Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent, concise literary history
This is the third book I'd recommend that provides an introduction to modern Irish drama. Nicholas Grene's analysis compares about 20 plays through topics relating to political concerns and stage representations of Irishness; Anthony Roche's survey of 1950-90 begins by focusing on Beckett's impact and then extends to a few of the major playwrights, stressing their departure from one lead and a strong plot into more open-ended structures and mostly a double-male lead set-up. Prof. Murray examines a broader range of playwrights while necessarily diminishing the space he devotes to any one playwright or play.

His thesis for Irish drama: 'the mirror does not give back the real; it gives back images of a perceived reality. The play as mirror up to nation, rather than to nature in Hamlet's sense, results in a dynamic in process: you have to stop it in freeze-frame to distinguish what happened (history) from what might yet happen (poltics).' (9) Yeats, Lady Gregory, Synge, O'Casey (on whom Murray has written a biography from Dublin's Gill & Macmillan, 2004) receive chapters, but attention to lesser-studied writers such as Paul Vincent Carroll, Denis Johnston, Behan, and George Sheils gives Murray's survey added detail. He examines drama on and from the North, and adds newer dramatists such as Sebastian Barry, Marina Carr, Dermot Bolger to older contributors like John Leonard, Friel, Murphy, and Stewart Parker. Although I wish he had given more time to the curious M.J. Molloy, his comments on Carr I found particularly astute.

Murray paces himself incisively and sharply. Of the Abbey's Ernest Blythe's determination to produce Irish-language plays ub the 40's & 50s: "Laudable as this cultural aim may have been, its effect was to distract from the dramatic responsibility of confronting audiences with the art which questions assumptions and reveals the gods by which people live." (142) He uncovers tidbits like Tom Murphy's recruitment to join a lay committee to assist the Vatican in crafting a vernacular liturgy better suited to contemporary needs. Drama in Ireland, Murray emphasizes, 'oscillates always between tradition and innovation. It never occupies either pole for long, but invariably registers the tension. Irish drama is a long, energetic dispute with a changing audience over the same basic issues: where we come from, where we are now, and where we are headed. Alternatively, these questions comprise history, identity, home or a sense of place, and visionary imagination or what Shaw above called dreaming, or myth-making." (224)

In closing, this book shows the results of decades of thought, classroom experience, and scholarship. He ends with reflections on the "national dream-life". I will quote his final paragraph.
'This national need to rephrase, however obliquely or symbolically, this Beckett-like obligation to express, is not just a mark of the garrulous Irish swopping yarns in the pub or within earshot of earnest American scholars. It persists as a mode of being. It is the material of performance, of enacting assurances that we are alive and can survive in spite of our unshakeable memory of defeat. For Yeats [. . .], "It was the dream itself that enchanted me", and so it has always been. The dream is always waiting to be fulfilled; the nation is always awaiting completion. It has been the assumption of this book that mirror and dream are two sides of the same mimetic process. Irish drama both records cultural conditions and generates fresh possibilities. As the century draws to a close and with it one hundred years of native Irish theatre, the enabling mirror on the other side of dream shines brightly and magically still." (247)
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Book Description
Samuel J. Waddell (1878-1967), who took on the stage-name Rutherford Mayne when he embarked on a theatrical career, was the most prolific, versatile, and successful playwright that the Irish Literary Revival in Ulster brought forth. In the course of his career as a dramatist, from 1906 to 1934, he wrote thirteen plays—ten plays for the Ulster Literary Theatre, one for the Dublin-based Theatre of Ireland, and two for the Abbey Theatre. Especially his early realist Ulster "peasant plays" were very successful, among them "The Drone" (1908), the most popular Irish folk comedy of the first half of the twentieth century. He also acted a great number of main parts in plays of his own and of other writers, to great acclaim, mainly in Belfast and Dublin but also on tours to England and Scotland, from 1904 until late in his life. His plays disappeared from the stage in the 1950s, and, when he died, his artistic achievements were almost forgotten.

Wolfgang Zach's introduction to this volume is the first attempt to give a lengthy survey of Mayne's life and works, with particular emphasis on a discussion of all his plays, their critical reception, stage history, and specific features. As to the selection of Rutherford Mayne's plays contained in this volume, seven of his eight published plays—his most important ones—have been included in this edition. Two important prose pieces (one of Mayne's essays and an interview), have been added to his reprinted plays as they provide direct insight into his personality, views, and career. In the biographical and critical section of the Checklist appended to this book, publications have also been included that do not solely concentrate on Rutherford Mayne but are of great significance to any student of his life and plays. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Irish traditional music is one of the richest treasuries of folk music in the world.Being an oral tradition, much of it has already been lost, and what has been recorded is only partially available in isolated collections. Until now, no composite picture has yet been presented, showing its remarkable range and diversity over four centuries.This volume covers Irish materials in general collections up to 1800 and in Irish collections up to and including Petrie's Ancient Music of Ireland (1855).
The purposes of the project are to identify Irish dance tunes and songs; to present the scholar with a mass of material showing the evolution of the Irish vocal and instrumental folk style, period by period, from the earliest recorded tune up to the middle of the last century; to put into circulation many of the splendid airs which were lost but have now been located.Some 6,000 songs and dance tunes are presented, also including Scottish and English tunes.Included are Scottish tunes that were used by 18th-century Irish poets for their verses, and both English and Scottish tunes that are still current among Irish traditional musicians.Tunes of present-day currency which do not seem to be included may still be located by comparing their first 12 notes in the thematic index at the end of the volume.
To make the vast array of material readily available, an index allows readers to locate a tune by its melodic incipit, by any of its titles, or by the first line of its text.Unfortunately, the vast majority of Irish songs noted up to the end of the last century lack texts, since the collectors were ignorant of the Irish language.But almost every other facet is covered-provenance, tonality structure, and variants. Index. ... Read more

Book Description
The Early Stuart Masque: Dance, Costume, and Music studies the complex impact of movements, costumes, words, scenes, music, and special effects in English illusionistic theatre of the Renaissance. Drawing on a massive amount of documentary evidence relating to English productions as well as spectacle in France, Italy, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, the book elucidates professional ballet, theatre management, and dramatic performance at the early Stuart court. Individual studies take a fresh look at works by Ben Jonson, Samuel Daniel, Thomas Carew, John Milton, William Davenant, and others, showing how court poets collaborated with tailors, designers, technicians, choreographers, and aristocratic as well as professional performers to create a dazzling event. Based on extensive archival research on the households of Queen Anne and Queen Henrietta Maria, special chapters highlight the artistic and financial control of Stuart queens over their masques and pastorals. Many plates and figures from German, Austrian, French, and English archives illustrate accessibly-written introductions to costume conventions, early dance styles, male and female performers, the dramatic symbolism of colours, and stage design in performance. With splendid costumes and choreographies, masques once appealed to the five senses. A tribute to their colourful brilliance, this book seeks to recover a lost dimension of performance culture in early modern England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Don't Be Fooled by the Title
Read this, and you can save the price of this book: sometimes Irish actors played stereotypical Irish characters when they made movies in Britain or America. And sometimes they didn't. That's the astonishing revelation that's stretched into a book, which includes profiles of George Brent and Maureen O'Sullivan (who happened to be Irish but always played Brits or Americans). There's also a survey of the career of Pierce Brosnan, who sometimes plays Irishmen but--according to the author--plays them badly. However, if you're interested in reading a book ostensibly about Irish identity that manages to incorporate every trendy theory in cinema studies (feminist and racial identity, semiotics, the "male voyeuristic gaze," etc.) this may be just the ticket. I myself was feeling pretty disappointed that the author (a professor at University College, Dublin) hadn't found an excuse to use the word "synecdoche" in the book, but then it appeared on the very last page! This alone should be enough to get her tenure... .

Acting Irish in Hollywood: From Fitzgerald to Farrell
I thought this book was excellent.It gives you the background of each Irish actor and how they were treated by the studios because of their ethnic heritage.The book discusses the changes from the "early" days to now and the "games" played by the studios.I recommend this book for anyone interested in becoming an actor or anyone of Irish descent. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1922, James Stephens said: "we shall talk like Irishmen, or we are done for--we shall think like Europeans, or we are done for." In 1948, a later poet and critic, Robert Farren, recognized that Yeats had achieved at least one of those conditions when he said that he had "brought the
Irishman's voice--its inflections, cadences and idioms - into verse." The Irish brogue has often been considered as merely an ornamental adjunct to speech without any realization of its value to poetry written in Ireland. But since poetic forms are based on the usual speech patterns of a
country--its everyday talk--then the crucial significance of the patterns of Irish speech to the rhythms of poetry should be identified and explained.

Yeats, the Master of Sound is such a study. The author traces Irish speech rhythms back to Gaelic and, in this context, explains what Irish poets owe to their local accent--Heaney, in particular, has acknowledged such a debt. Using the American poet Robert Frost's concept of the "sound of sense" as
a key, Dr. Devine explores the rhythms of Anglo-Irish poetry and their stating of a formalized emotion through such traditions as the amhran (Irish song metre) and the ancient method of singing known as sean-nos. Yeats was to build on these connected influences, adding a theatrically defiant tone to
patterns of assonance and rhyme to attain an "elaborate rhythm"--again a concept and practice derived from the Gaelic. This book shows how the Irish speaking voice is in thrall to a language which has endured for over 2,000 years and which, by its shaping of the rhythms of that voice, continues to
influence those of the island's poets who write in English today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Very comprehensive, accurate information
As a step dancer with limited exposure to set dancing, I found this book a wonderful introduction. Although I cannot personally vouch for the accuracy of his notation, I know/ have heard of several who do. In any case, it iswell written and researched.... An excellent historical guide. Probably thebest Irish dance (step or set) book sold on Amazon.

Toss the Feathers: Bible of Set Dancers
_Toss the Feathers_ is the definitive book on Irish set dancing.I bought a copy in Galway City, and it has saved me innumerable times.I carry it with me to all classes and ceilis; it's well-worn and well-loved.Besidesthe most common sets, Pat gives us notes for beautiful and obscure localdances.His introduction also includes an illuminating history of setdancing.Beware: you will not teach yourself to dance from this book ifyou have no prior knowledge of set dancing.However, it is ideal forsupplementing your knowledge from classes.When two set dancers disagreeon the "correct" version of a set, one inevitably pulls out acopy of Pat's book, and his judgement is trusted.All of us set dancingaddicts are awaiting the upcoming sequel.Buy it now!You'll never regretthis useful reference on bad days when you can't even remember how theBallyvourney Jig Set begins.

The perfect book for those who set dance!
This book is great for anyone who set dances but hasn't yet memorized all of the moves (-most of us?!). Not intended for people who have never set danced before. You need to be familiar with the jargon, such as "roundthe house", "ladies chain", etc.

buy it
This is the best. If you want a reference for dancing, the one the teachers use, this is it. Buy it. There is none better.

_Toss the Feathers_ a very useful resource
Pat Murphy's _Toss the Feathers_ is the most useful guide to set dancing I have come across. During my nine months dancing in Northern Ireland, _Toss the Feathers_ was the book that my teachers used to check fortechnicalities, and the book I used to brush up on my steps on my way toceilis. I heartily recommend this book to people who know about setdancing, and want to check their steps or sets. However, I do not recommendthis book to newcomers, because Murphy's language is overly technical. Forexample, to turn someone under your arm, you have to rotate them in acounterclockwise manner until they reach 360 degrees, etc. :) I'mexaggerating. But this book is a definite must-have for those who love setdancing, especially when they're away from Ireland. Like me. Cheers go toPat Murphy. ... Read more

Product Description
Critcially-acclaimed short story collection by Burke in its first hardcover printing. Bound to be a collector's item, as Burkes popularity as an author is on the rise. This new Delirium edition contains one additional short story, written specifically for this new edition by Burke. ... Read more

Product Description
A stapled black binder, 12" high, containg pictures of the shows orchestrated by Michael Flatley, the talentted Irish musician who created "Lord of the Dance." Many colorful photos, and a history of the author, are contained in this pamphlet. ... Read more