Aubane Versus Oxford: a Response to Professor Roy Foster and Bernard O'donoghue

Aubane versus Oxford: a response to Professor Roy Foster and Bernard O'Donoghue ISBN 1 903497 08 6 Aubane Historical Society, Aubane, Millstreet, Co. Cork. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Jack Lane 5 AISLING FOSTER AND HER LITERARY EFFORTS Julianne Herlihy 8 REVIEW OF ROY FOSTERS BOOK: "The Irish Story: Telling Tales and making it up in Ireland":- 1. Different worlds 11 2. Revisionism - its origins? 18 3. Where are we going? 24 4. Enter Bernard O'Donoghue 29 Brendan Clifford STICKING TO THE PAST Thomas Bartlett 36 VARIETIES OF IRISHNESS Bernard O'Donoghue 39 ROY FOSTER - FEAR NA MEARACAN, (THIMBLERIGGER) Seoirse O Luasa 40 INDEX 42 4 INTRODUCTION "Aubane versus Oxford: a response to Professor Roy Foster and Bernard O'Donoghue" e were rather surprised to see a declared herself to be Irish; an Irish writer for number of references to the Aubane the most part but she pretended to be a social W Historical Society in Professor Roy worker when she tried to deceive Archbishop Foster's recent book, "The Irish Story: Telling John Charles McQuaid. Tales and Making It Up in Ireland." (Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, £20). Foster is the When the job was done, and she no Carroll (builders) Professor of Irish History longer had an interest in the country and at Oxford University and the doyen of the putting on a facade, she sold her house, revisionist school of Irish history. Bowenscourt, knowing it would be destroyed. None of the references were She probably believed, like her friend complimentary and included accusations of us Virginia Woolf, that it was really only "a stone being 'shadowy', 'eccentric', keeping Elizabeth box". It meant absolutely nothing to her when Bowen 'front North Cork sensibilities', it had served its purpose. She died expressing misrepresenting her activities during the war her hatred of Ireland and all things Irish. All when she was, according to Foster, "warmly this is straightforward and perfectly defending neutrality, as an Irishwoman, despite understandable. The only mystery is why so the Aubane Historical Society's accusations of many Irish people today among the chattering espionage for a foreign power". But the main classes insist on treating her as Irish. criticism, and what really upsets Foster and others, is that we said Elizabeth Bowen was We did not avoid publicising Ms. English in our 'North Cork Anthology' Bowen or suppress information about her.. We published in 1993. gave extracts of her writings in the Anthology and these were probably the first that almost When it comes to what nationality a anyone in North Cork had read of her work. person is we take the straightforward view that Ms. Bowen was a totally unknown quantity in it is what a person says and does that counts. I the area of which she is supposed to be think it is the Americans who have a saying that representative. if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and does all the things that ducks do This was confirmed recently in the then it is almost certainly a duck. That is our autobiography of one of her most enthusiastic approach to Bowen. devotees, Donncha O Dulaing, who comes from within a stone's throw of what was the Bowen It is not for anyone to impose a demesne but had never heard of her until a nationality on a person. Bowen described how Professor in UCC suggested that he, as a she felt she had come home when she moved to mature student, do a postgraduate thesis on England as a young girl and exulted in that her. (Perhaps we will discover the thesis some feeling. She volunteered to spy for the British day). Government during the Second World War in Ireland and in a series of secret reports kept the We went further in enlightening our British Government fully informed of feelings readers, publishing all her spy reports that we in Ireland about the war and how carefully an could locate, which none of her admirers have invasion would have to be handled if it proved done, even though they are very interesting necessary. She may have been involved in other historical documents written during her finest activities as well but by the nature of things hour. (Ms. Bowen could write fact and fiction this is not easy to establish. with equal skill). This is hardly the behaviour of people who are preventing people knowing To do this work effectively she needed, about Ms. Bowen. If we could get more of her like all good spies, an effective cover, and she reports, possibly hundreds all told, we would 5 gladly publish them all as useful historical There is nothing in these secret reports material. that she sent to Whitehall, or in any other published writings, to suggest that she ever Foster says that during the war she was wavered in her absolute allegiance to the not working for a foreign government. In other sovereign authority of the British Government. words, according to him, she worked for the real government of Ireland, the British At the end of the war, Churchill, her Government. This will come as news to many hero, re-asserted Britain's right to occupy people who were under the impression that the Ireland if it needed to. If he had decided during Irish Government and the Dail were in charge the war that an invasion of Ireland was of Ireland before, during and after the war. But necessary, and if Bowen had chanced to be in Foster knows better. I wonder what he thinks Ireland at the time, can there be any serious the War of Independence was all about? doubt about whose side she would have been We are described as being 'shadowy' yet Foster gives our full, correct, address. We The Irish public, quite rightly, did not are on the phone, on the Internet and on email believe the yarn that Britain had gone to war and I would say we are at least as easy to for the sake of humanity, or to help the Poles contact, and get to know about, as Professor (whom they had left in the lurch after leading Foster. This is our 36th publication and them on with an offer of military assistance), or shadowy people arc not usually so keen to set the Jews, or anyone else. And Bowen didn't out their store as often or as fully and as really believe any of these things either. She publicly as we have done. supported the British Empire at war because it was the British Empire, and it was at war, and A few years ago Mary Ellen Synon got she was British. upset about the same issue regarding Bowen as Professor Foster does and she simply picked up She had no conscience about the the phone and gave us a piece of her mind. The deceptions she practiced in order to find out compliment was returned. If Foster wanted to what various people in Ireland were thinking. check up on how 'shadowy' we are, he should Spies don't. People arc aiming to an end for have copied Mary Ellen. Whatever her faults, them and their state looks after their conscience Mary Ellen had that upfront, in-your-face, for them. American style and it was a very refreshing experience in comparison with the Foster style of sneers and snide remarks - which I suppose James Dillon was the only TD who could be called the Oxford style. advocated an Irish alliance with Britain at war - which in practice would have meant Ireland making itself available to Britain as a base for As for misrepresenting Bowen's military operations, because Britain had activities during the war, readers can read her prevented Ireland from building up an Army secret reports and see if they constitute spying during the 1920s and 1930s. But Dillon was or not and whether or not she favoured rather simple-minded in his understanding of neutrality and whether she included herself in Britain, and many years later was mortified the categories of Irish she described. She was when he discovered that Bowen had befriended simply describing the reality of the firm him on false pretences and that he had been conviction of everyone here - except James duped by a British agent. Dillon and a few others - that neutrality was the right policy for the country. Are we eccentric? That is a subjective She reported that hard fact to the judgment, or just vulgar abuse, and not really Ministry of Information in London. Her job - subject to rational analysis. A lot of our the job that enabled her to move back and forth readers have certainly considered us eccentric freely despite severe wartime restrictions for bothering our heads with Foster and the was to provide Whitehall with accurate other revisionists and wonder what is the point information about the state of public feeling in of doing so. But Foster and his school have Ireland so that it might make a realistic overwhelming influence over all that is calculation of the risks involved in re-occupying produced in academia here and in the UK the Irish ports. And that is what she did. on Irish history and on all the media output concerning the subject as is shown, for example, a limited audience as that of 'Oxford To-Day'. by the ecstatic reviews his book received right Let's not be, dare we say, shadowy, when across the media. For what it matters, this does dealing with these matters? have an impact even though it may be difficult to quantify, but we regard it as worth noting, This publication contains contributions at least.

Load more