Summary
This book explores the Irish ethnic book and its restoration in the early twentieth century – in the age of the language revival movement and the years of the Irish Free State (1922–1937), when printing in the Irish language rose from two or three books per decade to ten or twenty per year and increased even more after the Irish state authorities founded An Gúm, the government publishing agency. Particular attention is paid to the period from 1926, when An Gúm was established, to the end of 1938, after which the so-called translation scheme, carried out by the agency with the aim of giving to the Irish as many books as possible in their native tongue, officially ended.
The opening chapter presents an overview of concepts of ethnicity and nationality, which later helps to define the ethnic book. It also explains what can be meant by the content of a book and lists the elements of its editorial design, which might prove helpful in determining the ethnic identity of a book. It seems that the term ethnic book can assume at least four different meanings: (1) a book written in the ethnic language, whose edition is enriched with various ethnic attributes; (2) a book written in a language different from the ethnic language, whose edition, however, includes various features indicating its ethnic identity; (3) a book written in the ethnic language but published with no other indicators of its ethnic identity; and (4) a book written in a language different from the ethnic language of the ethnic group represented by its author and published with no graphic indicators of its ethnic identity – in this last case, while determining the book’s ethnic identity, we may take into consideration the ethnic content of the book, the identity of its author or the place of its publishing. However, since this work overarches the fields of both book and language history, only two of the above meanings are considered: those where the original language in which books are written is the ethnic language, no matter whether these books’ editions include additional ethnic features or not. The later part of chapter one is devoted to describing the perspective taken in the further analysis of selected editions of Irish ethnic books, that is to semiotics, semiotic signs and their various kinds as well as to book ecology. It is assumed that in certain socio-political conditions the book—understood as both the content and its carrier (a physical object)—may function as an important tool in supporting a given group’s ethnic or national identity or in promoting policies of a given state. This may be especially important during the formation of a new independent state.
The Irish ethnic book is defined in chapter two and the objective of subsequent chapters is to investigate if and how the revival of the Irish ethnic book related to a more general movement of the Irish revival, what kind of book policy was carried out in the Irish Free State and whether books were treated as important tools in shaping its culture as well as whether contemporary books preserve any features of books produced in Ireland in the previous centuries and what meanings they convey when analysed from the perspective of semiotics.
Chapters three and four provide pertinent background information on crucial events in the history of Ireland and discuss aspects of the history of books in this country, from early monastic manuscripts, through printed books in Irish, to the decline of the Irish print culture and prospects for its revival. Much attention is paid to the book design, for example, the shape of letters in monastic manuscripts and their influence on various printing types invented specially for the Irish language, books published in Irish in Ireland and abroad and their typography. The history of the Irish language book is presented along with the history of the Irish language. The language shift from Irish to English resulted from the politically controlled process of Anglicisation, the social upheaval following the Great Famine and the mass emigration of the native Irish from Ireland. When by the end of the nineteenth century English in Ireland had become the primary medium of spoken and written communication for most people, Irish, retained by about a quarter of the population, was used mostly by elderly people from disadvantaged classes in peripheral areas, many of whom were illiterate in this language. For this reason, reviving the Irish language book was very difficult and required not only financial support but also several other endeavours, including the identification of potential Irish language writers and deciding on the standards of the Irish language to be used in print. The issues of the literary language, its orthography and visual representation are presented in chapter five, whereas chapter six addresses the book policy adopted by the state regarding both the language standard and the content of literature that was to appear under the auspices of the government, which practised censorship.
Chapters seven and eight address the questions as to whether and to what extent Irish language books issued in the Irish Free State were symptoms of the era in which they were created, with special attention paid to their design. In the semiotic analysis of selected editions by An Gúm and two Blasket autobiographies published by Talbot Press, various elements are considered, from authors’ names which retain their Irish spelling, through Gaelic characters and decorations inside books, to representations of Irish people on covers and dust jackets. It seems that the Irish ethnic book from the period in question was a rich collection of signs providing support for political separatism and the process of national identity formation.
The results of the semiotic analysis of selected editions that appeared in the Irish Free State show that books in Irish were often designed in a way that enhanced their Irish identity: Gaelic characters are used as well as knot-design decorated initials and vignettes, and their covers and dust jackets contain symbols and icons which connote Irish culture. In some cases, the elements indicating the Irish identity of books are present only on their covers or dust jackets, in others, their collection is rich and also includes the features of their inner editorial design and typography. Both Gaelic types and characteristic knot designs used in decorated initials and vignettes are rooted in the history of Irish material culture – they recall letters and illuminations from old Irish manuscripts and derive from the tradition of early Irish print culture. Therefore, their use in twentieth-century books may be interpreted as revealing the national parallelism approach held by books’ creators, that is their need to enhance all elements which countered or stood in opposition to what was found in English culture, still dominant in Ireland.
The last two chapters consider subjects which, though closely connected with the Irish ethnic book revival, are not in fact part of it. Chapter nine discusses one of the first novels representing a new trend in Irish language literature. An Béal Bocht (1941) by Myles na gCopaleen (Brian Ó Nualláin, better known as Flann O’Brien) satirises Irish language literature issued under the auspices of the government of the Free State and thus comments on the deficiencies of the book policy implemented in Ireland at that time. The chapter also refers to the 1964 Dolmen Press edition of this novel and a combination of Gaelic and Roman characters used in it. In this way, it hinted at the prolonged discussions on the standard of Irish that were to be used in print, which did not help its revival. Chapter ten discusses the Irish ethnic book in the twenty first century and the support it receives from the Irish government. It lists private publishing houses that, along with An Gúm, are involved in issuing Irish language books and shows the educational character of the latter. The last part of this chapter is devoted to discussing the creative use of symbols and icons of Irishness popularised in the revival period and found in modern Irish books. The book ends with the conclusion with a summary of the most important findings of all chapters and two appendixes – one containing the titles which appeared under the auspices of An Gúm, 1926-1938, and the other one evidencing the translation scheme carried out by the agency in the same years.
Anna Cisło
