Estudios Irlandeses, Number 6, 2011, pp. 140-155 ______AEDEI

IRISH STUDIES IN SPAIN – 2010 Reviews by Inés Praga-Terente

Copyright (c) 2011 by Inés Praga-Terente. This text may be archived and redistributed both in electronic form and in hard copy, provided that the authors and journal are properly cited and no fee is charged for access.

Introduction ...... ….141 Ireland and the Spanish Empire (2010) Óscar Recio Morales ...... ….143 In the Wake of the Tiger. Irish Studies in the Twentieth-First Century (2010) David Clark and Rubén Jarazo Álvarez (eds.) ...... ….145 To Banish Ghost and Goblin. New Essays on Irish Culture (2010) David Clark and Rubén Jarazo Álvarez (eds.) ...... ….147 New Perspectives on James Joyce. Ignatius Loyola, make haste to help me! (2010) Mª Luz Suárez Castiñeira, Asier Altuna García de Salazar and Olga Fernández Vicente (eds.) ...... ….148 Vigorous Joyce. Atlantic Readings of James Joyce (2010) M. Teresa Caneda Cabrera, Vanessa Silva Fernández and Martín Urdiales Shaw (eds.) ...... ….149 Creation, Publishing and Criticism. The Advance of Women’s Writing (2010) María Xesús Nogueira, Laura Lojo and Manuela Palacios (eds.) ...... ….151 To The Winds Our Sails. Irish Writers Translate Galician Poetry (2010) Mary O’Donnell and Manuela Palacios (eds.) ...... ….152 ITeaching Ireland: New Didactic Approaches to Cultural, Linguistic and Literary Issues (2010) Maria Losada Friend (coordinator/ editor) ...... ….153 An Introduction to Irish English (2010) Carolina P. Amador-Moreno ...... ….154

Introduction It is without hesitation that we say the year 2010 golden era pages, then the severe crisis of 2010 will have a prominent place in the annals of Irish has again directed the world’s attention towards history: if the great prosperity known as the this small island, but this time directing its gaze “miracle” of the Celtic Tiger, which the country towards its darker pages. The news of the austere enjoyed in previous years, was captured in its adjustment plan that the government of B. Cowen ______ISSN 1699-311X 141

had to take on – cutting salaries, cutting up throughout history, coinciding with new and pensions, job losses and other measures – has crucial chapters. Today, in early 2011, we are culminated in the bringing forward of the starting another. elections, with early 2011 threatening to wrestle Therefore, the first step would be to have an the power from Fianna Fail, the party which accurate and reliable diagnosis of “Post-Celtic drew up the constitution and which has held Tiger Ireland” and that is the goal of two books power for 83 years. Moreover, the grim situation edited by David Clark and Ruben Jarazo: In the heralds the revival of that Irish tradition, as Wake of the Tiger. Irish Studies in the Twentieth- historic as it is painful: migration. It is estimated First Century and To Banish Ghost and Goblin. that in the near future 100,000 people will leave New Essays on Irish Culture. The editors make the country, which is nothing less than 2.2% of clear in their respective introductions that the the population. There is no doubt that history economic and financial euphoria is now long repeats itself and that is precisely why we will gone and now it is time to assess the effects of have to draw on some of the most important disappointment and even search for antidotes lessons from history in order to face these tough against anger and disenchantment. It is no times. coincidence that one of these books uses as an By chance a brilliant book reviewed below, introduction and soundtrack The Rocky Road to Ireland and the Spanish Empire, draws attention Dublin (in order to understand that once again to the complexity and diversity that is inherent in the road to Dublin becomes hard and stony), the term migration. Its author, Oscar Recio, while taking the pulse of literature, music, proclaims the importance and role of all who are movies and other socio-cultural events such as involved, although some of these groups appear football. One of the volumes also tackles the irrelevant: “groups which did not necessarily situation in the north, whose progress towards represent any officially recognized foreign peace and disarmament coincided with the authority, but they were well represented in the prosperity of the South and somehow seemed to Spanish court, a relationship of a type evidencing complete the rain of hope that fell on the island ‘informal influence’, ‘informal presence’”. Recio in the twenty-first century. The book’s ambitious stresses the importance of the other Irish people, goal is only partially achieved for despite those who were invisible compared to the glory, covering interesting aspects the collection of heroism and fame of the famous “Wild Geese”. essays still leaves key areas unexplored. However, as the author himself says, “not all In the production reviewed here there are two Irish migrants were soldiers, neither were they volumes devoted to Joyce, New Perspectives on all men, nor did all obtain honours and James Joyce. Ignatius Loyola, make haste to help integration. They faced social exclusion and me! and Vigorous Joyce. Atlantic Readings of conflict is another key feature of Irish migration James Joyce, which honour his claim that his and assimilation in Spain.” critics would be occupied for at least 200 years, The metaphor of the “wild geese” is applicable while at the same time recovering par excellence to Ireland’s Celtic Tiger in the sense that, despite the “migrant Irish”. Joyce immortalized the exhibiting both the shine of prosperity and tradition of leaving “the old sow that eats her success, the Ireland of the twenty-first century is farrow”, although it may have been for reasons made up of “groups of informal presence and quite different from those that could be given informal influence” which have been echoed in today. Of course, it is no accident that the the work of Spanish critics in 2010. The output Joycean baton is picked up in Deusto and Vigo: of the year allows us to calibrate that other the first name, with direct associations to the “hidden Ireland” which undoubtedly existed – Society of Jesus, contextualizes us in one of the and exists – behind the financial glamour. For if institutions and traditions, which were most Ireland ever needed the keys to its identity(ies), involved in forging not only the Irish writer’s now is the time, when, once again it must training but also his conscience. In the case of reinvent itself, make way for the other New Vigo, because the authors put forward another of Ireland(s) that are born in new eras and new the umbilical cords that connect Spain with spaces. The art of naming Ireland has been built Mother Ireland (in this case the Atlantic) Joyce 142

lands metaphorically in Vigo in 1926, when they Literary Issue creates some expectations. But the were translating into Galician some fragments of volume discussed here is certainly basic and is Ulysses. From Vigo we are continually and intended solely for the purpose of updating and vigorously encouraged to keep reading, enjoying clarifying our notion of the Ireland of today and and decoding a work as powerful as it is the path that it has had to take. It is a manual, not inextinguishable. However, the Atlantic as a a book of criticism, though a few of its metaphor and literary reference goes beyond contributions are valuable as part of our teaching Joyce: the two books coedited by Manuela in the classroom, an activity not so much valued Palacios, insist on the idea of Galicia and Ireland as it should be. as “sister lands located on the Atlantic coast of With much greater depth, yet also retaining a Western Europe” with so many aspects in clear didacticism, Carolina Amador’s common such as bilingualism, the influence of Introduction to Irish English, is a well- the Catholic Church, emigration, Celticism, or documented and really valuable contribution, the passive role of the woman. with a remarkable balance between theory and In Creation, Publishing and Criticism. The practice that goes beyond language instruction. Advance of Women’s Writing the words “own The book can be read as an interesting anthology experience” are repeated time and again, of the most varied texts, a manual for English as favouring the “live” testimony of Galician and a Foreign Language (especially for those who Irish women writers and giving voice to groups plan to visit Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland!), a history that are generally “secondary” in literary of the English language, but, above all, a fun and creation, such as publishers or critics and making updated X-ray of Ireland today and the them “surmount old obstacles of mutual mistrust perception it has of itself. In this way, we learn by bringing together criticism by academics and such curious things as the British belief that journalists as well as writers’, publishers’ and “Irish accents are considered to be the sexiest theatre directors’ self-reflective collaborations.” and the friendliest”, actor Colin Farrell being We share the view of the Preface’s author, Luz mentioned as a good illustration of both. Pozo Garza, that the book will allow readers to I do not hesitate to admit that the “harvest” of see not only how writers, publishers and critics 2010 is varied, heterogeneous and irregular, as often join forces to transform the literary Ireland is itself and if I had to include here a type system, but also how they may occasionally have of “reviewer’s lament”, it would be as follows: conflicts of interest and expectations that are why are Spanish academics so reluctant to name difficult to accommodate. The “twin” volume, their compatriots in the bibliography (naturally, To The Winds Our Sails. Irish Writers Translate with honorable exceptions!)? Why is a work Galician Poetry, “a journey through Languages” always preferable, or more valued (undoubtedly in the words of Michael Cronin, helps us cross valuable as well) if it comes from foreign the Atlantic in the opposite direction, from the scholars? One other lesson to learn, again related female Galician writers’ poems to their version with the legend of the “Wild Geese”: they were in English and Irish from renowned Irish female not all heroes and worthy of honor, despite their poets. “A two-way channel between our cultures fame. There were many others who, although not has been forged”, Mary O’Donnell proudly as visible or as decorated, also wrote, and even proclaims, and translation acts here as the ideal changed, History. vehicle to gauge the literary space of a text by Recio Morales, Óscar. 2008. Ireland and the assuming that, as O’Donnell says, “in the times Spanish Empire. 1600-1825. Dublin: Four of local and global, anything entailing exchange Courts Press, 2010. ISBN 978-i-84682-183-7 and mutual dialogue must be by all means favoured.” According to Ciaran Brady, the author of the One wonders if a certain didacticism is preface of the book, one of the features of truly appropriate in times of crisis and in this sense distinguished scholarship in not only that it the volume titled Teaching Ireland: New offers new evidence and new perspectives but Didactic Approaches to Cultural, Linguistic and also that it raises a further set of challenges 143

demanding further research and further thought. orders, scholars, soldiers, sailors –, played a role This is the case of Oscar Recio’s volume, a in shaping the way in which the traditional work based on a solid foundation of original dynasties and new states evolved and the way research, which Brady defines as a “major they related to one another. For the Irish of the contribution in the study of early modern history early modern world, those who moved frequently in the last decade.” He argues that scholarly between home and exile, occupied a cultural and interest used to remain steadily focused within ideological environment that was far more the traditional framework of Anglo Irish complex and uncertain than the comforting relations and that horizons were somewhat polarities of the Anglo Irish conflict. Now they narrow. Historians had discussed the effects represent our surest guides to a world long which the extraordinary experience of the obscured and almost lost which we are only now Spanish in the new world had on English recovering and Recio’s book marks a major step attitudes toward Ireland in the 16th and 17th in this process of recovery precisely for centuries, with an important influence in the his audacious and ambitious undertaking. process of aggression and exploitation which The book is structured in five chapters with an occurred in Ireland at that time. But despite that, impressive breadth of scope. Earlier research into their concern was to understand English attitudes the history of the Irish in Spain have tended to be rather than the European influences that may (or focused on the individual, on the particular may not) have shaped them. In the 1970s and 80s group, the celebrated occasion or the significant Irish historiographical interest in the influence of event. In Recio’s impressive breadth of coverage th Western Europe on Ireland remained a minority – from the beginning of the 17 century to the th concern, sustained mainly by individual scholars, beginning of the 19 –, every phase of the Irish military historians and above all historians of experience in Habsburg and Bourbon Spain has the religious orders. Brady emphasizes the been reviewed with fresh perspective. His two th efforts of James Hogan, Richard Hayes, Brendan chapters on the 17 c – “Philip III of Spain and Jennings between the 1920s and 1940s or later Ireland, 1602-1621: a non-conventional reign” John Silke and Micheline Kerney – Walsh in and “Natural Allies? Irish expectations and the 1960s and 70s and Gráinne Henry to keep a Spanish exhaustion, 1621-1690” –, prove how European perspective. But only in the past dozen different were the fortunes, the attitudes and the years were increased the feeling of Ireland’s strategies for survival in the complex significance within Europe and the opportunities, circumstances of Spain. The chapters on the th challenges and dangers which this new form of late 18th and early 19 centuries – “Renewing identity entailed. In addition, there was generous Loyalty: the Irish Community in Eighteenth support for research within the humanities with Century Spain, 1691-1754” and “the Irish Hour European perspectives, and from such public in Spain, 1754-1825” – reveal the great fortunes funding a number of important initiatives of those Irishmen who continue to operate as an concerning the history of Ireland’s links with the identifiable group, even as they sought continent took shape, Oscar Recio’s included. acceptance into the ancient régime. And most Needless to say all this implied internal changes tantalizing is Recios’s conclusion on the within the world of historical scholarship itself, experience and remarkable success of the Irish above all an increasing awareness of the émigré community in Spanish America and the inadequacy of the old framework of Anglo Irish role of the Irish in the revolutionary movements relations, parallel with a similar dissatisfaction of Latin America, as discussed in the final among continental scholars with the chapter. interpretative framework of dynastic struggles In his Introduction Oscar Recio provides some and nation-state formation which had for so long keys concerning the title of the book. According dominated research. Out of this there has arisen a to him, a Spanish version of the book would not greater awareness of the degree to which groups have this title but it would use the term which transcended national and dynastic monarquía because in a strict sense there was boundaries – merchants, members of religious no Spanish Empire and there was no imperial school theory nor imperial history at all. 144

“Imperio” and “imperial” were invalidated words rewrite the history of the Irish migration and to under Franco’s regime, and from 1960 onwards redefine the nature of the links between Ireland only the English speaking world uses this and the Spanish Empire. An ambitious terminology, the major contribution arriving undertaking in which Recio has definitely from English speaking historians. But historians succeeded, providing us not only with a brilliant must bear in mind the global and international academic contribution but also with another way dimension of a multi kingdom monarchy and the of looking back to our history and, above all, to part played by other territories or nations in the our relations with Ireland. imperial venture is essential. Balance is difficult, Clark, David and Rubén Jarazo Álvarez since in the 19th century foreigners were either (eds.). 2010. In the Wake of the Tiger. Irish obscure or presented as pernicious. Studies in the Twentieth-First Century. A Recio also clarifies that it may appear Coruña: NETBIBLO, ISBN: 978-84-9745- disproportionate when compared with the 547-3 historical links between Ireland and the British Empire. From the outset it is important to point The two volumes In the Wake of the Tiger. Irish out – he remarks – that Madrid’s interest in Studies in the Twentieth-First Century and To Ireland was not to incorporate the island into the Banish Ghost and Goblin. New Essays on Irish immense conglomerate of kingdoms which we Culture are a new addition to the Amergin Irish call today the Spanish monarchy. The Spanish Studies series and a good sample of its fertile empire was really established on a basis of productivity. Being complementary, they share a inheritance rather than one of conquest. And purpose clearly stated in their introductions: to there was no success for the attempts and offers present a collection of studies by scholars being made by the Irish themselves to working from the perspective of the end of the incorporate the kingdom of Ireland into their first decade in the 21st century. territories. Successive offers were treated with In the Wake of the Tiger makes its objectives caution by Felipe II o ignored by Felipe III or clear from the very beginning: “to assess the Felipe IV, offers which coincided with crisis and current state of Irish writing, language, music, were made also to the French. It is also worth cinema etc., and what these cultural mentioning that the date span chosen for the manifestations mean in the current political and book (1600-1825) is not that normally associated economic climate. Needless to say they refer to with the zenith of Spanish power. Quite the the period in which the optimism of the years of opposite, these were the years of its long death the Celtic Tiger has turned into frustration and agony. deception as the country faces the economic Recio focuses on Ireland’s links to Spain crisis which started around 2007. In summary, beyond the strict framework of the Spanish the two volumes attempt to diagnose the present composite monarchy and pays attention to other illness of the country while looking at the relationships of “informal influence” and difficult past beyond it and, if possible, to give “informal presence”. Old historiography stressed some prescriptions to heal it. Nothing to do with famous battles and illustrious individuals, many the times in which the Celtic Tiger was at its of them labelled with the romantic name of “wild peak. geese”. He emphasizes their connotations of In the Wake of the Tiger is divided into four military, nationalist, victimist, antagonistic, areas: Trauma Studies, Ireland Abroad, masculine, heroic and noble but the term, when Audiovisual Ireland and Irish Studies and The confronted with the complexity of Irish Tiger, each chapter accompanied by lyrics from migration to the continent, is totally songs by Damien Dempsey, an author very close anachronistic and reductive. As Recio to the times we are referring to. proclaims, not all Irish migrants were soldiers, In the first section – Trauma Studies – neither were they all men, nor did all obtain Constanza del Río Álvaro’s “Trauma Studies and honours and integration. To consider conflict as a the Contemporary Irish Novel” creates the key word is a starting point proposed by Recio to proper atmosphere when she ratifies “the 145

cultural and psychological need to revisit the excellent contribution, “The Glocalisation of historical past”, mainly in William Trevor and Contemporary Irish Cinema” proposes a brilliant the big house novel and evoking “the need to “portmanteaux term” to analyse the balance of bear witness to an uncertain event”, that is to say, the local and the global in contemporary films to insanity, dysfunctional families, sexual abuse, and to measure the fruitful perspectives it opens incest, rape or vicious and sectarian contexts. for the “the Irish cinema to be ‘accented’, Trevor and Lucy Gault are also dealt with by without having to align itself with the aesthetics Raquel Paradela Macía in “Gothic Traces in and market imperatives of Hollywood.” Shane Contemporary Irish Novel: The Case of The Walshe’s “What about the Celtic Tiger Economy Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor”, mainly Boom Thing? Examining the Changing Face of tracing the history of the gothic tradition and its Ireland in the Film When Brendan Met Trudy resources whereas María Jesús Lorenzo Modia’s reveals the darker side of the Celtic Tiger “Invalids in War: Illness and the Irish Conflict In Ireland, mainly when compared with other Medbh McGuckian” deals with the different contemporary films. levels of violence in that “catalyzer for illness” The final section, Irish Studies and The Tiger, that is Medbh McGukian. Not at all less begins with a convincing diagnosis of traumatic is the tradition and aims of the hunger multicultural Ireland in a joint study of Luz Mar strikes that F. Stuart Ross analyses in “Hunger González Arias, Marisol Morales Ladrón and Striking and the Irish: Myths and Realities” Asier Altuna-García de Salazar in “The New according to the author “a last ditch attempt in a Irish: Towards a Multicultural Literature in desperate struggle”, and a historical tool present Ireland?”. An X-ray photography both of the in other conflict situations such as Palestinian new Irish literature and the new Irish in the lost revolts or the revolutionary European left and by Celtic Tiger period is provided, ranging from no means an exclusively Irish practice. multicultural theory to the post-tiger novel in Ireland abroad includes two studies about the Roddy Doyle and the “ethnic minorities” of international echoes of Irish writers: first Ireland. A completely different scope is that of Carmen María Fernández Rodríguez traces the Ciaran Dawson in “Change of Ownership”, German translation of Castle Rackrent in 1802 discussing the position and role of the Irish and its reliability in “Edgeworth in Germany: language and followed by another two insights: Recovering Schloss Rackrent 1802”. A different José Miguel Alonso Giráldez’ recommendation lens – that of dictatorship – is applied to the of O’Donoghue’s selected poem in “On analysis of Alberto Lázaro Lafuente in “Spanish Occasion of the Launch of “Selected Poems”: Readings of Le Fanu’s “Carmilla” concerning Revisiting Bernard O’Donoghue’s Early Poetry” the reception of Carmilla in Franco’s Spain. The and Margarita Estevez Saa’s “Antidotes to Celtic following essays, Alfred Markey’s – “Beyond Tiger Ireland in Contemporary Irish Fiction: the Commuter Pale: Borderlands and Anne Haverty’s The Free and Easy, and Éillís Ní Authenticity in the Recent Short Fiction of Claire Dhuibne’s Fox. Swallow, Scarecrow”, one of the Keegan and John MacKenna” and Eva Roa best essays of the volume, where she brilliantly White’s “From Emigration to Immigration: argues that these works represent the weak and Irishness in The Irish Short Stories of Sarah fragile side of the otherwise glamorous daily life Orne Jewett and Roddy Doyle’s The Deportees” in Ireland. – draw new Irish profiles. As we suggested above, the book only The three studies of Audiovisual Ireland cover partially fulfills the expectations it created. the fields of music and film studies, two main While the diagnosis of post Celtic Tiger is axis of contemporary Ireland, the first well insightfully laid out in the pieces by Constanza represented by the paper of Matteo Cullen – del Río Álvaro, Rosa González Casademont, “Emerging Patterns: Irish Rock Music, 1968- Ciaran Dawson, Margarita Estevez Saá, Marisol 78”— and his survey of Irish rock music in the Morales Ladrón, Asier Altuna-García de Salazar decade 1968-78, a landmark for further times and Luz Mar González Arias other contributions and production. Rosa González Casademont’s are only tangentially related to the topic. 146

Clark, David and Rubén Jarazo Álvarez Antonia Sagredo Santo’s “From Ireland to (eds.). 2010. To Banish Ghost and Goblin. New America: The Main Irish Migratory Trend and its Essays on Irish Culture. A Coruña: Contribution to the United States’ Culture” and NETBIBLO, ISBN: 978-84-9745-501-5 Patricia Trainor de la Cruz’s “Ireland and Scotland: Two Countries Divided by a Common The sister volume – To Banish Ghost and Language”. Goblin. New Essays on Irish Culture -is The following section, Northern Ireland, was introduced by the lyrics of the song “Rocky meant to complete the ongoing debate, (so Road to Dublin”, perfectly illustrating that – as intensely focused on the Republic that very often the authors clarify – despite the prosperity and the North is absolutely forgotten), given the celebrity of Ireland at that time – U2, temporal coincidence of the Peace Process and Riverdance, cultural vitality, the great status of the economic boom in the Republic. Therefore Irish studies –, the road to the construction of Esther Aliaga Rodrigo writes on the wall murals this new Ireland has been, however, a rocky one. – “Painting History: Murals in Northern Ireland Scholars pay attention to the rapid and often –, Stephanie Schwerter on the influence of traumatic changes in the social fabric of Ireland Europe on Northern Irish poets – “Europeanizing in 6 six sections: Irish Literature, Gender Northern Irish Poetry”: From Paulin to Pushkin” Studies, Ireland Abroad, Northern Ireland, – and the traveler community is analyzed by Audiovisual Reconstruction and New Andrea Redmon in “Cultural Representation of Approaches in Irish Studies. Nomadic Culture in Northern Ireland Legislation Irish literature is a varied mosaic of and Media.” approaches and discussions: José Manuel Audiovisual Reconstruction gathers another Estévez-Saá’s “Joseph O’Connor and the World two essays centered on music and cinema. Carlos of the New Irish Male”, Munira H. Mutran’s Seco González in “‘If you know your history’ “Paul Durcan’s Poetry-a Self-Portrait in Celtic FC and Irish Rebel Songs: Identity Contemporary Ireland”, Benigno del Río Formation and Politics” discusses the importance Molina’s “Sacred-Erotic Beauty in Joyce’s and legitimacy of Irish rebel songs in the history “Nausicaa”, Manuela Susana Domínguez Pena’s and current search for identity of the Celtic “Tradition versus Innovation: The Art of football club. Guillermo Iglesias Díaz, on his Reconciling a Dichotomy” and Aida Rosende part, traces the building of a nation through the Pérez’s “Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s Fox, Swallow, cinema of the last century in “A Century of Scarecrow: Visions and Revisions of (and from) Cinematographic Re-constructions of Ireland: a Changing Nation”, each ranges widely in Building a Nation”. interest. The same criteria applies to the next Finally in New Approaches to Irish Studies, section, Gender Studies, which includes María Anne MacCarthy evokes James Stpehens’s Armental Romero’s “Daddy says I mustn’t tell figure and role in anthologies in “James Stephens because it’s a secret. The Subversion of the Irish and the Chronological Layout of Irish Father-Daughter Creed in Lia Mill’s Another Anthologies, Asier Altuna-García de Salazar’s Alice”, Andrés Palacios Pablos’s “A Focus on “Marsha Merhan and Multiculturalism in Irish Brian Moore’s Female Characters: Literary Fiction” discusses the writer’s contribution to Testimony as a Potential Gauge or Irish Social the growth of new views and scopes ‘in Change”, Lidia María Montero Ameneiro’s contemporary Irish fiction and Ute Anna “Molly Keane’s Loving Without Tears: the Mittermaier’s “Charles Donnelly, ‘Dark Star’ of Imagined Landscape of the Big House” and Irish Poetry and Reluctant Hero of the Irish Left” Amelia Piñeiro Santorum’s “Gender Issues in recovers for us the poet and activist in the Bram Stoker’s Dracula”. Spanish Civil War. The second, and shortest section, Ireland

Abroad, contains two disparate contributions,

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Suárez Castiñeira, Mª Luz, Asier Altuna contents. In fact the work as a whole responds to García de Salazar and Olga Fernández the second part, “New Perspectives on James Vicente (eds.). 2009. New Perspectives on Joyce”, stressing the European dimension of James Joyce. Ignatius Loyola, make haste to Joyce and the network of influence and help me! Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, ISBN intertextuality that runs through his work, 978-84-9830-250-9 essential aspects that we stated in the first lines. In this sense, the volume offers a variety of One of the most famous phrases attributed to approaches and in most cases interest and James Joyce is the one where he hoped to keep originality. the critics occupied with his work for at least 100 In any case the Conference held in Bilbao years. And as the editors say in the preface, establishes a bridge between the Irish territory “since James Joyce’s death in 1941, his work has and the Basque, and between the nationalist been subject to intense scrutiny by scholars of all traditions the two have shared. The index ages throughout the world. At the end of the first st reveals, however, that the contributions of the decade of the 21 century, research goes on volume go far beyond what could have been a unabated”. James Joyce went down in history as comparison of similarities or differences. The an emblem of what the Irish critic Colm Tóibín real value of this publication is that it shows the has called “dual identity”: the writer torn versatility and complexity of the Joycean work, between loyalty to his roots in Ireland and his just as we said in the first paragraph and presents need to rewrite it in other places and with other a balanced spectrum of themes in Five parts: On linguistic and literary codes. He is without the Genesis of Joyce’s Works, On Irish-Basque question a paradigm of the continuous journey in Literary Relations, New Comparative search of places where Ireland could be Approaches, New Theoretical Approaches to rediscovered and reinvented. Joyce´s Aesthetics, On myth and religion in We have seen fit to include this paragraph as a Joyce and, as a conclusion, An interview with preliminary substratum in order to adequately Alfonso Zapico, Comic Illustrator. assess the contributions of the volume in A closer look at the index indicates the main question. First we should celebrate the fact that it parameters dealt with, firstly, the genesis of the is the University of Deusto who is undertaking a Joycean work, a source of unlimited and new approach to the figure of Joyce. It is inexhaustible study, where we highlight the undeniable the great influence that the Jesuits interest of Fritz Senn’s “Random Instances of had in training the writer on different levels and Joyce’s Handling of Time”, which is a lucid in the very title of the conference which th analysis of different Joycean titles. Just as originated this publication – the 20 Conference valuable is the contribution of Anne MacCarthy of the James Joyce Spanish society, under the “A Catholic Literature for Ireland: James Duffy topic “the Jejune Jesuit Back in Ithaca. 23-25 and Duffy’s Irish Catholic Magazine”. There is April 2009 –, we find allusions to the schoolboy no doubt that Catholicism was an essential axis under the tutelage of the Jesuits. And the second in the formation of the Irish national part of the title of this publication is a quotation consciousness and in the personal and artistic from Ulysses (U9.163), alluding both to Saint education of Joyce. The stated article uses the Ignatius, founder of the society of Jesus and to sources well and annotates a context of his birthplace, now the sanctuary of Loyola in considerable importance for understanding not Azpeitia (Gipuzkoa, Spain). However, it is only the figure and his work, but one of the more noteworthy that only one of the articles, “Allude deeply-rooted frameworks in Irish life and me as a Jesuit: James Joyce and His Educators”, culture. As stated above, the volume hardly by Bruce Bradley, is concerned with this theme, abounds in an essential vein, which is the consequently this leads us to acknowledge that spiritual and religious dimension of Joyce and the weakest aspect of the volume is some lack of for that it pines for more contributions consistency between the second part of the title, addressing his most emblematic work in this “Ignatius Loyola, make haste to help me” and the sense: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a 148

prodigious exercise in the exorcism of the great Baroja: common sources”, affecting what we demons of Irish nationalism – language, initially called the European dimension of Joyce patriotism and religion – as well as the carnal, and its extensive universal ramifications. spiritual and artistic demons of the young Mention should also made of Joaquim Mallafré’s Dedalus. In the book a unique article on this “Ulysses/Ulisses: digging for common ground”, topic stands out, Jose Mª Tejedor Cabrera’s “The which strikes a good balance of theory and Stephens-Joyce Connection”, well structured and practice. In the fourth part Marisol Morales’s documented. “James Joyce’s Early Writings and Ecocritical In the second part, On Irish Basque Literary Theory. A new Turn?” and Margarita Estévez’s Relations, the philological rigor and depth of “Could we speak about an Eco-feminist Joyce?” Francisco García Tortosa’s “Vascuence in represent outstanding contributions, both Finnegans Wake” is highlighted. It is an offering valuable insights. invaluable study that sheds new light to decipher The interview with artist Alfonso Zapico one of the most impenetrable works of literature which closes the volume – “Making Joyce and in our opinion one of the best contributions accessible to the wider public. An interview with of the book. We must not forget that Finnegan’s Alfonso Zapico, Comic illustrator”, by Olga Wake exhibits the most prodigious techniques Fernández Vicente, is a stimulating way of and unsurpassed literary refinement, discovering new dimensions in Joyce’s endless complemented by an amazing exercise in universe. Zapico is the author of Dublinés, the verbalization. This article offers unprecedented first Spanish comic based on Joyce, and a good angles to decipher the oral epic “world of words” example of how to make Joyce accessible and as it has been defined, that few scholars dare to enjoyable for a wider readership. confront. Following the same lines are the We can say, in conclusion, that the volume studies “A Lyric Weakling in the Wake” by presents some disparity between its contributions Jefferey Simons and “The Quinet Motif and in terms of relevance. However, there is enough Joyce’s Memory for Finnegan's Wake” by quality in several articles, such as those Ricardo Navarrete Franco. The other two mentioned above, and the volume offers new contributions of the section address the system of approaches in the complex and vast task of relationships between Basque and Irish literature Joycean criticism. and the connections between the Irish writer and the Basque writer Ramón Saizarbitoria. The Caneda Cabrera, M. Teresa, Vanessa Silva similarity of paths of Ireland and the Basque Fernández and Martín Urdiales Shaw (eds.). Country has frequently been stressed, obviating 2010. Vigorous Joyce. Atlantic Readings of in many cases the difference in the evolution and James Joyce. Universidade de Vigo: Servizo historical context. These two contributions – Jon de Publicacións, ISBN: 978-84-8158-475-2 Kortázar’s “Relaciones intersistémicas entre la The title of the volume invokes again the literature vasca y la literatura irlandesa, Joyce y Atlantic and Celtic ties with Ireland, the “sister Saizarbitoria” and Asier Altuna’s “…and wild land”. As explained in the preface, the dwellers by Vizcáy? Ye, the unconquered Vigo/Joyce relationship reached its culmination remnant of the brave old celtic race”. The in April 2008, when the University of Vigo Basques in The Nation” – prove to be really hosted the 19th annual conference of the James illuminating contributions in the field of literary Joyce Spanish society. But before that, Joyce had interconnections. New angles are also provided disembarked metaphorically in Vigo, one of in the work of Alberto Lázaro and Teresa Europe’s busiest harbour cities, in 1926, when Iribarren “Shedding Light on the Mystery of the bonds with him were established with the First Catalan Ulysses: the Letters of Joyce J.F. translation of fragments from “Ithaca” and Vidal Jové”. “Cyclops” into Galician. Therefore the title pays In the third section, New Comparative homage to the first Joyce’s readers on this part of Approaches, we highlight Mª Luz Suárez and the Atlantic. The volume gathers a selection of Olga Fernández’s article “James Joyce and Pío fifteen essays divided into five sections, which 149

include papers given at the conference together Donovan, concluding that Molly Bloom was an with the contributions of reputed international invaluable source for further female self- Joyce scholars. assertion. Central to the first section – Contexts, Section 3 – in our opinion the weakest of the Discourses and Affiliations – is the identification book – offers three essays under the title o of the factors that have contributed to the Reading as Decoding. Eduardo Barros Grela in conformation of the often contradictory Joycean “Reconceptualización de la espacialidad y de la affiliations. John Mc Court’s interesting paper parálisis en ‘The Sisters’: una aproximación on “Joyce’s Irish Post Mortem, 1941-1943” culturalista” discusses the interaction of analyses the mixed reactions after his death spatiality and narrative form, Benigno del Río through a detailed study of the press of the time Molina’s “El misterioso hombre de la playa: – main attention is given to Elizabeth Bowen’s claves homéricas de la ocultación de la identidad homage – and emphasizes the long oblivion de Bloom en ‘Nausicaa’” provides different Joyce was to suffer until the 1960s. Maria Homeric keys to interpret Bloom’s McGarrity analyses in “Joyce, Irish Modernism characterization in “Nausicaa”, and Jefferey and the Primitive Other” the degree to which Simons in “Hermeneutic Views of the Modernist Joyce uses the primitive as a means to identify J” proposes an hermeneutic reading of the and question Irish cultural positioning both at modernist Joyce, discussing “The Dead” as a home and abroad. Finally, Katherine Mullin’s transitional text, between Chamber Music and “Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young the prose of the other more radically modernist Man Through the Little Magazines” discusses texts. the important relationship of Joyce and two little Section 4 – Language and Myth – proves to be magazines, The Egoist and The Little Review, one of the most interesting of the book dealing tracing their development and the different with two of the main generators of meaning for audience they aimed at. readers: the intertextual and extra textual links Section 2 gathers three essays on the topic of provided by language and Myth. As outstanding Textual and Cultural Negotiations, dealing with contributions we should mention Margarita the different strategies through which Joyce is Estévez-Saá’s fine essay “The voce of Shaun, appropriated and rewritten. In her valuable essay vote of the Irish, voice from afar” which “The Translator’s Net: The World as Word in A approaches the character of Shaun in Finnegans’ Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” M. Wake, following the traces of Boucicault and Teresa Caneda Cabrera approaches the important Carleton as his antecessors. Another brilliant issue of translation in A Portrait of the Artist as a paper is “Vico and Vigo en Finnegans Wake: Young Man and proclaims that the inability to confluencias y ramificaciones” by Francisco reproduce Stephen’s negotiation between world García Tortosa, who disentangles new levels of and word lies in the neutralization of the political meaning in Finnegans’s Wake as he explores the power of Joyce’s language and style. She focuses allusiveness of language in the echoes and her study in Dámaso Alonso’s translation of the reverberations of the name of Earwicker. book. Susana Pérez Pico’s “The Paradox of ‘The Attention to language is given by Rafael I. Dead’: from Modernist Narrative to Classical Garcia León in “Antanaclasis Joyceana en Film” opposes the discursivization of Joyce’s Ulysses”, carrying out an analysis of Joyce’s use work with the cinematic techniques. Whereas in of repetition. the final paper, entitled “Double-Edged Words: Reading Joyce is an activity which demands a James Joyce and Contemporary Irish Women plurality of insights, from a single word or a Poets” Vanessa Silva Fernández chooses the phrase to the entire corpus of texts and to the Penelope episode to trace similar negotiations of history which such texts belong to. So section 5 gender in the work of contemporary women – Influences and Convergences – establishes poets who dare to express “words deemed to links between Joyce and other writers, either remain silent”. She deals with the work of Eavan antecessors or followers such as the interesting Boland, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Katie article by Anne MacCarthy, “James Joyce and 150

James Clarence Mangan”, which succeeds in where she states that the book surmounts old drawing the crucial influence of Mangan on obstacles of mutual mistrust by bringing together Joyce and the latter’s admiration for the former. criticism by academics and journalists as well as Jose Manuel Estevez-Saá “Más que ecos writers’, publishers’ and theatre directors’ self joyceanos en “Two More Gallants” de William reflective collaborations. Trevor” seeks some Joycean echoes in William Both Galicia and Ireland are situated on the Trevor. Joyce is explored in greater depth by Atlantic coast of western Europe, they are José Ruiz Mas in “Carlos Eduardo Zavaleta y la bilingual societies with a vernacular language, traducción peruana de Pomes Penyeach” as an both have been bastions of Roman Catholicism international icon focusing on the translation of and both communities share a number of Celtic Pomes Penyeach by Latin American writer myths of origin and folk traditions, not to Carlos Eduardo Zavaleta. mention the emigration both suffered. Individual Taking into account the complexity of reading surveys of each geographical area are provided, Joyce, the essays’ quality is irregular – as usual emphasizing in the case of Galicia how the genre in a volume of this kind –, and not all of them of poetry pioneered women’s production and should be considered scholarly contributions, incorporation into the genre of fiction came later, but as a whole the book illustrates Joyce’s even more difficulties existing in the field of inexhaustibility and reading is praised as an ever playwriting. Additional difficulties were the lack renewed activity which implies research, and of a stable publishing network and in drama the leads – at least hopefully – to enjoyment. The lack of platforms for the publishing of plays. well written introduction is full of convincing Criticism seems to have played less of a role in reasons to join the network of Joycean criticism the case of theatre than in that of poetry and but, above all, invites us to repeat Stephen fiction by women but in any case the attention Dedalus’ words when walking on Sandymount paid by literary criticism to women has strand: I am here to read. contributed considerably to their visibility and their canonization. Mention is also made of new Nogueira, María Xesús, Laura Lojo and forms of literary criticism in the form of blogs, Manuela Palacios (eds.). Creation, Publishing web pages and other virtual resources and Criticism. The Advance of Women’s All this can be applied to Ireland, though a Writing. 2010. Frankfurt am Main: Peter new variable should be added in this case: The Lang, ISBN: 978-1-4331-0954-6 great contradiction between its rapid economic The book bears witness to a most relevant fact: and social transformation and the little critical the emergence and consolidation of a powerful attention paid to women. Irish feminism had a number of women writers since the 1980s both revitalizing effect on politics and in redefining in Galicia and Ireland, sharing geographical, the national identity, best expressed through the historical, political, and social features and, election of Mary Robinson in 1990. Nonetheless, above all, Celtic and Atlantic cultures. Its main as Mary O’Donnell remarks, for most women purpose is to unveil the range of strategies by writing was one thing but getting into book form which cultural agents have conditioned this was quite another. In this sense the book praises writing, bringing together the voices of writers, highly the role of two publishing houses critics, publishers, theatre directors and connected with feminist concerns, Arlen House, journalists. Divided in three parts – Poetry, founded in the 1970s and Attic Press, both Fiction and Drama –, each of them covers a crucial in the 1980s, as well as Salmon double dimension: the experience of writing and publishing, sometimes referred to as women’s publishing (as lived by both publishers and presses. writers, or directors and playwrights in the case In the section devoted to Irish Poetry, both of drama) and the critical reception. Former personal and professional testimony is given in obstacles are clearly referred to in the preface “A Jessei Lendennie’s “Irish Women Poets in a Passion for Celticism” by Luz Pozo Garza, Changing Society”. The author, a poet and the 151

editor of Salmon Publishing talks about her 30 some visibility and durability. There are other years of experience as a woman publisher in interesting and paradoxical aspects, for example Ireland and recalls how the term “kitchen-sink- to find out that most theatre goers are women in poetry” used to be referred to female poetry. a male playwrights-centred world. Finally Mary Despite the fact, she proclaims the great role O’Donnell, a poet and a fiction writer herself as itplayed in the democratization of poetry. well as a critic for newspapers and radio Another poet, Susan Connolly in “Coming out of programmes, puts forward another paradox in the Forest (Making the Journey from First to “Irish Women’s Drama: Questions of Response Second Collection)” also supplies personal and Location”: the large number of women who experience as well as an insight into the role of write drama in Ireland and the few performances festivals, awards, grants, anthologies and other they achieve. There seems to be a general means of literary – and difficult – promotion. consensus that playwriting is the least visible of Regarding criticism, Irene Gilsenan Nordin’s all genres, mainly due to the lack of involvement “Poetry and Education: The Role of the Literary by official institutions in supporting women Critic in Academia” reminds us of the playwrights’ progress. O’Donnell demands that undeniable responsibility critics have in order to criticism should also include not only overcome the patriarchal system and to do justice playwrights but women directors, actresses, to the new poetry and the new gaze female scriptwriters, set designers, as well as taking into poetry created. account the contribution of immigrant With regards to Irish Fiction, Declan Meade’s playwrights and in a multicultural Ireland. “Irish Women Writers: Forging Ahead” We thoroughly share the feeling expressed in emphasizes the evident phallocentrism of the the volume that the book will allow readers to Irish literary canon and Paula Campbell’s “The see not only how writers, publishers and critics City Girls” discusses mass market in Ireland and often join forces so as to transform the literary the importance of Poolbeg Press and the system, but also how they may occasionally have commercial fiction for women it created. As to conflicts of interest and expectations that are fiction criticism and to what extent it affects difficult to accommodate. “Her own experience” female creation, Kerry Hardie’s “A writer’s is the most frequent expression along the pages Thoughts on Publication and Public Criticism” of the volume, acting as a warrant of its distinguishes between academic criticism, which reliability and its “live” discussion. Challenging a writer can choose not to read, and critical studies, like this one, are welcome in Irish reviews, which affect book launchings and sales, studies since they go beyond the “literary muses” taking as a starting point her own experience. and discover for us the secrets and difficulties The third section, Drama, provides the lying behind the writer’s creativity. invaluable insight of Colette Connor in “Irish O’Donnell, Mary and Manuela Palacios (eds.). Women Playwrights: Undervalued and 2010. To The Winds Our Sails. Irish Writers Overmined”, voicing her own experience as Translate Galician Poetry. Cliffs of Moher: stage director and playwright within the Salmon Poetry, ISBN: 978-1-907056-37-6 independent theatre, and a similar case is that of Ursula Rani Sarma’s “Transcending Categories: This volume is in some sense complementary of Thoughts on Being a Playwright and Responding Creation, Publishing and Criticism. The Advance to Expectation” that examines how social and of Women’s Writing since it selects some poems gender categories have conditioned both her by Galician Women writers and offers their production and the reception of her work. The translation into English and (one in each author) scarcity of criticism of women’s plays is dealt into Irish. Manuela Palacios’s essay, “Galician with by Celia De Fréine in “Women Playwrights, Women Poets Today: Moving from Strength to Whither?”, recalling her experience as an Irish Strength”, begins by stating that sacred names language poet and playwright and arguing that such as Cantigas or Rosalía de Castro have been criticism is a decisive tool in granting a play appropriated as an icon of national identity but

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since Rosalia’s times other women writers have past and in the present”. So the clearly defined worked vigorously for the advance of Galician purpose of the book is to contribute to the further poetry. There is a generation in the 1950s, a shaping of such discourse, with the hope that second wave in 1970s – although they did not there is a reciprocation between the sister-poets publish until the 1980s, the late 1980s and early of both side of the Atlantic, and that this will 1990s – and then we must refer to the younger forge a two-way literary channel between our generations that elbow their way into the literary cultures. The diversity among the poets in establishment. The writers of the collection technique, experience, style, and tradition display heterogeneous aesthetic approaches and reinforces the challenge of making them sound in interests, they belong to different generations and another language, mainly because, as Mary have gone through unlike life experiences but O’Donnell says, all of them are imbued with an they have something in common: their ear for the music of language. Unfortunately, my determination to play an active role in the lack of knowledge in Galician and Irish language advancement and remodelling of a poetic prevents me from testifying the achievements of tradition that cannot afford to do without the volume in depth, but reading the translation women’s voices. Ten poets ranging in age and in English I have enjoyed powerful and beautiful concern. lines which echo the force of Galician originals. In the Introduction, Mary O’Donnell deals We totally subscribe Mary O’Donnell’s with an important feature: according to her, Irish statement that in the times of the local and and English are much further apart than Galician global, anything entailing exchange and mutual and Spanish and Galician is much more widely dialogue must be by all means favoured. And spoken than Irish today. In Ireland Irish is that in the times of technology poetry, and frequently “a sanctified code to be pulled out and especially poetry translation, makes us aware of dressed up on official and formal occasions”. what is the other and what is the same and the She also draws our attention to what she calls the ability to recognize both. This interweaving of “environmental difference” as a decisive one. In cultures and – more accurately languages – is a her opinion, in Galicia there exists a more good path to know the small world we live in. heightened consciousness of the fragile nature of the eco system than in Ireland, something that Losada Friend, Maria (coordinator/editor). has affected the writers deeply. On the other 2010. Teaching Ireland: New Didactic hand, Galician scholars’ interest in Irish writers Approaches to Cultural, Linguistic and Literary has been evident, but perhaps the other way Issues. Universidad de Huelva: Dirección de round was not so clear. Each Galician poet has innovación Docente Vicerrectorado de contributed with five poems, one of them being Tecnologías, innovación y calidad. Dirección translated into Irish. Not all the translators speak de Convergencia Europea. ISBN: 978-84-613- Irish so Rita Kelly has lent a hand as well as 5491-7 Martin Nugent. With regards to the translator the book includes first rank names such as Nuala Didactic approaches are not very frequent – and Ní Dhomhnaill. In this volume translation proves we would daresay to some extent underrated – in to be what Michael Cronin defines as a “journey the academic world. However, teaching through language” and “that art of discovery”. strategies must be considered both an art and a For translation – both as an art and a science – is science and are crucial to expand and reinforce itself the target of a book where literal Irish Studies. If we agree that involvement and translations coexist with free versions, enthusiasm are the key factors for scholarly considering both the spirit and the letter, but work, we should not forget that these are born – above all trying to catch the “soul” of every or just the opposite, they are frustrated – in the poem. Mary O’Donnell echoes Michael classroom. This booklet is the result of an Cronin’s words when stating that “translation has approved and funded project in the 13th played a critical role in shaping discourse around Convocatoria de proyectos de Innovación e identity, language and cultural survival in the Investigación para la mejora en docencia univer- 153

sitaria at the university of Huelva in the clearly outstand and exhibit a brilliant balance of academic year 2008-9, including “materials theory and practice, whereas unit 6 is by far the which have been successfully used and tested in weakest, suffering from lack of coherence and class to ensure the active participation of rigour. We missed some guide concerning the students and to provide a useful source to explain academic level and profile required for the the myriad of angles needed to illustrate tradition activities. On the other hand, the authors’ and innovation in Ireland”.The table of contents purpose to illustrate “tradition and innovation in covers a variety of topics in 7 units: Unit I: Ireland”, as stated in the introduction, proves a Ireland Today, by Deirdre Finnerty; Unit 2: Tune too ambitious task to be developed in a into Ireland: Teaching Ireland Through Music; publication like this. However, the booklet is a Unit 3: Reading Irish identity in the Walls: The good achievement as a whole, and provides very troubles in Northern Ireland Murals by Marisol stimulating colourful material which no doubt Morales; Unit 4: Irish identities thorugh Movies, will arouse the students’ interest and enthusiasm by Auxiliadora Pérez Vides; Unit 5: Irish identity for Ireland. More than welcome for this very through Visual Arts and Contemporary poetry; reason, since (do not forget it!) everything Unit 6: Irish identity through Folklore: Yeats’ begins in the classroom. Poetry, Stories and Myths by Sonia Hernández Amador-Moreno, Carolina P. 2010. An Santano; Unit 7: James Joyce and his Sequels: Introduction to Irish English. London: bringing innovation to the Irish Literary Equinox, ISBN 978 1 84553 371 7 Tradition, by María Losada Friend and Ana Maldonado Acevedo. Units are organized to As the author makes clear in the introduction, a cover a 50/60 minute class and different book of this sort must be able to reconcile two activities complement the seven visual conflicting aims: the discussion of technical presentations enclosed, helping the instructor to issues without alienating a more general reader. explore and expand on the material and support a Amador faces and solves happily the challenge classroom lecture. The structure of each unit is a of striking a balance between theory and good mixture of didactic tools: all of them begin practical examples taken from real with “preliminary observations”, a summary of conversations and literary works, without the topic and target, followed by a section forgetting – in her own words – “my own entitled brainstorming activities which checks research, experience, thinking and lecturing”. the student’s previous knowledge on the topic The book is written with an aim at interactive through a series of open questions, presentation reading and invites the reader “to clarify your of vocabulary, linking words, exercises in groups own thinking, explore, reflect upon your own or association of words. The post presentation perception”. The author succeeds in combining activities must be completed immediately after both her experience and expertise as a researcher the presentation and consist of a series of tasks to and a teacher, the result being a wide ranging check comprehension and to provide further and well structured publication that can be read knowledge on the topic. Finally, as a necessary at different levels and in a different order, written step to evaluate the students’ work, there is a with an engaging style. The variety of the section of Complementary exercises implying material it covers has been produced by take home tasks mainly based on internet Amador’s own teaching and the activities searches around the topic presented in class proposed come out from seminar-based (artistic representations, music, photographs, discussions and exercises. An additional value of films, literary texts or profiles of writers, artists, the book is the usefulness of its activities in the popular singers and actors). Recommended context of English Language Teaching (ELT), as readings and useful web links are included at the they can be adapted and turned into language end of each chapter, the contents covering a teaching material. variety of topics. The book consists of 9 chapters, all of them The results are uneven and on some occasions including a perfect balance of theory and practice the tests and questions provided are somewhat and divided into the following sections: a basic for university students. Units 3, 5 and 7 theoretical introduction of a topic, activities 154

related to it, a summary, a further reading section Anthony Trollope’s An Eye for an Eye to and some answers to the activities proposed. excerpts from the Curious Incident of the Dog in Chapter 1 is devoted to Some Key Notion: Accent the Nightdress. Dialect and Variety, with special attention to Chaper 6 deals with Fictional Representation Irish English, Hiberno English, Anglo Irish and of Irish English, covering a wide range of topics the North – South division.Examples cover a such as “Perceptions of the Irish: Stereotypes and wide range, from Walshe’s Trainspotting to the Brogue”, “The Irish Character from the passages from The Irish Times. Elizabethan Period to the Eighteenth century”, Chapter 2 focuses on The History of the “From Fascination to Nationalistic Aspiration” English Language in Ireland and analyses the and “The New Ireland in Fiction”. The striking historical development of English since the variety of examples covers quotations from arrival of the Anglo Normans, the linguistic Shakespeare, Sommerville and Ross, J.M. consequences of the Plantations, the decline of Synge, Samuel Beckett, Joseph O’Connor, Brian Irish at the turn of the twentieth century and the Friel, Marina Carr, Paula Meehan, Paul Durcan, influence of Irish English in the United States, Roddy Doyle or Frank MacGuinness, as well as Canada and Argentina. As a sample of the television drama, advertising and films. activities, there is an invitation to read and Chapter 7 focuses on Meaning What They Say: discuss Brian Friel’s Translations or Douglas the Pragmatics of Irish English and includes Hyde’s speech On the Necessity for De- sections on “Pragmatic and Irish Politeness”, Anglicizing Ireland. “Avoidance of Directness in Irish English”, Chapter 3 analyses The Grammar of Irish “Pragmatic Markers”, “Small Talk, Listenership English, covering the noun phrase, the verb and Social Interaction” and “the Pragmatics of phrase, prepositions, focus and subordination. It be+after+V-ing”. Activities are based on includes tests on examples from real examples from Patrick MacGill’s The Rat Pit or conversations as well as from written sources Alexander McCall Smith’s Portuguese Irregular such as newspapers, e-mails, or Irish literature. Verbs. Attention has mostly been drawn to the usage of Chapter 8, Searching Corpora for Data, raises these IrE (Irish English) examples by comparing the question What is a corpus? from the very them to their equivalent in the StE (Standard beginning, followed by a discussion on the use of English) variety. corpora to investigate Irish English and ending Chaper 4 is entitled The Vocabulary of Irish up asking What can corpus analysis tell us about English and there the author avoids a mere Irish English? listing of words, choosing instead a selection of Finally chapter 9 focuses on Implications for the most representative in order to illustrate the English as a Foreign Language: Teachers and features of IrE Lexicon. Influences from Irish Learners. Different issues are discussed, such as Gaelic, or archaic and dialectal English origins “Irish English and the Teaching of English as a are examined, as well as other lexical items Foreign Language”, “learning and understanding proper to Irish English belonging to a variety of English in Ireland” or “Exploring Irish English in semantic fields. Activities range from a Context”. The author points out that this is discussion of words like brogues, gallowses, mainly addressed to students who are based in or gasair, or very humoristic examples playing with are planning to learn English in Ireland and for words, to a passage from A Portrait of the Artist teachers who want to include IrE in their as a Young Man or the meaningfulness of the syllabus. word crack. In summary, Amador has provided us with an Chapter 5 concentrates on The Sounds of Irish excellent contribution, both scholarly and English and the complexity of the phonetics and didactic at the same time that must be the phonology of IrE. Special attention is given recommended not only for those who want to to Dublin English as well as to the North, enlarge their linguistic scope but for everybody including activities from a passage from interested in real and alive Ireland. Only as an

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example of the many relaxing ways she proposes 1996), Ireland in Writing. Interviews with to approach and understand the complexity of Writers and Academics (in collaboration) Irishness, we reproduce the following joke: (Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1998) and the editor of Question: What do you call an Irish philosopher? Irlanda ante un nuevo milenio (Burgos, AEDEI, Answer: A tinker! 2002) and La novela irlandesa del siglo XX (Barcelona, PPU, 2005). In 1998 she was Inés Praga is Professor of English at the conferred with an honorary degree in Literature University of Burgos (Spain). She is the author by the National University of Ireland (Cork). of Una belleza terrible: la poesía irlandesa She was founding member of the Spanish contemporánea 1945-1995 (Barcelona, PPU, Association for Irish Studies (AEDEI) in 1996), Diccionario Cultural e Histórico de 2000 and she is currently the honorary chair. Irlanda (in collaboration) (Barcelona, Ariel,