Constanza del Río-Álvaro

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University of Zaragoza, Spain | Published: 15 March, 2015
ISSUE 10 | Pages: 119-134 | PDF | DOAJ | https://doi.org/10.24162/EI2015-5588

Introduction

Ireland has been on the papers worldwide this last week. Accidentally, the Court of Appeal legalised certain drugs and, for a day or so, until the wrongdoing was righted, everybody could get high with the government’s approval. Wish something similar happened with mortgages and bank loans. A universal web blackout (doesn’t have to last long or the world would collapse, just 30 seconds) deletes bank data and it is impossible to retrieve them. Imagine? Much better than ecstasy or ketamine, and healthier, mind you.

Now, seriously. In 2014 we said farewell to Irish Ambassador Justin Harman, always so caring and helpful, always willing to participate and give a hand. We wish him good luck in his future career and endeavours. Like swallows they come and go, and so we heartily welcome Ambassador David Cooney, as gentle and generous as his predecessor. Before leaving the Embassy, Justin Harman attended, this year as every year, the XIII International AEDEI Conference, under the heading “Éire/Ireland and Dysfunction” and held at the University of Deusto (Bilbao), from 29-31 May. The Conference had a special focus on Kate O’Brien, who lived and worked as au-pair for some time in Portugalete, Bilbao. Eibhar Walshe, a good friend of our association and a specialist in Kate O’Brien, was invited as keynote speaker. The Mayor of Bilbao offered a reception in the “Arab Room”, a splendid chamber in the Town Hall, where the Spanish translation of O’Brien’s book Teresa de Ávila (trad. Antonio Rivero Taravillo) was launched. Other scholars, writers and artists stimulated the audience with their wisdom and performances: sociologist Tom Inglis, writers Emer Martin and Billy O’Callaghan and musician Steafán Hanvey. Some students, directed by Asier Altuna (Senior lecturer in Deusto, organiser of the conference and current President of AEDEI) staged Yeats’s and Gregory’s Cathleen Ní Houlihan in a beautiful room. This was a memorable and touching event. The University of Deusto impressed me for its magnificence and also because it is a university “with a view”. Just facing the river and the famous Guggenheim Museum, it outwardly conflates tradition and modernity in the best possible way, a combination also reproduced inside the University buildings. We all delighted in the Basque country’s food and wine and congratulated Asier on such an unforgettable conference.

In Zaragoza, a cycle on Joyce started in January 2015 and will end in the high note, linguistic fireworks and celebrations of Bloomsday. Once a month in the Teatro de las Esquinas, certain lecturers from the Department of English Studies at Zaragoza University (myself included), together with actors, musicians and a Lacanian psychoanalyst gather together to offer songs, recitations, commentaries, and viewings of filmic and dramatic adaptations of Joyce’s work.  So far, we have covered Joyce’s poetry, Dubliners and A Portrait. The title of the cycle is “Who Knows Joyce?”, and the main idea is to bring the Irish writer closer to the people and encourage them to read his work. In the three sessions held up to now, the place has been packed (admission free) and the audience seems to have enjoyed the spectacle while leisurely drinking a bottle of stout (not free).

In terms of translations of Irish literature, I would like to highlight Seumas O’Kelly’s (1881 – 1918) Waysiders: Stories of Connacht (1917). In Spanish the title is Al borde del camino (trad. Celia Filipetto. Barcelona: Sajalín 2014). This is a collection of stories by O’Kelly where he combines a lyrical portrayal of injustice, violence, hunger and poverty with Irish folklore. In Marta Sanz’s words, “leer la violencia que O’Kelly paraliza en la cápsula de ámbar de sus bellas palabras es interpretar el hoy. Precariedad, pobreza, hambre, frío, viejos que mueren alrededor de un brasero. La estremecedora posibilidad de que la ira sea justa” (El País Babelia, 31-01-2015: p. 8). Sajalín also published in 2010 the translation of O’Kelly’s most famous novella, The Weaver’s Grave (1918), as La tumba del tejedor.

The year’s recipient of the Príncipe de Asturias award for Letters was John Banville (1945-). Logically, on his coming to Spain to receive the award, the Irish writer gathered quite a lot of media attention, both as artist Banville and as artisan Black, particularly for Black’s follow-up to Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye (1953) in Benjamin Black’s novel The Black Eyed Blonde (La rubia de ojos negros, trad. Nuria Barros. Madrid: Alfaguara 2014).  December 2014 being the twenty-fifth anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s death, Spanish journalists, writers and intellectuals paid tribute to this universally acclaimed Irish author. José Andrés Rojo writes: “Importa más coger sus libros y entrar en su región. Y leer, por ejemplo: ‘Los patos puede que sean lo peor, verse de pronto pataleando y tropezando en medio de los patos, o de las gallinas, cualquier clase de volátil, hay pocas cosas peores’. He ahí Samuel Beckett” (El País, 22 de diciembre de 2014: p. 36). Beckett’s play Happy Days (1961), translated into Catalan as Els dies feliços, adapted and directed by Sergi Belbel, with Emma Vilarasau and Óscar Molina as protagonists, was staged in June in the Teatre Lliure, Barcelona. The Catalan production was unanimously praised, particularly Emma Vilarasau’s performance as Winnie. Another Irish dramatist present on the Spanish stage in 2014 has been Oscar Wilde, not with any of his plays but with Irish actor and director Denis Rafter’s production Beloved Sinner, a monologue based on some of Wilde’s texts

Érase una vez Ballybeg. La obra dramática de Brian Friel y su repercusión en España by María Gaviña-Costero

Catalan Production of Tranlations by Brian Friel

Other Irelands: Revisited, Reinvented, Rewritten

Canta Irlanda. Un viaje por la isla esmeralda de Javier Reverte (2014)