This interdisciplinary study analyses three 20th century fictional representa- tions of the Great Irish Famine in relation to nationalist, revisionist, and post-revisionist historical interpretations of the event. It examines how writers of history and fiction respectively portray the causes and consequences of the famine, and particularly how they view the question of responsibility, which is still a matter of contention. Gunilla Bexar asks to what extent the fictional representations reflect or resist | 2016 in History-Writing Fiction Irish and Prose Great The Famine Gunilla Bexar | the interpretations of the historians, and how the two genres attempt to make the experiences of the victims visible to readers. The study provides further Gunilla Bexar historical context by incorporating contemporary eye-witness accounts, offi- cial correspondence, and newspaper reports in the analyses. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s theory of the interweaving of history and fiction, Bex- The Great Irish Famine in ar argues that literature plays an important part in the shaping of historical con- sciousness. History and fiction should not be seen as mutually antithetical dis- History-Writing and Prose Fiction courses in the representation of the past since fiction, through its focus on the vic- tims, who are often reduced to statistics in history-writing, can mediate a deeper “The Mutual Interplay of Two Narrative Genres” understanding of the human tragedy that epitomizes the Great Irish Famine. 9 789517 658249 ISBN 978-951-765-824-9 Gunilla Bexar has an MA degree in English literature from San Francisco State University. Recently retired, she has worked as a language teacher in adult education. At Åbo Akademi, she has taught courses in contemporary Irish literature and participated in the Lit Com Project. Åbo Akademi University Press Tavastgatan 13, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 215 3478 E-mail: [email protected] Sales and distribution: Åbo Akademi University Library Domkyrkogatan 2–4, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 -215 4190 E-mail: [email protected] THETHE GREAT GREAT IRISH IRISH FAMINE FAMINE IN INHISTORY-WRITING HISTORY-WRITING AND AND PROSEPROSE FICTION FICTION The Great Irish Famine in History-Writing and Prose Fiction ”The Mutual Interplay of Two Narrative Genres” Gunilla Bexar Åbo Akademis förlag | Åbo Akademi University Press Åbo, Finland, 2016 The Great Irish Famine in History-Writing and Prose Fiction “The Mutual Interplay of Two Narrative Genres” The Great Irish Famine in History-Writing and Prose Fiction ”The Mutual InterplayGunilla of Bexar Two Narrative Genres” Gunilla Bexar Åbo Akademis förlag | Åbo Akademi University Press Åbo, Finland, 2016 CIP Cataloguing in Publication Bexar, Gunilla. The great Irish famine in history-writing and prose fiction : “the mutual interplay of two narrative genres” / Gunilla Bexar. - Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2016. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765-824-9 ISBN 978-951-765-824-9 ISBN 978-951-765-825-6 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2016 Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................vii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 PART I 1. NATIONALIST REPRESENTATIONS OF FAMINE HISTORY ................15 CIP Cataloguing in Publication 1.1. John Mitchel’s The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) ..........................15 1.1.1. Blaming the British government ..................................................22 Bexar, Gunilla. 1.1.2. ‘Surplus population’ and ‘surplus produce’ .................................30 The great Irish famine in history-writing 1.1.3. Exports, ‘relief’ and wholesale evictions. ....................................40 and prose fiction : “the mutual interplay 1.2. Historiography in transition: the Mitchel legacy ...................................68 of two narrative genres” / Gunilla 1.2.1. ‘The direct stroke of an all-wise Providence’ ...............................74 Bexar. - Åbo : Åbo Akademi University 1.2.2. ‘A listless, improvident people’ ......................................................83 Press, 2016. 1.2.3. A ‘myth’ perpetuated ......................................................................90 Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765-824-9 2. “A TERRIBLE AND MOVING VISION”: Liam O’Flaherty’s Famine ........95 2.1. Famine, history and politics ...................................................................104 2.2. Famine – whose fault? .............................................................................122 2.3. Representing the victims .........................................................................136 PART II 3. THE REVISIONIST TURN IN HISTORICAL WRITING .......................155 3.1. The ‘New Historians’ and the nationalist ‘myth’ ..................................155 3.2. Revisionism and the Famine ..................................................................161 3.2.1. Food exports, free trade and government relief .......................164 3.2.2. The rights and duties of property ...............................................174 3.3. Edwards and Williams’s The Great Famine: sanitized history? ..........188 4. ‘THE HISTORY OF THE POOR IS THE HISTORY OF IRELAND’: Walter Macken’s The Silent People ..................................................................216 ISBN 978-951-765-824-9 ISBN 978-951-765-825-6 (digital) 4.1. ‘The most oppressed people in Europe’ ................................................217 Painosalama Oy 4.2. ‘The Liberator’ ..........................................................................................231 Åbo 2016 4.3. Pre-Famine poverty .................................................................................249 4.4. A starving people with no voice .............................................................260 v PART III 5. CHALLENGING REVISIONISM .................................................................281 5.1. Cecil Woodham-Smith’s The Great Hunger: nationalist Famine history revived? .....................................................................................................283 5.2. Post-revisionist interpretations ..............................................................309 5.2.1. Christine Kinealy’s This Great Calamity ....................................309 5.2.2. James S. Donnelly’s The Great Irish Potato Famine ..................325 6. ‘THE HISTORY OF THIS WRETCHED ISLAND’: Eugene McCabe’s Tales from the Poorhouse .................................................................................355 6.1. Famine, dreams and nightmares ............................................................366 6.2. ‘The fortress of Giant Despair’ ...............................................................392 6.3. The question of responsibility ................................................................408 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................425 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................430 INDEX ....................................................................................................................448 SVENSK SAMMANFATTNING .......................................................................455 vi Acknowledgements A version of parts of Chapters 1 and 2 appeared in NJES: Nordic Journal of English Studies, vol. 6, no. 2 (2007), and a version of part of Chapter 4 in Rog- er D. Sell (ed.), Literary Community‒Making: The dialogicality of English texts from the seventeenth century to the present (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Ben- jamins, 2012). My most heartfelt thanks go to my long-time supervisor, Professor Emer- itus Roger D. Sell. When I embarked on this project, Åbo Akademi had no researcher who was interested in the Irish Famine or in Irish literature and history. Nevertheless, Professor Sell’s belief in the relevance and importance of my chosen subject spurred me to pursue it, and his comments on the early drafts of the thesis proved invaluable. His support and input, not to speak of his patience and encouragement when progress was slow, have enabled me to go on with and eventually complete this study. Thanks also to Professor Tuija Virtanen-Ulfhjelm for practical advice and support during the last stages of the project. I want to thank Professor Margaret Kelleher of University College Dublin for taking the time to give me feedback on my initial thesis statement, and for her useful suggestions on how to approach the theoretical issues involved. I am grateful to Dr Eóin Flannery for his constructive and helpful commentary on my manuscript. Thanks to Trinity College Dublin for allowing me access to the Berkeley Library, and to the staff of the National Library of Ireland for their kind assistance. Many thanks to Grace Moloney of the Clogher Historical Society for pro- viding me with essential source material and useful information. Thanks also to my fellow doctoral students at Åbo Akademi, who commented on the first drafts of some of my thesis chapters in our seminars. I am grateful to James Rogers, editor of the New Hibernia Review, who kindly sent me copies of ar- ticles that I would not otherwise have had access to. I also owe a debt of grati- tude to my landlady, Mrs Gemma Rafferty, who took such good care of me and helped with a number of practical matters while I did research in Dublin in 2001, 2003 and 2004. This study would