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by Séamus Ó. Grianna (Author)
IARSCRÍBHINN
Rereading Saol Corrach I am struck not so much by the detail of the narrative as by the role of a writer like Ó Grianna in forming the consciousness of his readers. His language is free-flowing and personal, yet the repetition of phrases and expressions creates a continual series of fasteners linking present narrative to the words of parents and grandparents, and beyond to the stories of the Fiannaíocht and the words of the poets. It is language as a medium of continuity and identity.
The second element which calls for notice is Máire's view of the story as an educational medium. His own examples of the use of story, including the section on Mitchell's Jail Journal, make it clear that he is not concerned with any kind of disinterested literary analysis, but rather with story as enculturation, an almost Scriptural 'This is the kind of people we belong to'.
In all of this the mind of the writer becomes the vehicle for an interpretation of life situation and the day to day experiences of his readers. It is an interpretation which is particularly applied to the areas of education and politics - in which 'Máire' is deeply interested and which are, to him, inseparable. In spite of his strong personal convictions the source of his interpretation is somewhere beyond himself: he speaks as a prophet from the midst of his people, from a tradition that he has himself assimilated.
Yet he frequently speaks in the strident tones of one who is alienated from the pervading culture of his time, because Séamus Ó Grianna writes in the context of a period of transition (a saol corrach both personal and national). He feels the anguish of one who sees his own traditions disintegrating and yet who despises the artificiality of many of the efforts at reconstruction as well as the slave mentality of those who have lost their own sense of identity and can look only to Britain for what is culturally and politically normative.
While we look back from a plateau of much greater tolerance and sophistication, we would do well to admit that some of the basic questions of Ó Grianna's era remain unanswered, some of the dreams unfulfilled.
Oilibhéar Ó Croiligh
