The Irish Identity: Independence, History, and Literature

The Irish Renaissance in the early 20th century C.E. is a remarkable period for arts, literature, and culture; tracing the course of Irish history, starting with the ancient Celts and running through the Middle Ages.

Understanding Irish history by reflecting on its relationship with the English; going back to the 1100s, when Ireland lacked a central king; witnessing the Norman invasions that were the start of England's dominion over Ireland.

Studying the Irish political context with a probe of the rise of William of Orange, who restores Protestantism to England and enacts severe penal codes that oppress Irish Catholics; learning how writers such as Jonathan Swift champion the Irish poor.

Following Irish history through the age of rebellions sweeping across Europe and America and finding out how figures such as Wolfe Tone found the quest for Irish republicanism; delving into the cultural expressions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

One of the most famous people in Ireland's struggle for independence is Daniel O'Connell, who leads the charge for Catholic emancipation as well as the effort to repeal Britain's Act of Union; learning how the Great Famine devastates the nation.

The political tensions of the 19th century C.E., from the Great Famine to Charles Stewart Parnell's attempts to pass a Home Rule Bill, and how they set the stage for the Celtic Revival; interest in ancient Irish language, sports, and literature.

Irish playwrights face a choice between writing in Irish and remaining relatively obscure or finding success by adopting English; how George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde navigate their Irish identity on the London stage.

If one person is at the heart of the Irish Revival, it is W. B. Yeats; Professor Conner introduces the man and his quest for meaning in the two worlds of the Irish countryside and the English city; Yeats's connection to revolutionary leaders.

Yeats becomes fascinated with the occult and seeks the society of fellow searchers; reviewing the mystical aspect of his poetry and his view of transcendence through art; the influence of his enduring and unrequited love for Maud Gonne.

Lady Gregory is one of the most important figures of the Irish Revival; born into the Protestant landowner class and widowed at age 39; an anthropological interest in Irish folklife and stories; reviewing her major works and her influence on Yeats.

The Aran Islands lie on the western edge of Ireland and remain an isolated folk community; the playwright J. M. Synge finds a fleeting sense of beauty and wonder, of life lived to the fullest; Synge's biography and his book about the islands.

James Joyce is a figure of both Modernism and 20th-century Irish literature; this introduction to Joyce places him in the context of turn-of-the-century Dublin; his role as an artist in exile; examining his short story technique in Dubliners.

Joyce's short stories "Araby, "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" and "The Dead"; they reveal the dreariness and what Joyce perceives as the paralysis of Dublin; the possibilities of love, joy and redemption that Joyce presents at the end of the book.

Lady Gregory, Yeats and others recognize the need for a national Irish theater; some of the Abbey Theatre's early playwrights; Conner connects this beacon of Irish cultural heritage to the changing political landscape of the early 20th century.

Although perhaps not as famous as Yeats and Synge, Lady Gregory is one of the era's finest playwrights; analyzing her plays "The Rising of the Moon", "The Gaol Gate" and others; her wit and intelligence; a sense of her unique role in Irish history.

Synge's role as a dramatist, which develops after his experiences with the Aran Islands; "In the Shadow of the Glen" and "Riders to the Sea"; the impressive range of this playwright; his portrayals of Irish country life are not always well received.

"The Playboy of the Western World" is regarded as a classic of Modernism and one of Ireland's defining plays; when it premieres in 1907, it shocks Dublin and inspires riots; what makes this play so controversial; a truly great work of art.

After the defeat of Parnell's Home Rule Bill, rebellious organizers begin pushing for reforms of their own; the events surrounding the Dublin lockout, including the Bloody Sunday massacre; considering Ireland's role in World War I.

The Easter Rising is a definitive moment that leads to Ireland as it exists today; Professor Conner walks through the complex events leading up to the Rising; the details of the week of battles and skirmishes; the political and artistic aftermath.

Exploring Joyce's first novel; the ways that Parnell, the Home Rule movement, the Catholic Church and other themes from the era's history are key to understanding his Bildungsroman; some of the most important scenes in the first half of the book.

English a great tension for Irish writers; Joyce's solution is to conquer the language of the conquerors; the book's hero, Stephen Dedalus, takes his first steps as an artist to "forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race".

Joyce sends his fictional hero off to become a great artist; Ireland's great real-life poetic hero Yeats makes his own transition from a mystic and romantic dreamer to a modernist poet; the Protestant Ascendancy world from which Yeats emerges.

The years after the Easter Rising see a dramatic fight for a free nation; Michael Collins leads a guerilla war against the forces of British rule; the eventual treaty between Ireland and the British; far from ideal to the hardcore nationalists.

After the controversial free-state treaty at the end of 1921, the country splits into civil war; republicans view the treaty as selling out their ideals; the events of the yearlong civil war; the tragic death of Michael Collins; how it resolves.

From 1914 to 1921, Ireland faces revolution at home; James Joyce is abroad, slowly laboring on his masterpiece, "Ulysses"; this famous epic and its relation to Irish history; a lucid overview of the story, its characters, its style and its structure.

"Ulysses" and its three episodes; "Hades", "Nausicaa" and "Circe"; three of the most moving and compelling chapters in the novel; studying these three episodes; gaining a sense of how the book as a whole forms a crucial portrait of Irish identity.

A look at Molly Bloom, who gets the last word in "Ulysses"; recasting the day presented in the preceding 17 chapters; her perspective tells much about how Joyce views character and one's relationship to the world; his great theme of regeneration.

As one of the true geniuses of Irish drama, Sean O'Casey is a master of tragicomedy, bringing Ireland's working class to life; three of his plays from the 1920s; what makes him a great writer; how history shapes the drama he produces.

Few great artists are also great characters, but Lady Gregory is certainly outstanding on both counts; her life and the tension she faces between her status among the Protestant Ascendancy and her love for the Irish peasantry; the end of her life.

In his later years, Yeats creates an enigmatic spiritual system; his poetry continues to evolve; his later writing; two books that become significant works of poetry in the 20th century; their artistic power and their lens on Irish history.

In the rural southwest corner of Ireland, the Blasket Islands lie on the edge of the wide Atlantic; here, a series of writers flourish in parallel with the high Modernism of Yeats, Lady Gregory and Joyce; the region's vanishing mode of life.

The complex dream world of "Finnegans Wake", Joyce's final book; Professor Conner gives a way into the work, which ostensibly tells the dream of a Dublin pub owner and family man; how Joyce taps into the mythic patterns of life within Ireland.

The Irish Renaissance largely succeeds in bringing folklife to the center of cultural consciousness by the 1930s; the poet Patrick Kavanagh emerges with the nostalgia of Yeats's generation; the next wave of poets carve out their own views of Ireland.

By the time of the Irish Revival, Dublin becomes a city of growing artistic merit; a national gallery, Georgian architecture and a rising crop of visual artists; Ireland's finest artists of the time; Jack Yeats and stained glass maker Harry Clarke.

The 1930s is an era of disappointment; the triumph of freedom meets the realities of self-governance; the gradual political break with England; the drafting of a new constitution; cultural isolation from the rest of the world; economic malaise.

The work of Seamus Heaney, one of Ireland's best poets from the second half of the 20th century, provides a fitting end to this study; he understands the world of the Irish Renaissance and its historical roots; some of Heaney's finest poetry.