Fortnight Publications Ltd.

Cultural Clashes across the WaterSchnitzer O'Shea by Donall MacAmhlaigh; McAughtry's War by Sam McAughtryReview by: Joe McMinnFortnight, No. 233 (Feb. 10 - 23, 1986), p. 19Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25550740 .

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CULTURAL CLASHES

ACROSS THE WATER Joe McMinn

Donall MacAmhlaigh Schnitzer O'Shea

Brandon Press IR?9.95

Sam McAughtry McAughtry's War

Blackstaff Press ?4.95

DEFENCE of your cultural identity only becomes a bothersome issue when some

one threatens to walk over it. That is why it is difficult to imagine the English getting too worked up about such matters. In Ire

land, however, be it the "Protestant way of life" or the "Nationalist people", it has for long been a form of protest or com

pensation in the face of imperial manners.

Although today we are quite familiar with "cultural identity" as a major pol itical problem, it's a long time since Irish literature has concerned itself with such ideals

- with the current exception of Freil.

The small literature of emmigration -1 can

only think of Edna O'Brien or Patrick MacGill - takes this question into the land of those who provoked the question in the first place. The two pieces of writing under review here deal with the Irish experience in England

- innocents abroad. For both,

the experience is comic but exhausting. Donall MacAmhlaigh is best known as a

writer in Irish. His Dialann Deorai, tran slated as An Irish Navvy, recorded the life and times of an Irish-speaking navvy on

English building sites. Since that auto

biography, Mac Amhlaigh's writing has been almost alone in recreating the culture

of the Irish working class in England. His first English novel, Schnitzer

QyShea, is a fictional, satirical biography of an Irish migrant navvy with prodigious literary talent. The eponymous hero, frus

trated by lack of opportunity at home, takes the boat and settles down to labour

ing for a living. His early fascination with the music and mystery of words, any

words, makes him into a strange creature

a mystical navvy. He soon emerges as

Ireland's, (or England's), outstanding Gaelic poet. Indifferent to fame or re

putation, he becomes increasingly with

drawn, rejecting Irish and English society alike, existing only for contemplation and

self-expression. Like Beckett's Murphy, this exile's final days are tragic farce.

At first, the novel seems like an original, playful send-up of a pompus, academic

biography on a working-class poet. But

unintentionally the novel becomes a self

parody which finally sentimentalises the naive hero by ridiculing all those who can't or won't accept him for what he is

- a

simple man. MacAmghlaigh falls victim to the very style he set out to satirise through parody. Nearly every page has footnotes to explain Gaelic or dialect words.

"Gaeltacht", we learn, is "an area where

Irish is the everyday language of the

people". Arcane information like this, which takes itself so seriously, completely

undermines the fantasy.

Having a go at the Gaelic League and

literary academics, neither of whom ap

preciates O'Shea's simplicity, is worthy material for a comic novel, but MacAmh

laigh won't trust his creation enough to let it lead a life of its own. Sentimentality ruins

a satire. The classic version of this satire is

Flann O'Brien's An Beal Bocht or The Poor Mouth, which doesn't try to have it both ways.

_^tSv_^________________________________9_____________

_________________E^^i____________________________________i

Sam McAughtry

Sam McAughtry's autobiography is one of the funniest stories I've read in years. It's also about an innocent abroad in Eng land - a Belfast lad who joins the British forces during World War II seeking ad venture and survival. This is a straight, anecdotal account of his arrival in Eng land, his early training as a navigator with

the R.A.F., and his subsequent hair-rais

ing missions over the Aegean. One of Ireland's best journalists,

McAughtry's style is sharp and quick witted. He has great ability to capture characters and incidents and can always see the humour in the situation of a young Irishman working his way through the bur eaucratic layers of the R.A.F. Positively

enjoying his provincialism, which height ens the wonder of the new experience, he

has no problem about "cultural identity":

"I liked it. To be Irish is to be special and

interesting. As far as I could see, other

Northern Irish Protestants reacted in the same way. I was to see Antrim Presby terians come out of themselves, begin to

show a swash here and a buckle there within days of signing on, because the

British expected it of them and because it offered a lovely release of the inhibi

tions, considering the times we were in."

McAughtry plays them at their own

game and keeps winning. He emerges as a

kind of North Belfast playboy - able to

talk his way out of most situations and if that fails, kick his way out. He is never called anything but "Paddy" and is mostly treated as one. His usual defence is either

unapologetic violence - "never fight

clean", or getting offside -

"volunteer for

nothing". Drawing naturally on his street

wise days in Tiger Bay, he gets great sat isfaction in turning the tables on the of ficer class

- using enthusiasm and cunning

to become one himself. But his English superiors never liked this kind of chancer, and interpreted his banter as insensitivity to the war. This really drew out

McAughtry's anger:

"I was an ignorant gulpin from the back

streets of Belfast, and had never been

anything else. English grammar-school and public-school boys felt sensitivity in a war, but rough, coarse, Irish slum pro ducts just took it all in their stride. I

really should have joined the Royal Irish

Rifles and gone to earth in the trenches

where I belonged. What the hell was I

doing in company with the Cleggs of this

world? I had a native servant, for

Christ's sake, when by rights I was only servant material myself."

McAughtry never glorifies or sentiment

alises the war and his own part in it. The

experience in England taught him the value of such modesty.

W.S.R

Stands for Socialism! The abolition of money, wage

slavery and the class monopoly of

wealth. To be replaced with a

society of free access to all goods and services and production to

meet the self determined needs of all in society.

WE ARE THE ONLY POLITICAL PARTY WHICH HOLDS THIS REVOLUTIONARY POSITION.

INTERESTED - Contact -

W.S.P. Belfast Branch, 41 Donegall St.,

_Belfast, 1._

NEW IRELAND GROUP

believes that the only way out of the

Irish nightmare is for Northern

Protestants to break out of the unionist

mould and rediscover their radical

dissenting tradition, and for Southern

Catholics to commit themselves to a

truly pluralist society.

Details of membership and meetings from:

NIG, Fountain Centre, College Street,

Belfast, BT1 6ET. (Tel: 225337) ___-----_H^ta__H___________i

Fortnight 10th February 1986 19

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