Book review: Eoghan O’Tuairisc’s account of the Irish civil war is piercingly relevant
Eoghan Ó Tuairisc was a prolific figure in the Irish literary scene, writing novels, verse, and drama in both Irish and English.
The motivation behind publishing I am Lewy by the new imprint Bullaun Press, was to bring this unusual book to the wider audience that it deserves, founder Bridget Farrell says.
The publisher could not have forseen the outbreak of war in the Ukraine, which makes Eoghan O’Tuairisc’s account of the Irish civil war from a child’s perspective so piercingly relevant.
Six-year-old Lewy’s unique take on the Ireland of the 1920s is the first time it appears in English and it is based on Ó Tuairisc’s 1977 novella An Lomnachtan.
The Lomnachtan (probably from the words bare and naked) was a figure in classic Irish literature, something like that of the strange Bodach as in the story Bodach an Chota Lachna. The character is that of the outsider, if you like.
Indeed the translation by the poet Micheal O’hAodha captures the outsiderness of the child wonderfully.
As he struggles to make sense of his family — his father is suffering from shellshock and his mother the seamstress works on the dining room table — the child Lewy (the name is from peann luaidhe, Irish for pencil) refers to himself in the third person.
The opening of this translation is reminiscent of a Bob Dylan lyric, capturing elements of the children’s nature of soothing rhythm: “Pain in his right hand bent underneath him, dust in his nose, he’s lost in himself, engulfed by the darkness.”
Elsewhere, Lewy breaks and puts together words into their constituent parts as easily as a child works on lego, or chews over the big ideas and big divisions of his time with devastating effectiveness: “Tick of the clock; tick of the clock. Caitilic, Prodestan, Caitilic; Prodestan; an old clock as boring as the past.”
The mix of senses that is so true of childhood — smells are seen and abstractions are touched — if wonderfully captured in translation: “The soft roof of the car clattering above him, the darkness was settling beneath the canvas, you could put out your hand and feel the ripples of darkness, the rain drumming on the roof; on the scores of big black umbrellas gathered the length of the asylum wall.”
Eoghan Ó Tuairisc who died in 1982 was a major figure in the Irish speaking intellectual world. He was a bilingual writer of poems, plays, novels and criticism.
A member of the Aosdana he was a breaker of literary moulds.
The translator himself is a large figure in poetic and academic circles with a particular interest in the Irish-speaking minority of the west of Ireland.
A recent arrival on the Irish publishing scene, Bullaun Press has chosen literature in translation as its sole focus.
The name Bullaun comes from an ancient healing stone, repositories of magic.
It is the first press in Ireland to be dedicated to translation and will include not just Irish language but other languages also.
Founder Bridget Farrell has professional experience in independent publishing and has been a student of several languages, especially French and Russian. She wants to see the new press become an advocate for translators, especially Irish ones.
“A key mission for Bullaun will be to offer our readers international literature in contemporary translation, while building a home for Irish translators,” Ms Farrell says.
Bullaun is open to approaches from translators looking for a home for a text that they are passionate about.
Translators will be commissioned to work on t books that may strike a chord with an Irish audience and beyond. As well as an enriching our reading experiences, it’s an important gesture of recognition of the cultural heritage of some of the many different language-speakers living in Ireland, the new publisher says.
In the meantime we can with Lewy watch “empty time streaking past in dull slivers” in this wonderful first book.
- I am Lewy by Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, translated by Micheál ÓhAodha
- Bullaun Press, €12.95
