Tribute to a real class act
WRITERS, academics and readers will gather at the 28th Kate O’Brien Weekend in Limerick from Feb 24-26 to celebrate of one of the most astute chroniclers of middle-class Ireland in the first half of the 20th century. The Kate O’Brien lecture will be given by Seamus Heaney in a weekend of readings and discussions on a range of topics at the Belltable Arts Centre and at the Lime Tree Theatre, Mary Immaculate College.
The theme of the weekend is ‘tell it slant’, a quote from Emily Dickinson’s poem, Tell the Truth but Tell it Slant, meaning tell the truth but indirectly. One of the speakers is Dr Niamh Hourigan, head of graduate studies in sociology at UCC. Hourigan’s paper is Intimacy and Integrity in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.
Hourigan is a political sociologist whose focus is power dynamics. “That has taken me to do research on social movements and social protest. Arising out of that, I became interested in identity. Often, people get involved in protest because they feel that for some cultural reason, they’re in conflict with another group,” she says.
Hourigan’s paper will draw on her research of the last few years, which will be published in a book this year. “The project started out as research on migration; looking at migrants’ experience of Irish society. A lot of research on migrants focuses on overt examples of racism. But, in terms of the interviews I’ve been doing, I found that a lot of the struggle migrants experience has to do with something more subtle than that,” she says.
Migrants told Hourigan that Irish people communicate but say little. “Often, the migrant doesn’t know what’s going on. Migrants find us inscrutable. I’m anxious in my work to highlight the difference in experience of different migrant groups. I’ve spoken to people who have migrated from sub-Saharan Africa and eastern Europe, as well as people from western European countries. Even those who’ve had the most positive experiences, mainly migrants from Western Europe, still find Irish society very challenging to understand,” she says.
Hourigan is interested in intimacy in Irish culture. “Two interesting things have happened in relation to intimacy. There’s the baby boom, and that most intimate relationship which exists between a parent and a child. In other countries during recessions, birth rates drop. But we’re seeing ours continuing to rise. I think it’s interesting that Irish people value the intimate relationship between parents and children,” she says.
A problematic intimacy has manifested, says Hourigan. She is referring to “very close intimate relationships between a small number of people in very elite positions — bankers and developers, to be specific. They are kind of beyond the rules. I’m also interested in the link between intimacy and what we call integrity. If you look at most European societies, citizenship is about rules, bureaucracy and how people keep to the law.
“There’s a long tradition in sociology of looking at the tension between intimacy-based societies and integrity-based societies. The historical idea is that one evolved into the other. But in Irish society — and in many other societies — we see that intimacy and integrity are in tension.”
Since the boom years, Ireland has been on a steep learning curve, says Hourigan. “Much of what was written about the early stages of the Celtic Tiger was on the theme of how Ireland got its act together.” But the recession is a hard lesson. “I think when we come out of the recession, we will, perhaps, have a different perspective on Irish society. It could be four or five years before we can actually look back at this period, particularly around the time of the bank bailout, and make sense of what was going on,” she says.
There is a contrast between Hourigan’s interviews in 2010 and late 2011. In late 2010, there was fear and anxiety. A year later, the anxiety has been replaced with “a slow burning anger.” Things are changing rapidly. “That’s why it’s so difficult for me to conclude this project. There has been dramatic and profound change in a short period of time. Sociology is not journalism. The object of it is to try and make sense of what’s going on, on a bigger level,” she says.
While sociology examines trends in society, novels are particular in their focus, but universal. Hourigan is a fan of O’Brien. They attended the same school, Laurel Hill, in Limerick. Her favourite O’Brien novels are That Lady, and The Land of Spices.
“In both of those books, there is the theme of what it means to be good in society. Sometimes, a good person may not necessarily be a person who conforms to conventional ideas of what it means to be good. And there can be very good people who are not always very nice.”
O’Brien, says Hourigan, was a very challenging writer in her time. “I think she continues to be a challenging writer. That’s part of the reason why she’s not celebrated more than she is. Yet at the same time, if you look at The Land of Spices, and That Lady, there’s an appreciation of Catholicism and the beauty of religious life. That’s not a popular theme anymore.”
A less safe theme in O’Brien’s work is homosexuality. “She treated the theme of homosexuality very sympathetically in her work, in a way that would have challenged a lot of the prejudices in Irish society.
“O’Brien interweaves sexuality with everyday life. That, I think, is something Irish people still struggle with.
“The Kate O’Brien Weekend and the support from figures in the literary world like Seamus Heaney, play a huge role in maintaining the profile of O’Brien’s work.”
* www.kateobrienweekend.com
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS
* Opening address by the Abbot of Glenstal, Mark Patrick Hederman.
* Concert recital by Sarah-Ellen Murphy (contralto) with accompanist Colette Davis.
* A look at the way love spoke its name through the ages in French Literature by Dr Loic Guyon.
* Tell it Slant: Intimacy and Integrity in Post Celtic Tiger Ireland by Dr Niamh Hourigan.
* The Curious Poem: How poetry surprises writers and readers by Katherine Towers.
* Among those appearing at the weekend are John Boyne (left), author of The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas; journalist Frank McNally; and Susie Boyt, novelist and columnist with the Financial Times. A seminar with all speakers will be chaired by Professor Meg Harper, University of Limerick.
* Discussion on Kate O’Brien’s novel, Mary Lavelle with Vivienne McKechnie and Knute Skinner.
* The Kate O’Brien Lecture by Seamus Heaney.
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