Abstract
This chapter provides a critical reading of the ways in which minorities are construed and framed in The Crane Bag (1977–1985) special issue, ‘Minorities in Ireland’ (1981, 5.1). Distinguished by its philosophical and international perspectives on Ireland, The Crane Bag’s articulations of spaces in which art and society might develop fruitful dialogues played an important role in the evolution of Irish Studies. However, the limits of the journal’s artistic and religious emphases are evident in the special issue, where they contribute to ultimately disabling renderings of minorities. Probing these tensions, it is contended that this number’s conception of minorities furnishes an insight into the restricted expressions of liberalism in Ireland before the 1998 Belfast Agreement and the collapse of the Catholic Church’s unquestioned authority.
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Notes
- 1.
In effect, there were 17 issues, as The Crane Bag 2, nos. 1–2 (1978) appeared as one number. Thanks to Richard Kearney every issue is now available on JSTOR. See https://www.jstor.org/journal/cranebag.
- 2.
See W.J. McCormack’s account of the brief life of Atlantis (1986, pp. 9–18).
- 3.
More information can be found on Sr. Kennedy’s website http://www.srstan.ie, Focus Ireland http://www.focusireland.ie, and The Immigrant Council of Ireland http://www.immigrantcouncil.ie.
- 4.
Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into Payments to Politicians and Related Matters, Part I, http://www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/images/SITECONTENT_26.pdf.
- 5.
For an insightful critique of this emphasis in Irish Studies, see McCarthy (2000, pp. 222–228).
- 6.
Talking in 2007 about Norris’s long and ultimately successful judicial campaign to overturn Ireland’s Victorian anti-gay laws, Colm Tóibín opined that Norris was ‘both the best and the worst person to bring such a case. He was the best in that, as a lecturer in Trinity College and a person of immense independence of mind, he was in no danger of losing his job or having his position made impossible as a result of the case. But he was the worst in that he seems, on the face of it, not to have been greatly damaged by the laws in question; he had not served a prison sentence, or suffered directly at the hands of the law. To any fair-minded person, he seemed to be a happy, well-balanced person living a life of ease and privilege in Ireland’ (cited in Ferriter 2009, p. 496).
- 7.
This is a slightly revised version of an article with the same title published in The Crane Bag 7, no. 2 (1983): 160–171.
- 8.
Indeed, in Ireland: A Social and Cultural History 1922–2002 Brown takes issue with the ‘unhistorical quality’ and ‘self-indulgent’ nature of Cruise O’Brien’s revisionist contributions to Irish political and cultural debates in the 1970s (2004, p. 277).
- 9.
Notably this is the only article in the issue to reflect on the status of women.
- 10.
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O’Malley, A. (2018). The Aestheticising of Minorities in The Crane Bag. In: Villar-Argáiz, P. (eds) Irishness on the Margins. New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74567-1_8
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