What’s wrong with Ireland? The question seems to be an ever-popular one, from the time of Gerald of Wales to that of Gay Byrne and beyond. We can think of W.B. Yeats raging against fumblers in the greasy till, James Joyce calling his homeland the “old sow that eats her farrow”, and Samuel Beckett declaring that France at war was preferable to Ireland at peace. Of course, for every aesthete and cosmopolitan denouncing Ireland’s insularism and narrow-mindedness, there were other voices lamenting the incursions of jazz music and evil literature.
But Ireland-bashing surely reached its height in Kavanagh’s Weekly, a periodical published in newspaper format from April to June of 1952. The editor of the publication (and its main contributor) was the poet and writer Patrick Kavanagh, and it was funded by the savings of his brother Peter, who also wrote articles. There is a complete run of the original issues in UCD Library’s Special Collections.
Photograph of Peter (left) and Patrick (right) outside the Four Courts, Dublin, February 1954 (Kav D 18/129)
To the question “What’s wrong with Ireland?”, Kavanagh’s Weekly answered: “Everything!” In its short lifespan, Kavanagh’s Weekly launched polemics against the Irish language movement, Fianna Fáil, the civil service, the army, the diplomatic service, Austin Clarke, the Irish publishing industry, the Gate Theatre, the Abbey Theatre, the Arts Council, the Irish Folklore Commission, and many, many other targets. Peter’s contributions were, if anything, even more abrasive than those of Patrick.
The tone may be gauged from the first article, an editorial under the title “Victory of Mediocrity”. “All the mouthpieces of public opinion are controlled by men whose only qualification is their inability to think. Being stupid and illiterate is the mark of respectability and responsibility.”
Occasionally, Kavanagh’s Weekly could be breathtaking in its vituperation. In one article, it suggested that Eamon De Valera had encouraged the use of Roman script for the Irish language because there was no “v” in the traditional Gaelic script!
Kavanagh’s Weekly is hard to place on the usual map of Irish ideologies, past or present. Although it hammered “Official Ireland” (and actually used that term, which has been wrongly credited to Eamon Dunphy), it certainly wasn’t a part of what Patrick once witheringly called “the official liberal opposition”.
In one article, Kavanagh reproved Dr. Noel Browne as “naive” on account of his Mother and Child Scheme proposal, famously blocked by the Catholic bishops:
“It is right that the religious ideal should be the ruling voice on such matters.”
On the subject of the ultra-conservative Catholic organisation Maria Duce, he wrote:
“Maria Duce is a society of frustrated people who want something to keep them interested. Maria Duce provides The Irish Times with a made-to-measure controversy. It is a harmless Aunt Sally, set up to be knocked down”.
On the subject of Irish nationalism, Kavanagh’s Weekly was withering. It opposed the paying of pensions to veterans of the 1916 Rising:
“In 1951 there were 1,336 such persons; in 1952 the number rose to 1,702 persons and, no doubt, next year the number that served in 1916 will go up again. Considering the number who have died since 1916 and the numbers now drawing pensions, they must have been a poor lot of fighters to have capitulated so quickly.”
The periodical published reader’s letters. One such letter came from Brendan Behan, who had a complex and vexed relationship with Kavanagh. Behan complained about being included in a list of Irish-language writers which Kavanagh’s Weekly reprinted from The Sunday Press. It appeared in the regular column, “The Old Foolishness” (in which passages from Irish newspapers were held up to scorn). In his letter, Behan complained:
“I don’t know the half of these geezers and am in no way responsible for having my name stuck in among theirs…I think ‘the Old Foolishness a good spot for keeping these citizens, and about the only space to which their talent would entitle them.”
Brothers, Peter and Patrick Kavanagh, threshing hay around, 1933 (Kav D 18/39)
The Nationalist and Leinster Times had a bemused but approving reaction to Kavanagh’s Weekly:
“It hit the town last Saturday like a blast from a sawn-off shotgun. Kavanagh’s Weekly proclaims itself a journal of literature and politics, but it might equally be described as a bulletin of abuse and mockery. For this reason I, for one, am glad to welcome it. The vein of satire has run thin in Irish journalism. The new periodical makes no concessions to commercialism, to complacency, or to anything or anybody. Indeed, its aim seems to be to annoy as many people as possible and in this I should think it has every prospect of succeeding.”
Myles Na Gopaleen, the celebrated Irish Times columnist and regular drinking companion of Kavanagh, contributed several articles to the publication. In the third issue, he complained that “Kavanagh’s Weekly does not attack the right people”– although it would be difficult to think of anyone who had been overlooked.
Kavanagh’s Weekly
Myles, however, had more suggestions for legitimate targets:
“The suede-shoed spivs who assemble cars, the drunken newspaper people, the dirty publicans who give short measure and won’t wash glasses, and the great congregation of rural morons whom no political party dare tax. There is endless opportunity.”
It was in Kavanagh’s Weekly that Patrick advanced one of his most celebrated ideas, the distinction between provincialism and parochialism.
“The provincial has no mind of his own; he does not trust what his eyes see until he has heard what the metropolis– towards which his eyes are turned– has to say on any subject. The parochial mentality on the other hand is never in any doubt about the social and artistic validity of his parish. All great civilisations are based on parochialism– Greek, Israelite, English.”
In Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography, Antoinette Quinn writes: “After the collapse of their Weekly the brothers thought it prudent to leave town. Peter returned to the US and Patrick once again tried his fortune in London.” The periodical had not been a financial success, but it had certainly made its mark. Perhaps it was Patrick Kavanagh’s misfortune that he lived in a time before blogging or YouTube channels!
This guest post was written by Maolsheachlann O’Ceallaigh, Library Assistant, UCD Information and Learning Services
Well done. Great piece.
Thank you, Michael! Maolsheachlannn