An Chláirseach agus an Choróin

420 lch; clúdach bog; ISBN 978-0-898332-45-2

An Chláirseach agus an Choróin: Cumadóir mór ceoil ba ea Charles Villiers Stanford, b’fhéidir gurb é an cumadóir ba mhó é a tháinig as Éirinn riamh.

Sa leabhar breá sómasach seo déantar iniúchadh, ní hamháin ar cheol Stanford agus ar cheol na nGael, ach ar chúlra cultúir an chumadóra chlúitigh seo. Go deimhin, ní minic leabhair Ghaeilge ag scrúdú an tSasanachais, mar atá déanta sa leabhar seo a théann i ngleic le ceist an Éireannachais agus le ceist an tSasanachais, agus lena bhfuil i gceist le bheith i d’Éireannach anglafónach, agus i do Ghael.

Is é Charles Villiers Stanford an cumadóir ceoil is mó a tháinig as Éirinn riamh – nach raibh Gaeilge aige! Is é is mó a chuir ceol na nGael – ár gceolna, ceol lucht labhartha na Gaeilge – ag fuaimniú ar stáitsí an cheoil ealaíne san Eoraip agus sna Stáit Aontaithe. Ainneoin nach raibh aon Ghaeilge aige, léirigh sé ómós agus tuiscint domhain don cheol Gaelach.

Trí anailís a dhéanamh ar an gceol sárchumasach seo déanann Mac Cóil anailís ar náisiún, agus léiríonn gurb iad na Gaeil – lucht labhartha na Gaeilge – is fearr a thuigfidh ceol Stanford agus a is mó a bhéarfadh chucu féin é, mar is é a gceol féin atá ann.

Mar chuid den anailís aige breathnaíonn sé ar chúlra Lúireach Phádraig, iomann ar chuir Stanford ceol leis an leagan Béarla de, ‘Saint Patrick’s Breastplate’ – iomann a théann go croí na gceisteanna is ábhar don leabhar seo: ceol, creideamh, polaitíocht, náisiúntacht agus teanga.

“A great book, raising troubling questions about how the historical process counterfeits objectivity and how we foolishly continue to see Ireland only in terms of Britain while absolutely refusing to read primary or secondary sources in any language other than English. As in Fontenoy, Mac Cóil is writing an alternative history of the Gael, taking that right away from the victor-colonialist. He is putting the Gael alongside Anglophone culture and removing him as a subset of that culture (this has yet to happen in America, where Irish studies is almost always a subset of British studies). Because he knows that history is fiction, and that it is used as a political tool, he very consciously (and very rightly) proposes that the Gael rewrite history. As he says, most profoundly, his feet firmly planted on the floor of Club Ráth Chairn, his local community center, ‘gineann muid ár sinsear [agus] ní bhíonn duine gan aird i measc a phobail féin’ (we beget our ancestors, and nobody is overlooked in his own community) (p. 324). It is a thought-provoking first step towards a reevaluation of Ireland on its own terms, not those of Anglophone colonialists or outsiders.” — Prof. Brian Ó Broin, H-Albion

Read Brian Ó Broin’s review in H-Albion