Daniel Corkery (; 14 February 1878 – 31 December 1964) was an
Irish politician, writer and academic. He is known as the author of ''The Hidden Ireland'', a 1924 study of the poetry of eighteenth-century
Irish language
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
poets in Munster.
Academic career
Corkery was born in
Cork city
Cork ( ; from , meaning 'marsh') is the second-largest city in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the county town of County Cork, the largest city in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the List of settlements on the island of Ireland ...
and educated at
Presentation Brothers College before training as a teacher at
St Patrick's College, Dublin. He taught at
Saint Patrick’s School in Cork, but resigned from there in 1921 when he was refused the headmastership. Among his students there were writer
Frank O'Connor and sculptor
Seamus Murphy.
After leaving St. Patrick's, Corkery taught art for the local
technical education committee, before becoming
inspector of Irish in 1925 and Professor of English at
University College Cork
University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork.
The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...
in 1930. Among his students in UCC were
Seán Ó Tuama. Corkery was often a controversial figure in academia for his 'nativist' views on Irish literature. His views sometimes resulted in conflict with scholars of the
Irish language
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
, including
Pádraig de Brún and de Brún's niece
Máire Mhac an tSaoi. Ó Tuama, however, was a frequent defender of Corkery's reputation.
[
In his late twenties, he learnt Irish and this brought him into contact with members of the Irish language revival movement, including Terence MacSwiney, T. C. Murray and Con O'Leary, with whom he founded the Cork Dramatic Society in 1908. His plays ''Embers'' and ''The Hermit and the King'' were performed by the society. Later plays were staged at the Abbey Theatre, including ''The Labour Leader'' (1919) and ''The Yellow Bittern'' (1920). He also wrote short stories, including the collections ''A Munster Twilight'' (1916), ''The Hounds of Banba'' (1920), ''The Stormy Hills'' (1929), ''Earth Out of Earth'' (1939), ''The Wager, and other stories'' (1950), and a novel, ''The Threshold of Quiet'' (1917).][
His non-fiction included ''The Hidden Ireland'' (1924), a work about the riches of eighteenth-century Irish poetry. In this he attempted to reconstruct a worldview preserved by Gaelic poets amongst the poor and oppressed Catholic peasantry of the Penal Laws era, virtually invisible in the Anglo-Irish tradition that had dominated the writing of Irish history. "An instant, influential classic", wrote Patrick Walsh, "its version of the past provided powerful cultural underpinning to the traditional nationalist history that became, in the 1930s, the educational orthodoxy of the new state".]
Corkery lived on Gardiners Hill in Cork and in 1931 was elected president of his local GAA club, Brian Dillons.
Corkery's papers are held in the Boole Library of University College Cork
University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork.
The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...
.
Political career
He was a member of Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann ( ; ; "Senate of Ireland") is the senate of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (defined as the house of representatives).
It is commonly called the Seanad or ...
for Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland.
Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...
from 1951 to 1954 when he was nominated by the Taoiseach.
General
Every year, in the third week of July, the Daniel Corkery Summer School is held in the village of Inchigeelagh, County Cork. Activities include landscape painting, Irish translation, choral singing, lectures, sessions, and concerts.
Works
* ''A Munster Twilight'', Talbot Press, Dublin, 1917.
* ''The Threshold of Quiet'', Talbot Press, Dublin; T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1917.
* ''The Labour Leader'', Talbot Press, Dublin; T.Fisher Unwin, London, 1920
* ''The Yellow Bittern, and other plays'', Talbot Press: Dublin; T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1920.
* ''The Hounds of Banba'', Talbot Press, Dublin, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1921.
* ''I Bhreasail. A book of lyrics'', Elkin Mathews, London, 1921.
* ''The Hidden Ireland'', M. H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1924.
* ''The Stormy Hills'', Jonathan Cape: London (printed Dublin), 1929.
* ''Synge and Anglo-Irish Literature: A study'', Cork University Press, 1931.
* ''Earth out of Earth'', Talbot Press, Dublin & Cork, 1939.
* ''Resurrection'', Talbot Press: Dublin, 1942.
* ''What's this about the Gaelic League?'', Conradh na Gaeilge, Dublin, 1942.
* ''The Wager, and other stories'', illustrated by Elizabeth Rivers, Devin-Adair, New York, 1950.
* ''The Fortunes of the Irish Language'', C. J. Fallon, Dublin, 1954.
See also
* D. P. Moran
Further reading
* Laird, Heather, ''Daniel Corkery's Cultural Criticism: Selected Writings'', Cork University Press, 2012.
* Boland, Eavan, ed., ''Irish Writers on Writing'', Trinity University Press, 2007 (features Corkery).
References
Notes
Sources
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External links
Daniel Corkery's paper – UCC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corkery, Daniel
1878 births
1964 deaths
Abbey Theatre
Alumni of St Patrick's College, Dublin
Irish art educators
Fianna Fáil senators
Irish male short story writers
20th-century Irish short story writers
Irish schoolteachers
Members of the 7th Seanad
Nominated members of Seanad Éireann
Writers from Cork (city)
People associated with University College Cork
People educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork
20th-century Irish male writers