Capacious BagThe Crane Bag Book of Irish Studies by Mark Patrick Hederman; Richard KearneyReview by: Peter DenmanThe Irish Review (1986-), No. 4 (Spring, 1988), pp. 121-122Published by: Cork University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29735360 .

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Reviews 121

Europe ? that the problems of representing Ireland might become clearer. Cinema and

Ireland is an important impetus for such an approach and indeed a basis for the develop? ment of Irish film studies in general. The authors acknowledge that they were unable to

deal with such topics as the effects of film censorship and the attitudes of the churches

North and South towards the cinema. Nor do they consider in any detail the social func?

tion of cinema-going in twentieth century Ireland. Evidence in the recently published Belfast in the Thirties that cinemas were used as venues for political meetings suggests that

the class dimensions of this form of popular entertainment are worth considering. Cinema and Ireland is more than an academic study; it is a manifesto which, at a stroke,

establishes the validity of Irish film studies and proclaims the continuing importance of

cinema to modern Irish consciousness. Its achievement cannot be overestimated.

GILLIAN RUSSELL

Capacious Bag

The Crane Bag Book of Irish Studies, Volume II (1982-1985). Edited by Mark Patrick Heder man and Richard Kearney. Dublin: The Crane Bag, 1987. ISBN 0-86327-137-5.

IR?39.00.

As a bound gathering of the last eight numbers of The Crane Bag, this volume is indispen? sable for any individual or institution wishing to engage with recent intellectual life in

Ireland. As 'A Book of Irish Studies', however, it is rather less than the sum of its parts, and these same parts are difficult of access: no index, an almost unusable listing of con?

tents, pages numbered out of series. All this makes for rewarding serendipity but for an

unwieldy work of authoritative reference. Of course, TheCrane Bag never did set out to

be a book. One of the founding editors makes this clear in a comment as the magazine nears the end of its run : 'A

bag not a book, a container rather than a content in itself, was

what it was meant to be'.

Hederman and Kearney sought to combine guidance with eclecticism as they trawled

the waters of Irish thought. Each issue of the magazine focused on a theme, as if drawing up an agenda for a committee meeting of the committed. In the first ten, already

published as Volume I, the headings were familiar, even predictable: 'Tradition', 'Na?

tionalism', 'Mythology', etc. In these later numbers the net is cast more widely into

deeper, less fished waters: 'Latin America', 'James Joyce and The Arts in Ireland',

'Contemporary Cultural Debate'. At times the pace of debate slows to soliloquy or small

talk, as is apparent in the increasing reliance on transcripts of taped interviews and round

table discussions ? so much easier than getting people actually to write. It is evident also

in the 'Ireland: Dependence and Independence' number, which simply reprints the texts of lectures delivered by six distinguished members of the UCD Arts Faculty who

were invited to do their bit for RTE's cameras ? elegant essays all, but tending to

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122 Reviews

diminish The Crane Bag to a television tie-in.

But this is ungenerous carping, and in stark contrast to the generous spirit in which The

Crane Bagwzs conceived. That bag was a capacious receptacle, and even if the editors oc?

casionally had difficulty in filling it there are no grounds on which to complain of short measure. Some 180 different voices are to be heard in this volume, among them Jorge Luis Borges, Terry Eagleton, Edna Longley, Oliver MacDonagh, and Zdena Tomin.

There are several useful treatments of film and TV by Kevin Barry, Peter Corrigan, Luke

Gibbons, and Helena Sheehan, among others. 'The Forumlssue', produced at the time

of the Forum for a New Ireland (remember that?), has survived its particular moment

well, with sections on Religion, Arts, Psychology, and ? especially strong

? on

Education.

A leitmotif of this volume is the (a?) concept of culture. Three of the eight theme

headings are 'Socialism and Culture', 'Media and Popular Culture', and 'Contemporary Cultural Debate'. Culture here, whether 'popular'

or ? urn ? real, shows some bias

towards these forms which are literary, or at least susceptible to narrative forms: architec? ture and sport, while not totally excluded, do not get the space they might have; science

and technology do feature, but mainly in the context of the usual heartsearching as to

why they remain somehow outside the pale cast of thought ; there is nothing on business

and commercial life. Surely a publication acknowledging sustained assistance from both arts councils and Allied Irish Banks could have steeled itself to a 'Capitalism and Culture'

issue? But that is the theme which underlies much of'The Final Issue: Irish Ideologies'. If The Crane Bag ended leaving much unsaid, its enduring legacy must be that it alerted

many of us to what might be said about life in Ireland.

PETER DENMAN

Redressing the Balance

Oliver MacDonagh. The Hereditary Bondsman Daniel O'Connell 1775-1829. London:

Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1988. ISBN 027-79221-0. Stg?l6.95.

Daniel O'Connell is to Irish history as protean a figure as Napoleon is to French history, but the century from 1847 to 1947 was well nigh disastrous for his image and reputation.

O'Connell became the great scapegoat for the misfortunes of recent Irish history: he was

held to be responsible for the decay of the Irish language, the deaths of millions in the

Great Hunger, the corruptions of 'pure' nationalist doctrines by his moral force

parliamentarianism, for partition, for sectarianism, for the suppression of the working classes ? in fact any major calamity was apparently to be ascribed to O'Connell with

plausibility. The story of the propagandist uses of O'Connell in Irish nationalist develop? ment, when fully explored, will reveal a great deal about the century following O'Con?

nell's death. Since 1947, however, historical research has combatted and destroyed the

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