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1. Sara Brady is Lecturer in Drama Studies at Trinity College Dublin.
She is a former Managing Editor of The Drama Review (TDR) in New York
and the Founding Editor of the Irish Studies journal Foilsiú. In the
most recent issue of TDR (Winter 2007, Volume 51, Issue Number 4, page
162) she has an article/review on a performance of "Cargo Sofia: A
Bulgarian Truck Ride through Dublin." Obtaining her ticket from the
Project Arts Centre, she and other audience members went to an
industrial area near the old but "restored" Custom House Quay where
they boarded a large white "truck." Sara noted that there wasn't any
"cargo in the truck. Instead, there are rows of seats. For
audiences. An entirely different kind of cargo."
Sara continues: "The (real) truck drivers wear microphone earpieces
so we can hear them tell us, via our translator, that we are in Sofia,
Bulgaria, ready to start our journey to Dublin, Ireland. The journey
will take seven days. I'm distracted ... I give up on my need to
jump out of the container. I start listening to our drivers ..."
The truck allowed limited visibility for the audience. Instead, they
watched video-projections of scenes from eastern Europe as they
listened to the Bulgarian drivers tell stories drawn from their own
work experience. Though the truck itself did nothing but move in and
around the familiar streets of Dublin, Sara and others indicated that
by the end of the performance they were disoriented and could only
think of themselves as having been somewhere in eastern Europe.
Sara concluded: "CARGO SOFIA works in layers of story and spectacle.
While imagining we are somewhere else using the materiality of where
we 'are,' new stories emerge."
2. Last year a friend of mine at Cornell University told me of a
lecture there by a visiting Irish scholar, a political economist
(sadly, I have forgotten his name). This Irish economist described in
detail the economic changes in Ireland in recent years, the impact on
Ireland of the New Europe and the increasing "globalization" of the
economy, etc. He also described the impact within Ireland of the
increasing immigration into the country of large numbers of East
Europeans. "Not since the 17th Century has Ireland seen the influx of
such large numbers of people who do not share the accepted sense or
tradition of Irishness." Indeed, the old divides of protestant and
catholic, the Gaeltacht or the Pale, seem quite irrelevant in the new
context. In recent years there have been open conflicts in more than
one part of Ireland, conflicts between the new immigrants and the Old
"Irish." At least one of those conflicts was reported internationally
by news-media.
3. On the various Irish language E-lists, Gaeilge-B, etc., I recall
in 2000 and 2001 especially the presence of numbers of East Europeans.
Indeed, these lists were not dominated (as we might suppose) by
Irish-Americans, Irish-Australians, or persons in County Galway.
These lists seemed to be dominated by East Europeans. So, not
surprisingly, the political and social attitudes and points-of-view
were not always traditionally "Irish." Indeed, in opposition, some
people left Gaeilge-B because of this. Nevertheless, to prepare for
immigration into Ireland, there were/are East Europeans prepared to
learn Irish. I have no doubt that there are more Irish-speakers among
the Polish immigrants than there are amongst the Pure "Irish"
anti-immigrants who oppose the influx of the Poles because they are
NOT "Irish."
4. In my book INCONGRUITIES, a collection of short stories published
in England in 2005, the first story is called "The Tower of Ballylee."
However, the Tower as described in the story would not be
recognizable to Yeats, and the Ireland described is skinned alive of
the Victorian imagery that most people associate with "Irishness." It
is an Ireland totally altered by the New Europe and the New Europeans.
Even the "poetry" is skinned alive.
5. Oliver Goldsmith, Maria Edgeworth, Geoffrey Keating, etc., etc.,
and Yeats himself, described an Ireland as it was changing, an Ireland
as it was encountered by them. More often than not it was an Ireland
at odds with tradition and cliché, an Ireland that was
"international."
6. Maria Edgeworth oversaw personally the education of my
great-grandfather Michael O'Halpin. And Michael, for anyone
interested, is described on the very first page of Thomas Merton's
"The Waters of Siloe."
7. In 1870, three of Michael O'Halpin's brothers emigrated to
Argentina. Indeed, at the time, a considerable number of young
"Irish" people from County Longford and adjoining counties emigrated
to Argentina. To this day the Irish of Argentina retain their
"Irishness." Generation after generation, they have retained their
own "Irish" customs and identity, including the daily use of "Irish"
English as well as Gaeilge. They have their own newspaper, The
Southern Cross. Etc., etc.
So, are these people Argentinians? The dictator Peron did not think
so. Whenever the fascists or the military have been in ascendency in
Argentina, these "Irish" have been ostracized and persecuted. But
where are the publishers or writers in Ireland, innovative or
mainstream or otherwise, who have been willing to examine or report
the stories of these "Irish" in Argentina? Like the Polish "Irish" of
today in Ireland, the "Irish" of Argentina are not regarded as being
"truly" Irish.
8. I remember a time in 1978 when my friend Rob walked me to the
train-station in Belfast. (I was taking the train to Dublin.) At
that time Belfast was divided by metal barricades every few blocks.
As we passed through one barricade after the other, I was searched to
the skin but Rob was not searched at all. Finally, I demanded to know
why they weren't searching Rob. Somewhat sheepishly I was told that
"well, he's an American"! (Rob has lived in Belfast most of his life
and, to this day, has never set foot in America.)
9. In 1972, no one questioned my Irishness as I participated in the
Newry march or other protest-events of the Northern Ireland civil
rights movement! No one asked to see my passport as I protested in
Belfast on May 6th, 1981 against the circumstances surrounding the
death of Bobby Sands! (For your information, I carry an Irish
passport as well as a U.S. passport.) Sadly, however, I have lived
long enough to see myself become a "man without a country" ... whether
I will it or not. For it is said by some, whether "innovative" or
"mainstream," that I am not "truly" Irish, not "purely" Irish. My
sister says that we are The Last of the Mohicans.
Yours internationally,
Séamas Cain
http://alazanto.org/seamascain
http://seamascain.writernetwork.com
http://www.mnartists.org/Seamas_Cain
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