Finding Ireland: A Poet's Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture

by Richard Tillinghast

Overview

Richard Tillinghast, a celebrated American poet and critic, lived for a year in Ireland in the early 1990s and then returned each year until he became a resident in 2005. From an insider/outsider perspective, he writes vividly and evocatively about the land and people of his adopted home, its culture, its literature, and its long, complex history.

Tillinghast orients the reader to Ireland as it is today. Following its entry into the European Union, Ireland changed radically from an impoverished, provincial, former British colony to a country where a farmer takes his wife on skiing holidays in Switzerland and is proud of his wine cellar, to one now home to immigrants from Europe, Africa, and Asia. For many Americans—Irish Americans in particular—Ireland is a mythic and timeless land; from his unique vantage point, Tillinghast debunks a good many stereotypes that prevent our seeing Ireland for what it was, as well as what it has become.

Most of Finding Ireland is devoted to thoughtful readings of the works of Irish writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Oscar Wilde, and Brian Friel, as well as lesser-known names that deserve a wider readership. Tillinghast also considers the significant contributions of Anglo-Irish authors—John Millington Synge, Elizabeth Bowen, George Moore, Violet Martin and Edith Somerville, William Trevor, and Derek Mahon—with excursions into Irish architecture, music, and garden design.

In contemporary Ireland, Tillinghast finds a dynamic society that has stepped out of the shadows of its troubled past to embrace an inclusive, outward-looking interpretation of its history. Intimate in tone, entertaining, and always accessible, Finding Ireland captures an expatriate's enthusiasm for his new country and its evolving identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268042325
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	10/15/2008
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Richard Tillinghast is a poet and critic. His most recent poetry and essay collections are The New Life and Poetry and What Is Real, respectively. He is a frequent contributor to literary journals and magazines, and publishes reviews and travel articles in The New York Times. He lives in County Tipperary.

Editorial Reviews

In this book of literary tourism, Tillinghast includes essays on Ireland’s major literary figures as well as on contemporary Irish culture. . . . What distinguishes this book is Tillinghast’s blend of tourist information and insightful criticism. Whether planning a trip or just fascinated by Ireland’s rich history and literary contributions, readers will enjoy this book. Recommended for public collections.” —Library Journal

“. . . this book is not about Richard Tillinghast finding himself, but about his helping us to find Ireland. It needs finding because large parts of it seem to have been mislaid, or gone altogether. There is, for instance, the Anglo-Irish tradition. . . . Best of all, are Tillinghast’s chapters on contemporary poets. He has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the top reviewers of poetry in the U.S. . . . Finding Ireland is written for Americans. . . . Yet the book deserves a readership both here and there. It enacts the belief that literature is a form of pleasure, woven out of history and society, and weaving its way into the personal lives of readers anywhere.” —The Irish Times

“Richard Tillinghast is an American poet, critic and resident of County Tipperary; as such his 'intent is to serve the non-Irish reader as a foreign correspondent, reporting back from Galway, Dublin, and other parts of this island.' This position of the 'American blow-in' enables him to provide convincing reappraisals of writers such as Somerville and Ross, and 'that unique and asymmetrical man' George Moore. . . . Tillinghast is instructive on where to find the best 'trad music' venues in Clare and Galway counties . . . has a poet's sensitivity to landscape and history . . . is knowledgeable on architecture. . . . Tillinghast is especially insightful on well-established names such as Derek Mahon and that 'quintessentially circumspect poet,' Dennis O'Driscoll.” —Times Literary Supplement

“In Finding Ireland: A Poet's Exploration of Irish Literature and Culture, Richard Tillinghast explores how he came to be an Irish resident and how Irish culture has affected him as well as the nation's famous literary canon. . . . Finding Ireland is at its best when Tillinghast celebrates the likes of Yeats, as well as contemporary writers such as William Trevor and Brian Friel.” —Irish America Magazine

“Mr. Tillinghast conducts a series of critical investigations into Irish poetry, prose, playwriting and architecture through a miscellany of short pieces. Throughout he combines a convert's zeal for Ireland's finest cultural artifacts with an outsider's fresh perspective—most strikingly arguing that Protestant literature is the critical locus in which to find Ireland itself. . . . Tillinghast is a wonderful writer with great depths of knowledge and powers of analysis. . .” —The Wall Street Journal

"This collection of essays on Ireland by the American poet and critic Richard Tillinghast offers some antidote to many Irish illusions. Finding Ireland contains Tillinghast's personal exploration of Irish literature, and many astute essays of literary criticism. Overall, it's an excellent and refreshing work from the eyes of an outsider looking in." —The Weekly Standard

“Finding Ireland: A Poet's Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture is a book that combines poetry and memoir as Tillinghast describes his adoption of Ireland as his new home after living in the United States for most of his life. A must for anyone who wants to learn about the home of St. Patrick.” —Midwest Book Review

“. . . Richard Tillinghast is an American poet and critic who found Ireland in the 1990s and has been Finding Ireland ever since. . . . On the simplest and most traveler-useful level, the book has chapters with passages about good places to eat, to drink, to hear music, places that should be seen for their beauty or historic importance.” —American Book Review

“Tillinghast presents himself as a foreign literary correspondent for non-Irish readers while for Irish readers he hopes to ‘bring a certain freshness to familiar topics’ . . . what follows is a largely uncritical view of Irish culture and literature delivered with more than a hint of nostalgia for his lost Ireland of the mind.” —Year’s Work in English Studies

“This volume of essays is the result of decades of close observation and careful reading and is first-rate. Tillinghast lays out how the Anglo-Irish, many of them passionate patriots for Ireland, plunged into ruin when the Famine fell since there were no longer any crops or tenants or rents to collect and then into further disaster when the Irish Uprisings, followed by the Civil War threw the country into chaos.” —Tuscaloosa News

From the Publisher

. . . Richard Tillinghast is an American poet and critic who found Ireland in the 1990s and has been Finding Ireland ever since. . . . On the simplest and most traveler-useful level, the book has chapters with passages about good places to eat, to drink, to hear music, places that should be seen for their beauty or historic importance.

American Book Review

Richard Tillinghast is an American poet, critic and resident of County Tipperary; as such his ‘intent is to serve the non-Irish reader as a foreign correspondent, reporting back from Galway, Dublin, and other parts of this island.’ This position of the ‘American blow-in’ enables him to provide convincing reappraisals of writers such as Somerville and Ross, and ‘that unique and asymmetrical man’ George Moore. . . . Tillinghast is instructive on where to find the best ‘trad music’ venues in Clare and Galway counties . . . [and he] has a poet’s sensitivity to landscape and history . . . [and] is knowledgeable on architecture. . . . Tillinghast is especially insightful on well-established names such as Derek Mahon and that ‘quintessentially circumspect poet,’ Dennis O’Driscoll.

Times Literary Supplement

". . . this book is not about Richard Tillinghast finding himself, but about his helping us to find Ireland. It needs finding because large parts of it seem to have been mislaid, or gone altogether. There is, for instance, the Anglo-Irish tradition. . . . Best of all, are Tillinghast's chapters on contemporary poets. He has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the top reviewers of poetry in the U.S. . . . Finding Ireland is written for Americans. . . . Yet the book deserves a readership both here and there. It enacts the belief that literature is a form of pleasure, woven out of history and society, and weaving its way into the personal lives of readers anywhere."

The Irish Times

Mr. Tillinghast conducts a series of critical investigations into Irish poetry, prose, playwriting and architecture through a miscellany of short pieces. Throughout he combines a convert’s zeal for Ireland’s finest cultural artifacts with an outsider’s fresh perspective—most strikingly arguing that Protestant literature is the critical locus in which to find Ireland itself. . . . Tillinghast is a wonderful writer with great depths of knowledge and powers of analysis. . .

The Wall Street Journal

This collection of essays on Ireland by the American poet and critic Richard Tillinghast offers some antidote to many Irish illusions. Finding Ireland contains Tillinghast’s personal exploration of Irish literature, and many astute essays of literary criticism. Overall, it’s an excellent and refreshing work from the eyes of an outsider looking in.

The Weekly Standard

Finding Ireland: A Poet’s Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture is a book that combines poetry and memoir as Tillinghast describes his adoption of Ireland as his new home after living in the United States for most of his life. A must for anyone who wants to learn about the home of St. Patrick.

Midwest Book Review

In Finding Ireland: A Poet’s Exploration of Irish Literature and Culture, Richard Tillinghast explores how he came to be an Irish resident and how Irish culture has affected him as well as the nation’s famous literary canon. . . . Finding Ireland is at its best when Tillinghast celebrates the likes of Yeats, as well as contemporary writers such as William Trevor and Brian Friel.

Irish America Magazine

In this book of literary tourism, Tillinghast includes essays on Ireland's major literary figures as well as on contemporary Irish culture. As an American poet and critic who visited and lived in Ireland periodically before becoming a resident in 2005, Tillinghast is uniquely suited to write about the culture, history, and literature of his adopted country. Celebrating its recent economic transformation, he introduces readers to a bustling, economically successful member of the European Union yet doesn't neglect the country's dark days as an English colony. He offers thoughtful commentary on the works of such Irish writers as W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and Seamus Heaney and considers Anglo-Irish writers John Millington Synge, Elizabeth Bowen, George Moore, and William Trevor. Tillinghast purposely omits James Joyce because he has little new to add to present scholarship. Aside from literary analysis, he devotes a chapter to traditional Irish music. What distinguishes this book is Tillinghast's blend of tourist information and insightful criticism. Whether planning a trip or just fascinated by Ireland's rich history and literary contributions, readers will enjoy this book. Recommended for public collections.
—Nancy R. Ives

Library Journal