Now And In The Time To Be: Ireland and the Irish
By Thomas Keneally
Pan MacMillan, 1991. 208 pp. $39.95
Reviewed by Bernie Brian
In his foreword, Thomas Keneally suggests that "sentiment is the malaise of the returning pilgrim of Irish connection". Keneally is to be congratulated for avoiding this pitfall. Yet he still wants to discover what it is that makes Ireland so special to himself and to the thousands of Australians of Irish and non-Irish extraction who are drawn each year to its shores.
The danger with sentimentality is that it obscures the real problems that beset Ireland, from the violence in the North, to the tragic loss of Ireland's youth to all quarters of the globe in search of employment, to the claustrophobic hold of the conservative Catholic Church hierarchy on the people and institutions of the Irish Republic.
Many of these features are evident to the discerning traveller, but the pilgrim continues to sing Ireland's praises.
There is no doubt that part of the attraction is the rich and varied beauty of Ireland's landscape. Much of this natural beauty is captured vividly in the book by the photography of Patrick Prendergast. Other attractions are the overwhelming hospitality of the Irish and Ireland's old world charm.
History weighs heavily on the Irish and is evident everywhere: the stone towers erected in defence against Viking invaders, the mass rocks where persecuted Catholics held their banned ceremonies or even the Neolithic graves of Newgrange. It is also evident from the slide presentation of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Uprising on display in the Dublin General Post Office and the countless memorials to the martyrs of the 800-year struggle for Independence.
However, like many commentators, Keneally fails to differentiate between this history and contemporary politics. The violence in the North is not just an anachronistic hangover from Irish history in the "democratic" 1990s. Particularly shallow is Keneally's suggestion that there is a possibility for constitutional reform in the North and that this possibility is being thwarted only by the armed men and women of the IRA.
The young civil rights marchers of Derry in 1969 experienced the limits of constitutional and social reform when they were beaten and stoned by loyalist thugs attempting to protect their privileges. Surely the murder of 13 unarmed protesters by British soldiers in 1972 suggests the difficulties of achieving peaceful reform in the North. The current British policy of shooting to kill suspected IRA members indicates that very little has changed.
The Republican movement is still excluded from the Anglo-Irish talks. Statements from Sinn Fein and its leadership are subject he British and Irish media. This shows a lack of seriousness on the part of both the British and Irish governments about negotiating a solution to the problems in the North.
The biggest obstacle to reform remains the loyalists' veto. While this veto remains and the loyalists are protected by British guns, they will not seriously consider negotiating away some of their privileges. Keneally ignores such questions, and this seriously undermines his attempt to understand modern Ireland. Had he spent some time with the Catholic working-class communities of the North, he might have got a better understanding of the nature of their struggle.
However, the book contains some memorable highlights. These include the account of the exploits of transported Fenians in Australia, including the famous escape from Fremantle jail on the whaler Catalpa in 1876 and the assassination attempt on Queen Victoria's son at the Sydney Suburb of Clontarf in 1869.
The book is beautifully presented and ,despite the problems with the text, the photographs alone make it a fine addition to your coffee table. One suggestion, however, is to buy The Longest War by Kevin Kelley and leave it nearby so that guests will have the opportunity to gain a real understanding of Irish politics.