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Download (1883Kb) A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/108220 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications ‘Nailed to the rolls of honour, crucified’: Irish literary responses to the Great War. Robert Starr. Submitted for the award of PhD. University of Warwick, English Department. May 2017. 1 Contents. Title Page ……………………………………………………………….….p.1. Contents Page ………………………………………………………….…..p.2. Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………..p.5. Declaration ………………………………………………………………...p.6. Abstract …………………………………………………………………....p.7. List Of Illustrations …………………………………………………….....p.8. Introduction. The Irish Soldier-Writers ..…....…………………………………….p.14. The Political Situation In Ireland ..………………………………….p.18. Working Class Identity ………..……………………………………p.23. Samuel Hynes’s ‘Myth of the War’ ..……………………………….p.34. A Critical Overview Of The Irish Soldier-Writers ...……………….p.35. Chapter Overview ……………..……………………………………p.43. Chapter One. ‘Laying open wounds to the world: Patrick MacGill’s Wartime Memoirs The Amateur Army, The Red Horizon And The Great Push’. Introduction …………………………………………………………..p.48. Private Patrick MacGill’s Irish Identity …..………………………….p.51. The Similarity Of Working Conditions In Peace And Wartime .…….p.57. The Similarity of Work In Peace And Wartime ………………...……p.60. The Role Of Fighting For Patrick MacGill In Peace And War ..……..p.66. Writing As Work …………..………………..………………………..p.71. Private Patrick MacGill An Irish Emigré …..………………………...p.73. Patrick MacGill And Roman Catholicism ...………………………….p.76. Conclusion ……………..……………………………………………..p.88. 2 Chapter Two. ‘The Psychological Study of a man on the Western Front’: Patrick MacGill’s Novels The Brown Brethren And Fear! Introduction ……..……………………………………………………p.90. M.I.7b And Propaganda Writing …..…………………………………p.97. Patrick McGill’s Narrators...………………………………………….p.102. Ireland As Home ..……………………………………………….........p.105. Patrick MacGill’s Portrayal Of Killing As Work .……………………p.109. Pan-National Camaraderie And Trauma ………………………….......p.120. Conclusion .………….……………………………………………......p.126. Chapter Three. Mud And Savagery In War: James Hanley’s ‘The Alien Skull’ And The German Prisoner. Introduction …..………………………………………………………p.128. James Hanley’s Early Life …..……………………………………….p.129. Two Working-Class Soldiers…………………………………………p.136. James Hanley’s Use Of Roman Catholic Imagery ……..…………….p.141. Conclusion ..…………..………………………………………………p.157. Chapter Four. “A back like Jesus had”: Suffering In James Hanley’s In Our Time. Introduction …………………………………………………………..p.159. James Hanley’s Portrayal Of Work On The Home Front ……………p.164. James Hanley’s Portrayal Of Work At Sea ..…………………………p.173. Roman Catholicism And The Conscientious Objector ..……………..p.186. Conclusion …..…………………………………………………..……p.197. Chapter Five. ‘A study of evil’: Liam O’Flaherty’s Return of the Brute. Introduction ..…………………………………………………………p.198. 3 Liam O’Flaherty’s Early Life .....…………………………….……….p.199. Irish Landscape And The Battlefield .………………………………...p.203. Combat As Work...……….…………………………………………...p.210. Death In Combat ….…………………………………………….……p.217. Trauma In A Working-Class Soldier …………………………….......p.223. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………p.228. Chapter Six. “An Enemy Of Your Country”: Liam O’Flaherty’s The Black Soul. Introduction …………………………………………………………p.230. Liam O’Flaherty And Rural Ireland .....………………………...…...p.233. Continuity: Peacetime Environment As Battlefield .…..……….…...p.235. Wartime Trauma In Peacetime .……………………….…………….p.239. A Stranger In One’s Own Land …..…………………………………p.248. Irish Mythology ...…………………………………………………...p.253. Conclusion ………………………………………………………......p.260. Conclusion …………………………………….……………………………p.261. Bibliography ...……………………….……….………………………..…...p.271. 4 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff within the English Department at the University of Warwick who have provided help, encouragement and advice throughout my years of study. There is one person to whom I wish to express a special and heartfelt thank you for everything that you have done for me and that is to Dr Elizabeth Barry. Liz, without your guidance, patience, faith in my ability and unfailing support my academic path to this point would not have been as smooth as it has been: I thank you. 5 This thesis is submitted to the University of Warwick in support of my application for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It has been composed by myself and has not been submitted in any previous application for any degree. 6 Abstract. The aim of this thesis is to explore the war writings of Patrick MacGill, James Hanley and Liam O’Flaherty, working class, Roman Catholic Irishmen, all of whom fought in the trenches as privates and who, collectively, it is argued here, constitute a distinct trio of war writers. Through considerations of class, camaraderie, violence, religion, trauma and the body, and engaging with scholars such as John Fordham, David Taylor and Sarah Cole, this thesis will consider these Irish soldiers within a cultural, social and historical context. Central to this examination is the idea that the motives for enlistment and the experience of army labour and even combat was such that military service was perceived as work rather than a duty or vocation undertaken in support of any prevailing doctrines of patriotism or sacrifice. For these Irishmen their enlistment was a form of emigration for work and their resulting exploration of national and personal identity encompasses ideas of home as exile, building upon the work of Clair Wills, and a sense of continuity for such working class individuals between peacetime and wartime roles. The men’s Catholicism also shaped their aesthetic and philosophical responses to the war, even while the war conversely troubled their faith or confirmed their religious skepticism. With these ideas in mind, the war writing of these men will be located within both an Irish and a pan-European literary working class tradition, thereby permitting the texts to be viewed within a wider context than literature of the First World War, and from a perspective that goes beyond Ireland and Britain. These characteristics shape a perspective on the conflict very different from that of the canonical officer-writers, men such as Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves or Edmund Blunden, whose work will be considered alongside those of the three Irish soldier-writers. 7 List of Illustrations. Figure One: Irish First World War Soldiers..…………………...…………….p.9. Figure Two: Irish Nineteenth Century Navvies………………………………p.10. Figure Three: Cap Badge of The London Irish Rifles…….…….……………p.51. Figure Four: Irish Recruitment Poster…………..……………………………p.79. Figure Five: Ministry Of Intelligence ‘Green Book’…………………………p.92. Figure Six: Outer Fly-Leaf To The German Prisoner…………..……………p.141. Figure Seven: First World War Poster……………...………………………...p.161. Figure Eight: ‘Column on the March’……………………...…………………p.175. Figure Nine: Cap Badge Of The Irish Guards………………………………...p.204. Figure Ten: Punch Cartoon……………………………………………………p.213. Figure Eleven: American War Poster…………………………………………p.214. 8 Introduction In the autumn of 2015 the National Library of Ireland in Dublin curated an exhibition entitled ‘Portraits of the Invisible: faces of Irish men and women from WW1’, in which photographs of individuals connected to the conflict were put on display for the first time. There were portraits of nurses, sailors, airmen and officers - all of whom had an involvement in the war - but there was one photograph in particular whose subject matter resonates with the concerns of this thesis: a group of thirteen soldiers, all serving in the ranks, all dressed untidily in items of army uniform, such as the rough woollen undershirts issued to privates (Figure One). A number of the men give the appearance of being something other than soldiers. There is none of the parade ground polish often associated with troops, no bright buttons, no creased trousers, no standing to attention. In this photograph many of the men give the impression of being labourers rather than combatants: two individuals each hold a ramrod, an article used to clean the barrels of weapons; their faces lined with black dirt. The men seem to have been undertaking some form of hard manual work and as such there appears to be a blurring of two roles, both of which are central to this thesis: the labourer and the soldier. Figure One 9 In fact, one might compare this image to another one depicting nineteenth century Irish railway navvies (Figure Two). There exudes from both photographs a palpable sense of physicality as each group relied upon strength to complete manual tasks. These men stand in a railway cutting, a space similar in form to that of a frontline trench, and the clothing they are wearing - shirts that are identical to the soldiers, together with their moleskin trousers - give the suggestion of a uniform. Indeed one of the Irish writers to be considered in this thesis, Patrick MacGill, wrote in his novel Moleskin Joe (1915) of a navvy who enlisted: ‘[we] were going to change uniform, khaki for moleskin, and puttees for knee-straps, supplant
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