The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth Century

by Daniel Corkery

Daniel Corkery’s classic book The Hidden Ireland is a study of Irish language poetry and culture in eighteenth-century Munster. The ‘Hidden Ireland’ of the title is literary Corkery’s famous book is an attempt to reclaim Munster’s Irish language poets from the hands of grammarians who read them only for their preposition and participle use and to restore them to their rightful place as vibrant and vital lyricists and visionaries.

The Hidden Ireland , an instant classic when first published in 1924, was listed as one of the top 50 most influential Irish books in The Books That Define Ireland by Tom Garvin and Bryan Fanning. The Hidden Ireland was revolutionary in its recognition of the contribution of Irish language poets to Irish culture, a contribution that had previously been minimised or even erased in the Anglo-Irish versions of history that preceded it.

Corkery’s groundbreaking study of Irish poetry and culture in eighteenth century Munster is widely acknowledged as having had a profound influence on the shaping of modern Anglo-Irish literature in its foregrounding of the role of the Irish language in literature as a repository of Irishness and a specifically Irish worldview .

Daniel Corkery’s The Hidden Ireland (1924), arguing for an Irish cultural revival based on the Gaelic tradition of Munster in the eighteenth century, became almost official dogma after 1924, and led to impassioned debate among Irish writers and academics for decades afterwards, including Sean O’Faolain and Frank O’Connor, Corkery’s rebellious students.
Tom Garvin and Bryan Fanning, The Books That Define Ireland (2014)

Genres: History, Ireland, 18th Century, Nonfiction, Poetry

285 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Daniel Corkery (Irish: Dónall Ó Corcora) was an Irish politician, writer and academic. He is best known as the author of The Hidden Ireland, his 1924 study of the poetry of eighteenth-century Irish Language poets in Munster.

Reviews

[Ben Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal examination of the survival of old Gaelic culture in Munster during the eighteenth century. Surprisingly, elements of the old bardic schools survived, and this culture even manifested in later centuries among the Seanchai or so-called "Shanachies," Irish oral historians and custodians of old lore. Contrary to popular belief, the old Irish "great houses" (both Catholic and Protestant) compared favorably to those in Britain, in terms of literary education and the classics. During the mid-twentieth century there was something of a backlash against Corkery's work, in which revisionist historians attempted to criticize the undue influence of Nationalism on Corkery's history. However, he has come to be appreciated and valued once again in recent decades. A must-read for anyone who is serious about Irish history. I should note that I read an old edition, not the modern reprint pictured above.

[Terence Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic study of Gaelic Munster in the eighteenth century. This is a labor of love that introduced the riches of late Irish poetry -- enduring beauty produced under extreme duress -- to many a reader. I think of Daniel Corkery himself as a figure from the 'heroic age' of Celtic studies. Since then 'revisionists' have tried to chip away at his achievement, providing more disapproving attitude than convincing argument, but that's always the way of things, isn't it?

[John Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book!
First sentence: Years before I settled down to this book I was keenly aware of the need for it. At the same time, I held back, fearing that I was not the man to write it, that I had neither the scholarship nor the leisure. In the wrestling of those two thoughts was a discomfort that in vain I tried to lay aside, ...that is, the book I had already in my mind's eye. —Corkery 1924

Trace storytelling and Irish poetry from the Courts of Poetry to its most popular venue today— the Public House. For historians, I recommend Robin Flower on the Blasket Islands and Tom O Conor's Hand of History—the Burden of Pseudo History.

[Donal Hurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating introduction to the lives and works of the forgotten poets of Ireland.
I remember at school our Irish teacher always raving about this book but I didn't have the inclination then to read it.
It is a little difficult to get into it but it is well worth the effort.
I now understand why he liked it so much.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Книга Коркери 1926 года — это отчасти социальная история ирландского языка в XVIII веке, проиллюстрированная воспоминаниями современников и очевидцев и выдержками из стихов и поэм поэтов Манстера, а отчасти размышления о литературе. Модернизма, в частности, — по мысли Коркери, каковой (модернизм) и есть подлинно национальная и живая литература, в отличие от наднациональной античной классики и гальванизировавшей ее литературы Возрождения, безродной, мертвой и устарелой. В частности, литература эта создается на диалекте, речи живых людей, так что модернизм не с Джойса начинается, а, как нам показывает Коркери, с XVIII века. Ну и Ирландия, конечно, — его родина. С чем не поспоришь, хотя некоторые могут.
В основном же Коркери на живописных примерах показывает жизнь «тайной Ирландии» — т. е. своясей и ебеней, сельской местности за пределами владычества оккупантов, и вот это — поистине великолепная машина времени. Книжка у него, конечно, популярная — и очень современная, необходимое дополнение к канону Киберда.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Irish history or of Irish descent. It's been over 20 years - I'm reading again.