Douglas Hyde: A Maker of Modern Ireland

by Janet Egleson Dunleavy, Gareth W. Dunleavy

Overview

In 1938, at an age when most men are long retired, Douglas Hyde (1860-1949) was elected first president of modern Ireland. The unanimous choice of delegates from all political factions, he was no stranger to public life or to fame. Until now, however, there has been no full-scale biography of this important historical and literary figure.

Known as a tireless nationalist, Hyde attracted attention on both sides of the Atlantic from a very early age. He was hailed by Yeats as a source of the Irish Literary Renaissance; earned international recognition for his contributions to the theory and methodology of folklore; joined Lady Gregory, W. B. Yeats, George Moore, and Edward Martyn in shaping an Irish theater; and as president of the Gaelic League worked for twenty-two years on behalf of Irish Ireland.

Yet in spite of these and other accomplishments Hyde remained an enigmatic figure throughout his life. Why did he become an Irish nationalist? Why were his two terms as Irish Free State senator so curiously passive? Why, when he had threatened it earlier, did he oppose the use of physical force in 1916? How did he nevertheless retain the support of his countrymen and the trust and friendship of such a man as Eamon de Valera? Douglas Hyde: A Maker of Modern Ireland dispels for the first time the myths and misinformation that have obscured the private life of this extraordinary scholar and statesman.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520066847
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/20/1991
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	475
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Janet Egleson Dunleavy and Gareth W. Dunleavy are both Professors of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
1	Douglas Hyde and the Generational Imperative	1
2	A Smiling Public Man	5
3	The Budding Branch	16
4	The Voices of the Fathers	49
5	First Flowering	81
6	Between Connacht and Dublin	103
7	To Canada	137
8	A Different America--A Different Ireland	156
9	A Bridle for Proteus	169
10	The Happiest of Men	193
11	Plays and Players	213
12	The Larger Stage	227
13	With the Irish in America	253
14	Triumphs and Troubles	288
15	The Rocky Road to Revolution	313
16	The Terrible Beauty	329
17	In and Out of Public Life	345
18	The Road to Aras an Uachtarain	364
19	The Presidency	392
20	Death and Dispersal	430
	Sources Consulted	437
	Index	451

Editorial Reviews

The long, often controversial life of the first president of modern Ireland is traced in this comprehensive biography by two University of Wisconsin English professors. Born in Roscommon of Protestant gentry and expected to follow his father in a church career, Hyde (1860-1949) was drawn to the local peasantry and their spoken language. De-anglicization, the driving force of his life, was pursued in his support of Irish poetry and drama, and impelled his political debut, encouraged by Eamon DeValera, the prospective prime minister, and a network of Gaelic League members committed to nationalism. ``Known to everyone and no one,'' the authors observe, the man seen here as an affable peer of Yeats and Lady Gregory was equally comfortable in a farmer's cabin.change ok? (hyde, not lady gregory, equally comfortable in cabin?)/change good.gs A preeminent figure in Ireland's history, Hyde is drawn full-scale in this extensive, informative study. Photos not seen by PW. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Douglas Hyde (1860-1949) was one of the great folklorists of modern Ireland, the founder of the Gaelic League instrumental in its movement toward independence, and finally the republic's first president. This first biography regards the man as a ``maker'' of modern Ireland in the sense of a neglected figure. While it does not contrast this maker to others or study conflicting visions of the country, this very definitive work does chart one complicated life in great detail. The elegantly written descriptions of life in rural Ireland and the helpful explanations of the Irish Gaelic language make this a thorough, accessible, consistently interesting, and ultimately satisfying biography of a modest and idealistic man reluctantly entangled in violent times. For interested general readers and scholars.-- John P. Harrington, Cooper Union, New York

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