The Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival

The Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival
Author: Eugene McNulty
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN:

This is the first book-length study dedicated to the Ulster Literary Theatre. Officially established in 1904, the same year as Dublin's Abbey Theatre, this Belfast nationalist theatre has long awaited a full reassessment of its role in the development of a specifically "Irish Drama". The Ulster Literary Theatre was considered by many contemporaries to be the equal of the Abbey Theatre, certainly in terms of energy, output and nationalist commitment. In the first decade of its existence this Belfast company produced a number of significant and exciting works, including the early efforts of Rutherford Mayne and the extraordinary burlesques of Gerald MacNamara. In so doing, it provided a key forum in which Ulster's cultural politics could be explored and performed. Drawing particularly on the northern group's early history, Eugene McNulty explores this intriguing performance history of Belfast's own nationalist theatre. In the course of this study a number of key issues are re-examined: the Ulster Literary Theatre's relationship with the Abbey Theatre; Ulster's role in the Irish Literary Revival; the interaction between northern cultural nationalism and an evolving Ulster Unionist politics. In all of this McNulty argues for a reassessment of the politics of the Revival, and insists upon the importance of a "northern revival" and its significance for a fuller understanding of this crucial period in Irish history.

Protestant Nationalists in Ireland, 1900–1923

Protestant Nationalists in Ireland, 1900–1923
Author: Conor Morrissey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2019-10-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108473865

An innovative and original analysis of Protestant advanced nationalists, from the early twentieth century to the end of the Irish Civil War.

The Irish Dramatic Revival 1899-1939

The Irish Dramatic Revival 1899-1939
Author: Anthony Roche
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2015-02-26
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1408166003

The Irish Dramatic Revival was to radically redefine Irish theatre and see the birth of Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey, in 1904. From a consideration of such influential precursors as Boucicault and Wilde, Anthony Roche goes on to examine the role of Yeats as both founder and playwright, the one who set the agenda until his death in 1939. Each of the major playwrights of the movement refashioned that agenda to suit their own very different dramaturgies. Roche explores Synge's experimentation in the creation of a new national drama and considers Lady Gregory not only as a co-founder and director of the Abbey Theatre but also as a significant playwright. A chapter on Shaw outlines his important intervention in the Revival. O'Casey's four ground-breaking Dublin plays receive detailed consideration, as does the new Irish modernism that followed in the 1930s and which also witnessed the founding of the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The Companion also features interviews and essays by leading theatre scholars and practitioners Paige Reynolds, P.J. Mathews and Conor McPherson who provide further critical perspectives on this period of radical change in modern Irish theatre.

Inventing the Myth

Inventing the Myth
Author: Connal Parr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2017-07-21
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 019250925X

This book approaches Ulster Protestantism through its theatrical and cultural intersection with politics, re-establishing a forgotten history and engaging with contemporary debates. Anchored by the perspectives of ten writers - some of whom have been notably active in political life - it uniquely examines tensions going on within. Through its exploration of class division and drama from the early twentieth century to the present, the book restores the progressive and Labour credentials of the community's recent past along with its literary repercussions, both of which appear in recent decades to have diminished. Drawing on over sixty interviews, unpublished scripts, as well as rarely-consulted archival material, it shows - contrary to a good deal of clichéd polemic and safe scholarly assessment - that Ulster Protestants have historically and continually demonstrated a vigorous creative pulse as well as a tendency towards Left wing and class politics. St. John Ervine, Thomas Carnduff, John Hewitt, Sam Thompson, Stewart Parker, Graham Reid, Ron Hutchinson, Marie Jones, Christina Reid, and Gary Mitchell profoundly challenge as well as reflect their communities. Illuminating a diverse and conflicted culture stretching beyond Orange Order parades, the weaving together of the lives and work of each of the writers highlights mutual themes and insights on their identity, as if part of some grander tapestry of alternative twentieth-century Protestant culture. Ulster Protestantism's consistent delivery of such dissenting voices counters its monolithic and reactionary reputation.

Representations of Policing in Northern Irish Theatre

Representations of Policing in Northern Irish Theatre
Author: T. W. Saunders
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2023-03-31
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 3031246217

This monograph provides the first sustained, chronological account of Northern Irish police officers’ representation in theatre. Importantly, its scope comprises a critical period of national and organisational development, beginning with the Partition of Ireland in 1921 and the founding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) one year later in 1922. It progresses through the relevant theatrical and historical events of the century, through the period after the RUC’s dissolution and replacement with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001, and concludes in 2021 to coincide with the centenary of Partition. As such, this project is distinctive in its ability to trace paradigm shifts in perceptions of the police over time, as they intersect with relevant historical events and milestones of political conflict in the province.

Regional Modernisms

Regional Modernisms
Author: Neal Alexander
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2013-10-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0748669310

Where did literary modernism happen? This book answers this question, re-evaluating the parameters of modernism in the light of recent developments in literary geography and literary history through an examination of novels, poetry, theatre, and "e;little magazines"e;. Essays identify and appraise the local attachments of modernist texts in particular geographical regions and question the idea of the "e;regional"e; in light of the alienating displacements of transnational modernity.

Masculinities and the Contemporary Irish Theatre

Masculinities and the Contemporary Irish Theatre
Author: B. Singleton
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2010-11-24
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0230294537

Irish theatre and its histories appear to be dominated by men and their actions. This book's socially and culturally contextualized analysis of performance over the last two decades, however reveals masculinities that are anything but hegemonic, played out in theatres and other arenas of performance all over Ireland.

Making the Difference?

Making the Difference?
Author: Paul Rouse
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2012-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 184889970X

In 2011, on the cusp of its centenary year, the Labour Party recorded its greatest ever electoral success, with 37 TDs elected and a President. In doing so the party has succeeded, temporarily at least, in breaking free from the old two-and-a-half party system. But, why, for its first century, did Labour struggle to match its ambition? This series of essays to mark the party's centenary assesses the challenges facing Labour in a deeply conservative country, where echoes of civil war and Catholic Church hegemony have dominated the political landscape. Leading writers from the fields of journalism, history and social reform examine the failings, splits and contradictions of Ireland's oldest political party alongside the social and economic achievements to which the Labour Party lays claim. Contributors: Ivana Bacik; Michael Laffan; Ronan O'Brien; Stephen Collins; David McCullagh; Eunan O'Halpin; Paul Daly; Ciara Meeha;n Niamh Puirseil; Diarmaid Ferriter; William Mulligan; Kevin Rafter; Eamon Gilmore; William Murphy ;Jane Suiter. All royalties to Barnardos.

Willie Pearse

Willie Pearse
Author: Róisín Ní Ghairbhí
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2015-03-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1847177484

Willie Pearse was a well-regarded sculptor who ran the family stone-carving business, but he was also a dynamic activist whose life offers fresh insights into political and cultural life before 1916. History has placed him in the shadow of his brother Patrick, but whether it was nationalism, education or the cultural revival, Willie shared in these activities as an equal. Being Patrick's right-hand man in the weeks preceding the Rising, he played an important role in making it happen. His gentle character and wide circle of friends meant that his execution on 4 May 1916 shocked even those who had little sympathy with the rebels and helped turn public opinion in their favour. In this book, using new sources, Róisin Ní Ghairbhi shows conclusively that, far from being dominated by his brother, Willie Pearse was always decidedly his own man.