Newspaper Clippings

Page 1

APRIL 5, 1951 Rare Irish Literary Treasures Found in Australia RECENTLY there had been striking instances of what the soul of Ireland in Australia meant, said Dr. Kiernan. He would give two. One of the most celebrated of the Irish poets of the Aisling period was Brian Merriman, who lived from 1757 to 1808, and in 1780, when he was 23, wrote a famous poem called "The Midnight Court," probably the only poem ever written that can be read without blushes in a company of women, but not in a company of men. It has within recent years been translated into English by Frank O'Connor, and by Lord Longford, and Arthur Usher. The first of these translations was banned by the Irish Censorship Board. Last year, Mr. Thomas Culhane, a distinguished member of your society, came into possession, as heir, of what must be the rarest transcript in beautiful Irish manuscript written into a copybook of this long poem, which satirises late marriages in Ireland. This important discovery in Melbourne has been lent by Mr. Culhane to the Irish writer, Fiachra Eilgeach, who is preparing a definitive edition of the poem. Mr. Culhane wishes then, to present it to the National Library of Ireland. So that the Aisling Society, through its member Mr. Culhane, continues, in a different but now more valuable way, the Irish-Australian tradition mentioned by Michael Davitt. The incarnation of the soul of Ireland is proved, by Mr. Culhane, to be very much alive in Melbourne. EVA OF "THE NATION" My second illustration is from Brisbane. Following a request that I made to an address in that city, Miss Eva O'Sullivan made a diligent search amongst old letters and papers and has been good enough to send them to me. They are of such historical interest, not only for Ireland but for Australia, that the Librarian of the National Library in Canberra is agreeing to microfilm them for the libraries of Tasmania, Queensland and the National Library of Australia, as well as for the National Library of Ireland. These are the letters written by the 1848 prisoners by Dr. Kevin Izod O'Doherty and by his wife, Eva of The Nation. They begin with a letter to Eva written by John Martin, the great Presbyterian leader of the Irish national movement of the Famine period, and it was written in Cove Harbour before his convict ship sailed. I know it will interest you if I read a short extract from the 8-page letter. "I feel that I could face the most horrible scenes of Irish misery, and labour for years among them, if not in yet holily and finally and patiently, provided I had hope of at length arriving—through such a dismal howling waste, at the end of Irish misery and the time whonour and prosperity commence. Are we ever to reach that time? Oh! If after all these black storm clouds that have been drifting over us, like the huge funeral pall of a nation—after our sun has been turned into darkness and our morn into blood—after this wearful social earthquake under whose continual shocks we have been shuddering for…