Disability and Life Writing in Post-Independence Ireland

179 Pages·2020·2.92 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Grubgeld

LITERARY DISABILITY STUDIES
Disability
and Life Writing in
Post-Independence
Ireland
Elizabeth Grubgeld
Literary Disability Studies
Series Editors
David Bolt
Liverpool Hope University
Liverpool, UK
Elizabeth J. Donaldson
New York Institute of Technology
Old Westbury, NY, USA
Julia Miele Rodas
Bronx Community College
City University of New York
Bronx, NY, USA
Literary Disability Studies is the first book series dedicated to the
exploration of literature and literary topics from a disability studies
perspective. Focused on literary content and informed by disability
theory, disability research, disability activism, and disability experience,
the Palgrave Macmillan series provides a home for a growing body of
advancedscholarshipexploringthewaysinwhichtheliteraryimagination
intersects with historical and contemporary attitudes toward disability.
This cutting edge interdisciplinary work includes both monographs and
edited collections (as well as focused research that does not fall within
traditional monograph length). The series is supported by an edito-
rial board of internationally-recognised literary scholars specialising in
disability studies:
Michael Bérubé, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature, Pennsylvania
State University, USA
G. Thomas Couser, Professor of English Emeritus, Hofstra University in
Hempstead, New York, USA
Michael Davidson, University of California Distinguished Professor,
University of California, San Diego, USA
RosemarieGarland-Thomson,ProfessorofWomen’sStudiesandEnglish,
Emory University, Atlanta, USA
CynthiaLewiecki-Wilson,ProfessorofEnglishEmerita,MiamiUniversity,
Ohio, USA.
For information about submitting a Literary Disability Studies book
proposal,pleasecontacttheserieseditors:DavidBolt([email protected]),
Elizabeth J. Donaldson ([email protected]), and/or Julia Miele Rodas
([email protected]).
More information about this series at
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Elizabeth Grubgeld
Disability and Life
Writing
in Post-Independence
Ireland
Elizabeth Grubgeld
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK, USA
Literary Disability Studies
ISBN 978-3-030-37245-3 ISBN 978-3-030-37246-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37246-0
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Preface
Disability and Life Writing in Post-Independence Ireland is an explo-
ration of the way forces come together: the traditions of a literary genre,
the history of an emergent nation state, and the claims of the body.
A wide variety of writers come the fore: some are famous, like Sean
O’Casey, Christy Brown, Christopher Nolan, and Stewart Parker, others
arefamiliaramongIrishdisabilityactivists,andothersareknownprimarily
to their families and neighbors. Every voice, no matter how celebrated
or obscure, adds to a developing picture of just how disability has been
understood and narrated in the nearly hundred years since Irish inde-
pendence. This book is the first to bring the study of life writing and
disability studies into the context of Irish literature and culture, although
the study of life writing and disability has taken a major place in the
field of autobiography studies. The foundational work of G. Thomas
Couser,SusannahMintz,andLeighGilmorehasconsideredalmostexclu-
sively writers from the United States, although recent work in disability
life writing from Africa and the Caribbean offers models of addressing
disability self-representation within the postcolonial state. Among Irish
studies scholars, recent inquiry into the role of Irish institutions, human
rights,andarefocusedattentiononmattersofclassinpost-independence
Ireland suggest an ongoing conversation into which this study will enter.
I have made an effort throughout to clarify the underlying concepts
andterminologyfromdisabilitystudiesandautobiographicaltheory,with
the understanding that specialists in one field may be unfamiliar with the
v
vi PREFACE
other. Throughout the manuscript, I have given more information about
conditions in Ireland than I might have for a strictly Irish Studies audi-
ence. Readers interested in disability issues, Irish social history, working
class and popular literatures, or in the diverse forms of life writing should
find something of value to their understanding of these interrelated areas
of study.
Disability life writing in Ireland takes many forms and expresses many
ideological positions. I have tried to address, however briefly, every life
writing available by a disabled person in Ireland and Northern Ireland,
althoughitisverylikelythatIhavemissedsomeobscureorrecentworks.
A paucity of texts by women makes difficult a thorough gender analysis
of Irish disability life writing; although some women have participated in
oral histories or have written blog posts or short pieces for publications
havingtodowithaspecificdisability,fewdisabledwomenhavepublished
autobiographies. The dearth of autobiographies by Irish individuals with
intellectual and neurodiverse disabilities has also limited this study to the
life writing of those whose disabilities are primarily physical in manifes-
tation. Additionally, I have been unable to locate memoirs by disabled
people of color within Ireland or by Travellers with disabilities.
The intersectionality of disability, class, gender, region, and sectarian
affiliations results in such overlap that it has seemed advantageous to
group the texts according to aspects of genre rather than types of impair-
ment or other demographic characteristics. The one exception to this
generic organization is the second chapter, “Disability and Class: Blind-
ness and Labor in Post-Independence Ireland.” The question of class is
so fundamental to the discussion of disability in Ireland that the topic
demands its own prominent place at the start. The struggle for sustain-
able employment among blind people in Ireland has been so central to
their collective identity and social action that the life writings of those
with vision impairments seem a perfect place to begin investigating the
role of class and labor. That discussion is followed by an exploration
of works in the context of testimony and trauma, wherein I consider
the relationship between disability and institutional life, as well as briefly
discussing the very few self-referential narratives of those whose disabil-
ities arose directly from the nearly thirty years of civil war in Northern
Ireland. The next section takes on the marriage of autobiography and
fiction,addressingthreewriters—ChristyBrown,ChristopherNolan,and
PREFACE vii
Stewart Parker—for whom style and language were of paramount impor-
tance and who employ the techniques of fiction and speak from a third-
person perspective. Genre continues to preoccupy the final two chapters,
the first of which examines the constraints of genres such as the sports
andcelebrityautobiography,aswellasorganizationalpublications,ethno-
graphicresearch,andthehumanrightstribunal.Thefinalchapterexplores
the possibilitiesgenerated by the advent of self-publishing,blogging,and
performance art.
Stillwater, USA Elizabeth Grubgeld
Acknowledgements
Many individuals helped with this project, but my first thanks must go to
Joe Bollard and Des Kenny. I have delightful memories of a long after-
noonwithJoe(andhisguidedogYork)overcoffeeattheGreshamHotel.
Des Kenny came in to Drumcondra on a summer afternoon to show me
aroundtheofficesoftheNationalCouncilfortheBlindIreland,anorga-
nization he headed for many years, and to share with me his vast under-
standing of issues affecting Irish people with vision impairments. Paddy
Doyle and I have never managed to meet, but I am grateful for an email
correspondencewithhimthatnowspansmorethanadecade.DavidLane
andSarahFitzgeraldalsokindlyansweredmyemailsregardingtheirwork.
As always, communities of scholars extend themselves in service, and
I am especially appreciative of Matthias Reiss of the University of Exeter
who answered my query with abundant information, including copies of
crucialdocumentsunobtainableintheUnitedStates.IrishSignLanguage
Interpreter Cormac Leonard also sent me copies of rare and valuable
materials and introduced me to the writing of Noel O’Connell. Marilynn
Richtarik of Georgia State University shared her knowledge of Stewart
Parker’s life and works and sent both pre-publication proofs and, as soon
asitwasavailable,herbeautifullyproducedLilliputPresseditionofPark-
er’s Hopdance. The late David Oberhelman repeatedly went well beyond
the duties of any academic librarian to procure rare materials for my use,
and I remember him with affection and gratitude. I must also thank the
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
students in my disability studies courses over the years for their commit-
ment and insight, especially Virginia Garrett Cannon, Elle Ferguson,
Conor Mack, and Jeni Maple. As ever, I honor the abiding influence of
Florence Saunders Boos, who remains teacher, mentor, and friend.
Portions of Chapter 2 first appeared in The Irish University Review
47.2 (2017): 266–80 and appear here with the permission of the editor.
Portions of Chapter 5 were published in the open-source journal Inter-
férences littéraires/Literaire interferenties as part of an issue devoted to
forms of diaristic writing and also appear here with permission of the
editor.PatriciaZafirisandtheNationalLibraryofIrelandgrantedpermis-
sion to quote from the library’s archive of unpublished materials related
toChristyBrown.Forunderwritingasabbaticalleaveandtraveltocollec-
tions, I am grateful to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Depart-
ment of English at Oklahoma State University. Thanks must also go to
theeditorsoftheLiteraryDisabilitySeriesatPalgraveMacmillanfortheir
enthusiastic support of this work, the editorial staff for their assistance in
seeingtheprojecttocompletion,andtoG.ThomasCouserforhisexpert
readingofthemanuscript.JacquelineAlnesagreedtothetediouslaborof
checking citations and proofreading, which she did with good cheer and
attention to detail.
ToRobert,Edward,andWilliamDecker,thankyouforallyouare,and
a special thanks to William for reading drafts and engaging in countless
conversations about disability, life writing, and Irish culture.
Ed Grubgeld, this book is for you.