Irish Short Story

Short stories have a distinctive place in the modern Irish literary tradition. Many of Ireland's best writers, both in English and Irish, have been practitioners of the form.

Origins

It is possible that the Irish short story evolved naturally from the ancient tradition of oral storytelling in Ireland. The written word has been cultivated in Ireland since the introduction of the Roman alphabet by the Christian missionaries in the fifth century. But oral storytelling continued independently up to the twentieth century and survived the general switch from the Irish to the English language. By the mid-nineteenth century Irish writers had begun to use the English language to record the lives, and to convey the thoughts of the ordinary people – mostly impoverished peasants – and to address themselves to an Irish readership. The most popular literary form to emerge from this development was the tale, and the most notable practitioner was William Carleton (1794–1869), author of '' Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry'' (1830).

The modern Irish short story

Stories in English

An early example in Ireland is George Moore's collection of stories ''The Untilled Field'' (1903), which deal with themes of clerical interference in the daily lives of the Irish peasantry, and of the issue of emigration. The stories were originally written for translation into Irish, in order to serve as models for other writers working in the language. Three of the translations were published in the ''New Ireland Review'', but publication was then paused due to a perceived anti-clerical sentiment. In 1902 the entire collection was translated by Tadhg Ó Donnchadha and Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin, and published in a parallel-text edition by the Gaelic League as ''An-tÚr-Ghort''. Moore later revised the texts for the English edition. These stories were influenced by Turgenev's ''A Sportsman's Sketches'', a book recommended to Moore by W. K. Magee, a sub-librarian of the National Library of Ireland, and had earlier suggested that Moore "was best suited to become Ireland's Turgenev". The tales are recognised by some as representing the birth of the Irish short story as a literary genre.Gilcher, Edwin (September 2004; online edn, May 2006
"Moore, George Augustus (1852–1933)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, , retrieved 2008-01-07 (Subscription required)

On 7 January 1904 Joyce attempted to publish an essay-story, "A Portrait of the Artist", dealing with aesthetics, only to have it rejected by the free-thinking magazine ''Dana''. He decided, on his twenty-second birthday, to revise the story into a novel he called ''Stephen Hero'', which was later re-written as ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man''. It was in 1905 that Joyce first attempted to get his famous collection of stories ''Dubliners'' published, and only after many attempts was it published in 1914.

One tradition of Irish storytelling is that it's passed down from ear to ear without being written down. Storytellers who recite these tales are known as Seanchaí. Examples of Seanchaí are Edmund Lenihan and Eamon Kelly (actor)

Liam O'Flaherty published his first collection, ''Spring Sowing'', in 1924, depicting the harsh life of his native Aran Islands.

Daniel Corkery, ''A Munster Twilight'' (1916), was the first of a group of writers from County Cork. Seán Ó Faoláin, whose first collection ''Midsummer Night Madness'', 1932, was another member of this group, as was Frank O'Connor. His first collection was ''Guests of the Nation'', 1931. The work of this "Cork school" continued with Elizabeth Bowen (1899 – 1973), first collection ''Encounters'', 1923, in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

Important writers have continued writing stories, from the 1960s on, including Cónal Creedon, Benedict Kiely, Mary Lavin, John McGahern, and Michael McLaverty

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