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Irish Booklore: Ireland To-day: A Brave Irish PeriodicalAuthor(s): Brian P. KennedySource: The Linen Hall Review, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Winter, 1988), pp. 18-19Published by: Linen Hall LibraryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20534038 .

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Irish Booklore

Ireland To-day A brave Irish periodical

Ireland To-day has been noticed by a number of historians and literary critics as an

important example of courageous intellectual

publishing in Ireland during the 1930s. The periodical survived for twenty-two

monthly issues from June 1936 to March 1938, It was printed in Dublin using all-Irish

materials and edited by James O'Donovan

(1896-1979), an E.S.B. employee, who was a

prominent figure in the Republican movement. Following the completion of his Master's Degree in Chemistry at University

College, Dublin, he became Director of Chemicals on the General Staff of the Irish

Republican Army in the War of Independence. He was the principal architect of the notorious S-Plan bombing campaign in Great Britain

during the Second World War. It is important to establish Jim

O'Donovan's editorship once and for all because an error perpetrated by Fr Stephen Brown, S.J., in 1936, attributing the

editorship of Ireland To-day to Michael O'Donovan (the writer, Frank O'Connor), has been repeated by many scholars and writers,

most recently in the catalogue of an exhibition of Irish Periodicals (1987).

A man of wide interests and high intellectual calibre, with a fascinating circle of friends and associates, Jim O'Donovan

Brian P. Kennedy brought together in Ireland To-day nearly all of the major writing talents of the 1930s in

Ireland. The editorial committee included Sean O'Faolain (books), Owen Sheehy Skeffington (foreign affairs), Liam

O'Laoghaire (films), John Dowling (art), Eamonn O'Gallchobhair (music), Sean O'Meadhra (theatre) and Edward Sheehy (succeeded O'Faolain as books editor).

Ireland To-day was founded because of Jim O'Donovan's perception of the need, in Seamus

Kelly's words, 'for a magazine that would be the voice of advanced opinions on political, sociological, artistic, religious and

international affairs.' It aimed to establish itself as 'the voice of all Ireland'. Ten of its

principal contributors hailed from Belfast and seven of these were graduates or professors of

Queen's University. The periodical was

reviewed favourably in England and America but Irish attitudes to its appearance were

generally more cautious. The 'leftist' tone of

many of the articles was regarded with

suspicion. The leading writers in Ireland To-day were

pro-Republican in the Spanish Civil War and viewed Franco as a reactionary dictator. In

Dublin this was translated as pro-communist and anti-Catholic. A whispering campaign began in Dublin targeted against Ireland To

day, particularly at Owen Sheehy Skeffington's articles on foreign affairs. A

decision was made in March 1937 to drop

Publicity slip for what was to be

the last issue of IRELAND TO-DAY

Vol. III. No. 5. (March 1958). Founded 1956

Monthly One Shilling

IRELAND TO-DAY O The first serious effort to

supply Ireland with a monthly review

dealing with matters social, economic, national, cultural.

Contributors include all the best brains of the country?North and

South.

No library, private or

public, should be without its complete set.

A very limited number of sets still available at ordinary

rates.

O Ideal -advertising medium for publishers or for any advertisement

addressed to the intelligent, reading public of Ireland.

O Descriptive literature and specimen copies gladly sent, post free, on

application.

... che o ai y monthly magazine o? consequence produced in Ireland/' Spectator, London.

Editorial and Managerial Offices : Annual Subscription : Telephone :

49-52 STAFFORD STREET, DUBLIN 14S. Od. (U.S.A. J4.00) DUBLIN 22655

page 18 UNEN HALL REVIEW 5.4

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Sheehy Skeffington but the financial damage had been done. The business manager, Edward Toner, found that the list of advertisers had dried up and although Ireland

To-day survived for another twelve issues, its fate was sealed. In fact there was no way a

periodical like Ireland To-day could survive without major financial backing. Nevertheless, the periodical left a legacy of liberal thinking and a wealth of literary

material which has not received due respect and attention.

The articles in Ireland To-day reveal that, during the 1930s, Auden's low dishonest

decade', there was a small core of high-minded and sincere idealists in Ireland who were

anxious to break moulds and establish new

horizons. Ireland To-day spanned the exciting months of the Spanish Civil War, the Blueshirt movement, and the preparations for

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND

NEW PUBUCATIONS

Deputy Keeper's Reports The Deputy Keeper's Reports describe acessions received

by PRONI over a given period from both official and private sources, and are indexed under personal names, places and

subjects. They are an invaluable guide to researchers

wishing to identify potential source material in PRONI. The

Reports for 1966-72, (?7.50), 1981, 1983 and 1984

(?2.65 each), are now available.

Settlement and Survival on an Ulster Estate: The Brownlow Leasebook 1667-1711 Edited and introduced by R.G. Gillespie This publication, based on a leasbook for Sir Arthur Brown

low's north Armagh estate, presents 'a unique insight into

rural life in what was a crucial area for the development of

the whole province in the late seventeenth century. It sheds

light not only on landlord-tenant relations but also on ...

agricultural production, housing conditions and urban

growth'. The publication is now available,

pp lxvand 181; 0 905691 11 3; ?9.50.

Available from:

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND

66 BALMORAL AVENUE, BELFAST BT9 6NY or any good Bookseller

Irish Booklore

and passing of the Irish Constitution. It was topical and progressive and anyone

who thinks that The Crane Bag (1977-1985) was radically new would do well to look at Ireland To-day. Subjects such as national

identity, censorship, Irish literature, film, drama, foreign policy, language, design in

industry, were each featured and discussed with intelligence and constructive

provocation. Ireland To-day was too strident for the Ireland of its day. Most people believed

censorship to be a good idea but Sean O'Faolain warned in Ireland To-day: 'Our

Censorship, in a word, foolishly squeamish, tried to keep the national mind in a state of

perpetual adolescence'. The group which edited Ireland To-day

also launched the Irish Film Society. The

showing of Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin' to members of the Dublin Little Theatre Guild on 21 February 1936 led to

accusations that the group was funded from Moscow. Ignoring such folly, the Irish Film

Society was founded and has its first showing the following 15 November, one of the great

German silent films, The Cabinet of Dr

Caligari'. The index of contributors to Ireland To-day

reveals a formidable array of talent. In many respects, Ireland To-day was the successor of The Irish Statesman and the predecessor of The Bell in the history of Irish intellectual

periodicals. Many of the contributors wrote for all three, others made their publishing debut in Ireland To-day. A sample list gives an idea of the quality

- Brian Coffey, Denis

Devlin, Daniel Corkery, Edmund Curtis, Patrick Kavanagh, Thomas McGreevy, Frank

O'Connor, Peader O'Donnell, Sean O'Faolain, Michael Tierney, Lennox Robinson and

Mervyn Wall. Ireland To-day aimed at 'cool and

purposeful self-criticism'. Few periodicals published in Ireland have offered such a depth of coverage. While Jim O'Donovan has been

mentioned often in the histories of the Irish War of Independence and about the so-called

'emergency years during the Second World

War, he was most proud of his work as editor of Ireland To-day. He died in 1979 without

receiving the credit he deserved. It is timely that fifty years after the publication of the final issue of Ireland To-day, its importance should be placed on record and its value as an

historical source established beyond doubt.

Brian P. Kennedy is the author of Alfred Chester Beatty and Ireland 1950-1968: A Study in Cultural Politics

UNEN HALL REVIEW 5.4 page 19

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