Title: The Irelands That We Dreamed Of: Irish Science Fiction from the 1850s to the Present Day Author: Jack Fennell Award sought: Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Prof. Tom Moylan and Dr. Michael J. Griffin Submitted to the University of Limerick, November 2012. Table of Contents Abstract iv Declaration vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Mad Science and Empire: Fitz-James O’Brien and Robert Cromie 46 Chapter 2. ‘Future War’ and Gender in Nineteenth-Century Ireland 89 Chapter 3. Nationalist Fantasies of the Early Twentieth Century 125 Chapter 4. States of Emergency: Irish SF During World War Two 155 Chapter 5. The 1960s: Lemass, Modernization and the Cold War 193 Chapter 6. The Wrong History: Bob Shaw, James White and the Troubles 224 Chapter 7. The Dystopian Decades: From Recession to Tiger and Back Again 255 ii Chapter 8. The Shape of Irish SF to Come 291 Notes 321 Bibliography 329 iii Abstract: My original contribution to knowledge is a synthesis between ‘mythological’ and ‘historical’ definitions of science fiction, a synthesis which I believe allows for a more nuanced understanding of postcolonial SF. In this project, I use Irish SF (hitherto treated as an anomaly or a novelty, when its existence is acknowledged at all) as an extended case-study. In this thesis, I revisit the oft-scorned argument that the genre is in fact structurally related to myth. Taking my cue from the work of Tatiana Chernyshova and Kôichi Yamano, I assert that SF grows out of pseudo-scientific narratives that are formed in the same way as myths: individuals whose understanding of a subject is limited will “fill in the gaps” in their knowledge with anecdotes, ‘common sense’ and faulty extrapolations. A large proportion of this supplementary material is drawn from pre- existing cultural logics. Postcolonial territories are particularly fertile ground for strange varieties of scientific myth, as the process of colonization (often a sudden, violent and incoherent one) created popular cultures in which the ideology of modernity (science, industry, capitalism) was mediated through native knowledge-systems (magic, tradition). These give rise to non-Western pseudo-sciences that in turn produce idiosyncratic SF literatures. I combine this understanding of traditional cultural logics with Darko Suvin’s categorisation of SF, fantasy and horror as ‘ahistorical’ literatures to suggest a new way of understanding the kinship between them. iv I focus on Ireland, and examine how the ongoing collision between modernity and tradition has shaped an indigenous SF largely characterised by insecurity and the fear of infiltration from outside. Whereas previously this kind of paranoia has been linked almost exclusively to Irish Protestantism and Ulster unionism in particular, I argue that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that this ‘siege mentality’ manifests across the whole of Irish society. v Declaration: I hereby declare that this thesis is entirely my own work, and has not previously been submitted for the awarding of any degree at any other university. Signed: November 22nd, 2012. vi Acknowledgements: This thesis owes its existence to the generosity of a great many people. First and foremost, I want to thank Professor Tom Moylan and Dr. Michael J. Griffin for their supervision. I would also like to thank all those who offered feedback on my work, in particular Prof. Anthony McElligott, Prof. Peadar Kirby, Prof. Tom Lodge, Dr. Joachim Fischer and Prof. Antonis Balasopoulos. This project would have been practically impossible without the generous support of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (now known simply as the Irish Research Council). Huge thanks to Prof. Bríona Nic Dhiarmada, without whose help I would not have been awarded the grant in the first place. In my experience, it seemed that while no comprehensive bibliography of Irish science fiction exists, everyone I spoke to was aware of at least one such work. This project would have been significantly shorter if not for people suggesting texts for me to look at. Much thanks to Dr. Michael G. Kelly, John and Mary Fitzgerald, Mike McCormack and countless others. Thanks are also due to the University of Limerick’s Glucksman Library, the library of Mary Immaculate College, the National Library of Ireland and Cork City Library, who were all very helpful and gracious in allowing me access to odd and hard-to-trace vii materials. Here I would especially thank Éadaoin Ní Chléirigh for her extraordinary kindness in granting me access to her late father’s personal library. I would also like to thank those whose friendship and support kept me sane through the past four years, namely David Smart, John “Donny” Rowe, Aaron Smart, Ciara Williams, Jana Bedaňová, Claire Crowley, Pádraig Baggott, Alan Collins, Mark Fennell, Shane and Jason Sibbel, Gary, Aidan and Ryan O’Doherty, Aoife Harney, Eoghan O’Brien, Barry Cronin, Rory Devane, Jean Cronin, Trish and Roberto, Liam and Finola, Tom and Joan, Johnny and Anna, Martin and Liesbeth (and the rest of the Hamburg crew). My apologies to anyone I may have omitted, I know there must be some… Last bust most certainly not least, I want to thank my parents, who have put up with my fascination for the bizarre since I was old enough to talk. viii Introduction “Science knows it doesn’t know everything! Otherwise, it would stop! Just because science doesn’t know everything, that doesn’t mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairytale most appeals to you!” - Stand-up comedian Dara Ó Briain To many people, the very idea of “Irish science fiction” is inherently ridiculous. Firstly, there is the humour to be derived from inserting science-fictional tropes into an Irish setting, as in the old joke about the Irish astronauts planning to blast off in a turf-powered rocket.1 Secondly, there is comic value in placing Irish characters in science-fictional settings, as in “Cork People in Space,” a recurring sketch on the Irish television comedy programme Nighthawks (1988-1992). Like oil and water, Ireland and science fiction are commonly imagined to be mutually incompatible things. Though it may be difficult, however, it is in fact possible to mix oil and water, whereupon the real difficulty lies in trying to separate them again. Ireland’s relationship with SF is somewhat similar – it is difficult to imagine any compatibility between them, but once they are mixed, it is nearly impossible to conceive of an Ireland that is not science-fictional to some extent. The aim of this study is not to prove the existence of an Irish science-fictional imagination. It is a matter of fact that SF has been written by Irish authors for at least a hundred and fifty years (or longer, depending on the rigidity of one’s definition of the genre).2 Histories of the science fiction genre typically posit a progression of ideologies, world events and literary and artistic movements, beginning with the theorist’s preferred seminal text, and presented as necessary steps towards the creation of a cultural context within which the emergence of a discrete genre was possible. However, the existence of Irish 1 SF is indisputable, regardless of the necessary conditions hypothesised (and assumed to have been absent in Ireland) by many critics and scholars. Most obvious among the necessary conditions is the rise of modernity: Carl Freedman argues that SF, like the historical novel, is a quintessentially “modern” genre; the difference between the two is that the latter is produced in proximity to “archaic social formations” such as the Scottish Highlands or Native American territories, while the former is strictly a cosmopolitan art-form (Freedman 50). This hints at a problematic distinction which I will take issue with throughout this project. I will argue that the generic tendencies that we recognise as SF, fantasy, horror and the other “ahistorical” genres (nomenclature coined by Darko Suvin) have a common root in myth, the dominant cultural logic of traditional or ‘premodern’ societies. Originally, they were not differentiated – this only occurred when the emergence of political and economic modernity in Europe brought about changes in the way history was conceived, and ‘tradition’ was recast as something that had to be transcended. Originally characterised as ‘savagery’ and ‘superstition,’ it was later dismissed as ‘ideology.’ Gulliver’s Travels, discussed in more detail below, is the perfect example of this, demonstrating that in the eighteenth century, genres were still being mixed and matched according to the author’s intentions, and that secular modernity did not defeat mythological tradition overnight. With political modernity came the rise of imperialism, which drew its self- justification from a pejorative view of tradition – a paradigm stated most clearly by Rudyard Kipling as “the white man’s burden,” the eradication of “heathen folly.” Colonisers (and present-day apologists for imperialism) emphasise colonisation as a process of ‘modernization,’ while at the same time emphasising colonised people’s exoticism (or pre- Modern otherness). Ironies abound in modernization discourse, the most obvious of which is that traditional belief systems are no less ridiculous than the imperial colonizers’ belief in the 2 resurrection of Jesus (Langer 127), or modern SF tropes such as faster-than-light travel (137). In other words, colonies were places in which tradition and modernity existed side by side – myth is stronger in these places than in the imperial centre, and as