News from America: Irish art show has a great story to tell

I CONSIDER myself to be extremely fortunate to have attended the launch of the new exhibition Whipping the Herring at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.

The breath and scope of this exhibition is stunning, as is the accompanying book with its informative introductory essay by Peter Murray, director of the gallery.

This portrayal of the Irish people, my ancestors, and their survival and celebration in 19th century Irish art should be seen by all, especially schoolchildren, who would wish to know and take pride in their culture and history.

The Crawford gallery has special sessions for children.

One particular painting caught this visiting Irish-American’s attention. It was News from America, 1875, by James Brenan, headmaster at the Cork School of Art for nearly 30 years.

This poignant painting portrays a young, barefoot girl reading a letter to her father in a stone cottage in west Cork. The description of the painting reads: “News from America contains one of the strongest narratives, where the introduction of the government national school education system in Ireland has enabled the girl to read and write, while older members of her family remain illiterate”.

It is no whingeing on my part to observe that the British parliament voted the National School Act of 1831 “to enable the Lord Lieutenant of the Ireland to assist with the education of the people”, but only if the instruction and textbooks were exclusively in the English language. This requirement contributed to the rapid decline of the Irish language and had fatal effects on the old Gaelic traditions. Thomas Davis observed that at this time the vast majority of people living west of the line drawn from Derry to Cork spoke nothing but Irish daily and east of that line, a considerable minority did so.

He concluded in a famous speech in 1846: “To lose your native tongue, and learn that of an alien, is the worst badge of conquest — it is the chain on the soul”.

In the interest of proper historical context and clarity of the narrative of the survival of the Irish people, I think that the inscription accompanying this painting should at least acknowledge the English-only requirement of the 1831 Education Act. It should be noted also that the Irish were literate in their native language for the previous 2,000 years and from the time of the ancient monastic learning centres to the ubiquitous hedge schools.

The exhibition has something for all to enjoy. It is a vivid portrayal of Irish life from festivals and fairs to marriages and wakes and emigration, including the pains and pleasures of ordinary Irish folk.

That’s the news from America for now from this appreciative visitor to Cork.

Robert F Lyons

PO Box 27

Kennebunkport

Maine E04046

USA