{"id":119,"date":"2016-07-03T17:17:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T17:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/?p=119"},"modified":"2022-06-27T12:35:46","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T16:35:46","slug":"mark-obrien-and-felix-m-larkin-eds-periodicals-and-journalism-in-twentieth-century-ireland-writing-against-the-grain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2016\/07\/03\/mark-obrien-and-felix-m-larkin-eds-periodicals-and-journalism-in-twentieth-century-ireland-writing-against-the-grain\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark O\u2019Brien and Felix M. Larkin, eds. Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Writing Against the Grain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark O\u2019Brien and Felix M. Larkin, eds. Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Writing Against the Grain<\/a>.<\/em> Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2014. 240 p. ISBN: 9781846825248. \u00a347.38 (hardback).<\/p>\n

This book is a selection of essays on Irish periodicals and magazines in twentieth-century Ireland, and it is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the public sphere in this country. The introduction makes the point that \u201cthere is no genuine freedom of expression in the public sphere unless a wide variety of outlets is available to accommodate those with something to say\u201d (9). Any collection of this type is bound to be selective, and one of the most admirable things about this book is the very clear statement of aims set out in the introduction by the editors Mark O\u2019Brien and Felix Larkin when they remark that it \u201clays no claim to be a definitive selection of the \u2018best\u2019 or \u2018most important\u2019 Irish periodicals of the Twentieth Century; it is merely a representative selection with a clear focus on the journalistic rather than on the literary or cultural aspects of the titles under review\u201d (11).<\/p>\n

The only word with which I would take issue here is the adverb \u201cmerely,\u201d which does not do justice to this most enjoyable and informative collection. Chronologically structured, the book begins with Colum Kenny\u2019s revealing and comprehensive study of the editorships undertaken by the very busy Arthur Griffith (The United Irishman<\/em>, Sinn F\u00e9in<\/em>, \u00c9ire Ireland<\/em>, Scissors and Paste<\/em>, Nationality<\/em>, and Young Ireland: \u00c9ire \u00d3g<\/em>) straddling the years 1899-1919. It concludes nearly 100 years later with Kevin Rafter\u2019s near contemporary study of the place of Magill<\/em> in the Irish public sphere from 1977 to 1990. Rafter devotes a subsection to each of the editors \u2014 Vincent Browne, Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn, Fintan O\u2019Toole, Brian Trench, and John Waters \u2014 all of whom have been significant presences in shaping the Irish mindset. While capturing both the importance of the magazine and the sense of excitement that it could generate, his essay notes the many journalists who worked there: \u201cit was a teaching hospital for young journalists\u201d (228).<\/p>\n

Journals of the Gaelic and Celtic revival \u2014\u00a0An Claidheamh Soluis<\/em> and F\u00e1inne an Lae\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 feature along with more political ones like James Connolly\u2019s The Worker<\/em>, D. P. Moran\u2019s The Leader<\/em>, and the proto-feminist Irish Citizen<\/em>, a journal \u201csmall in size but large in heart and hopes\u201d (62). The line of opinion-forming work is traced from The Irish Bulletin<\/em>, The Irish Statesman<\/em>, and Dublin Opinion<\/em>, through The Bell<\/em>, Hibernia<\/em>, and Hot Press<\/em>. The Capuchin Annual<\/em> and The Furrow<\/em> trace more religious concerns.<\/p>\n

The scholarship and information given are of a very high quality, but it is the readability and the connections made between these eclectic texts and their contexts that make the chapters both informative and enjoyable. One leaves this book with a different sense of what was happing in Ireland at this time, as the journalistic perspective embodied in these magazines and journals shines through these essays. There is very much a sense of being caught in the present of each period, and this makes the book valuable to the academic and general reader.<\/p>\n

To close this review I would return to the book\u2019s introduction. The editors note that a connecting strand of these journals is the factor that, by \u201cproviding an outlet for those writing against the grain of mainstream Irish society,\u201d they \u201cmade freedom of expression a reality in Ireland\u201d (10). For this alone, they are worthy of study, and this book does that theme full justice.<\/p>\n

Eugene O\u2019Brien
\nMary Immaculate College, University of Limerick<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark O\u2019Brien and Felix M. Larkin, eds. Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Writing Against the Grain. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2014. 240 p. ISBN: 9781846825248. \u00a347.38 (hardback). This book is a selection of essays on Irish periodicals and magazines in twentieth-century Ireland, and it is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1888],"tags":[1897,1930,1947],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-20th-century","tag-europe","tag-periodicals-news"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/2490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}