The Rising of the Moon

Ella O'Dwyer

Description

The Rising of the Moon puts the radical changes in current political dialogue in Ireland into the context of the whole of the 20th century. Exploring the dynamics of power and language, Ella O'Dwyer compares the literature of Beckett, Conrad and Chinua Achebe, amongst others, to accounts of real events in Ireland's political history. She also examines accounts of particular events in Irish history that include Rex Taylor's biography of Michael Collins, Gerry Adams's biography and even messages from hunger-striker Bobby Sands that were smuggled out of prison.



In a country where people have been subjected to incarceration and victimisation, and where the political discourse is characterised by slogans, repetition, agreement and treaty, the implications for the national language and identity are immense. Ella O'Dwyer shows how oppression has obstructed and fractured the nature of Irish national discourse, and that this fragmented voice is a feature of all postcolonial narrative.
1. Introduction: Reading Institutions, Power, Control and Identity

Obstructing Discourse

Releasing Response

Can we go on?

2. Who Fears to Speak: Silence and Anonymity in the National Discourse

Past and Present

Empire Speak

Immediate and Terrible War

Cognitive Control

A Culture of Silence

Stepping Stones

Revolution and Reaction

Culture and Colonisation

Calling the Tune

3. When Slavery’s Night is Ore: The Minefield of Meaning

Stalking Knowledge

The Booby Trap

The Big Idea

Partitionist Thought

Trojan Forces

Cogni-phobia

4. The Inquisition: A View of The Present State of Ireland

Seclusion,

Virus in the System,

Driven to Death,

Power and the Absentee,

5. The Split: Doing the Joined Up Writing

Acute Amnesia,

Unholy Alliance,

The State of the Nation,

The Political Unconscious,

6. The Threshold: Standing on the Threshold of Another Trembling World

Arrested Discourse,

Stammered Delivery,

Border and Last Frontier,

Spell binding language,

7. The Rising of the Moon

References

Index

Sujets

• Political Ideologies
• Political Science
• Democracy

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 janvier 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849644983
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Rising of the Moon

The Language of Power

Ella O’Dwyer

P Pluto Press LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA

First published 2003 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright © Ella O’Dwyer 2003

The right of Ella O’Dwyer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 7453 1862 2 hardback

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data O’Dwyer, Ella, 1959– The rising of the moon : the language of power / Ella O’Dwyer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0–7453–1862–2 1. English literature––Irish authors––History and criticism. 2. Nationalism and literature––Ireland––History––20th century. 3. Politics and literature––Ireland––History––20th century. 4. Language and languages––Political aspects––Ireland. 5. Ireland––History––20th century––Historiography. 6. Ireland––Intellectual life––20th century. 7. Nationalism––Ireland––Historiography. 8. Power (Social sciences) in literature. 9. Power (Social sciences)––Ireland. 10. Political violence in literature. 11. Ireland––In literature. I. Title. PR8722.N3 O39 2002 820.9'9417––dc21 2002005

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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth EX10 9QG Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Towcester Printed in the European Union by Antony Rowe, Chippenham, England

Contents

The Rising of the Moon Acknowledgements

1. Introduction Reading Institutions Power, Control and Identity Obstructed Discourse Releasing Response Can We Go On?

2. Who Fears to Speak: Silence and Anonymity in the National Discourse Past and Present Empire-speak Immediate and Terrible War Cognitive Control A Culture of Silence Stepping Stones Revolution and Reaction Culture and Colonisation Calling the Tune

3. When Slavery’s Night is O’er: The Minefield of Meaning Stalking Knowledge The Booby Trap The Big Idea Partitionist Thought Trojan Forces Cogni-phobia

4.The Inquisition: A View of the Present State of Ireland Seclusion Virus in the System Driven to Death Power and the Absentee

vii viii

1 1 2 7 8 12

13 15 17 18 22 24 29 31 33 37

41 43 48 50 54 55 59

60 63 66 68 72

vi

5.

6.

7.

The Rising of the Moon

The Split: Doing the Joined-up Writing Doing the Joined-up Writing Split Acute Amnesia Unholy Alliance The State of the Nation The Political Unconscious

The Threshold: Standing on the Threshold of Another Trembling World Arrested Discourse Stammered Delivery Border and Last Frontier Spell-binding Language

The Rising of the Moon

Bibliography Index

74 77 82 85 88 92 99

102 104 108 114 118

127

153 155

The Rising of the Moon

Traditional

And come tell me Séan O’Farrell, tell me why you hurry so Hush a bhuachaill, hush and listen and his cheeks were all aglow I bear orders from the captain, get you ready quick and soon For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon

And come tell me Séan O’Farrell, where the gathering is to be At the old spot on the river quite well known to you and me One more word for signal token, whistle out the marching tune With your pike upon your shoulder at the rising of the moon At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon With your pike upon your shoulder at the rising of the moon

Out of many a mud walled cabin eyes were watching though the night Many a manly heart was beating for the blessed morning’s light Murmurs ran along the valley to the banshee’s lonely croon And a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon, by the rising of the moon And a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon

All along that singing river, that black mass of men was seen High above their shining weapons flew their own beloved green Death to every foe and traitor, whistle out the marching tune And hoorah me boys for freedom ’tis the rising of the moon ’Tis the rising of the moon, ’tis the rising of the moon

vii

Keegan Casey, 1982

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Fr Ray Helmick of Boston College for his encourage- ment and support while writing this workThe Rising of the Moon. Boston College awarded me a Post Doctoral Fellowship on my release from prison, funding which made it possible for me to carry out the work. Again I’d like to thank Prof. Bob Welch (University of Ulster) and Dr Ben Knights (Durham University) for their academic guidance while completing PhD and MA studies while I was in prison – studies which form the basis for this book. I want to thank Prof. Marianne McDonald (University of California) for her immense encourage- ment and support. Thanks to Jackie McMullan, Raymond Murray and Jim Monaghan for patiently reading early extracts from these chapters. My thanks to Shay Courtney, Patrick Regan (Wacker) and Eileen Power for helping to source some of the songs incorporated into the work. My gratitude to my colleagues inCoiste na nIarchimí(The Committee for Republican Ex-prisoners) for their extensive support throughout. I would like particularly to thank my parents, brothers and sister who kept the work on the agenda by regularly asking ‘Where is the book?’ Well, here is the book – enjoy!

viii

To Malone and Mahood From your old mate Molloy

1

Introduction

READING INSTITUTIONS

This book in essence began in 1985, the year when very altered cir- cumstances provided a sharp, shocking and prolonged access to the bigger picture that is free thought. Free thought thrives in the most surprising contexts, even those settings most geared towards the thwarting of the cognitive and ideological thrust. The background and origin of these chapters emerge from MA and PhD theses on the themes of power, control and the structures of language and orthodox meaning. These overlapping themes are the unsurprising intellectual focus arising out of prolonged imprisonment in Victorian conditions, the near worst that British imperialism could conjure against an ever rising resistance in Ireland. Much was learnt from this experience, and the learning continues through the release process and after. This narrative too was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, with the ensuing delivery of a story that connects through the familiar enough voices of historical and literary figures, those who in former or in fictional terms have touched the same intimate relationship with power, control, trouble and freedom in various and at diverse periods. While political prisoners in the modern era faced condemnation and sentence at every level, some of the historical figures visiting these chapters faced the same and call now from the death vaults of time; seeking to have a personal voice in the edited story we call history. That edited account has marginalised even the most renowned figures, obstructing and eclipsing their vision. The book that emerges here with the deliverance from imprisonment carries whispers of these eclipsed voices. The politicised of today is the medium to the past and the unfinished ideological journey is ghosted by the presence of many a thwarted and obstructed statement sentenced to incompletion and eclipse. In the confines of long-term oppression and repressive surveillance, the voice is obstructed in the terms outlined in the work of Michel Foucault. Everything is seen and heard from the centre of control and power, and much is dumped for safekeeping in the bunkers of silence and anonymity. From an analysis of the institution of power and control emerges a rapport with the process of release, and visiting the overall narrative are the voices of the long-serving Casement and Collins

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The Rising of the Moon

and the for long silent Tone and Emmet. Various advisors are invited to this narrative panel; all tutors inThe Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1974). When I was released from prison this book came with me. Voices from Tone, Emmet, Devlin, Casement, Collins, Sands, Farrell and many an elusive other came to call likeRain upon the Window Pane(McHugh, 1966, p. 334) and mediated between the stunted narrative of imprisonment and the outside. It’s hard to deliver the awarenesses gathered in such a restrictive setting and but for the various historical and fictional characters flitting in and out of the narrative, the story might never have been told. Samuel Beckett was the major interpreter and medium between the fortresses of restriction and the larger picture. Again, as with all these characters, his fortitude and vision was inspirational and so like Mahood, Malone and sundry Mollys, the story emerges:

I can’t go on, I must go on, I know so I’ll go on. (Beckett, 1979 edn, p. 382)

POWER, CONTROL AND IDENTITY

Meaning is at once an expression of the variously most empowering and annihilating dynamics, an improbable merger personified and borne out through the undulating fortunes of the literary and actual subject. Distinct and serious interests relating to the operation of power and control are prime energies relentlessly driving the thinking process behind this and earlier research towards a doctoral degree. That sustained predilection towards the study of power, while hardly unique in itself, is perhaps particular for an enduring criticalexperience colouring the actual analytical approach adopted for this work. Intimate access to the circumstances of the dramatic subject as permitted and enhanced through the reading encounter facilitated bountiful engagement with the mores and propensities exchanged between subject and meaning. While it is flagrantly the case that issues of cognitive control and sovereignty are the propellants compelling and charging this research, it is useful to note that the critical practice and mode with which it is coloured is marked with an habitual sensitivity to the reader’s creative input. The selection of fiction as a vehicle for conveying and expounding this excavation is partly fortified by certain comments of Jacques Derrida. In a discussion of ‘[i]nstitutions and Inversions’ (Culler, 1987, p. 153) Derrida is quoted as saying, ‘the present in general is not primal but rather reconsti-