Aisti Critice agus Cultuir II by Breandan O Doibhlin Lagan Press 125pp, £6.80
Reading Breandan O Doibhlin is like entering a severe intellectual world; such things as duty, the word of God, the Christian tradition, are taken as absolutes and his arguments are followed through with logical determination.
It is appropriate that the first essay in this collection by one of Ireland's foremost intellectuals should be on the subject of tradition. O Doibhlin tackles the concept head-on. We may quibble with the theological perspective, we may baulk at the emphasis on duty, but the issue must be faced: should we or should we not hand on what we ourselves have received, and which we agree is valuable, to the next generation; and if so, how? This is a problem both for Ireland and for Europe.
O Doibhlin is a European, or, as he puts it, a Gael first, then an Irishman, and then a European. His vision of Europe, as befits a Roman Catholic priest and former Professor of French at Maynooth, is based on European Christianity. In it he sees Ireland, which so far has failed to use its freedom for the good of its people or the development of its own traditions, blossoming. The current phrase calls this "Europe of the regions" as opposed to "Europe of the nation-states", but O Doibhlin is more comprehensive and more radical than that. His is a Europe in which different peoples, cultures, and languages are all equally cherished.
A pluralist society is needed, one in which his identity as an Irish speaker (Gael) is not regarded as divisive or offensive. The Irish Republic is unable to provide this. Rather, it is threatening with extinction the very language, culture, and tradition with which he identifies. I can only be of assistance to others, he says, if others allow me to be myself.
The essays alternate between culture and literature. Some of them appear to be occasional papers and it is a pity we are not told when and where they were given. The discussion on love in Irish prose literature, for example, does not discuss any novel written after 1970.
For all that, in this and other essays O Doibhlin shows his powers of synthesis. Once again he takes a tough stand. The treatment of love, he says, is sparse and limited in range; there is hardly any psychological or moral literary tradition worth taking about in Irish prose, in Irish, or, for that matter, in English. Here and elsewhere - it is a favourite theme - he outlines an agenda for would-be writers, challenging them repeatedly to forge anew the intellectual sword of Irish writing - who could choose a better vocation?
The sharpness of O Doibhlin's own intellect belies the fact that on occasion he misses the point. In the essay on love, for example, one would like him to give the writing more space or, at least, to place it in its historical and social context. The National Schools, the Famine, and the consequent decline of the Irish language, as well as the advance of Ultramontane Victorianism (for which O Doibhlin squarely blames the philistine programme of Cardinal Paul Cullen), all combined to deprived the Irish people of their erstwhile latin expressivity. The literature reflects this. In Caisleain Oir, by Seamas Mac Grianna, Seimi's comment, when his heart was beating with passion and eternal love for the girl at his side - "Babai, isn't it a lovely evening" - captures the moment. O Doibhlin sees this as an example of sentimentality.
It is also a little disconcerting to see someone as informed on French culture and literature as O Doibhlin - translator of Pascal, La Fontaine, Saint Exupery, Rimbaud - talking about the author and his intentions almost forty years after he himself brought Roland Barthes to our attention.
There are other interesting essays in this rather uneven collection, such as those on translating Isaiah from the Hebrew into Irish, and on Irish and the University. Although it is unlikely that this second collection of critical an cultural essays will have the same impact as the first which, in 1973, became a milestone in Irish literary criticism, it shows that O Doibhlin is working from a powerful ideological and intellectual position which is the equal of any which has been formulated, or which is at present being formulated, in this country.