Northern Irish. that it is Mairead who we hear singing Behan‟s song. For him. In this play. who were responsible for many acts of terrorist violence against Irish Catholics. In considering the existence of the lesser known Protestant counterpart to the IRA. aspiring militant. He is an interesting figure in that he was Protestant and supported the Republican cause. Yet.the O‟Neill. This individual was active in the Easter Rising and was executed after it for his role in transporting weapons. Once again. This is an interesting question considering the role of Britain and the United States in international affairs. we can see this as an important allusion. He was a loyal member for a number of years and claimed allegiance right up until the end of his life. a story of the life of a young member of the IRA. a myth developed around Brendan Behan himself. While there may be much to be woeful of. sentiment brings one to understand the present. hence the perpetuation of violence and the death of civilians born of this pride. If they‟d done a little more bombing and a little less writing I‟d‟ve had more respect for them. It is important to note. Lieutenant. Dominic. Brendan was a supporter of the cause. (McDonagh 29). Quare Fellow and Borstal Boy. Mairead is an interesting and important character in this way. Mairead‟s cat is named after him and is blown to pieces by Padraic in scene eight of the play. It‟s a while since I heard that oul song. It is she who is keeping this tradition alive. and playing a mythopoeic role in developing a mythology around the Republicans. this post-industrial world. This was not an attempt to write in the “Irish” tradition for the sake of writing in the Irish tradition. demonstrates McDonagh‟s awareness of this aspect of national identity. but to write through it from a postmodern perspective. McDonagh came to write this text with an audience in mind. McDonagh portrays them as delusional. We can indefinitely say that the presence of such songs in the play-text. there is no possible way to understand ourselves or to possess a stable identity. McDonagh comes to write this play-text with an understanding of the nature of “Irish” drama in mind. raised upon popularized mythology of the Republican cause that she can possibly understand. The play-text itself reveals to us that a national identity is now impossible. The humor here is in the fact that every lieutenant in this play is self-appointed. And don‟t be countermanding me orders. one of an assumed listener. It is also clear that the allusions to 65 Behan and Pearse are not coincidental in the play-text. cos it‟s a fecking lieutenant ye‟re talking to now” (McDonagh 53). Both of these individuals were not only active in the IRA but were also playwrights. Mairead is the next generation of terror. A postmodern would understand that this is because in the era of late capitalism. that his intention is to bring to light the tendency of individuals to seek a national identity through nostalgia and a mythologizing of the past. “One of ye‟s chop up Padraic. 66 CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION McDonagh‟s play-text is a space of an emergence of numerous “dead voices” from the past. In the play‟s conclusion she kills Padraic and tells Davey and Donny.generation of rebels. This understanding of McDonagh‟s play. However. makes it difficult to identify it as “Irish” at all. One comes to understand identity through this popular medium which looks to the past to understand the present. it brings us to see McDonagh‟s play as illuminating the impossibility of a national identity in the era of late capitalism. Mairead is perhaps the greatest threat yet. the other be chopping the fella there with the cross in his gob. this pastiche. that which is yet to be realized. voices that have no meaning within our contemporary . There is an assumption at work in this play-text. Productions of the play in a global context have shown that the play is not received as Irish as it is outsourced from Ireland. Coogan. The economic condition in Ireland has been one of American style capitalism since the economic booming of the late twentieth century. “Martin McDonagh‟s Blend of Tradition and Horrific Innovation. Dublin: Carysfort Press. New York: Scribner Poetry. . Tim Pat. what Jameson would call pastiche. Dublin: Carysfort Press. Michael and Kathi Weeks. 1973. Michael. 1963. 2006.” The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories. The IRA A History. Susannah. Niwott. Laura. New York: Scholars‟ Fascimiles and Reprints. Billington. The Ballad Poetry of Ireland. 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