To fully appreciate some writer's life's works and efforts, it is necessary to understand the character and influences of that artist, such is the case with Frank O'Connor. Pseudonym for Michael O'Donovan, Frank O'Connor was born March 10, 1966, into poverty. He was born an only child to the polite and pleasant Minnie O'Donovan, to whom O'Connor devotes a great deal of his first autobiography An Only Child, and his father Michael O'Donovan. Minnie worked as a maid in the town of Cork where they lived and is noted to be an outstanding cook and housekeeper. She brought home minimal wages which she attempted to put into the household, but ended up usually finding its way to aiding her husbands drinking habits. Michael O'Donovan (Sr.) played a big drum in the British Army until discharged, at which time he basically just became a drunk. On one occasion of his father's drunken rages, he through mother and child into the streets in their night clothes after assaulting her with a razor blade while young Michael O'Donovan attempted to protect his mother. The young boy describes the scene,
. . . we shivered there in the roadway till some neighbors took us in and let us lie in blankets before the fire. Whenever he brandished the razor at mother, I went into hysterics, and a couple of times I threw myself on him with my fists. That drove her into hysterics, too, because she knew that at times like that he would as soon have slashed me as her. Later, in adolescence, I developed pseudoepileptic fits that were merely and externalization of this recurring nightmare.1
The conflict of a pleasant mother, whom the boy dearly loved, and an alcoholic and abusive father aided in producing the passionate and emotional writer that Frank O'Connor became. It is suggested that the unsavory lineage from which O'Connor comes, the family was all known for their "drunkenness, dirt, and violence"2, is the primary reason that he wrote under a pseudonym (his mother's maiden name) from the time he was the young county librarian.3
Being poor, O'Connor was limited in his educational aspirations. He became an avid reader by the age of six of the bad literature that he could get his hands on. O'Connor attended primary and trade schools until he was fourteen years of age. Later Minnie O'Donovan was able to get a hold of the works of Shakespeare and different forms of poetry which she was able to bestow upon her son. O'Connor devoured all that his mother was able to teach him causing him to become enthralled with poetry. Besides growing thirsty for poetry and reading anything that he could get his hands upon, O'Connor fell in love with languages and desired to learn German, French, Irish. He read and learned so much from the nineteenth century novel that he lived his life through the views of what he read, imagining their characters in his everyday world. His imagination was so vivid and his loneliness so deep that he was unable to adapt to grow and mature in a normal classroom setting. Reading became an escape from his impoverished surroundings as did his developing passion for people.
A young assistant at the local school that O'Connor was enrolled, named Daniel Corkery, highly impressed and influenced his learning. O'Connor borrowed books on Irish past and the poetry of Browning from Mr. Corkery that effected his proficiency in language and literature. Corkery encouraged O'Connor to attend a Gaelic League Summer School in Dublin to learn to teach Irish. Here he learned the Irish bardic tradition of song, and most importantly how important the history of the Irish people was.
Frank O'Connor dreamed of being successful and a talented writer which could have been impossible due to his poor upbringing. The contrary occurred, his abilities flourished from the trials he underwent as a youth and the turmoil of Ireland that he witnessed as a young adult. Besides the torn home-life, O'Connor was forced to deal with a country ruined and fragmented by internal and external forces. A young boy of twelve, O'Connor watched the Easter Rising of 1916. Still absorbing the predicament of the nation, he observed the Black and Tan War in 1918 and 1919. Finally of age to join in the fight, O'Connor joined the republican forces against the Free State when Civil War broke out. While serving with the republican army, he refused to follow a few orders that were immoral and inhumane to establish himself as a minority that would oppose the imprudent majority if necessary. From the few skirmishes that O'Connor was in, he was able to witness the confusion and fog of war that he had read about as a youth. He had been captured and spent a year in a prisoner of war camp. Here he learned more of the absurdities of war and gathered the knowledge that was necessary to write his best known story Guest of a Nation.
Influenced by the world around him, by people and not necessarily their politics, Frank O'Connor set to writing. At age seventeen, he published his first poem in the Sunday Independent. After the Civil War though, O'Connor began writing material for the Irish Statesman expressing political views in articles and essays. Even though O'Connor never attended a university, he was highly encouraged to explore his imagination and write by Yeats and Russell. He came in close contact with some of Ireland's literary greats as he was Joyce's secretary and then Yeats' dramatic colleague. Yeats and O'Connor developed a close bond and somewhat influenced each other's literature. Although O'Connor once said of Yeats that Ireland, in the chaos that it is in,
needed a mind like his, strong and full of sweetness, to build in this empty house of ours and to see beyond the quarreling sects and factions an older Ireland where men could still afford to be brave and generous and gay,4
this statement applies to his influence through his literature and character upon Ireland.
Since Frank O'Connor had fallen in love with the history and legendary of Ireland as a youth, he asserted that his work would primarily remain in the Irish dialect and demonstrate the plight of Ireland. He believed that the pride of Ireland resided with the past and that to build a great nation, it is necessary to maintain the tales, myths, folk stories, and poetry of the saga age. In order to do this, O'Connor mastered modern Irish and Old Irish, and did extensive research on his own writings and translations sot hat he could recreate the past for future use. With a passion for translation, O'Connor was able to gain a fruitful knowledge of his ancestry and utilize it to enhance his own works and bring to life translations.
Ireland constantly remained in turmoil throughout Frank O'Connor's life-time, but he refused to abandon his motherland. He remained always close to the Irish people, as they were his source of inspiration and motivation for writing. To flee from the often-times stifling conditions of Dublin, where he later lived, he felt would be neglecting the educational development of his people. There was so much blatant ignorance and violence around that it was the writers duty to attempt to raise the mental age of the city. In O'Connor's later days, the reasoning for remaining in the dingy atmosphere of Dublin was to restore the minds and creative culture, of Ireland.5
This patriot and lover of Ireland spend vast amounts of time immersed in his profession. It is little known among even the admirers of Frank O'Connor that he wrote a biography, an autobiography, memoirs, endless translations, three travel books, two novels, five plays, nine books of poetry, six books of literary criticism, and over two hundred and fifty essays and articles throughout his life time.6 When given the choice of his favorite type of pieces to write, O'Connor preferred short stories. He loved to write fast, to get the emotion or feeling expressed on paper before the sensation had passed. Since he was a violently sensitive and emotional man who wanted to display his mood instantly, short stories were the perfect medium while novels tended to be too long and meditative. In an interview with Michael Langley, Frank O'Connor admitted that he had written two novels, both of which were atrocious.7
The short stories that O'Connor wrote were emotionally complex and often painful. The characters depicted in these stories are torn between forces that are uncontrollable and often-times misunderstood. His best known short story, Guest of the Nation, is the result of the Civil War and its aftermath. During this troubled and intolerant time, the struggle for power in Ireland caused an internal struggle for the people and inflamed writers such as O'Connor to voice the volatile and intense mood of the nation. The story entails two Englishmen being held captive by a couple of Irish soldiers. It's obvious that they are on opposing sides of a war, but they become friends over the course of time. The two Englishmen, Belcher and Hawkins, are beloved among the whole Second Battalion in that area and the housekeeper/cook of the home that they are confined.
The bond formed between these four men transcends the battle lines that were formed even before they were born. Noble and Bonaparte, the Irish soldiers, think nothing of befriending these two gentlemen that have been quiet civil and friendly to them. Their lives are harmonious and gay, with deep discussions and debates, and nightly card games. Parts of the Englishmen's dialect is adapted by the two Irishmen, such as the use of the word "chum" that both foreigners often said. The utilization of cultural dialect suggests that the four men have seen beyond the societal differences and accepted each other for the individuals that they are, not the countries that they represent. This hope of harmony and happiness is soon dissolved. Noble and Bonaparte are told that they must kill their hostages since the British killed sixteen Irish hostages. Each character is torn between their love of fellow man and the "duty" and "principles" that they have sworn and devoted themselves.
Inner conflict of each character of feeling, the four main characters, is visible in their every movement and thought. The cruelty that Bonaparte and Noble have to succumb to is intertwined with their impassioned need to do what is right, whether these humans are friends or foe. Beyond the story line struggle, O'Connor develops a more complex struggle between cultures with his reverberating words throughout, "foreign dance," card games between "chums", and the arguments about capitalism and religion, Adam and Eve primarily. These conflicting impressions leave the reader uneasy just as the title Guests of the Nation is uncomfortable since the guests are actually prisoners waiting to be assassinated.
O'Connor develops the conflict between humanity and love of his country quiet clearly in Guests of the Nation. Through out his career, he put specific emphasis on the compassion lacking in the world and even in his own country. The great concern for his people and their sometimes lacking of human-love he demonstrates when he teaches in America and his students admire his passion for retelling the,"literary, social, and political tragicomedy of his people." He endures the cruel Dublin atmosphere that chops down every young writer that appears to have any talent due to the middle class hatred and ignorance that is prevalent in the area. O'Connor refuses to desert the country that is so rich with mythological heritage that could be the base of a cultured civilization.
To return to the Ireland of his heart, O'Connor wrote several short stories in the country's original language, Irish. "Darcy in Tir Na nOg" demonstrated his zeal for the Irish language, as it was written in Irish rather than English. He thought the language maintained centuries of history within itself so he practiced his fluency by writing completely in the tongue of old.
The struggle and passions that O'Connor demonstrates are not always directed at the tensions between Ireland and England. In "What's Wrong with the Country" and "Orpheus and his Lute", O'Connor addresses the stagnation that he sees within the walls of his own country. Continuously he focus' on the fact that the people of Ireland are not aware of the fact that they are talking themselves to death on the same subjects day in and day out. There is no broadening of culture nor improving of the social world. O'Connor believes that his country is committed to talking, usually becoming vehement conflicts and arguments between personalities.
Frank O'Connor in his vast works, has gathered the spirit of Ireland from its early days to that which he was exposed to throughout his life time. His dedication to the language itself, and the history of the nation brings and additional depth to his works that make his literature purely Irish. The passion with which Frank O'Connor writes is complimentary of the passions among the people of Ireland and the constant struggle of the nation. Frank O'Connor has brought a depth to Irish literature that exceeds the attempts of most of his contemporaries.
Works Cited
1. Wohlgelernter, Maurice. Frank O'Connor An Introduction. Columbia University Press, New York, 1977. Pg. x.
2. Ibid.
3. Ellmann, Richard. Frank O'Connor Collected Stories. Alfred A. Knopf Inc. New York, 1981. p.x.
4. Ibid, pg. 3.
5. Solomon, Eric. "Frank O'Connor as Teacher," 20th Century Literature, A Scholarly and Critical Journal. 1990. Pp. 239-41.
6. Steinman, Michael. A Frank O'Connor Reader. Syracuse University Press, New York, 1994. Pg. xv.
7. Langley, Michael. "Frank O'Connor: An Interview," 20th Century Literature, A Scholarly and Critical Journal. 1990, p. 269.