Loose Leaves: The great thing about historians is that there are always new waves of them, bringing new interpretations of the past.
One of the literary highlights this autumn will be a fresh look at Michael Collins by Peter Hart of Memorial University, of Newfoundland. A foretaste of the book is carried in the latest issue of the Dublin Review, where Hart explains how he first encountered Collins in his last year as an undergraduate at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he stayed up all night reading his way into a story that had the narcotic power of childhood fantasies come to life. When he came to Ireland to pursue a PhD, Hart sustained his Collins habit by playing detective with some of the more mysterious episodes in his life: "How did he manage to smuggle Thompson guns into Ireland? Was he the mastermind behind the IRA's campaign in Britain? Did he order the killing of Sir Henry Wilson in London?"
Now, 20 years after first reading about Collins and ploughing through all the mythography, Hart's book, Mick: The Real Michael Collins, will look at how Collins acquired, and exercised, power.
Hart's verdicts on what has gone before make interesting reading. Frank O'Connor's The Big Fellow (1937) "remains by far the best portrait of a sometimes cruel and violent man" even if it leaves most of the pieties in place. Tim Pat Coogan's 1990 tome produced "the fullest account yet of the man and his life", even if Hart mightn't entirely agree with its chapters on the Treaty or Northern Ireland.
One of Hart's principal aims is to reconstruct Collins's life in London from 1906 to 1916, given that many biographers haven't dealt much with the formative years of a man who was, after all, dead before his 32nd birthday. He is now also editing a collection of Collins's letters, along with some of his other writings, as a follow-up to the biography.
This issue of the review also has contributions from George Szirtes, Belinda McKeon, Glenn Patterson, Justin Quinn, Lisa Steppe, Philip Ó Ceallaigh and George O'Brien.
The Dublin Review, No 22, Autumn 2005, €7.50
Literary links
Argentine-Irish literary links will be further fermented as a result of a stint in Ireland by two Argentine poets and translators, Jorge Fondebrider and Gerardo Gambolini, in Ireland at the moment as recipients of Ireland Literature Exchange translation bursaries. The pair collaborated on a major book, published in 1999, called Poesía Irlandesa Contemporánea, which contained translations of the work of 55 Irish poets including James Joyce, Seamus Heaney and Patrick Kavanagh.
Now they are to collaborate in translating the poetry of Peter Sirr. They will also complete a number of individual projects, including translations of Thomas Kinsella, Pádraig Daly, Seamus Deane and Flann O'Brien.
Flying their home flag, however, they will also present an evening of Argentine poetry at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre next Friday at 7pm.
Lighting the literary path
Demystifying the contract, exploring the author-agent relationship and writing for the market are among the topics to be discussed at an information day organised by the Irish Writers Union. Pathways to Publication takes place next Saturday at the Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. On hand with their insights will be publisher Ciara Considine, literary agent Faith O'Grady, publicist Joe Hoban and novelists Patricia O'Reilly, Áine McCarthy and Grace Jolliffe. Tickets cost €40 for non-members and advance booking is recommended. Details: www.ireland-writers.com
Triumph in Kildare Street
Prof Mary Beard, professor of classics at Cambridge University, will give a lecture in the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, at 7pm next Wednesday, the first in an annual series in memory of the late Prof John J O'Meara of UCD. Her lecture will focus on The Roman Triumph, the civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome held to honour the military commander of a victorious foreign war, in which the spoils and prisoners of war went in front of him while, intriguingly, his troops followed behind singing rude songs. The ceremony has been imitated ever since by various tyrants and monarchs in the west, including Napoleon. Prof Beard is classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and the author of several books on Greek and Roman history. She also co-curated the recent exhibition, From Ancient Art to Post-Impressionism, at the Royal Academy in London. Details from Colette O'Flaherty on 01-6030230.