WRITE NOW • TÓIBÍN 11 “WRITE NOW” QUESTIONS Due as a printed hard copy in the class focused on Tóibín. Due also as a Word (not a PDF) attachment to an email message, sent to [email protected] before class on the due date. The subject line must adhere to the following convention: Tóibín O’Shaughnessy LY 0928 Section M (where “Tóibín” is the exercise; “O’Shaughnessy LY” is the student’s family name, followed by her or his first and middle initials; “0928” are the final four digits of the student’s Eagle ID; and “Section M” is the course’s section designation). Above: How to format a Write Now exercise (example is the first exercise of the semester) Font: Times New Roman • First four lines: Size 22 • All other content: Size 11 • Color: Black 1 The image on the left contains a map of the nation of Ireland. The protagonist, Paul, is a native of the town of Enniscorthy in Wexford, the most southeastern of the island’s counties. Paul works in the nation’s capital city, Dublin. ••• The badge is that of the Society of the United Irishmen, a political organization founded in 1791 to replace British colonial control with a sovereign Irish republic. Inspired by the American and French revolutions, the Society spearheaded a nationwide rebellion in 1798. It remains the bloodiest year in Irish history, A key engagement, the Battle of Vinegar Hill, occurred in Enniscorthy on Midsummer’s Day 1798 ••• The uprising failed, and afterwards the British forbade discussion of it. Defiant Irish rebels then popularized the phrase “Who Dares Speak of ‘98?” Referring to the recalibration of Irish identity that it sought, the United Irish movement used as its symbol a harp, underneath which ran a banner that declared, “It Is New Strung and Shall Be Heard.” Question 1 • Over the course of this course, we have become pretty adept at examining names. The first two letters of Hyland may put the reader in mind of either: (a) Hy-Brasil, a mythical Atlantic island off Ireland’s west coast; or (b) Hy-many, an ancient kingdom on mainland Ireland. The word Hyland (which sounds like High Land) could be interpreted as an aspirational or fantasy version of Ireland. Certainly, Paul might wish for an Ireland different from the one he grew up in, full of family dysfunction and hostility to gay people. When Paul asks the “social worker” to recommend a nursing home from a list of such residences, which one does she endorse? Choosing—especially choosing between people—emerges as a central theme of “The Color of Shadows.” What, according to Ali Hyland, does Paul’s Aunt Josie “[like]”? The answer-word may prompt the reader to reflect that Enniscorthy, the chief town in the story, was the site of the foremost engagement of Ireland’s 1798 Rebellion—namely, the battle of Vinegar Hill. The United Irish Rebellion brought together Irish Catholics, Protestants (Episcopalians), and Dissenters (Presbyterians) in the cause of an Irish republic. Religious and ethnic identity were obliged to take a shadow role in favor of a different calculus of national belonging: honoring equality as the essence of republican democracy. • Question 2 • Why is Paul hesitant to follow Ali Hyland’s counsel about Noeleen Redmond’s nursing home? (By the way, Noeleen means “Little Christmas.”) When Paul visits Josie in the hospital, what two words does she first utter in his presence? What is said and what remains unspoken; what is heard, but only selectively: these are core concerns in “The Color of Shadows.” What has been going on with Josie’s “hearing,” and why does she instruct Paul, “[D]on’t say too much”? • Question 3 • Ireland’s economic boom, which roared from the mid-1990s through around 2008, saw (a) a significant influx of East European and West African immigrants; (b) spiraling health-care costs; (c) major road-construction projects; and (d) runaway home construction. Between 1995 and 2000, the economy expanded at an average rate of 9.4%, and the greater phenomenon was given the moniker “Celtic Tiger.” Identify a phrase, sentence, or reference that shows that “The Color of Shadows” is aware of Item (a) above. Do the same for Items (b), (c), and (d). For Item (c), you may have to read through the bottom of page 4; and for Item (d) into at least a portion of Page 5. However, material on page 2 will supply sufficient data to complete the rest of the challenge. The River Slaney and the Riverside Hotel 2 feature in the narration. In its original Irish- language form, the name Slaney means “health,” which seems appropriate, given the focus on Josie’s decline towards death. While he’s checking out the Redmond family nursing home prior to Josie’s arrival there, what does Noeleen tell Paul the old woman is “lucky” to have; and what, according to Paul, will she “[not] feel lucky” about (page 2)? Image (above, left): three members of Club Gael—the Irish Studies student organization—and Dr. Keeley meet Colm Tóibín at the University of Georgia Chapel in March 2017. • Question 4 • page 3 • What noun, near the top of the page, does the narrator use for the residents of the Redmond family nursing home? At least a couple of other words on that page may require some explanation: in Ireland, a “solicitor” is a lawyer; and a “hot press” is an airing closet for clothes. As regards size, how does Josie’s two-story home seem to Paul when he visits it? How is his night’s sleep in the bedroom he’d occupied “throughout his childhood”? Why will Josie’s house not have to be sold, at least “for some years”? • Question 5 • page 4 • Paul is gay, as is the multiaward-winning author of this story, Colm Tóibín (born in Enniscorthy in 1955). What impact did Paul’s father have upon his formative years? Paul remembers Josie’s mistaking him for Tom Furlong, a member of the Knights of Columbanus. Why does Josie’s blunder cause Paul to “[smile] to himself” during his solitary hotel dinner? Using and citing a reliable source, offer a sentence that outlines basic facts about the Knights of Columbanus (a different organization than the Knights of Columbus). “The Color of Shadows” was first published in 2008; three years earlier, the Knights of Columbanus made a presentation to an Irish parliamentary committee charged with suggesting updates to or reforms of the nation’s Constitution. A portion of that presentation is worth considering vis-à-vis both the childhood and adult experiences of Tóibín’s protagonist Paul: “The Knights of St. Columbanus submits that the recognition of same-sex unions on the same terms as marriage would suggest to future generations and society as a whole that marriage as husband and wife and same-sex relationships were equally valid options and an equally valid context in which to bring up children. At stake is the natural right of children to the normal presence of a mother and father in their lives.” • Question 6 • page 4 • What did Paul not do when attending a Christmas Day Mass with Josie; and what precipitated her making an “oblique reference to his being gay”? How did she characterize Paul’s Dublin friends when she believed her interlocutor to be Tom Furlong? • Question 7 • pages 5 and 6 • A year after granting Paul power of attorney, Josie has adjusted to the nursing home schedule. What, according to Noeleen Redmond, is Josie’s “big subject”? Prior to his conversation with Noeleen, did Paul know about hismother’s return to her native Enniscorthy after more than 30 years in England? What precisely did Noeleen’s friend “on the Ross Road” (i.e. road to the town of New Ross) tell her about Paul’s mother’s “form” or condition? • 3 Question 8 • page 6 • What seems to be the reason for Paul’s mother’s leave-taking—an act that some might interpret as child-abandonment? How, when Paul was “seven or eight,” did Josie explain a visit his mother made, during which “Josie would not let her • Question 9 • Some readers have speculated that, like her nephew, Josie may be gay. Offer a piece of evidence from page 6 and another from page 3 that could potentially be used to support that claim • Question 10 • page 6 • What are Paul’s educational qualifications? Suggest at least one way of relating his professional expertise to the challenges of his private life in Dublin and/or the Eniscorthy- Clohamon area. • Question 11 • page 7 • To assure Josie that he’s not spending Christmas with his mother, Paul invokes “his friends Denis and David.” It’s possible that Paul once dated Denis; certainly, he brought him to meet Josie chez elle. The most common English-language version of this name contains a double “n,” so the spelling in the text puts one in mind of Denis, the patron saint of France and Paris, who’s often depicted with his head in hands. Denis is a cephalophore (head-carrying holy man) due to his martyrdom by decapitation. Suggest at least one way of reading the head severed from the body as a fitting symbol for Paul. The conversation about Denis and David is lopsided, for Josie acts as if “nothing being said [gets] through to her fully.” What question does Josie ask Paul when Bridget challenges her by inquiring, “Did you hear him?” • Question 12 • p. 8 • With death approaching, Josie receives the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church.What does the Irish nurse tell Paul is one of “things” that “[y]ou learn…in this job”? The only clear words spoken by the expiring Josie after Paul enters her room (at the top of the second column on Page 8) are “Her, Her,” a reference to Paul’s mother.