Zoe Coulahan redefines Irish identity, moving away from the stereotypes that are prevailed through literature in the past.
When the Greek philosopher Plato noted the Celts as being ‘drunken and combative’ he had no idea that he’d be forming the beginnings of a stereotype that would transcend generations, reshaping the common ways Irish people are presented. Plato’s interpretation of the Irish people has bled into media from all over the world for centuries, from the infamous Punch magazine of the 19th century with its grotesque cartoons, painting the Irishman as an otherworldly monster, to Seamus Finnigan, the Irish half-blood wizard from Harry Potter, who loved to create explosions.
These stereotypes are slowly being debunked, with modern Irish writers beginning to fight back against the harmful generalisation of drunkenness, aggression, and potato famine, and are instead redefining what it means to be Irish through a new understanding of our identity.
The most widely known category of Irish stereotype is that of the drunken Irishman. Among the high levels of Irish who emigrated to America in the 20th century, psychologists noted that a large amount were alcoholics. Perhaps our nation's turbulent history led to us coping with alcohol, nonetheless, the media and publishing industry turned it into a pigeonhole for Irish characters.
In 1960, Taoiseach Sean Lemass even went so far as to call the BBC out for their persistent falsehoods about Irish characters. James Joyce was one of the first Irish novelists to take this stereotype and spin it in a new direction. In 1939, Joyce wrote the novel Finnegan’s Wake named after the old ballad called Tim Finnegan’s Wake, in which an alcoholic bricklayer dies and is revived once whiskey is poured on his body. Joyce crafts the ballad during the opening of his novel to jump start his explorations of mythology and identity, rather than reinforcing the cliché. While the characters of Howth castle and Evirons (HCE), represent the stereotypical Irishmen, Joyce paints said characters as layered and complex, in a way that the Irish were not portrayed in literature before. Finnegan’s Wake is filled with motifs of alcoholism and drinking imagery, yet Joyce does not define his characters through these motifs. Instead alcoholism functions metaphorically to support Joyce’s representation of life in Ireland, history, and dream logic.
Another common perception of the Irish was the apparent love for violence. Richard B. Sheridan’s 1775 play, The Rivals, portrayed the Irish character, Sir Lucius O’Trigger, as a bloodthirsty and aggressive individual. However, there was an obvious shift in societal attitudes towards these stereotypical typecasts as O’Trigger’s character caused such an outrage that the play was withdrawn and made to be revised. It seemed that from here, Irish playwrights began defending their national identity, and displayed this through the characters in their works. Hugh Kelly, in the previous year of 1774, released a play entitled The School for Wives in which he adorned his Irish characters with traits of morality, honour, and virtue. He fought back against the idea of the Irish as threatening and violent. Joyce also undermines this stereotype in his story collection Dubliners. In ‘Counterparts’ the protagonist, Farrington, is aggressive towards his son after a humiliation at work. Instead of portraying Farrington’s aggression and violence as a trait of his Irishness, Joyce displays it as tragic and harmful. He focuses on the tragedy and upset of Irish nationalism throughout the stories but does so through quiet suffering and disappointment instead of aggressive tempers and anger.
Kate O’Brien is another author who has redefined Irish stereotypes in her novel The Land of Spices. While the pride of Irish people and their want for freedom was often tied closely with our violent and aggressive portrayal in literature, O’Brien’s characters embrace Irish pride in the novel without doing so through brutality. Her strong female characters show pride through their restraint and emotional depth which challenges the notion of Irish women as meek or martyrs. She also centers Catholicism at the heart of the story and defines it as a key feature of Irish life, which it very much was at the time of its publication in 1941. She manages to connect the ties between Irish nationalism and Ireland’s Catholic identity in a positive light without attacking other religions or nationalities. She embraces our Catholic history, transforming a once negative label into one of honour.
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is far more contemporary writer than Joyce and O’Brien, yet she carries on the work they began by contributing to the ever changing international view of Irish people. Her short stories, much like ‘Midwife to the Fairies’, takes the element of Celtic folklore, and twists it into an exploration of gender and trauma within Ireland. Echoing O’Brien, Ní Dhuibhne challenges the perception of Irish women as meek, tragic heroines, by giving her female characters agency and independence rather than passivity. ‘The Dancers Dancing’ centers itself between rural and urban Ireland to explore the gender expectations in Irish society. Through this, Ní Dhuibhne shows her readers that while their prejudiced view of Irish women may be similar to the way that society views them, it is not the truthful way Irish women are, it is only the stereotype.
The works of Joyce, O’Brien, and Ní Dhuibhne all take the bias and stereotypes put upon Irish people throughout historical works of literature, and transcend them into a positive light. While they sometimes take the misconception and turn it on its head, they also show how embracing certain stereotypes does not have to be fuelled with negativity, thus showing readers globally a fresh perspective on our nation. Of course, we still have a lot of work to do in eliminating the drunk, violent, and prideful caricatures of Irish characters in literature. These writers have aided in slowly shifting the understanding of Ireland and what it truly means to be Irish.