The Rising Of The Moon: The Language of Power

169 Pages·2003·0.57 MB·English

by  Ella O'Dwyer (Author)

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The Rising
of the Moon
The Language of Power
Ella O’Dwyer
P
Pluto Press
LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA
O'Dwyer 00 prelims 18/11/03 16:01 Page iv
First published 2003 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 22883 Quicksilver Drive,
Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Ella O’Dwyer 2003
The right of Ella O’Dwyer to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 1862 2 hardback
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
O’Dwyer, Ella, 1959–
The rising of the moon : the language of power / Ella O’Dwyer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0–7453–1862–2
1. English literature––Irish authors––History and criticism. 2.
Nationalism and literature––Ireland––History––20th century. 3. Politics
and literature––Ireland––History––20th century. 4. Language and
languages––Political aspects––Ireland. 5. Ireland––History––20th
century––Historiography. 6. Ireland––Intellectual life––20th century.
7. Nationalism––Ireland––Historiography. 8. Power (Social sciences) in
literature. 9. Power (Social sciences)––Ireland. 10. Political
violence in literature. 11. Ireland––In literature. I. Title.
PR8722.N3 O39 2002
820.9'9417––dc21
2002005675
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth EX10 9QG
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Towcester
Printed in the European Union by Antony Rowe, Chippenham, England
O'Dwyer 00 prelims 18/11/03 16:01 Page v
Contents
The Rising of the Moon vii
Acknowledgements viii
1. Introduction 1
Reading Institutions 1
Power, Control and Identity 2
Obstructed Discourse 7
Releasing Response 8
Can We Go On? 12
2. Who Fears to Speak: Silence and Anonymity in
the National Discourse 13
Past and Present 15
Empire-speak 17
Immediate and Terrible War 18
Cognitive Control 22
A Culture of Silence 24
Stepping Stones 29
Revolution and Reaction 31
Culture and Colonisation 33
Calling the Tune 37
3. When Slavery’s Night is O’er: The Minefield of Meaning 41
Stalking Knowledge 43
The Booby Trap 48
The Big Idea 50
Partitionist Thought 54
Trojan Forces 55
Cogni-phobia 59
4. The Inquisition: A View of the Present State of Ireland 60
Seclusion 63
Virus in the System 66
Driven to Death 68
Power and the Absentee 72
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vi The Rising of the Moon
5. The Split: Doing the Joined-up Writing 74
Doing the Joined-up Writing 77
Split 82
Acute Amnesia 85
Unholy Alliance 88
The State of the Nation 92
The Political Unconscious 99
6. The Threshold: Standing on the Threshold of Another
Trembling World 102
Arrested Discourse 104
Stammered Delivery 108
Border and Last Frontier 114
Spell-binding Language 118
7. The Rising of the Moon 127
Bibliography 153
Index 155
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The Rising of the Moon
Traditional
And come tell me Séan O’Farrell, tell me why you hurry so
Hush a bhuachaill, hush and listen and his cheeks were all aglow
I bear orders from the captain, get you ready quick and soon
For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon
At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon
For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon
And come tell me Séan O’Farrell, where the gathering is to be
At the old spot on the river quite well known to you and me
One more word for signal token, whistle out the marching tune
With your pike upon your shoulder at the rising of the moon
At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon
With your pike upon your shoulder at the rising of the moon
Outofmanyamudwalledcabineyeswerewatchingthoughthenight
Many a manly heart was beating for the blessed morning’s light
Murmurs ran along the valley to the banshee’s lonely croon
And a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon
By the rising of the moon, by the rising of the moon
And a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon
All along that singing river, that black mass of men was seen
High above their shining weapons flew their own beloved green
Death to every foe and traitor, whistle out the marching tune
And hoorah me boys for freedom ’tis the rising of the moon
’Tis the rising of the moon, ’tis the rising of the moon
Keegan Casey, 1982
vii
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Acknowledgements
I’dliketothankFrRayHelmickofBostonCollegeforhisencourage-
mentandsupportwhilewritingthisworkTheRisingoftheMoon.Boston
CollegeawardedmeaPostDoctoralFellowshiponmyreleasefrom
prison,fundingwhichmadeitpossibleformetocarryoutthework.
Again I’d like to thank Prof. Bob Welch (University of Ulster) and
Dr Ben Knights (Durham University) for their academic guidance
while completing PhD and MA studies while I was in prison – studies
which form the basis for this book. I want to thank Prof. Marianne
McDonald (University of California) for her immense encourage-
ment and support.
Thanks to Jackie McMullan, Raymond Murray and Jim Monaghan
for patiently reading early extracts from these chapters. My thanks
to Shay Courtney, Patrick Regan (Wacker) and Eileen Power for
helping to source some of the songs incorporated into the work. My
gratitude to my colleagues in Coiste na nIarchimí(The Committee for
Republican Ex-prisoners) for their extensive support throughout.
I would like particularly to thank my parents, brothers and sister
who kept the work on the agenda by regularly asking ‘Where is the
book?’ Well, here is the book – enjoy!
viii
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To Malone and Mahood
From your old mate
Molloy
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1 Introduction
READING INSTITUTIONS
This book in essence began in 1985, the year when very altered cir-
cumstances provided a sharp, shocking and prolonged access to the
bigger picture that is free thought. Free thought thrives in the most
surprising contexts, even those settings most geared towards the
thwarting of the cognitive and ideological thrust. The background
and origin of these chapters emerge from MA and PhD theses on the
themes of power, control and the structures of language and
orthodox meaning. These overlapping themes are the unsurprising
intellectual focus arising out of prolonged imprisonment in
Victorian conditions, the near worst that British imperialism could
conjure against an ever rising resistance in Ireland. Much was learnt
from this experience, and the learning continues through the release
process and after. This narrative too was released under the terms of
the Good Friday Agreement, with the ensuing delivery of a story that
connects through the familiar enough voices of historical and
literary figures, those who in former or in fictional terms have
touched the same intimate relationship with power, control, trouble
and freedom in various and at diverse periods.
Whilepoliticalprisonersinthemodernerafacedcondemnation
andsentenceateverylevel,someofthehistoricalfiguresvisiting
thesechaptersfacedthesameandcallnowfromthedeathvaultsof
time; seeking to have a personal voice in the edited story we call
history. That edited account has marginalised even the most
renownedfigures,obstructingandeclipsingtheirvision.Thebook
thatemergesherewiththedeliverancefromimprisonmentcarries
whispers of these eclipsed voices. The politicised of today is the
mediumtothepastandtheunfinishedideologicaljourneyisghosted
by the presence of many a thwarted and obstructed statement
sentencedtoincompletionandeclipse.Intheconfinesoflong-term
oppressionandrepressivesurveillance,thevoiceisobstructedinthe
termsoutlinedintheworkofMichelFoucault.Everythingisseen
and heard from the centre of control and power, and much is
dumpedforsafekeepinginthebunkersofsilenceandanonymity.
From an analysis of the institution of power and control emerges
a rapport with the process of release, and visiting the overall
narrative are the voices of the long-serving Casement and Collins
1
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2 The Rising of the Moon
and the for long silent Tone and Emmet. Various advisors are invited
to this narrative panel; all tutors in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed
(Freire, 1974). When I was released from prison this book came with
me. Voices from Tone, Emmet, Devlin, Casement, Collins, Sands,
Farrell and many an elusive other came to call like Rain upon the
Window Pane (McHugh, 1966, p. 334) and mediated between the
stunted narrative of imprisonment and the outside. It’s hard to
deliver the awarenesses gathered in such a restrictive setting and but
for the various historical and fictional characters flitting in and out
of the narrative, the story might never have been told. Samuel
Beckett was the major interpreter and medium between the fortresses
of restriction and the larger picture. Again, as with all these
characters, his fortitude and vision was inspirational and so like
Mahood, Malone and sundry Mollys, the story emerges:
I can’t go on, I must go on, I know so I’ll go on. (Beckett, 1979
edn, p. 382)
POWER, CONTROL AND IDENTITY
Meaning is at once an expression of the variously most empowering
and annihilating dynamics, an improbable merger personified and
borne out through the undulating fortunes of the literary and actual
subject. Distinct and serious interests relating to the operation of
power and control are prime energies relentlessly driving the
thinking process behind this and earlier research towards a doctoral
degree. That sustained predilection towards the study of power,
while hardly unique in itself, is perhaps particular for an enduring
criticalexperience colouring the actual analytical approach adopted
for this work. Intimate access to the circumstances of the dramatic
subject as permitted and enhanced through the reading encounter
facilitated bountiful engagement with the mores and propensities
exchanged between subject and meaning.
While it is flagrantly the case that issues of cognitive control and
sovereignty are the propellants compelling and charging this
research, it is useful to note that the critical practice and mode with
which it is coloured is marked with an habitual sensitivity to the
reader’s creative input. The selection of fiction as a vehicle for
conveying and expounding this excavation is partly fortified by
certain comments of Jacques Derrida. In a discussion of
‘[i]nstitutions and Inversions’ (Culler, 1987, p. 153) Derrida is quoted
as saying, ‘the present in general is not primal but rather reconsti-