Narrative Technique

 Most of the time, the narrator is omniscient, which means that he represents "God's eye", that  he knows everything, the thoughts and inner feelings of his protagonists ; for example, when Moran is dying, we know what Luke thinks and feels in his heart :

He must be dying, Luke thought after he read the letter. He put it aside at first but then after rereading it he felt the same for Moran as he would feel for any mortal and wrote back in kind. He felt no bitterness or reproach. There was nothing to forgive. He was sorry and asked to be forgiven for any hurt he had caused. It is not what he wants but it will have to do, he thought (176).

Interestingly enough, these points of view always come from Moran's children : indeed, thanks to the narrative, the reader knows the Morans' moral judgement on Nell Morahan although they do not express it : <Nell Morahan> asked for whiskey. To the Moran girls this was shameless, even wanton (101).

Sometimes, the narrator uses dramatic irony, that is when he is an accomplice to the reader at the expense of the character, that is when narrator and reader know more than characters : for example, if you take this passage in which Moran and Rose spend one day in Strandhill, you read p.60 :

As if to point out that they were not entirely alone, a man with a white terrier came towards them from behind the sandhills. He carried a pale bone which he kept throwing out into the dune for the terrier to retrieve. Without speaking he lifted his cap as they passed (60).

It seems to be a mere description, a detail which is useless concerning the intrigue, but if you have a look at Michael and Nell's day on the same place, you read : "There was not even a dog chasing a stick along the whole empty strand" (105). The characters do not know what the two others saw on the beach, and anyway, Nell and Michael secretly go to the sea, without Moran's knowing. The narrator seems to wink at the reader, just to check whether he remembers this detail, if it rings a bell to him/her and if he draws the parallel with Moran and Rose's walk on the beach in Strandhill.

Dramatic irony is also to be stressed when the narrator anticipates on the future. The reader and the narrator know about the characters'future and thus, have a feeling of superiority over them who obviously do not know it. This figure is a prolepsis. You have several examples of prolepses : for instance p.45, you are told what happens "in the years to come..." or p.168 : the house was to be as full again only once more, which heralds Moran's death. This is anticipation, a narrative strategy consisting in telling or conjuring up an event to come beforehand. It is opposed to the analepsis we mentioned before. I said before that the narrator was omniscient concerning Moran's children, that is to say that he gives the reader their feelings but he does not with Moran himself who is always mentioned "from outside". The reader never knows what Moran feels and thinks. He remains unreachable, inscrutable, unfathomable : Whether he was seriously thinking of using the gun or that he wanted Michael to think he would use it would never be known (120). This "it would never be known" underlines the narrator's incapacity to get into Moran's head and heart. There is only one example that can be considered as what Moran is telling himself (but it is not precisely expressed) : it is at the end of his life, he is weaker and maybe more vulnerable, it can be read p.179 : "to die was never to look on all this again". This may be Moran's inner monologue. So you see, on the whole, the narrator is omniscient concerning characters, except Moran who has power and authority even on the narrator himself since the narrative takes up Moran's words : If Moran was in the fields <Rose> would sometimes smoke an "outrageous" cigarette (131). "Outrageous" is the adjective Moran uses to qualify Rose's smoking and the narrator, as if he had heard Moran saying it, repeats Moran's word and is influenced in his telling by Moran's expressions.

Sometimes, the narrative is not accurate, either because the thing described is not very important : for example, after the first argument between Rose and Moran, Rose goes to bed and Moran joins her : "Are you awake at all there, Rose, (...) She did not answer at first but moved OR turned" (71). This conjunction "OR" is quite imprecise : an omniscient narrator should know whether she moves or turns but it makes no difference for the narrative, the main thing being that she did not answer as the sentence starts with. This lack of precision in the narrative may be due to the fact that the narrator sees or rather hears the scene through the ear of one character who hesitates between two possibilities : Then a car was heard pulling up at the gate ; EITHER the bridal car OR their uncle had come (42). Here, the narrative is subjective.

In the novel, the narrative alternates with descriptions. The narrative properly consists in representing actions and events, the description in representing objects or characters. The narrative could not exist without descriptions anyway and description is submitted to the narrative. You have instances of descriptions p.66 for example : Sheila was more than good at school, impulsive and assertive etc. Then, Mona was quiet, hard-working and extremely stubborn etc. These descriptions would have been needless at the beginning of the book but their function here is to prepare the scene of their exams. It is introduced in a clever way because this precise scene does not come just after this description but there is a second clash between Rose and Moran in between. And when the exams are narrated a few pages later, the reader already has information about the girls'characters, their intelligence and the way they work.

Description can be more physical just to let the reader imagine or visualize a character and, in this case, it takes place as soon as the character is introduced in the narrative. This is the case with Rose who is mentioned for the first time p.22 and described p. 24 : She was in her late thirties, lean and strong, too neat and plain of feature ever to have been beautiful but her large grey eyes were intelligent and full of wilfulness and energy. This description is both physically and psychologically positive since her intelligence, wilfulness and energy are underlined. The description can have a comical effect : Mark O'Donoghue's for example p.133 :

He was as fair and handsome as they had been told but they were shocked by the black drainpipe trousers, the black suede shoes, the Elvis hairdo, and a dark wool jacket that was studded with little bits of metal that glittered when they caught the light.

"Good God, he's a teddy boy", Sheila said... (133).

The description of these clothes is not at all in keeping with the Morans' rural classical way of life and way of dressing. Similarly, Rodden's clothes are described p.163 to underline the difference between the rich protestant and the poor catholics.

An exceptional way of dressing is also described by McG p.152 (he wore black shoes, a dark pinstripe suit and a deep red tie and he looked very sober by Michael's side, whose suit was a flashing blue) and it is all the more original as Moran himself always dresses the same way on important occasions such as celebrations and so on. The narrative insists on this by mentioning the "brown suit" each time he wears it, that is :

- for the revival of Monaghan Day (3)

- for the visit he pays to Rose (28)

- for his wedding (40)

- when he goes to Strandhill with Rose (57)

- and for Maggie's departure (62).

This "brown suit" is an interesting detail in so far as it lays stress on the lower middle class of the family.

Descriptions are sometimes very detailed. For example, the reader even knows what characters eat : p.106, p.115, 127-128, 160. I remind you that the kitchen is "the" realistic place "par excellence" for the middle class woman of the 50s : the kitchen, the room that was now her room (45). By doing so, McG aims at depicting reality. These details are used in order that the narrative sounds more real. They imply that the truth is told. Remember the beginning of Le Père Goriot : Ah ! Sachez-le : ce drame n'est ni une fiction ni un roman. "All is true", il est si véritable que chacun peut en reconnaître les éléments chez soi, dans son coeur peut-être. Stendhal spoke of "la vérité, l'âpre vérité" and the details help to give truth to the realistic novel. The narrative is in itself sometimes quite minute for example, if you read the detailed description of the meal p.62 :

Bowls of the clear chicken soup they loved were put on the table. A roast chicken followed, with pale stuffing, a hot gravy and masses of floury roast potatoes. Lemonade was poured into glasses and the meal was toasted. "This is America at home", Moran boasted (62).

You see that it does not particularly look like luxury but these details are here to reinforce the middle class of the family. What they eat makes no difference in itself but it is significant concerning their way of life and mentality and it is all the more noticeable as we learn p.68 that Moran's "racial fear of the poorhouse or famine was deep". The composition of meals seems to be as prominent for the narrator as for the characters and it may be to underline the importance they grant to meals that they are described.

The description of Sean and Sheila's new house is quite significant too of narrow-mindedness and middle class :

Cf. p.151. Not only is the lodging quite ordinary but Sheila states the price of everything, which is the evidence of mediocrity. In fact, as R. Barthes has it in his Poétique du Récit : tout a un sens ou rien n'en a, which means that it is not by chance that this kind of detail is given in description but that it is quite significant of everyday life in an ordinary Irish family.

Different brands or existing trademarks are often noticeable as well, which enhances the realistic aspect of the novel : for ex. p.47 : They played Twenty-one ; the scores were kept on the inside of a Lyons Green Label tea packet. It is not worth wasting a sheet of paper. Different illustrations of this can be mentioned such as the Bendix dishwasher (2), the tractor was an old Porsche (160), or the uncle's old Ford V8 (43), McQuaid's white Mercedes (10) which imply that he probably has more money than Moran who stays in the dark to watch him, maybe with a feeling of envy or jealousy, he who just has "a small blue Ford" (28). These elements are also revealing of a growing consumer society which is more and more invaded by ads and commercials and who has more choices when they have to buy a car or anything. Likewise, the mentioning of existing people give credit and reality to the narrative : the allusions to Henry Ford (159), to Oliver Plunkett (136), an Irish martyr, archbishop of Armagh, executed in 1681 by the English after a faked trial, the allusion to the actor Alan Ladd (106) or to the famous American singer Elvis Presley (133) help to root the novel into historical reality. Fiction could be reality. These characters (Ford, Elvis) can be considered as foils to the fictional, ordinary characters who are anti-heroes, to a certain extent. They are anti-heroes in so far as they do nothing extraordinary and lead a mean, mediocre life. The novel is deeply rooted in historical reality. Fictional and historical time crisscross each other and what is interesting about characters like Ford ao Elvis is that they are significant historically and in reality but they are completely "empty", devoid of any substance, in the narrative. They are just evoked and give their support to make of the narrative a realistic one. They have no precise function within it : they do not take part in the intrigue, in the lives of Moran and other characters. They are just known by them, that is all. They only play a part concerning the realistic background of the novel and on the opposite, of course, Moran and his family are significant fictionally but not historically. They have no reality. They are "flat" characters and simply belong to the diegesis. To conclude, you will have noticed that the realistic discourse imposes names and is filled with proper names : all characters, all places in the novel are named. We also have acute precisions of trademarks or makes and quite an important number of details and descriptions.

As for McG's style proper, it can be compared to Moran's : He had a clean, bare style (66). Indeed, his sentences are short, simple, sometimes blunt : The gates were closed . The train came puffing in. The fucking band struck up "God save the king". There were three fir trees beside the platform (16).

It is oral speech consisting in sentences which simply have a subject, a verb and sometimes one complement. It can not be more ordinary. It is sometimes even so simple that it becomes awkward: There were no letters (...) There was too much emphasis (...) There was wine and whiskey (43-44) can be read in a single paragraph.

The speech can also be indirect or transposed as in p.31 : they made vague general noises about how glad they would be to meet her (31). The narrator's presence is still felt in such sentences. Likewise, indirect style is now and then used to enhance the bustle around Moran and the great number of questions he is asked (whatever by whom) :

Was there milk enough or a little too much in his tea ? They could add more tea once he had taken a few sips. He didn't take sugar any more. Would he have the plain bread or the bread with the blackcurrant jam or a piece of the apple tart ? (46)

Besides the feverish activity around Moran, this process avoids having too many dialogues and sentences like "he said", "she answered" etc. So, the style of the novel is realistic and this realism is also to be picked up in trivial, colloquial words or expressions we meet now and then : McQuaid's words to his wife, for example : "Kick out that bloody cat. Get me a stud. Where's the fucking collar ?" (13) or "in an army in peacetime you have to arselick" (6). McG is a witness who has contented himself with observing and listening to people. He seems to repeat what he has heard from his own father's mouth maybe and his fiction is strewn with such realistic testimonies of truth. Such familiar words or expressions are here to make it all the more realistic as nothing is banned, since even crude terms like "to arselick" can be written.

As for the frequence of the narrative, I may remind you that there are four possibilities which are all exploited by McGahern :

- telling once what happened once ; this is what is called "singulative narrative". It is the case concerning most events in the book and it is particularly visible when you have precisions such as "one evening", then "one night" (179) or "for the first time" (29, 30, 31), "on Saturday night (...) Sunday evening" (31).

- telling several times what happened several times : the numerous evenings when they say the rosary. You can count 28 occurrences of saying the beads, or the frequent allusion to the "brown suit", each time Moran wears it.

- telling several times what happened once : this can be illustrated by the revival of Monaghan Day which is told at the beginning and at the end of the novel.

- telling once what happened several times : this is what is called "iterative narrative". It is some kind of synthesis summing up a repetition of facts in one sentence or paragraph : "she goes every evening to the post" (28) or "As always it <Christmas> was a very long day to get through" (35). The use of all possible kinds of frequence in the narrative makes it quite various and eclectic. The alternation of these different modes of frequence either highlights the quick passing of time or lays stress on monotony. Interestingly enough, the narrative is closely adapted to the diegesis. In other words, the way things are told is closely connected with what is told. There is a genuine harmony between the contents and the structure of the book

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Biography

John McGahern was born on 12th Nov. 1934 to John McGahern and Susan McManus. This couple raised their five children as catholics. His father was a sergeant at the barracks in Cootehall (Co.Roscommon) and his mother was a teacher in Monaghan, then Ballinamore (Co. Leitrim). His parents being forcefully separated, John lived with his mother until he was 10. At his mother's death, in 1945, he joined his father and then lived in the barracks.

People's poverty and the influence of the Church are among his most vivid memories:

The only high schools for boys were the seminaries in the cathedral towns. In our case, that was Sligo, thirty miles away. Only the very well-off could send their children there (...). In Ireland, the personal will mostly win out over any ideology. If you were clever or middle-class, and preferably both, there were enormous pressures to enter religion.

He himself thought of becoming a priest. During his tuition in Presentation College, in Carrick-on-Shannon, he read a lot, having at his disposal the books of Mr Maloney, an old Protestant. According to McGahern, that period was quite decisive in his career as a writer. In 1954, he attended lectures in St Patrick's Teachers Training College, Drumcondra, Dublin, before obtaining his degrees at UCD (University College Dublin) in 1957. He started being a teacher in Drogheda, Co. Louth.

Urged by his desire for writing, which is, according to him, "a form of idleness", he wrote his first novel entitled The End and the Beginning of Love. It has never been published. The Barracks was published in Feb. 1963. This novel, focused on a woman's illness and death, an intrigue which can be paralleled with Amongst Women, was awarded several prizes. Two years later, after a year spent abroad, McGahern published a novel he had written BEFORE the Barracks: The Dark (1965). This novel was immediately banned. This young teacher in St John the Baptist Boys'National School in Clontarf, in the suburbs of Dublin, publishing a novel on unwholesome sexuality and living with a woman without being married in church inevitably brought about institutional turmoil. McGahern civilly married this woman, Annikki Laaski, in May 1965. She was Finnish, responsible for a theatre and not Catholic. The INTO, the Irish National Teachers' Organization, refused to uphold McGahern in front of the Church "unless and until he had regularised his position in respect of his marriage". Banned, sacked from his post as a teacher, considered as a "pornographer", a term he used later as a title, McGahern left his country to go to England.

In London, he was content with temporary jobs, worked on building-sites with his brothers-in-law. He sometimes taught as a supply teacher, wrote a certain number of articles, adapted some 19th century works for the BBC. In 1968, he did some research in Reading University, left for the States to Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, where he gave conferences and lectures, then spent some time in Paris where he divorced. Back to Ireland in 1971, he settled in a farm overlooking Lough Rowan (Co. Leitrim), just after he had published Nightlines, his first book of short-stories. He bought this farm in 1974 and lived there throughout the year.

Since then, his works have alternated novels and short-stories. In 1973, he got acquainted with Madeline Green. They married. In Jan. 1975, his new novel, The Leavetaking, was awarded prizes too and McGahern's works have brought him worldwide recognition and international fame. He gave lectures, conferences in the States, published a new book of short-stories entitled Getting Through in 1978, a novel, The Pornographer in 1979, a book of short-stories in 1985, High Ground, then a novel in 1990 : Amongst Women. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1990, this novel was awarded the Irish Times Prize and Aer Lingus Irish Fiction Prize. In the meantime, in 1986, he wrote and shot "the Rockingham Shoot", a film for TV broadcast on BBC 4. Then, in 1991, McGahern wrote his first play, The Power of Darkness, which aroused violent discussions when it appeared at the Abbey Theatre. Presently, he shares his life between County Leitrim and the European universities in which he is invited, but spends most of his time in Ireland. He was awarded the honorary titles of "Writer in Residence, Trinity College, Dublin" and "Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" in 1989. In Autumn 1992, his publishers, Faber & Faber, gathered his whole short-stories in one volume, The Collected Stories and his fiction has been translated into several languages. McGahern seldom speaks of his technique as a writer in his interviews, for he writes instinctively as he says: "There are no words to describe instinct; the creative act and the love act are in themselves indescribable". Instinct has no rule, so to speak, and remains hard to circumscribe. Instinct finds its relief in action, not in words and the writing endorses the symbolic meaning of the coitus as Freud conceived it, that is to say the birth of words, these children born from the seed of ink.

 The major events of McGahern's life are important in so far as his fiction is particularly autobiographical. It is obvious in the family life with the dead mother and the father who remarried. McGahern admits he left part of himself in each of his characters:

"I suspect part of each character is oneself".

So, his life must be taken into account as well as his other books in which you will find similarities with AW, generally described by the critics as his most elaborate novel. For example, p.23, the passage:

He had been a widower for many years, she knew. He had been an army officer once and there had been trouble that caused him to leave the army. Often she had passed the stone house where he lived with his children, some of whom must now be grown.

You notice that this is the plot of The Barracks: an officer, a widower, who leaves the army. So The Barracks could nearly be considered as the first part of AW. Furthermore, McGahern's father himself was also an army officer and lost his wife.

Maybe it is necessary to cast an eye on the Irish historical context to have a better understanding of the novel. Indeed, AW sometimes refers to special political points which need to be clarified:

Before Jesus Christ, the country of Ireland was inhabited by Celtic People coming from different parts of Europe. A more powerful people, the Gaelics, came later; that is why Ireland was never invaded by Romans. The fact that these peoples had no religion favoured the settlement of the Christian religion which was achieved through the medium of St Patrick in the 5th century. In the following centuries, a considerable amount of Irish monks travelled throughout Europe and spread the word of God which brought about many conversions everywhere. Their influence was very important. Many European kings sent their children to Ireland to receive their education from these cultured monks. Ireland was then called "the island of saints and scholars". In the 8th century, the island was invaded by the Vikings who implanted cities such as Dublin. They contributed to an important commercial movement into the country and out of the country. Then it was the period of the Anglo-Norman invasions and the arrival of the English entailed the departure of most Irish Earls and aristocratic families. The real problems started in the 17th century when the British decided to implant settlers in Ulster and confiscated the grounds from the Catholics. Most catholics became simple workers. It was the beginning of British colonization. Derry was then called Londonderry (and the addition of the name "London" is quite significant of the British supremacy). Likewise, a university was created in Dublin, Trinity College, and its access was forbidden to the Catholic students. Catholics started to organize themselves and a rebellion raised by Catholic peasants provoked the intervention of Cromwell in 1649, which resulted in bloodshed, terrible massacres and with a ransacked country. The Irish peasants who were still alive were forced to move along the western coast. Blood was shed once more on the Irish ground in 1690 when the Catholic James II was overcome by the protestant William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne, which is still celebrated by Irish Protestants today. Then, laws were given concerning Catholics who were not entitled to buy property, to vote or to be elected. Moreover, it was forbidden to teach Gaelic or to speak this language. The rebellious Catholics organized then what we could call a "secret Ireland", with "hedge schools" (where they could learn traditional language) and celebrate secret masses (because they were not entitled to go to mass either). That was the birth of Irish nationalism. But once involved in the war of American independence, England was obliged to slacken its position in Ireland and the Irish parliament in Dublin was given more power, but it was still 100% protestant whereas 90% of the Irish population was catholic. The French Revolution at the end of the 18th century was echoed in Ireland through the character of Wolfe Tone who created in Belfast the movement of "the United Irishmen" who wanted to warrant political and religious freedom. But the Protestants reacted straightaway creating the Order of Orange. Catholic insurrection broke out but French help arrived too late and repression was terrible.

In 1800, the Act of Union with England was voted, the Irish Parliament no longer existed and Ireland was directly under the rule of England. Ireland sent 100 protestant deputies to the parliament in London (Catholics were not represented) and was, from then on, totally integrated in the English economic system. Living in a country which was deprived of any industry, the Irish became poorer and poorer, hence a large flow of emigration (towards America concerning most of them). At that time, some catholic intellectuals gathered and obtained the "Catholic Emancipation Act" which enabled them to take part in the elections. An Irish party was to represent Ireland in London. But poverty increased a lot with the great Famine from 1845 to 1848. It was caused by a disease in potatoes (potato blight). Hundreds of thousands of Irish people crammed into boats sailing to America, and in ten years, the population was reduced from 8,5 million to 4 million inhabitants. The nationalist fight went on with different movements such as "Young Ireland" and the "Fenians" (called after Fianna or Fionn - who is mentioned by the way p.183 - warriors and heroes of Gaelic legends). These movements counted several thousands of members who organized attacks against England (the origin of the IRA). The English Prime Minister in 1868, William Gladstone, gave religious freedom to Ireland and allowed the creation of the Home Rule Party which was in favour of Irish autonomy. He also granted a fairer distribution of property. The Home Rule Party gained a considerable amount of seats in parliament but London did not take the result into account. Charles Parnell was one of the most active defenders of the Home Rule Party which aimed at gaining autonomy. But as a reaction, the Protestants created the Unionist Party which wanted to keep Irish dependence on London. From 1890 onwards, a certain number of Irish intellectuals gathered to restore Irish identity and tradition. Among them were Lady Gregory, W.B.Yeats who safeguarded the Gaelic language, the Irish Literary Theatre and the Gaelic Athletic Association which was restored to promote old Irish sports. New political parties appeared as well at the beginning of the 20th century, among which "Sinn Fein" which means "We Alone" in Gaelic language (Sinn Fein is the political wing of the IRA). Opposite, the Unionists of Ulster organized a military group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, to fight more violently against Home Rule. In 1916, the Irish took advantage of the British commitment to the First World War to revolt and a violent insurrection broke out in Dublin at Easter 1916. The Republic was proclaimed by the Sinn Fein members (Connolly, Pearse...). They resisted for a week but were all shot dead by the Protestants. In 1919, Sinn Fein constituted the free Parliament of Ireland (which was not recognized by London of course). It was called Dail Eireann and a movement of rebellion, the IRA (Irish Republican Army). The Protestant Unionists created the Black and Tans - so called because of the colours of their uniforms - as an answer. The Black and Tans are conjured up in the novel (p.5) : as a catholic, Moran with the IRA fought against the protestant Black and Tans. Finally, in 1921, London was forced to accept a ceasefire, opened discussions with the Republican movement and suggested the creation of a free state of six counties which would still be under the rule of London : this is Northern Ireland. Urged to accept, to avoid the continuation of the war, the Republicans signed the treaty of partition in Ireland on 6th Dec. 1921. (The treaty is also mentioned p.18). The IRA, the military wing of Sinn Fein was opposed to it, wanted to fight against this treaty and started civil war, which is referred to as "the war".

Moran, the protagonist, took part in this war from 1921 to 1923. He has got the feeling of having been duped and having fought for nothing. This is why he refuses the IRA pension. The state should not get in touch with him now: his conversation with McQuaid, with whom he fought, is unequivocal:

"Sometimes I get sick when I see what I fought for", Moran said.

"It makes no sense your not taking the IRA pension. You earned it. You could still have it in the morning", McQuaid said.

"I'd throw it in their teeth", Moran clenched and unclenched his hands as he spoke (15).

What Moran deplores above all is the murderous fight led by the rebels of the treaty against those who wanted its settlement from 1921 to 1923. The past is responsible for the present situation.

This discussion between the two veterans brings about some definite argument between these friends. The only national gratefulness Moran is entitled to receive is to lie in a coffin temporarily covered with the Irish flag:

All through High Mass and the slow funeral a faded tricolour covered the coffin; and as the casket stood on the edge of the grave a little man in a brown felt hat, old and stiff enough to have fought with Fionn and Oisin came out of the crowd. With deep respect he removed his hat before folding the worn flag and with it he stepped back into the crowd. There was no firing party (182-183).

(You note the sarcastic irony of the passage). Indeed, the Irish flag counts three colours: green symbolising catholics, orange for protestants and white in between as a symbol for peace among them.

As Terence Brown writes in Ireland:

In a country made disastrously smaller by a border that had set six of its counties adrift, memories of those tragic months and the bitterness they fed perverted much goodwill and idealism, soured many personal relationship, tore at the heart of aspiration, and family relations in McGahern's fiction are permeated with this feeling of bitterness. Indeed, there is a close connection between the collective and the individual: national feeling is in keeping with personal sentiments; national conflict has become a conflict between two generations. This bitterness is noticeable in Moran's reaction towards his fellow citizens: when his daughters have just passed their exams, he does not praise them in the post office because "being Irish <Annie and Lizzie> would have to cut them down to size" (86) as if Irish people always underestimated others' successes.

To end with Irish history, you may know that de Valera created a Republican Party called "Fianna Fail" in 1926 and was elected President of the Republic in 1932. In 1937, a constitution was voted, defining the territory and in 1948, Southern Ireland officially became a Republic and was recognized as such. So, Ireland as a Republic is the situation in the diegetic universe of AW for it is supposed to take place in the 50s, as it is suggested by a few details such as, for example, the fact of having a car of one's own (Cf. p.30) - the symbol of pure luxury - or the fact that McQuaid or Moran's oldest sons are at least twenty. On the other hand, there are no telephones or televisions in the novel, for example. These details probably date the novel in the late 40s, early 50s. Anyway, at the time of the diegesis, that is to say the universe of the narrative, poverty and emigration are still contemporary realities, since Moran remembers his childhood and says: "Noone had money round Moyne" (74). He also tells Michael: "I had no money at your age" (94), and things have not changed a great deal since they live in a poor area: Above them rose the poor fields, littered with rock and gorse, the lower slopes of the mountain (29).

Emigration is also mentioned right from the beginning when Moran has it that "more than half of my own family work in England" (5) or when Michael marries an English girl, during the wedding, the Morans are made to feel what they are: "immigrants" (171). Michael also recalls that "we all left Ireland" (155).

So, poverty and emigration are still realities in the Irish 50s.

This was to situate the context of the novel, and the aspects that make it Irish are noticeable in other fields too; this is what is called Irishness, that is to say typically Irish elements, facts that situate the universe of the narrative in Ireland and nowhere else.

Roughly speaking, Irish society is based on religion, family and patriotism. We shall come back on religion later because it is too prominent a motif to be overlooked, but interesting religious, mythological details are to be noticed in Irish civilization. For example, if you take your book p.51: The small green envelope with the harp generally came with news of sudden death, the precision "with the harp" refers to Brian Boru's harp, which is a gaelic symbol. B. Boru was a gaelic chief in a province of Ireland and he managed to unify a great part of the island under his power until he was killed by the Vikings in Clontarf in 1014.

Concerning letters, an Irish tradition was to write "S.A.G" at the back of the envelope:

Eventually when the letter came in its blue envelope with the pious SAG printed across the seal, the hands so firm holding a gun or tool shook as he took it (65);

SAG means "St Anthony Guide".

These are traditions such as playing the National Anthem at the end of a barn dance (Cf. p.102) or the local tradition of Monaghan Day, explained p.1.

Concerning family, you know that until recently, contraception was not allowed in Ireland, this very catholic country. Consequently, large families were and still are very frequent : <Sheila> had three children in three years (169). It is also due to the traditional idea expressed by men that "the family was the basis of all society and every civilization" (117) and Sean Flynn has, it is written two lines above, "a huge family". Likewise, it is said about Moran that "he has a large family" (30) and Rose has four brothers and a certain amount of sisters.

As for patriotism, you can see it is quite ironical in so far as the first generation, that is the father's generation, is angry about the lack of gratefulness of their nation towards these men who fought for the freedom of their country. And the second generation does not really cultivate the patriotic mind either since most of these people escape to England or to the States. McGahern is really sarcastic about this notion of patriotism and often stays clear from these clichés from which Irish literature has suffered a great deal: I mean faithfulness towards nation or family, conflict between sexuality and catholic religion or the idealization of the past, some kind of nostalgia: I may add that the priest does not get rid of this feeling: "It was pleasant to see people returning to the old ways, he said" (44) during Moran's wedding.

The Irish 50s are still deeply anchored in rural traditions and in proprieties: there is a sense of welcome, which is still present today, and of Irish formal politeness which is noticeable in the novel:

Moran walked Rodden in the manner of local courtesy to the point where he wanted to leave the meadow (164) or

It was considered to be improper to leave one's own house on Christmas Day (97), which is still some kind of religious obedience...

Another interesting detail which is symptomatic of this civilization is decency, for example, the fact that brothers and sisters should not see each other naked : when Michael leaves his home, goes to Dublin and knocks at his sisters'door, one of them speaks to him from the window and you can read:

It seemed a very long time before anyone came to the door. They were both dressed when the door opened (115).

These details, which may seem useless first, are in fact always revealing of something, and, interestingly enough, McGahern never presents his society as such saying "the Irish 50s were like this or like that", but it is always implied and to be noted through descriptions and details. In such a novel, everything is important and nothing is left or said by chance. Irishness could also be stressed through alcohol, of course, represented more particularly by Mark O'Donoghue, but also through toponymics, the names of places: Dublin, the capital city of Ireland, is mentioned repeatedly of course and typical places of Dublin are too: pubs or particular streets: Kildare Street (116), Harcourt Street, the Shelbourne, the Gresham, famous hotels in Dublin (150). Concerning places, it is to be noticed that the tension between the generations is that between the city and the country. Moran, for example, refuses to leave the countryside to go to his daughter's wedding in London. Thomas Kilroy, in an article entitled "Tellers of Tales", says that this is perhaps the most important partition in Ireland, between the city "with its new and often reprehensible life-style" and "an interior, rural society with a residue of traditional mores and a considerable confusion as to its future". This is certainly present in McGahern's fiction; in The Leavetaking, Patrick was anxious to leave the country for "the anonymity of the city", and the headmaster, a son of a peasant, observes:

"city people are all right in their way but they don't have those good, solid traditions behind them that we who come from the country have" (14).

The hollowness of city life and the dying traditions of the country cause differences between people. If so many traditions are depicted or implied in AW, it may be due to the fact that the universe of the novel is situated in the countryside. Besides, even when they live in the city, Moran's children, -daughters at least-, keep on coming back home.

In the Irish places - either villages or small towns - mentioned in the novel, the autobiographical aspect is conspicuous in so far as most of them are located in McGahern's birthplace, that is to say County Roscommon or Leitrim, on the whole, the North Western part of Ireland. That is how we can pick up Mohill (1), Arigna (22), Boyle (57), Sligo (109), Enniskillen (109), Ballysodare (58), Carrick-on-Shannon (157) or Strandhill (on the coast) (110), Oakport (75)...

This is interesting to note the particular background of the novel which is properly Irish in so far as most cities, villages and places mentioned are situated in Ireland (except London where two children work). This reinforces the sense of narrowness, of narrowmindedness of a restricted universe and anguish that we will deal with later. These precisions can be checked easily (you only have to take a map of Ireland) and they contribute to the enhancement of realistic characteristic of the novel. Indeed, the realistic character seldom travels far from his original place.

Last, to end with Irishness, an example of Celtic language, which is typically Irish too is to be noted p.132 with "hoi polloi", which means "common woman". The Irish used Celtic language to fight against the British occupant and this language is hard to understand.