Irish Interior ― Keeping Faith With the Past in Gaelic Prose 1940-1951

After independence, Irish leaders dreamed of returning Irish Gaelic as the language spoken natively throughout the land. Eighty years on, this is still a dream. O'Leary (English, Boston College) looks at the politics behind the push for Gaelic from 1940-1951 and the reasons for apathy outside the Gaeltacht in the far west. He sees the early problem as a rigid determination of academics to create a pure form of the language and to regularize spelling. He also admits that most of the contemporary prose in Gaelic was not very good. O'Leary feels that the 1940s were a transition period in which Irish writers began to find their voices, writing on subjects beyond jingoistic history. More even-handed accounts of recent history, scientific works and, above all, novels and plays that reflect the human experience through Irish eyes began to appear and attract readers. He spends the final chapter of the book on the example of Marin O Cadhain, a brilliant writer who came from the Irish-speaking Conamara. Cadhain's use of the Irish to tell his story, rather than making the story a showcase for the language, led the way for the evolution of modern Gaelic literature. Distributed by Dufour. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)