What the Quiet Man Said: Shifting Contexts and the Polysemy of the Text

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What The Quiet Man Said: Shifting Contexts and the Polysemy of the Text

joseph bierman

From Romanticism to Complexity to be decoded by a theorized audience of Irish immigrants and their Irish American children. in 1952, the quiet man was the top-grossing Discussions of the flm were mostly limited to flm of John Ford’s career. It was nominated this nostalgic preferred reading that relied on for best picture, supporting actor, screenplay, romantic agrarian visions of Ireland and broad art direction, set design, and sound recording stereotypes of the Irish people, often referred and went on to win Oscars for direction and to as “stage Irishness” due to the theatrical color cinematography (Gallagher 278–79). The roots of this performative style (Lourdeaux 109; flm continues to enjoy broad popularity. It is Rockett, Gibbons, and Hill 196; Slide 82–83). a perennial favorite on American television Faced with The Quiet Man’s continued broad around St. Patrick’s Day and on Irish television popularity over the past ffty years, some at Christmas. Released on video in 1985, it sold scholars have begun to reevaluate the flm. The more than 200,000 copies within the frst four aspects earlier described as stereotype have years in Britain. In 1996, a readers’ poll in The become “comic excesses” that articulate the Irish Times, published in Dublin, proclaimed it sense of loss felt by Irish emigrants (Pettitt 64). to be the best Irish flm ever made (Gibbons 4). Dismissing Ford’s flm as a romantic bit of “émi- Despite its popularity, from the time of its gré nostalgia” is now viewed as “missing the premiere through the end of the twentieth cen- point,” for the flm contains contradictions and tury, The Quiet Man faced criticism as the es- excesses that ask viewers to question the nos- sence of the “emerald-green romanticism” (H. talgic picture postcard narrative that is placed Kennedy 24). The flm was derided as “one of before them (65–66). The flm now offers a new the plagues of March, right up there with green complexity as Ford departs from his normal beer, plastic leprechauns, and Brendan Behan rigid structure and narrative coherence to in- anecdotes” (MacKillop 169). Like many Hol- stead engage in a “dialogue with his narrative lywood flms set in Ireland, The Quiet Man was structures—a contrast between illusion and re- criticized for presenting a simplistic, romantic ality and a discourse on the illusion of illusion” image of a country as seen through the eyes (McLoone 52–53). After noting that critic Rich- of a nostalgic outsider. These critics viewed ard Schickel once called the flm “among the The Quiet Man simply as an image encoded by most witless and vulgar movies ever made by director John Ford, the son of Irish immigrants, a supposed major director,” Gibbons proceeds to devote a 120-page monograph to situating the flm as a critical turn in Ford’s work (18–19). joseph bierman is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Radio, Television and The Quiet Man’s inclusion of Irish myths and Film at Rowan University. His previous publica- stereotypes enables the director to question tions have appeared in the Journal of Popular Film the dynamics by which they operate and the and Television and Film and Film Culture. realities they purport to refect. Ford’s Irishness

JFV 63_3 text.indd 30 7/11/11 1:47 PM became central to his later task of “retriev(ing) America may lie in the meanings that are acti- the American dream by transferring its sympa- vated through an intertextual relationship with thies from White European legacies of colonial the secondary text of the immigrant experience expansion to the rights of other cultures and as a national myth. This level of intertextuality indigenous peoples” (Gibbons 104). seems likely for the flm’s popularity to have In light of these recent reevaluations of The extended beyond viewers of Irish American Quiet Man, this article examines the flm as a heritage. Although the idea of the Quiet Man polysemic text in which a nostalgic preferred as a symbol of both the specifc Irish American reading might coexist with more recently theo- experience and the more general immigrant rized dialogic readings that call the preferred experience may explain the flm’s broad ap- reading into question. This polysemic complex- peal with American audiences, such a reading ity is the key to understanding the broad popu- of the text still ignores the success of the flm larity of Ford’s flm with a variety of audiences. in Ireland and fails to explain the pleasure the text provides for an Irish viewer (McAleer 12). Intertextuality and the Viewing The popularity of The Quiet Man with Irish au- Experience as Mosaic diences may relate to Fiske’s notion of the text as a site of struggle for meaning that encour- According to Fiske, any meaning, including ages Irish viewers to challenge the preferred the preferred reading, occurs when the text is reading through the secondary text of their activated or made meaningful by the social localized experiences. and intertextual relations that surround the Through a close reading of the flm, this ar- viewer’s experience with the text (3). Fiske ticle reveals The Quiet Man to contain textual sees a text’s popularity as linked to the text’s cues that encourage viewers to construct mean- openness or the extent to which the text ex- ing through their differing contextual relation- ists as a site of struggle that invites challenges ships with the text. For Irish American viewers, to a dominant or preferred meaning (5). The the meaning of the text relies on what The Quiet viewing experience may be best understood as Man says, the preferred reading, and how that a mosaic of content, medium, and context. It reading functions as a symbol for the viewer’s is out of the relationship of these three parts Irish American experience. This preferred read- that meaning is formed as texts metonymize ing might also be extended more broadly to or convert complex issues into understand- American viewers through textual cues that able metonyms, forms, or symbols and provide encourage the activation of meaning through subject positions for the audience (Brummett the broader myth of the American immigrant 110–12). Although content and medium remain experience and the Western genre. For the Irish constant, differing localized experiences and viewer, the meaning of the text relies on those expectations of the medium may bring about things about which The Quiet Man whispers or shifts in the context portion of the mosaic. remains silent, textual cues that encourage the These contextual shifts may result in a variety activation of meaning through the history of of potential meanings. Irish political and economic struggles, as well For each viewer, the story of the titular Quiet as the history of censorship in Irish society. Man’s return to Ireland becomes activated In each case, it might be said that the experi- through his or her individual localized experience of viewing The Quiet Man metonymizes ences and perceptions of Ireland. Through the the complex issues of Irish history and the theorized preferred reading, the activated text immigrant experience into a form that has may then function as a symbol in which Irish been used by a wide range of viewers to make American viewers might see an articulation of meaning through the context of their localized their own relationship with an Irish homeland. experiences. By examining how a range of Similarly, the flm’s broader popularity in meanings can derive from a viewer’s contextual

JFV 63_3 text.indd 31 7/11/11 1:47 PM relationship with the text, this article reveals Nonetheless, with the help of the match- The Quiet Man to be the site of a number of rich maker Michaeleen, Catholic priest Father Lo- and complex readings, which challenge earlier nergan (Ward Bond), and Protestant Reverend simplifed readings and more accurately ex- Playfair (Arthur Shields), Red Will is tricked into plain the enormous popularity of the flm. believing that the Widow Tillane will marry him as soon as he gets his sister out of the house. A Consistent Narrative Text Red Will therefore agrees to let Sean and Mary Kate marry. After the wedding when he fnds If Jameson is correct, and there are a fnite out he has been tricked, Red Will refuses to number of interpretations in a textual situation, hand over his sister’s dowry to the new couple. then it seems any constraint on meaning relies This is fne with Sean, who cares little about the on those elements of the textual situation that money, but Mary Kate refuses to consummate remain constant (30–31). The constant would the marriage until her dowry is paid. be the discrete text of the flm. The variables At frst, Sean is reluctant to challenge Red that would create changes in meaning would be Will. Sean has sworn off violence since he killed the social and intertextual relations of the view- a man in his last fght as prizefghter in Amer- ers. To accurately describe how these changes ica. Over time, the absent dowry becomes a in meaning might occur, it seems useful to constant friction between Sean and Mary Kate. begin by outlining the narrative content of the Finally, she decides to leave Sean and run away flm that will remain constant. to Dublin. Faced with the loss of his wife, Sean The Quiet Man is the story of Sean Thornton demands that Red Will pay the dowry. Red Will (John Wayne), an American ex-boxer who re- refuses, and this leads to a fght, which in turn turns to Innisfree, the Galway village where he becomes a donnybrook, a community affair was born. He and his mother fed Ireland for with all the men in town joining in the brawl. At America when he was just a boy. He has re- the end of the flm when Sean wins the fght, turned with the hopes of buying back the family marital bliss is restored, and he is accepted farm and settling in the village. At frst, he is into the community. welcomed into the community by many of the In the concluding scene of the flm, even the locals who remember his family. Trouble begins Protestants and Catholics have learned to get when he buys the land from the Widow Tillane along. When the Protestant Reverend Playfair (Mildred Natwick), a woman of Anglo-Irish is in danger of being removed by his bishop heritage and one of the largest landholders in for having so few parishioners, the townsfolk the village. Red Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen), pretend to be a crowd of Protestants waving to another man in the village, has had his eye on the visiting bishop as he rides through town in the property. The sale to this American foils his motorcar. Red Will’s plans to marry the Widow Tillane and These are the basic narrative events that consolidate their landholdings. As Sean Thorn- remain constant for the viewing experience of ton settles into the family home and begins all viewers. Through shifts in the contexts that to replant the land, he meets a young woman each viewer brings to the viewing experience, and falls in love. He reluctantly goes through different meanings may be created from these the proper channels of the local matchmaker common narrative events. By frst establishing Michaeleen Oge Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald) and some contextual frameworks that may activate arranges to meet the woman’s family and ask meaning for three theorized audiences—Irish permission to court. It turns out the woman Americans, other Americans, and Irish view- is Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara), the ers—this article can then proceed to review the sister of Red Will Danaher. Her brother, holding narrative cues of the flm in some detail and a grudge over the land deal, refuses to give his discuss some of the potential meanings that permission for Sean and Mary Kate to court. may be activated for viewers.

JFV 63_3 text.indd 32 7/11/11 1:47 PM An Irish American Context atives in Ireland. These Irish immigrants would enclose over one million pounds annually in On the surface, The Quiet Man seems to en- their letters home. Having relatives in America courage a nostalgic preferred reading that became an important economic strategy for mirrors an all-too-common romantic vision Irish family survival. Children were raised for of Ireland as a “rural world divested of mate- emigration with the hopes that their success rial cares” (Rockett 199). This mythic pastoral in America would reduce economic pressures Ireland has been linked to Panofsky’s notion on the parents back home (Foster 76). For the of soft primitivism, which “conceives of primi- children and grandchildren, Irish immigrant tive life as a golden age of plenty, innocence family narratives likely would have included and happiness” (Rockett 198). This nostalgic stories of these economic realities and would vision of Ireland is assumed to appeal to seem to temper any romantic image of Ireland the immigrant Irish and their Irish American presented by The Quiet Man. children within the domestic audience of this Likewise, political struggles in Ireland would Hollywood production. The existence of these remain an important issue for generations of viewers within an American domestic audi- Americans of Irish descent (Somerset Fry 238). ence is directly a product of the great Irish Irish Americans have consistently worked on diaspora that was brought on by the famine behalf of Ireland’s interests through American of the 1840s, and this community’s presence politics. In 1897, the Irish National Alliance complicates this theorized nostalgic preferred was formed to lobby against English interests reading. Irish men and women accounted for in American politics. In 1920, Irish Americans over 35 percent of the immigrants who entered opposed President Wilson’s League of Nations America from 1840 to 1860. By the 1870 cen- as an instrument to increase the infuence sus, the entire population of the United States of the British Empire in international affairs. was reported as 38.6 million, of which 1.9 mil- During World War II, the American Friends of lion had been born in Ireland (Griffn 141–43). Irish Neutrality supported Ireland’s decision The impact of this large population of Irish im- to stay out of the European confict. As a re- migrants on the United States would be mul- sult of pressure from Irish American groups, tiplied by a variety of social factors, including President Roosevelt warned Britain that any the infuence of the Catholic Church and inter- attempts to move against Ireland would have marriage. By the second half of twentieth cen- strong repercussions in the United States. tury, over forty million Americans would claim More recently, from the late 1960s to the pres- some portion of Irish ancestry (Goldstein and ent, various Irish American organizations have Hout 64). This suggests that for roughly one worked on behalf of the peaceful settlement in seven Americans, the nostalgic preferred of the “troubles” in Northern Ireland (Griffn reading of The Quiet Man is activated through 22–28). a personal narrative of their ancestors’ fight Although a nostalgic longing for a romanti- from Ireland. cized Irish homeland may explain part of The Although there may be a romantic image Quiet Man’s appeal to an Irish American viewer, of Ireland as a lost homeland, with many of any meaning activated through the context the characteristics Panofsky describes as soft of Irish American history would have to take primitivism, it seems hard to imagine these into account the famine, the immigration to Irish American viewers seeing Ireland as some America, and the ongoing political struggles in lost golden age of plenty (Rockett 188). The Ireland. The following frst close reading sug- famine immigrants would have been well aware gests how these Irish American viewers might of the poor economic situation of those who negotiate a more complex reading that includes remained behind. In fact, they used their own both the nostalgic/romantic and political/eco- economic prosperity in America to aid their rel- nomic meanings of the flm.

JFV 63_3 text.indd 33 7/11/11 1:47 PM Narrative of a Romantic Image mother is refected in his frst glimpse of Mary and Economic Reality Kate Danaher. As he stands looking out over The Quiet Man opens with a picture postcard the land on which he was born, he sees her image of an Irish castle whose likeness is re- driving a fock of sheep into the felds. In this fected across a lake in the foreground of the moment, Mary Kate seems to be the very image shot. This double image of the real and the of his mother, alive again, in the country of her refection are captured in an Irish American youth. Throughout the remainder of the flm, reading of the flm. Opening on this romantic Sean’s romantic pursuit of Mary Kate seems to vista to tell the story of Sean Thornton’s return be an effort to restore his connection to that to Ireland suggests the character has a nostal- past. This process of reconnecting with his Irish gic view of the country. Over the course of the past will become the site of confict over the flm’s narrative, Sean will be forced to come meaning of that past. This courtship will cause to grips with both the image and the reality of Sean’s nostalgic/romantic vision of Ireland to Ireland if he is to truly reclaim his Irish heritage. accommodate the political/economic realities He will confront the romantic image and eco- of Ireland. nomic realities of Ireland frst through the re- Sean begins his pursuit of Mary Kate by try- claiming of his family land and second through ing to speak to her after mass. He soon fnds he the courting of Mary Kate Danaher. will get nowhere unless he follows the customs When Sean arrives at the train station, the of the Irish. He must slowly turn away from narrator, Father Lonergan, tells us that he did American ways and become more like the Irish. not look like an American tourist: “not a camera Sean follows custom and allows Michaeleen on him, and what was worse, not even a fshing Oge Flynn to act as matchmaker. Michaeleen rod.” This opening description of Sean Thorn- arranges the meeting with Mary Kate’s brother, ton conficts with the postcard image of the title Red Will Danaher, so that Sean can ask for per- sequence. If Sean has neither camera nor fsh- mission to court. At this meeting, the romance ing rod, his journey will not likely be one of a is shoved aside by the land confict between tourist. He will somehow go beyond the roman- Sean and Red Will. Sean’s purchase of the land tic surface in his encounter with the country. from the Widow Tillane has upset Red Will’s At his arrival, the flm cues the Irish American plan to marry the widow and consolidate their viewer to expect more than pretty pictures and land holdings. Mary Kate is asked to leave the fshing stories. room as the men discuss the situation. This On the ride in from the train station to Innis- scene could be read in terms of the powerless free, the viewer learns that Sean was born here. position of women in a patriarchal society or, He reveals his identity to Michaeleen Oge Flynn, more specifcally, in Irish society. When viewed the carriage driver who meets him at the sta- through an Irish American context, however, tion. He tells of how he and his mother went to the scene seems to be about the shift from a America and how she died there when he was romantic to an economic view of Ireland. Both only twelve. He goes on to describe his own life Mary Kate and the romantic content of the of hard work in the steel mills of Pittsburgh. His scene are pushed off screen as the economic story is a testament to the harsh realities of life confict of Sean and Red Will takes center stage. in America for the Irish immigrant. Whereas he Throughout the narrative of the flm, roman- describes the steel mills as a hell on earth, he tic interests are clearly linked with economic calls the ruins of his family’s farm in Innisfree interests. Red Will is convinced to allow the “a little piece of heaven.” In this way, the reality courtship to proceed only when he is tricked of the immigrant experience is contrasted with into believing the courtship will help his own his nostalgic image of Ireland. relationship with the Widow Tillane. His inter- Likewise, this nostalgia for the country of his est in the widow is never presented in romantic

JFV 63_3 text.indd 34 7/11/11 1:47 PM Photo 1: Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara) and Sean Thornton (John Wayne) stoop to retrieve her dowry in The Quiet Man (1952). Photo courtesy of mptvimages.com.

terms. He seems far more interested in the When Mary Kate decides to leave Innisfree economic union of their landholdings than in for Dublin, Sean is pushed too far. Threatened the marriage. It seems that economic issues are with the loss of his wife, the American fnally constantly overriding any attempts at romance confronts Red Will and demands the dowry. in Ireland. Through the context of Irish American history, Once Sean and Mary Kate successfully trick it is most interesting that Mary Kate’s leaving Red Will and get to the altar, the viewer would Innisfree pushes Sean into action. Within the expect their romance to continue, but once narrative, Mary Kate’s decision to leave echoes again, economic issues intrude. When Red the emigration of Sean’s mother. For the Irish Will learns he has been tricked, he denies American viewer, Mary Kate’s fight from Innis- Mary Kate her dowry of 350 pounds in gold. free for economic reasons seems connected to The couple goes home to live together on the the fight of their Irish ancestors to America. Thornton ancestral farm, but Mary Kate refuses The romantic and economic futures of the to consummate the marriage union without couple come together at the end of the flm in frst having her dowry. For the Irish American a climactic fght between Sean and Red Will. viewer, the scene seems to say that the roman- Sean is forced to resort to violence in order tic Ireland can exist only if the economic issues to save his marriage from destruction. If the are addressed. Mary Kate tells Sean as much: confict between the romantic image and eco- “Until you have my dowry, you haven’t a bit of nomic realities of Ireland is metonymized in the me, myself. I’ll still be dreaming of those things relationship between Sean and Mary Kate, then that are my own as if I’d never met you.” The it becomes very interesting that the flm ends flm seems constantly to complicate the ro- with Sean choosing to fght for Mary Kate’s mantic image of Ireland with the issues of land dowry. In this climax, the romantic and eco- ownership and economics. Similarly, for Irish nomic confict of the story is resolved through American viewers, their romantic attachment violence. to their own ancestral home is complicated What meaning might be constructed by an through their personal histories of the famine Irish American viewer from this climactic fght? and the economic conditions that caused their That Irish Americans must be willing to become ancestors’ immigration to America. involved on behalf of Irish economic rights?

JFV 63_3 text.indd 35 7/11/11 1:47 PM This reading would take into account the his- “the fabric of liberty in American life” (62). tory of political activity by Irish Americans on Further, he encouraged continuing to welcome behalf of Ireland. Such a meaning would refect new immigrants as a way of reinvigorating our a much more complex reading of the flm than nation (125). is offered by simply attributing its appeal to a This context of the immigrant experience nostalgic/romantic vision of Ireland. Perhaps goes well beyond political rhetoric to the the appeal of The Quiet Man for Irish Americans personal history of most Americans. As im- is that the narrative reconciles their conficted migrants gave up their native languages and views of Ireland through the actions of the customs in search of greater economic op- returning American. If the history and romance portunity, so they encouraged their children of Ireland are metonymized in the story of Sean to continue this process of uniformity through Thornton and Mary Kate Danaher, then Sean’s education. This process became mythologized actions leading to a restoration of the marriage as the great American “melting pot” (Robert- union and a happy ending might suggest to the son 231–32). viewer that Ireland’s political and economic It is within this context of the immigrant problems also can be solved through the in- experience that meaning may be activated for volvement of Irish Americans. a broader American audience. The myth of the melting pot personalizes this process by link- American Context of Immigration ing the individual to his own earlier immigrant and Assimilation ancestry, no matter how far removed. In this way, many Americans could potentially activate As noted earlier in this article, the popularity meaning through the context of the immigrant. of The Quiet Man extends well beyond Irish This may be one of the contexts infuencing Americans. This broader audience would not their viewing experience of The Quiet Man. share the family narratives that would serve Through this context, the narrative of Sean as the context from which the frst suggested Thornton might become a story of immigrant reading would arise. What contexts could this assimilation. Sean has fed America to escape broader audience bring to The Quiet Man that the steel mills of Pittsburgh and the violence of would account for their pleasure in the view- the boxing ring. For many Americans, economic ing experience? The frst context that might conditions and violence are also associated activate meaning for an American viewer is the with the reasons their ancestors fed their immigrant experience as national myth. The homelands and immigrated to America. The ideas of immigration and American democracy process by which Sean slowly becomes part of have long been linked in our national debate. the Innisfree community refects the American In 1797, when Congress sought to pay off Revo- melting pot myth. lutionary War debts by charging a twenty-dollar Sean begins by holding on to his Ameri- naturalization tax, Jeffersonians argued that can ways and disregarding the normal Irish such charges were a repudiation of the repub- courtship procedures with little success. His lic’s political heritage (Cose 9). In Democracy success comes later, partially through his adop- in America, Alexis de Tocqueville theorized tion of the Irish public courtship process and that immigrant status was the great equalizer partially through a trick played on Red Will by among citizens. The immigrant experience, Michaeleen, Father Lonergan, and the Reverend having stripped notions of superiority over Playfair. Thus, Sean’s opposition to Red Will’s one another, allowed the people to embrace a control of the courtship process must take sense of equality (J. Kennedy 16). In the post- place within the oppositional practices of his humous publication of A Nation of Immigrants, new community. For the American viewer, this President John F. Kennedy saw the hunger for is a story of assimilation in which the immigrant freedom in new immigrants as strengthening gets ahead in the new society by adopting both

JFV 63_3 text.indd 36 7/11/11 1:47 PM the public rituals and the private subversive Ireland has been seen as a wilderness in oppo- tactics of the society. sition to England as civilization. The violence in By the end of the flm, when Sean fghts Red Ireland has been taken out of a political context Will, the entire community seems willing to join and explained as part of the nature or character in Sean’s fght. This may suggest that Sean has of the Irish people. This sets up Irish violence been completely assimilated into their society. as nature and the English rule as culture. The They share his fght for he is now one of them. desire of the Irish to leave the United Kingdom This reading suggests the extent to which the can be viewed as individualistic as opposed contexts of the American immigrant experience to communal. The east–west opposition also and the melting pot myth might infuence an works very well, for the west of Ireland was his- American viewer’s understanding of the flm. torically wilderness, or land that was not under civilizing English rule, as Dublin and the east of Intertextuality with the Ireland were (Rockett 193–249). American Western Clearly, the most important cue in The Quiet Another way meaning might be activated for Man encouraging the viewer to make mean- the broader American audience is through the ing through the secondary text of the Western flm genre of the Western. The Quiet Man has flm genre is the presence of John Wayne in the been labeled John Ford’s “Irish Western” for the production. The broad popularity of the flm in similarities between the flm and his Western the United States may result from the expecta- flms (Rockett 151). To view The Quiet Man in tions of the audience based on their previous relation to the Western, one must place the flm experiences with Western flms starring Wayne. within a web of intertextual meanings that de- Wayne’s image as an actor has in large part rive from the notion of genre. Fiske notes that been shaped by the nine Westerns he made genres are both intertextual and pre-textual. He with Ford. The production of The Quiet Man points to a set of shared conventions or formu- falls at the midpoint of these Western collabo- laic elements that are derived from similarities rations. In 1952, when the flm was released, of earlier texts and predate the existence of a an American viewer would have come to know new text. The Western genre is a set of “shifting Wayne through Ford’s Western flms: Stage- provisional characteristics” that are derived coach, Fort Apache, 3 Godfathers, She Wore a from the intertextual relationships of a group Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande. For later view- of earlier flms that share the American West as ers, Wayne’s image as a Western hero would content (Fiske and Hartley 110–11). The Western continue to grow through later Ford flms, in- genre creates pre-textual expectations for a cluding The Searchers, The Horse Soldiers, The viewer of The Quiet Man. The genre acts as an Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and How the agreed code between a producer and a viewer. West Was Won (Gallagher 526–42). This code shapes the range of pleasures a There are a number of elements in Wayne’s viewer comes to expect in relation to a new text portrayal of Sean Thornton that could be read (112–14). through the secondary texts of his other West- Specifcally, the Western genre can be ern roles. He comes to the west of Ireland to viewed as metonymizing the complex history settle land. From settlers versus Native Ameri- of America’s West into a code of binary opposi- cans to ranchers versus homesteaders, most tions of desert–garden, individual–community, of the conficts of the Western genre focus nature–culture, and east–west (Tudor 184). on the issue of land ownership. In buying the Similar binary oppositions of wilderness– land, Sean has intruded on Red Will Danaher, civilization, violence–law, nature–culture, both a native Irishman and a sheep farmer. In individual–community, and east–west seem this situation, Sean is the homesteader who to exist in the romantic and political/economic is in confict with Red Will, both a native and a images of the historic representation of Ireland. rancher. The issue of land in Irish history and

JFV 63_3 text.indd 37 7/11/11 1:47 PM the narrative of The Quiet Man seem to strongly context. For example, the Irish American viewer promote a viewer’s use of the Western as a sec- may also activate meaning through the con- ondary text. text of the immigrant myth and an intertextual In addition, three scenes of Sean on a horse relationship with the Western genre. Likewise, may encourage the viewer to associate the flm these contexts and intertextual relationships with the Western. When Red Will has refused may also have infuence on the Irish viewer. Re- to allow Sean to court his sister, Sean is seen gardless, there remain two contexts that seem wildly jumping fences on horseback. The sec- to have bearing on the potential meaning of the ond time, Sean outrides all of the other men flm specifcally for an Irish viewer. in a horse race and claims the Widow Tillane’s The frst of these contexts is the history of Ire- bonnet as the prize, thus forcing a jealous Red land’s political struggle with England that dates Will to be tricked into allowing Sean to court his back to the Norman invasion of the twelfth sister. Finally, when Mary Kate has gone to take century. In 1175, Henry II signed a treaty with the train to Dublin, Sean races to the station on the Irish high king Rory O’Connor, beginning horseback to bring her home. It would seem dif- the history of a divided Ireland (Foster 306). For fcult for a viewer to watch these scenes without the next eight hundred years, England’s rule of somehow referencing a variety of other images Ireland would be challenged through numerous of Wayne from the Western genre. popular rebellions. England’s control of most of In the same way, the career of director John Ireland would end in 1922 with the signing of Ford may also contribute to an intertextual re- the partitioning treaty that created the Republic lationship with the genre of the Western. Ford from the twenty-six counties in the south while directed more than 50 flms in the genre from retaining English rule of the six in the north The Tornado in 1917 to Cheyenne Autumn in (Corish 244). The long history of this dispute 1964 (Gallagher 503–43). For some portion of over Irish soil must be taken into account in any the audience, Ford’s Western flms may func- representation of Ireland. tion as a secondary text and create a set of The history of the English occupation of pre-textual expectations that they bring to the Ireland has been deeply imprinted on the na- viewing experience. The relationship of The ture of Irish society. Control of Irish farmland Quiet Man to the Western genre might encour- by absentee English landlords led to a tenant age viewers to metonymize the complex history farmer agricultural system that increased the of Ireland. Once the broader history is reduced value of land in Irish culture. The development as in a Western, it can be solved through the of the tenant farming class and the famine of use of violence. The secondary text of the the 1840s resulted in structural changes in the Western may encourage the viewer to expect Irish family (Marlow 88–120). Because poor Sean Thornton to seek a violent solution. The subsistence farmers would be reluctant to di- climactic fght fulflls the viewers’ expectation vide up their meager land holdings among their of violence and may account for the pleasure children, the choice of marriage or emigration derived from this scene. for the next generation became linked to the availability of land (Brown 15–22). For the Irish The Irish Context viewer, the meaning of any narrative such as The Quiet Man, which articulates the issue of Having suggested possible contexts for the land ownership, would seem to be activated flm’s Irish American and broader American through this context of English rule and land viewers, there remains the contextualizing of ownership in Irish history. the flm for the Irish viewer. To begin with, it Although the Irish viewer may create mean- is important to note that these categories of ing through much that is articulated by the text, theorized viewers and contexts are not discrete, the long history of censorship in Ireland may and there is the potential for much overlapping create a second context that specifcally cues

JFV 63_3 text.indd 38 7/11/11 1:47 PM an Irish viewer to the issues on which the pre- sitional.” Censorship is not the act of the flm- ferred meaning of the text whispers or remains maker or author. The censors place themselves silent. The history of flm censorship in Ireland between the author and the reader during any dates back to the silent era when the English encounter with the text. The reader is therefore government would regularly ban flms that free to read in opposition to the censor, while dealt directly with the politics of Irish rebellion still decoding the text in a fashion preferred (Rockett 12–14). The censorship of flm and by the author. Authors and flmmakers have literature continued to be a common feature of resisted censorship through a variety of tech- Irish culture after Ireland won independence niques that encourage the reader or viewer from England. The newly formed Irish govern- to “read between the lines.” The use of tech- ment and the Catholic Church joined forces in niques such as allegory, irony, or metaphor in the Censorship Act of 1923 to protect the public the text relies on the very polysemic nature of from “indecent, obscene, or blasphemous the text. Although the text’s preferred reading material” (McIlroy 21). Censorship was also seems to be in line with the dominant ideology used by the government to limit outside infu- of the censor, the text may also be used by the ence in the country. Over the frst half of the reader to create a latent or hidden meaning that twentieth century, the banning of serious works undermines the dominant ideology. In such a by American, English, and European authors reading, the relationship between the author reached enormous proportions. In 1954, more and reader may be as “co-conspirators in the than one thousand books were banned in a communicative process” (Jansen 192–200). single year. Although historian Terence Brown views this censorship as primarily a “weapon of Political Struggles and Hidden Meanings cultural protectionism,” this weapon was used An Irish viewer may be cued to search for hid- to silence critics at home as well (152). The den meanings in The Quiet Man through the widespread use of censorship by the Irish gov- listing of the offcial Irish censor in the credits ernment developed into a “censorship culture” and a variety of textual cues that the flm whose efforts ranged from the total banning of “whispers.” During the course of the flm, it is abortion information to arguing that a broad- revealed that Sean Thornton was previously a cast commercial for a book of short stories by prizefghter and left America because he had Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams would “incite killed a man in the ring. The presence of a hid- crime and tend to undermine the authority of den violent act in the text seems to be a key to the State” (Meehan 31). understanding how the flm deals with the less In such a censorship culture, attempts to romantic aspects of its representation, includ- banish certain ideas from texts may create ing its representation of Ireland’s long political conditions that encourage viewers to decode struggle with England. How the flm represents meanings differently. The viewer will reproduce these elements may be what Fiske and Hartley a dominant reading of the text only if he or would refer to as the flm’s “latent meaning” she is comfortable with the dominant ideology that is also encoded into the dominant code (Fiske and Hartley 64). When encountering a of the text (105). Both the articulated and the censored text, the viewer is still free to reject latent or hidden meaning in The Quiet Man may the dominant ideology that ordered the censor- have a strong connection to the localized expe- ship. This may cause the viewer to read the text rience of politics, violence, and censorship for oppositionally through the context of the cen- the Irish viewer and may account for the flm’s sorship act. This context may actually heighten popularity in Ireland. the viewer’s attention to those censored mean- Just as the Western flm proves a second- ings that the preferred reading seeks to silence. ary text for American viewers familiar with the The act of censorship complicates reading Western genre, the literary source material for classifcations such as “preferred” and “oppo- The Quiet Man may also serve as a secondary

JFV 63_3 text.indd 39 7/11/11 1:47 PM text for Irish viewers. The source material of meaning in the flm. It is interesting to note that The Quiet Man was a short story from Green immediately after making his comments, Father Rushes, a collection of stories by Irish writer Lonergan asks Sean if he would mind walking Maurice Walsh. As Gibbons notes, The Quiet ahead so that he can discuss a private matter Man was one of fve interconnected stories in with Michaeleen Oge Flynn. Having demon- Green Rushes that are set during the Irish War strated Father Lonergan’s political sympathies, of Independence and its aftermath. These sto- the flm may now encourage the Irish viewer to ries, though set in the bucolic atmosphere of wonder as to the content of this private con- the rural west of Ireland, are “haunted” by the versation. Within the context of censorship in violence of the war that remains suppressed or Irish society and Michaeleen’s Irish Republican hidden below the surface of the narratives. In Army (IRA) past, as detailed in Walsh’s original Walsh’s story “The Quiet Man,” the returning stories, it is possible that the Irish viewer might Irishman is haunted not by a death in a box- conclude that such a private conversation is ing ring but by his actions in the war (34–36). also of a political nature. The secondary text of Walsh’s original stories Accordingly, the presence of Michaeleen presents a context through which Irish viewers supports this conclusion as the flm continues. might read the flm. A close reading of the flm Twice in the flm, Michaeleen is linked to the reveals how the issues of Irish–English politics, political struggle. Michaeleen takes leave of violence, and censorship may activate meaning Sean and exits one scene by saying he’s “off for the Irish viewer. to the pub to visit with the lads and talk a little The frst cue to an Irish viewer that the flm treason.” Again, at the climax of the flm, when will speak to these issues is the choice of Michaeleen and the lads, including former IRA Father Lonergan as the flm’s narrator. Imme- commander Hugh Forbes, show up for the fght, diately, this narrative convention creates the Red Will growls, “So the IRA is in this too!” expectation that the story will be told from an Indeed, the Irish viewer’s formation of politi- Irish point of view. When Father Lonergan frst cal meaning is supported later in the flm when meets Sean Thornton, this point of view comes Father Lonergan and Michaeleen become in- to the surface. Lonergan recounts the history volved in a conspiracy to aid Sean in the court- of Sean’s family and introduces the history of ship of Mary Kate. On the day of the great horse Irish–English political struggles into the flm race, the pair orchestrates the tricking of Red when he tells Sean, “I knew your people. Your Will Danaher. Michaeleen and Lonergan have grandfather, he died in Australia in a penal already convinced Red Will that Sean may court colony. And your father, he was a good man the Widow Tillane, since Red Will has denied too, bad accident that. . . .” him permission to court Mary Kate. When Sean For the Irish viewer, this moment may en- wins the race and captures the Widow Tillane’s courage the use of Irish–English political strug- bonnet, Red Will is convinced that the American gles as a context for the viewing experience. is after the rest of the Widow’s land. Michaeleen Father Lonergan tells us that he thought well of and Lonergan convince Red Will that the widow Sean’s grandfather. Obviously, Lonergan did would marry him if he could frst get Mary Kate not view the man as a criminal. The mention of out of the house. In this way, Red Will is tricked the English penal colony in Australia would cue into allowing Sean to court his sister. the Irish viewer to interpret the grandfather’s Although on the surface this scene might crime to be of a political nature. Likewise, the be viewed purely as a romantic conspiracy, vague mention of the father’s death in an “ac- the issue of land is ever present. The contexts cident” seems to hint that there may be more of the Irish political struggle and censorship to that story as well. These two mentions go by may encourage the Irish viewer to go beyond quickly, but they might cue the Irish viewer that the surface and seek a hidden meaning to this there will be a whispered or hidden political conspiracy. From this viewpoint, it is interest-

JFV 63_3 text.indd 40 7/11/11 1:47 PM ing that Red Will is convinced to give up his of Irish rebels on English soldiers to the well- Irish sister Mary Kate to Sean Thornton in order disguised trick that is being played on Red Will to gain closer ties with the Anglo-Irish Widow by Father Lonergan and Michaeleen Oge Flynn. Tillane. Each of these characters may function Of course, the scene in which the marriage as symbols that combine to metonymize the papers are signed invites a further linking of political history of Ireland. By examining each the narrative to the treaty signing of 1921. After character, we may better understand how the the marriage vows have been taken and the flm activates meaning through the complex marriage is complete, Red Will (the loyalist) Irish political history for an Irish viewer. announces his intended union with the Widow Earlier in the flm, when Sean frst meets the Tillane only to be spurned by her. It is then that Widow Sarah Tillane, she recounts her family Red Will realizes he has been tricked and re- history in Ireland as going back to the Anglo- fuses to pay Mary Kate’s dowry. Sean declines Norman settlers. From an Irish viewpoint, the to fght him over this economic issue and is sat- widow can be read as representing the Anglo- isfed with his romantic union with Mary Kate. Irish Ascendancy class. The period of Protestant However, when the couple get home, trouble Ascendancy in Ireland began in 1690, after begins over the missing dowry. King William’s forces defeated the Jacobites at As cited earlier in the discussion, in an Irish the Battle of the Boyne. The Widow Tillane is American reading of the flm, Sean’s courting of a descendent of the English Protestant land- Mary Kate can be viewed as his seeking to rees- lords who controlled large portions of Irish tablish connection with his mother and his Irish agricultural land. These Anglo-Irish formed the heritage. For an Irish viewer, Mary Kate may dominant social and political class in Ireland function strongly as a symbol for Ireland itself. for the next two hundred years, until the rise of The symbolizing of Ireland as a woman has its the Catholic Nationalist movement in the late beginnings in the Celtic view of nature as femi- nineteenth century (Foster 134–73). nine. The use of a woman to represent Ireland Throughout the flm, the relationship of grew under English penal-law censorship in Red Will and the Widow Tillane is focused on the eighteenth century, when the rhetoric of his desire to expand his land holdings. In this political rebellion could be disguised through context, Will’s decision to give up his Irish an allegory of Mother Ireland as a helpless sister in return for closer ties to the Anglo-Irish victimized woman (MacDowell 10–11). These Widow Tillane can be read as a metonymy of feminine representations of Ireland continued the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The Irish who felt in Irish culture, from the long-suffering mother loyalty to the English crown gave up the twenty- of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock to the six counties of the south in order to establish prevalent Irish tourist-board images of the red- Northern Ireland with a strong tie to England. haired Irish colleen. In this context, Red Will can be viewed as rep- This representation of the nation as a woman resenting these Anglo-Irish loyalists, and thus, becomes an important context through which the conspiracy against him in this matter takes the Irish viewer activates the meaning of Mary on a political meaning. This political reading Kate Danaher. After the wedding, Mary Kate seems to be encouraged by a musical cue in tells Sean, “Until you have my dowry, you the flm. When the scene opens, two men, who haven’t a bit of me, myself. I’ll still be dreaming will later be identifed by Red Will as IRA men, of those things that are my own as if I’d never are playing a traditional Irish revolutionary bal- met you.” As she makes this statement about lad titled “The Rising of the Moon” (Fallis 100). her missing dowry, she separates herself from This song that tells of a historic nighttime rebel- Sean by means of a half door. Sean and the lion against English rule would be very familiar viewer see half a woman. If Mary Kate is read to Irish viewers. The presence of the song cues through the historic representations of Mother these Irish viewers to link the nighttime raids Ireland, then Mary Kate (Mother Ireland) is

JFV 63_3 text.indd 41 7/11/11 1:47 PM divided by the door (a border) and denied her he was hunted by English soldiers. Through a dowry (economic security). Through the politi- combination of Sean’s lineage and the use of cal context, this moment seems once again this song, an Irish viewer might come to iden- to represent the situation in Ireland after the tify this “Yank” as a returning Irish rebel. partitioning Treaty of 1921. The northern in- Through the context of Irish history, the nar- dustrially developed counties of Ireland were rative of The Quiet Man seems to metonymize separated from the Republic of the south. The the complex political and economic struggles Republic was denied the economic base from in Ireland. Sean (the returning exiled Irishman) which it could draw security. Mary Kate is refus- tricks Red Will (the loyalist) into a marriage ing to consummate the marriage; as such, she contract (the partitioning Treaty of 1921), only is questioning the marriage union and denying later to be forced to fght (the continuing rebel- the existence of a future generation. Similarly, lion) for Mary Kate’s (Mother Ireland) dowry the partitioning of Ireland undermines the (economic security and Northern Ireland). After existing union of the Republic and denies the the fght, the family is reunited as Red Will and economic future of the next generation. Sean patch up their differences and sit down to a meal prepared by Mary Kate. The economic Narrative of the Returning Irish issue resolved, both the returning exile and and Political Resolutions the loyalist enjoy a peaceful coexistence. In the A political context can also explain why an Irish fnal scene, Red Will begins the courtship of viewer would identify with the struggle of the Widow Tillane. The economic issues resolved, American Sean Thornton against the Irishman the loyalist is now free to express his affection Red Will Danaher. Although Sean is constantly for an Anglo-Irish heritage. referred to as “the Yank,” he is of Irish birth. For Although the flm seems to encourage the the Irish viewer, Sean is one of the 43 percent Irish viewer to reduce the meaning of the con- of Irish-born men and women who were forced ficts in Ireland to pure economic issues, one to leave Ireland out of economic necessity in of the most interesting aspects of this read- the years following the famine. The rhetoric of ing is its treatment of the Protestant–Catholic the Irish Nationalist movement laid claim to confict, a similar reduction or metonymy that these people as Irish. Those who immigrated to is often part of the discussion of Irish history. America and elsewhere were often referred to From the Jacobites’ defeat at the Battle of the as “the nation beyond the seas” or “the greater Boyne to the recent “troubles” in Belfast, the Ireland” (Brown 29). In this context, the story Irish–English confict has continually been cat- of Sean Thornton’s return could be viewed as a egorized as between Protestants and Catholics romantic fantasy of Irish emigrants returning to rather than as between loyalists and national- fght and reclaim the land of their birth. Sean as ists. In reality, the rise of Irish Catholicism in a character is linked to the heroes of Irish rebel- the late nineteenth century seems more closely lion. When Sean frst enters the village pub, the related to the church’s stance on the economic men there are suspicious of him, until an old issues of land reform and private property than man remembers the name Thornton. The old to any theological differences with organized man, like Father Lonergan in an earlier scene, Protestantism (Brown 15–22). When the history asks if Sean’s grandfather was old Sean Thorn- of English colonialism and Irish rebellion is ton, who died in a penal colony in Australia. reduced to an ill-defned religious confict, such Once Sean confrms this proud rebel lineage, economic issues remain hidden. The Quiet Man all of the men in the pub crowd around the bar seems to invite the viewer to question previous and drink with him. The scene ends with yet an- religious characterizations of the confict. other Irish rebel ballad as they sing “The Wild The Protestant Reverend Playfair befriends Colonial Boy,” a song that tells the story of an the Catholic Sean Thornton and keeps secret Irish rebel who fed Ireland for Australia, where Sean’s violent past as a prizefghter. He also

JFV 63_3 text.indd 42 7/11/11 1:47 PM assists Father Lonergan and Michaeleen in constant, the contexts that each viewer brings tricking Red Will into allowing the marriage to to the experience are shifting. For Irish Ameri- take place. Throughout the flm, Reverend Play- can viewers, meaning may be activated through fair is shown to be a respected and well-liked the contexts of their Irish American family member of the community. A subplot in the flm history. Other American viewers may create involves the impending visit of his superior, a meaning through the contexts of the immigrant Protestant bishop who wants to transfer him experience, the American melting pot myth, from Innisfree because of the lack of parish- and the conventions of the Western genre. Fi- ioners. In the last scene of the flm, everyone, nally, Irish viewers may activate the meaning of including Father Lonergan, who borrows a scarf the flm through their local knowledge of Irish to hide his Roman Catholic collar, lines the road history, including the issues of land ownership pretending to be a Protestant well-wisher, and and infuence of censorship in Irish society. they all cheer as the bishop rides through town. This article has sought to present The Quiet The Irish viewer would likely read this scene to Man as one of Ford’s most complex texts in be a direct challenge to the often used Protes- relation to its audience. Although this theo- tant–Catholic reduction of the historic English– rized audience can be divided into these cat- Irish conficts. The Quiet Man offers pleasure to egories of Irish American, American, and Irish, the Irish viewer by refuting this common reduc- an actual viewer’s experience is not similarly tion. In its place, Irish viewers are encouraged limited. The context of the Western genre could to activate a variety of meanings through their function for any viewer familiar with the West- local knowledge of the economic and political ern. The context of the immigrant experience history of Ireland. common to Irish Americans and Americans might also affect Irish viewers whose relatives Conclusion immigrated to America. Finally, the history, economics, and politics that form a context for As The Quiet Man refutes the Protestant– the Irish viewer may likewise activate meaning Catholic reduction of meaning in the English– for any politically aware viewer. Rather than Irish confict, so this article has sought to refute view these contexts as discrete secondary similar critical reductions of the flm to a single texts, it seems more useful to see them as meaning and to explore how the more recently further examples of the diffuse texts that each theorized dialogic readings of the text might viewer brings to his or her individual view- operate. Early readings seem to limit the site ing experience. It is through interaction with of meaning to the flm as a discrete text. On a these numerous diffuse texts that each viewer theoretical level, these readings deny the inter- constructs his or her own context. It is through textual infuence of secondary texts, the role of these shifting contexts that the consistent con- the reader in creating meaning, and the poly- tent and medium of The Quiet Man derives its semic nature of popular culture. Understanding polysemic nature. By narrowly limiting the flm the broad box-offce appeal of the flm seems to a romantic preferred reading, many scholars to call for a critical framework that extends ignore the polysemic nature of the text and beyond the discrete text to suggest how the thereby deny both the contexts and the variety flm might be read by a variety of viewers within of human experience by which viewers derive such a broad audience. meaning and pleasure from the flm-viewing The viewing experience of The Quiet Man experience. offers each viewer an interaction with a mosaic of content, medium, and context. As Brummett references suggests, it is out of the relationship of these Brown, Terence. Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, three parts that meaning is formed (110–11). 1922–1979. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985. Although the medium and the content remain Print.

JFV 63_3 text.indd 43 7/11/11 1:47 PM Brummett, Barry. Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Lourdeaux, Lee. Italian and Irish Filmmakers in Amer- Culture. Tuscaloosa: Alabama UP, 1991. Print. ica: Ford, Capra, Coppola, and Scorsese. Philadel- Corish, Patrick J. The Irish Catholic Experience: A His- phia: Temple UP, 1990. Print. torical Survey. Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1985. MacDowell, Sheila. “Mother Ireland.” Film Base News Print. 10 (1988): 10–11. Print. Cose, Ellis. A Nation of Strangers: Prejudice, Politics MacKillop, James. “The Quiet Man Speaks.” Contem- and the Populating of America. New York: William porary Irish Cinema: From The Quiet Man to Danc- Morrow, 1992. Print. ing at Lughnasa. Ed. James MacKillop. Syracuse: Fallis, Richard. The Irish Renaissance. Syracuse: Syra- Syracuse UP, 1999. 169–81. Print. cuse UP, 1977. Print. Marlow, Joyce. Captain Boycott and the Irish. New Fiske, John. Reading the Popular. New York: Rout- York: Saturday Review, 1973. Print. ledge, 1989. Print. McAleer, Grainne. “Imagining Irish Film.” Film Ireland Fiske, John, and J. Hartley. Television Culture. New 37 (1993): 12. Print. York: Routledge, 1987. Print. McIlroy, Brian. World Cinema 4: Ireland. Trowbridge: Foster, R. F. The Oxford History of Ireland. Oxford: Flicks, 1988. Print. Oxford UP, 1992. Print. McLoone, Martin. Irish Film: The Emergence of a Con- Gallagher, Tag. John Ford: The Man and His Films. temporary Cinema. London: BFI, 2000. Print. Berkeley: U of California P, 1986. Print. Meehan, Niall. “Ireland’s Censorship Culture.” Film Gibbons, Luke. The Quiet Man. Cork: Cork UP, 2007. Ireland 33 (1993): 31. Print. Print. The Quiet Man. Dir. John Ford. Republic Pictures Cor- Goldstein, Joshua R., and Michael Hout. “How 4.5 poration, 1952. DVD. Million Irish Immigrants Became 40 Million Irish- Pettitt, Lance. Screening Ireland: Film and Television Americans: Demographic and Subjective Aspects of Representation. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2000. the Ethnic Composition of White Americans.” Ameri- Print. can Sociological Review 59.1 (1994): 64–82. Print. Robertson, James Oliver. American Myth, American Griffn, William D. The Irish in America: 550–1972: Reality. New York: Hill & Wang, 1980. Print. Chronology and Fact Book. Dobbs Ferry: Oceana, Rockett, Kevin, Luke Gibbons, and John Hill. Cinema 1973. Print. and Ireland. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1988. Print. Jameson, Fredrick. The Political Unconscious: Narra- Slide, Anthony. The Cinema and Ireland. Jefferson: tive as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca: Cornell UP, McFarland, 1988. Print. 1981. Print. Somerset Fry, Peter, and Fiona Somerset Fry. A History Jansen, Sue Curry. Censorship: The Knot That Binds of Ireland. London: Routledge, 1993. Print. Power and Knowledge. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. New Print. York: New American Library, 2001. Print. Kennedy, Harlan. “Shamrocks and Shillelaghs: Idyll Tudor, Andrew. Image and Influence: Studies in the and Ideology in Irish Cinema.” Contemporary Irish Sociology of Film. New York: St. Martin’s, 1975. Cinema: From The Quiet Man to Dancing at Lugh- Print. nasa. Ed. James MacKillop. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, Walsh, Maurice. The Quiet Man and Other Stories. 1999. 1–10. Print. Belfast: Appletree, 1992. Print. Kennedy, John F. A Nation of Immigrants. New York: Harper and Row, 1964. Print.

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