Interpretation Zu Doyle. A Star Called Henry

Citation preview

Königs Erläuterungen und Materialien Band 483

Erläuterungen zu

Roddy Doyle

A Star Called Henry von Hans-Georg Schede übersetzt von Julia Bee

Über den Autor der Erläuterung: Hans-Georg Schede, geboren 1968, studierte in Freiburg Germa­ nistik sowie Anglistik und promovierte mit einer Werkmono­graphie über den Gegenwartsautor Gert Hofmann (1999). Er hat Unterrichtsmodelle zu Heinrich von Kleist, Gert Hofmann sowie Charlotte Kerner und zahlreiche Erläuterungsbände zu Werken des schulischen Lektürekanons verfasst (u. a. zu Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Büchner, Fontane, Thomas Mann, William Faulkner, Alfred Uhry und Harper Lee). Weitere Bücher: eine Biographie über Die Brüder Grimm (2004, Neuausgabe 2009) und den Band Heinrich von Kleist in der Reihe „rowohlts monographien“ (2008). Hans-Georg Schede hat als Buchredakteur und Gymnasiallehrer gearbeitet und lebt mit seiner Familie in Freiburg.

Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages. Hinweis zu § 52 a UrhG: Weder das Werk noch seine Teile dürfen ohne eine solche Einwilligung eingescannt oder gespeichert und in ein Netzwerk eingestellt werden. Dies gilt auch für Intranets von Schulen und sonstigen Bildungseinrichtungen.

1. Auflage 2010 ISBN: 978-3-8044-1888-2 © 2009 by Bange Verlag, 96142 Hollfeld Alle Rechte vorbehalten! Titelabbildung: Roddy Doyle © Isolde Ohlbaum [Foto verfremdet] Druck und Weiterverarbeitung: Tiskárna Akcent, Vimperk

2

Inhalt

Preface ..........................................................................

1. 1.1 1.2 1.3

Roddy Doyle: Life and works ..................................... 6 Biography ....................................................................... 6 Historical context . .......................................................... 10 Details and explanations of important works .................. 16

2. Text analysis and interpretation . ............................... 2.1 Genesis and sources ....................................................... 2.2 Summary ........................................................................ 2.3 Structure . ....................................................................... 2.4 The characters and their constellations ........................... 2.5 Glossary of terms . .......................................................... 2.6 Style and presentation .................................................... 2.6.1 Narrative viewpoint and narrative mode ........................ 2.6.2 ‘In medias res’: the technique of beginning a narrative in the middle of the story .............................. 2.6.3 Motifs and symbols ........................................................ 2.6.4 Constant exaggeration and crass behaviour . ................... 2.6.5 The two faces of the narrator and the ‘expressionistic narrative’ ............................................... 2.7 Interpretation aids .......................................................... 2.7.1 Henry, the hero – Henry, the nameless ........................... 2.7.2 Undermining the myth – Henry and the legendary hero of Cuchulain ........................................................... 2.7.3 A Star Called Henry – Deconstructing the nationalists’ transfiguration of history ................................................

5

20 20 25 48 57 86 101 101 102 104 107 109 112 112 113 117

3.

Topics and assignments .............................................. 121

4.

Reception of the novel ................................................ 123

5.

Materials ...................................................................... 125



Literature ...................................................................... 127

3

4

Preface

Preface Set in Ireland in the first quarter of the twentieth century, Roddy Doyle’s novel A Star Called Henry is the story not only of the violent birth of the Irish Republic, but also of the coming-of-age of a young man who is driven by an irrepressible will to assert himself, but who nevertheless – as he himself only later realises – allows himself to be manipulated by others and to become a pawn in somebody else’s game. The novel paints an at times lurid picture of a society in which unscrupulousness leads to success and where those who are underprivileged from the start, as a rule, end up the losers as well. Under such circumstances Henry fails because he is not ambitious for power; all he wants is to be admired and to be loved. This makes him become dependent on others. Although his good looks and his boyish boisterous ambition to prove himself, coupled with his hunger for a bit of tender loving care, make him irresistible to women, the men just use him. At the end he is left with nothing but blood on his hands. Doyle’s novel is packed with so many different events and characters that it is almost impossible to fully understand on first reading. For this reason, this guide gives a detailed account of the historical background to the plot (see in particular chapters 1.2, 2.1 and 2.5), the content of the novel and the narrative composition (see chapters 2.2 and 2.3) in addition to a detailed analysis of the principle characters (2.4). The guide also looks at the style and use of language (2.6) and offers new angles of interpretation (2.7). Chapter 1.1 and 1.3 examine the extent to which A Star Called Henry is characteristic of Doyle’s literary works as a whole. Roddy Doyle is one of the most successful Irish authors of our times, and many of his books have been turned into films. In his works, he unites an almost tangible realism with the carefree and adventurous enjoyment of the fantastic. Thus, his books are always gripping and mostly provocative. They are well worth reading.

Preface

5

1.1 Biography

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works 1.1 Biography Roddy Doyle has lived in Dublin all his life. In 2002, he published a book about his parents, Rory and Ita. With this one exception, he has done his utmost to keep himself out of the public eye, which explains the limited information that is available about him. Year

Event

1958– 1993

Roddy Doyle is born in Dublin on 8 May and 0–35 grows up in Kilbarrack, in the north of the city. His father works as a typesetter and instructor in the printing industry. His mother, Ita, has worked as a hospital secretary. From an early age, his father encourages him to read. After attending St. Fintan’s Christian Brothers School in Sutton, Roddy Doyle goes on to study at University College Dublin. He becomes a teacher of English and Geography and is offered a position at Greendale Community School in Kilbarack. It is during this time that he also establishes himself as a writer. In 1993, he gives up teaching to become a full-time writer. He is married and has two sons, Rory and Jack. Roddy Doyle publishes his first novel, The Com- 29 mitments. His stage play, Brown Bread, premieres. A second stage play, War, premieres. 31 The second part of the Barrytown Trilogy, The Snap- 32 per, is published.

1987 1989 1990

6

Age

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

1.1 Biography Year

Event

1991

The Barrytown Trilogy‘s third and final novel, The Van, is published. The book is shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Alan Parker turns The Commitments into a film; Roddy writes the script with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. The film is awarded several prizes by the British Academy of Film and TV Arts. The Barrytown Trilogy is published as a complete work. Roddy Doyle publishes his fourth novel, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and is awarded the Booker Prize for it. Stephen Frears turns The Snapper into a film based on Roddy Doyle’s script. The BBC produces and broadcasts a four-part TV series entitled Family, with a script written by Roddy Doyle. Family is broadcast in Ireland and triggers protests from politicians, priests and the teacher‘s union who accuse him of betraying Ireland by portraying the country too negatively, undermining the idea of marriage and suggesting that teachers hit their pupils. The fifth novel, The Woman Who Walked into Doors, is published. The idea for this book is based on the last episode of Family and is narrated from the mother‘s point of view. The third novel in the Barrytown Trilogy, The Van, is also turned into a film. Stephen Frears directs it and Roddy Doyle provides the script.

1992 1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

Age 33

34 35

36

37

38

39

7

1.1 Biography Year

Event

1999

A Star called Henry is published and is intended to be the first part of a series of novels, The Last Roundup. Roddy Doyle publishes his first children’s book, Not Just for Christmas, and works as co-author on the series, Finbar‘s Hotel. A second book for children is published: The Giggler Treatment. When Brendan Met Trudy – a comedy about the relationship between a self-conscious teacher and a resolute female thief – is performed on stage. Another children‘s book is published: Rover Saves Christmas, in addition to a novel which Roddy Doyle has co-written with other authors, among them Frank McCourt (Yeats is Dead! A Novel by Fifteen Irish Writers). The stage play Guess Who‘s Coming to the Dinner premieres at the Dublin Theatre Festival. Roddy Doyle publishes Rory and Ita. The Woman Who Walked into Doors premieres on stage in Roddy Doyle‘s own adaptation. The second volume of The Last Roundup, Oh, Play That Thing, is published. Doyle’s fourth children‘s book, The Meanwhile Adventures, is published. Roddy Doyle causes a stir when, in the run-up to the lavish centenary celebrations of Bloomsday (the day in 1904 on which the plot of Ulysses is set) planned in Dublin, he openly talks about his dislike of James Joyce, an author he considers to be overrated.

2000

2001

2002 2003 2004

8

Age 41

42

43

44 45 46

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

1.1 Biography Year

Event

2006

Roddy Doyle publishes Paula Spencer, his eighth novel, as well as the ‚novella‘, Mad Weekend. A fifth children‘s book, Wilderness, and a novel co-written with other writers, Click, is published. Roddy Doyle and Bisi Adigun write a version of The Playboy of the Western World together for the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2007. In addition to this, Roddy Doyle publishes a collection of stories under the title of The Deportees and Other Stories.

2007

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

Age 48 49

9

1.2 Historical context

1.2 Historical context1 Background to the conflict In the second half of the nineteenth century, new groups began to form in Ireland. Their aim was to rid the country of British supremacy which had existed there for centuries. These groups originated in the predominantly Catholic provinces of Leinster, Munster and Connaught. In the Northern province of Ulster, where the majority of the population were Protestant, it was hoped that British supremacy would continue. The reasons for this were historical. When King Henry VIII (1491–1547) denounced the Catholic faith in the first half of the sixteenth century (because the Pope had refused to grant him his divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Arragon) and created his own Protestant State Church – the Anglican Church –, it triggered a backlash in the traditionally Catholic Ireland. So, in the latter half of the sixteenth century, (Protestant) British settlers were sent to Ireland by Henry’s successors to the Ireland’s religious split throne to break down this resistance. The new Protestant citizens established themselves as the dominant force in the province of Ulster in particular. It was this policy of settlement that eventually led to both the confessional and political division of Ireland. At the end of the nineteenth century, which for Ireland had been a time of great material poverty (half of the population had perished in the great famine of the 1840s and many had emigrated to the US), Nationalism – as was the case in many of the countries of Europe – also reached its peak in Ireland. The more the nation defined itself as a Catholic country, the more the Protestant North felt excluded and pushed into the arms of Britain. One of the leaders of the new national movement was the printer and journalist, Arthur Griffith (1872–1922), who tried to revive 1

10

See also Maurer

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

1.2 Historical context the cultural heritage of Ireland as an independent entity, and who also promoted a new political approach towards Britain. He wanted the Irish delegates in the London Parliament in Westminster to give up their seats and set up a new Irish parliament in Dublin instead. Furthermore, he wanted Ireland to be turned into a separate, viable economic entity. To push through his political goals, Griffith founded his own party in 1905 and gave it the Gaelic name of Sinn Féin, meaning ‘we ourselves’. The Irish Socialist Republican Party, which had already been founded by James Connolly (1868–1916) in 1896 as the party of the Irish workers’ movement, became the second most important party after Sinn Féin. In Britain, too, efforts had long been made to grant the overwhelming majority of people of Ireland their wish for independence. Both in 1886 and in 1893, the British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898), had put forward respective legislative proposals to Parliament, but without success. The Britain’s Ireland policy third ‘Home Rule’ proposal of 1912 envisioned that the Irish would be responsible for domestic matters and that foreign affairs would be decided upon by the British Empire. This proposal was welcomed in Ireland by the majority, but opposed by the Northern Protestant ‘Unionists’. Tension between the two sides grew. Both parties had been building up private armies since 1911. 1913 saw the official founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force on the one side and of the Irish Citizen Army on the other. The nationalists were supported financially by Irish who had emigrated to America in the nineteenth century. The Easter Rising of 1916 Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in September 1914, the British monarch signed the legislation on ‘Home Rule’, which was only to come into effect, however, after the end of the war. The Irish delegates to Westminster had achieved their goal, but paradoxically at the expense of their own political influence. They had fulfilled their mission without Ireland moving any closer to actual 1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

11

1.2 Historical context independence. The armed militia in the country pushed for a more rapid solution. The nationalists also saw a historic chance to rid themselves of British supremacy while Britain was involved in the Great War (in which 200,000 Irish volunteers, of whom 60,000 lost their lives, were also defending the Empire under the British flag.). One of the major advocates for a rebellion was Patrick Pearse (1879–1916), who since 1915 had been the leader of the Gaelic League, an association founded by Irish academics to safeguard the native cultural heritage and which in the course of a few years had developed into a national movement. Pearse was a barrister but above all a writer, an educator and prophet of a new Ireland. In his writings, he linked the Catholic idea of salvation with the demand for an altruistic commitment to the national cause, even to the point of personal sacrifice. Eventually, the diverse national powers united in a loose coalition: the Catholics, the Socialists around the work leaders James Connolly and James Larkin (1874–1947), the Fernier and the supporters of the Gaelic League. Concrete plans for the rebellion were formed; financial support came from America, arms came from Germany. The highly symbolic day of Easter Sunday 1916 was chosen: The resurrection of the Irish nation was to take place on the day of resurrection of the Saviour. However, due to inadequate organisation and logistical mishaps, nothing actually happened on Easter Sunday – the ship with the largest arms and ammuniThe siege of the tion supply landed too early, aroused susGeneral Post Office picion and was about to be investigated by the British when the captain decided to dump the entire load into the sea. It was not until Easter Monday that the General Post Office in Dublin and other places of strategic importance were occupied. Around 1600 insurgents participated. Their chances of succeeding were hopeless from the start despite the fact that the British were preoccupied with the war and only had limited forces available to suppress the rebellion. It was on Easter Monday, too, that Patrick Pearse read out the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, declaring Ireland’s right to self-

12

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

1.2 Historical context determination and guaranteeing religious and civic freedom, as well as equal rights and opportunities for all of its citizens. The new republic claimed to represent the whole country – a claim which the Unionists considered presumptuous and, had the rebellion been successful, may well have led to the outbreak of Civil War. However, the rebellion was not successful. Although the insurgents managed to defend some of their occupied buildings for a week, they were forced to capitulate. At the end of the rebellion, there were 450 dead and 2,614 wounded, most of them civilians. 3500 people had been arrested and the majority disappeared into British prisons without trial. 170 insurgents were convicted by a war tribunal of whom 90 were condemned to death. 15 of these were executed between 3 and 12 May. The Road to Civil War From the British perspective, the Easter Rising was a cowardly attempt to stab the empire in the back in its hour of weakness and need. This seemed to justify and render imperative punishments which were tough in the extreme. However, despite losing the armed battle for the time being, the militant Irish nationalists had managed to win over the minds of the people, the political opinion of the majority of the Irish population, which had certainly not been the case up until that time. The British occupying power had shown themselves to be the oppressors that the Irish nationalists had always claimed they were. Any suspicions people had had about the leaders of the Easter Rising vanished and they were now regarded as martyrs, as surviving heroes of the independence movement. The Parliamentary Party lost any remaining influence; ‘Home Rule’ was now regarded as an insufficient compromise. More and more people began to trust Sinn Féin. Éamon de Valera (1882–1975), who was born in America as the son of an Irish mother and a Spanish father, who had been condemned to death but was then pardoned after the Easter Rising, became a luminary of the party. It was thanks to him that support for the Irish cause increased in America. 1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

13

1.2 Historical context In the run-up to the 1918 elections, plans of the British government emerged which foresaw the introduction of conscription, previously made compulsory in England and Scotland in 1916, in Ireland as well. This news caused panic and, together with the change in voting rights (women over 30 and men who were not the head of a household were allowed to vote for the first time, leading to a sudden rise in the number of voters from 700.000 to Reshuffle of party majorities 1.9 million), led to a dramatic reshuffle of party majorities: The Parliamentary Party lost 72 of their 78 seats and Sinn Féin received 73 seats (as opposed to their previous seven mandates). But the Unionists also gained eight seats (from 18 to 26 seats). Political polarisation intensified. Sinn Féin’s delegates kept their election promise and refused to go to London, establishing their own parliament in Dublin instead (Dáil Éireann). The delegates of the other parties did not participate in this move and hence the political division of Ireland. De Valera was nominated President of Ireland, and quickly became accepted in Ireland, although, with the exception of the International Socialists, he was not recognised by other foreign powers at this time. The former Irish volunteers became the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the semiofficial army of the new Republic. On the other side were the British State Police, The Royal Irish Constabulary, whose presence remained and was even stocked up by veterans of World War I, by the soon to be feared Auxiliaries, and by the Black and Tans (a reference to the troops’ uniforms which were made out of a selection of police and military uniform pieces randomly stitched together). Both sides fought hard against each other. After the end of World War I, the Irish question was also placed on the agenda of the Paris peace negotiations. The USA argued in favour of the right of smaller nations to self-determination, too, and pushed for Irish independence. Britain gave in and passed the Government of Ireland Act in December 1920, which foresaw the separation of Ireland into two independent states: into a Division of Ireland and Civil War smaller state in the North, whereby the borders were determined so as to create a pro-British Unionist majority; and into a larger Catholic state in the South.

14

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

1.2 Historical context Voting took place in both parts of the country with the expected results. The new parliament in Northern Ireland approved the Government of Ireland Act. However, in Southern Ireland the newly founded parliament of Sinn Féin, who had won by an overwhelming majority, was boycotted on the grounds that they already had a parliament: Dáil Éireann. London was faced with two options: Either to intervene militarily or to continue negotiations. They opted for the latter. Following lengthy discussions which were overshadowed by Civil-War-like conditions in Ireland, the parliaments in London and Dublin finally agreed on the Irish Free State (Treaty) Act in December 1921/January 1922. The compromise both sides agreed upon was that Ireland would become independent but remain a member of the British Empire. Like Canada, it received the Status of Dominion. The British monarch remained the formal head of state. The advocates of the new law voiced their expectations that the Dominions of the Commonwealth would enjoy more independence than the British colonies had in the past. And the history of the following decades show that that is exactly what happened. However, in 1922, the passing of this Bill by a marginal majority in the Dáil Éireann parliament led to a split within the Sinn Féin party, with De Valera and his supporters refusing to acknowledge the new Bill and opting to form a new party. In April, 1922, officers of the IRA attempted a coup in Dublin which the Irish government was only able to thwart with the help of British cannons. This triggered a year-long descent into Civil War. Nevertheless, the developments which had already been set in process proved to be impossible to stop. In 1923, the first elections took place in the Irish Free State (Republic of Ireland) and in the same year the country became a new member of the League of Nations.

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

15

1.3 Details and explanations of important works

1.3 Details and explanations of important works Roddy Doyle is a versatile author who has enjoyed success in several literary genres. However, it is as a writer of novels that he has become best-known. His three novels published between 1987 and 1991, The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van, which together make up the Barrytown Trilogy, made Doyle The Barrytown Trilogy famous. They narrate the story of a working class family from Dublin, the Rabbittes, of their hopes which are doomed to failure, their financial worries and their domestic chaos. This trilogy gave Doyle a reputation as an expert in the unadorned but nevertheless humorous portrayal of the social and private needs of the working class. The language of these novels – as well as of his later novels which is equally unadorned – has often given cause for offence. In addition, his first novel, The Commitments, is particularly dominated by a graphic narrative. In his other novels, The Snapper and The Van, however, he has gradually adopted a more introspective style which allows the reader to gain a greater insight into the narrator’s own thoughts and feelings. This trend towards allowing the inner life of his central figures to unfold in different ways becomes even more apparent in his two subsequent novels, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993) and The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996). The first award-winning novel describes the life of a 10 year-old boy from Dublin, as perceived through his eyes. The story is set in the late 1960s and obviously contains a certain amount of autobiographical material. The second novel centres on the life story of the first person narrator, Paula Spencer, a 39-year-old mother of four children, whose husband had been shot dead by police the year before. Her oldest son is a drug addict who no longer has any contact to the family. She herself is an alcoholic who works as a cleaner. Despite having been beaten by her husband over many years, she still loves him. When people inquire about her injuries, she always gives the excuse of having walked into a door. Thus, she becomes The Woman Who Walked into Doors. Both

16

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

1.3 Details and explanations of important works novels were well received by the critics and became bestsellers. Doyle’s eighth novel, which was published in 2006, focuses again on Paula Spencer (also the title of the book). His subsequent novels, A Star called Henry (1999), the first of a The Last Roundup Trilogy planned trilogy, The Last Roundup, and Oh, Play That Thing (2004), deal for the first time with material from the past. The latter, which is the more comprehensive novel of the two, is the story of Henry Smart, the hero and first person narrator of A Star called Henry, who tells the story of his life in America from the age of 23 to 46. However, he really only goes into detail about the first six of these years (from 1924 until 1930). The remaining years are dealt with in the epilogue of the fourth part. After spending two years in England hiding from his pursuers, Henry arrives in New York in March 1924. He soon establishes himself as a sandwich man, a living advertising pillar, whilst working illegally on the side in the flourishing alcohol trade (during the Prohibition). He soon offends the Mafia when he tries to go it alone in the advertising trade, and at the end of 1924 manages to escape from New York alive only thanks to the help of a hard-nosed and ambitious young woman, the ‘half-sister’ of one of Henry’s business partners. The second part is set in Chicago, where Henry arrives in 1926. He hears the young Louis Armstrong’s music for the first time and is fascinated by it. He becomes Armstrong’s full-time companion, as having a white man at his side allows the black Armstrong greater freedom of movement. Henry experiences the highs and lows of the beginnings of this musician’s career. In 1928, at a particular low point, Armstrong and Henry commit several burglaries. During one of these, Henry meets his wife again, Miss O’Shea. She is working in the house as a home help and living there with Soarse, Henry’s now six year-old daughter. As she has spent years looking for him, Miss O’Shea gives him a rather unpleasant welcome. The couple manage to sort out their differences, but Henry still cannot find peace. So he leaves his wife and daughter in Chicago and accompanies Armstrong to New York.

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

17

1.3 Details and explanations of important works The third part of the novel is set in Harlem. Louis Armstrong has become more and more successful and Henry realises that he is no longer needed. Although Armstrong does Henry Smart and Louis Armstrong not treat him any differently from the beginning, Henry feels that he is just his white boy. He meets the “halfsister” again. In the meantime she has become the High Priest of her own church, whose message is to discard all inhibitions and to indulge in carnal pleasures here and now. Henry makes himself useful and becomes her manager. He introduces her to Armstrong for recording sessions which she is making of her speeches. This turns out to be a grave mistake as she meets this musical genius with open racial hatred, the very thing Henry was supposed to keep Armstrong away from. Louis and Henry do not fall out over this, but nevertheless it does mark the end of whatever relationship they had previously shared together. At this point, the Mafia, who are still after Henry, manage to locate him in Harlem. His pursuers have now been joined by an Irish hitman, Ned Kellet, a former cell mate. Armstrong takes Henry to Chicago in his car, but the hitmen are already waiting there for him. Once again he is saved at the last minute by Miss O’Shea. Finally, in the fourth part of the novel, Henry, his wife and daughter spend years on the run. These are the years of great impoverishment in the USA. Millions are on the move in search of work which will enable them to survive. In 1930, Miss O’Shea gives birth to a son on a coal train in New Mexico. The family move from state to state. Despite their extreme poverty, Henry is happy. Then years later, while attempting to save his son who had tried unsuccessfully to jump onto a moving train, he falls under a train. Henry manages to save his son’s life, but loses his leg and his family despite his best efforts to find them in the following years. In the meantime, his wife has become a living legend, a figurehead for the revolt of the impoverished masses against their hopeless condition, but despite all the tales circulating about her, Henry is unable to find her. As a lonely cripple, who has aged before his time, he seems to have reached a low point in his life. However, at the end of the novel, his fate appears

18

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

1.3 Details and explanations of important works to take an unexpected turn for the better. Henry is disorientated and dying of thirst in Monument Valley when Henry Fonda finds him during a break in the shooting of a film directed by John Huston. He brings him back to life. Huston, who himself is Irish, wants to turns Henry’s life story, the real struggle of the Irish, into a film. Whether Henry will become a legend in his own right, or whether he will again be confined to the shadows of fame, in which others shine in the limelight while he remains obscured in the dark, is left open at the end of Oh Play That Thing. The second novel of the trilogy refers back to many episodes from the first, either by the use of often detailed paraphrase or by quoting word for word from the novel in the form of a narrative flashback, and sets the few prognoses contained in the first volume (especially on pages 34 f. and 235 f.), into the context of Henry’s life story as it unfolds. The two books are thus closely intertwined. The central theme of the second novel, the unsuccessUnsuccessful quest for identity ful quest for identity of the protagonist, also makes this volume appear like a variation on the first, merely with a few changes in the outer circumstances. While the first novel focused on Ireland and its armed struggle for independence, in the second novel it is America, its materialism and the breakthrough of jazz music into a mass culture, which provide the setting for the destiny of a hero who continually falls by the wayside.

1. Roddy Doyle: Life and works

19

2.1 Genesis and Sources

2. Text analysis and interpretation 2.1 Genesis and sources There are different reasons why Roddy Doyle chose to incorporate various parts of Irish history into his novels. One of them is certainly his experience as a pupil in 1966 (when Doyle was eight years old) on the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising. The pupils had to learn the text of the ‘Easter Proclamation’ off by heart and the teachers instilled in them a view of the events of Glorification of the Easter Rising 1916 which can at best be described as at school patriotic: “When I went to Christian Brothers school Pearse was a god, a saint – we had to read those shitty sentimental stories and write these glowing reviews about them.” 2 – an experience which is reflected in a short episode in Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.3 For Doyle, it must have been hard to resist the idea of countering this naïve idealistic view propagated during his schooldays with a different, subversive image of this period. At the same time, Boyle does state expressly that he did not approach this subject from the point of view of a historian: ‘It is true to say that fiction makes bad history (…) I’m not a historian and I don’t want to be.’ His aim was rather to magnify reality and thus make it appear much greater than it probably ever was.4 However, even this method required Doyle to read about the events and circumstances of the time in order to gain a feel for them:

20



‘For the first time ever (…), I couldn’t really start this book at all. I’ve always been able to start a couple of pages and then kind of stall till I give it more thought. This time around I really couldn’t start because I didn’t know enough and I had to research.’5

2 3 4 5

Quote from Lanters, p. 246 See p. 26–29 of the German version published by Fischer (1996) Quote from Lanters, p. 246 Interview with Charles Taylor in 1999, see http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/10/28/ doyle/index.html

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.1 Genesis and Sources Doyle’s interest also stemmed from his family background. Both of his grandfathers had been involved in the fight for Irish Indepen­ dence, although they had kept the extent of their involvement from their children and grandchildren. AccordDoyle’s personal interest ing to Doyle, in 1939 his father had witin the subject matter nessed his father digging up a gun which he had buried in 1922. He never disclosed how or if indeed it had been used. His grandfather was said to have been a very kind person although Roddy Doyle did not have any memories of him of his own.6 A third reason for Doyle’s motivation may well have been the fact that writers often like to follow in the footsteps of other writers. More than once did critics draw comparisons to Charles Dickens when commenting on A Star Called Henry. Roddy Doyle actually confirmed that he had aimed to write something in the style of Charles Dickens, who in his works succeeded in portraying the whole spectrum of nineteenth century society with both dark realism and satirical humour: ‘What I was keen on doing was a bit like, I wanted to see if I could copy Dickens basically. To see if I could write a story a bit like David Copperfield (…).’ Moreover, other important books mentioned by Doyle as having influenced the concept of his novel were Midnight’s children and Shame (both published by Salman Rushdie in 1983) and Günther Grass’ Die Blechtrommel (1959).7 The latter‘s influence is evident in the first part of Doyle‘s novel, in particular, dominated as it is by the both boastful and subversive perspective of a child. This effect is lost once the political events begin to move to the fore. The historical sources used by Roddy Sources used Doyle are listed at the end of the novel (p. 343 ff.). To Charles Taylor he spoke of his feeling of surrealism on reading these eye witness accounts:

6 7

See above See above

2. Text analysis and interpretation

21

2.1 Genesis and Sources

‘I got a mix of books, memoirs, journalistic descriptions of what went on, and I made more of what I got. But when I was reading the descriptions of 1916 it did have a surreal quality to it. And a nightmare quality to it. You know, the building (of the General Post Office) began to, not only was it being bombarded, but it began to burn from the inside out. The physicality of it was very, very apparent as it never had been before. It was just an extraordinary thing, the fires, you know, and the glass melting.’8

José Lanters examined the sources cited by Roddy Doyle and discovered that many elements of the plot and even some of the characters – in addition to James Connolly or Michael Collins who are obviously modelled on real historical figures9 – have been taken more or less directly from these sources or have been inspired by these eye witness accounts.10 For instance, Doyle‘s description of the Red Light district, where Henry’s father works as a bouncer, has been put together from various historical accounts of Dublin’s nightlife in the ‘Monto’. ‘One of the prostitutes who plied her trade in Monto was called Piano Mary, since she had the habit of ‘running her fingers up and down the spine of a client during a session in bed.’ Doyle turns her into ‘Piano Annie’, who becomes Henry’s lover after the Easter Rising, and who correctly predicts her own future working as a prostitute in Dolly Oblong’s brothel (see p. 145). Dolly Oblong is also based on a historical character, ‘May Oblong, (…) a famous Monto madam.’ Many of the events of the Easter Rising and the ensuing battles of the following years depicted in Doyle’s novel are based on the eye witness accounts of Ernie O’Malley in On Ernie O‘Malley’ s report Another Man’s Wound (1936). For instance, O’Malley recounts how the Volunteers’ military training exercises were disguised as Irish dance lessons (see p. 175). Like Henry, O’Malley used to ride his bike up and down the country during the War of Independence when he was working as an instructor and 8

See above. A photo of the burnt out Post Office can be seen on http://members.dokom.de/ fschulz/osteraufstand.htm 9 See the short biographies in chapter 2.5 for further explanations 10 See Lanters, p. 247–249 as well as the following quotes

22

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.1 Genesis and Sources contact man. The details of the robbery of a British police barracks (see chapter 10) committed by Henry and Miss O’Shea, as well as many details from Henry’s time in captivity (see chapter 11) – particularly the episode with the ‘large iron box’ behind which a person who is supposed to identify Henry is hiding (see p. 304) – are all based on O’Malley’s account. In the novel Doyle plays with this important source (and pays homage to it) when he makes Henry recall his time as an instructor of the new generation of the revolution with the words: ‘Drilling the new men on the local big shot’s demesne was an idea I’d picked up from Ernie O’Malley, that and digging the graves.’ (p. 218). And like O’Malley, Henry also relies on the manual, Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (p. 220), for guidance. Finally, Doyle even allows O’Malley to make his own appearance in his novel (see p. 181). Although Doyle has relied heavily upon O’Malley’s account, he has expanded on and embellished it further. Despite his weaknesses, Henry is a hero who is larger than life. This explains why his description of events appears more colourful and grandiose than O’Malley’s account. Doyle writes his own version of history, seen this time from the perspective of both the working class and of strong, aggressive, sexually liberated, independent women. Miss O’Shea stands for the kind of woman to whom, up to that time, too little The role of women attention had been paid. In this context, Doyle relied on Margaret Ward’s Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism (1983) and Sinead McCoole’s Guns and Chiffon (1997). Many women had been frustrated by the role they had been assigned in the war. Not all had been happy to conform to it:

‘Margaret Skinnider, for example, a twenty-three-year-old schoolteacher, and a private in the Citizen Army, was an active duty sniper on the roof of the College of Surgeons in 1916, and had considerable experience with explosives. She was eventually shot three times by a sniper as she was taking part in an attack on a house thought to be occupied by the British (…).’11

11 Lanters, p. 248

2. Text analysis and interpretation

23

2.1 Genesis and Sources Doyle studied historical sources intensely, both for his own inspiration and to give the impression of authenticity. Despite his use of contemporary sources and historical analysis, he does not lose sight of his original intention to recount a subversive version of the Irish War of Independence, which many Irish people may well have found offensive. At the end of the novel, Henry finally recognises how doubtful the motives and methods of the Irish revolutionary leaders have really been, for whom he has spent years doing the dirty work.

24

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary

2.2 Summary Part 1: Background and hero’s childhood (p. 1–84) Chapter One: Henry’s parents, their first meeting and their marriage (p. 1–7) The novel begins with a situation which is defining for Henry’s early childhood: His mother is sitting with him on the front steps and is staring into the night sky. She is showing Henry a star that she considers to be her first child also called HenThe dead brother ry, who had died prematurely. Henry hates his dead brother, who, according to his mother, had been too good for this world, thus implying that her surviving children, including Henry, were obviously bad and not worthy of her love. Henry knows almost nothing about his parents and their families, only that they originate from the poor slums of Dublin. At the age of 12, Melody Nash is sent to work in a factory and in June 1897, at the age of 16, she meets Henry Smart, a one-legged 22-year-old bouncer of a brothel, when she bumps into him and he drunkenly falls into the mud in front of her feet. They get married shortly before Melody’s seventeenth birthday and move into a shabby room. One day, Melody is harassed and pestered by a fat policeman who has come to collect the rent after Henry has gone to work. Conveniently, a short time later, Henry, who apart from working as a bouncer also works as a hit man for Alfie Gandon, receives orders to kill this very same policeman. Chapter Two: Henry’s birth, his early fame and the unfortunate circumstances of his naming (p. 18–35) After his parents have moved house a few more times, marking a further descent into poverty, the narrator is born in Dublin’s Summerhill district on 8 October 1901. Granny Nash, Melody’s mother (who is crazy about books and is also the only relation apart from his parents who Henry will ever meet) and the well-meaning midwife,

2. Text analysis and interpretation

25

2.2 Summary Missis Drake, assist at his birth. His father stays outside the house waiting to see how things will develop. He believes that he is responsible for the death of his beloved first-born children because of the crimes he committed. But then a boy is born who is so strong and radiates such splendidness that the women from the neighbourhood immediately gather round to gaze at him. It does not take long before his aura becomes the stuff of legends. For a short time in their lives, the parents are happy. But then, Henry’s Brief period of bliss father’s wish to regard the birth of this miracle baby as a new start leads him to make the disastrous suggestion of naming him Henry. Melody is deeply shocked: She already has a son called Henry and it makes no difference to her that he is dead. Immediately, her husband regrets this suggestion, but, annoyed because his wife accuses him of being coldhearted towards his dead children, nevertheless still insists on the child being named Henry. As a result, not only do they become estranged from each, but they also develop an insurmountable dread of calling their newborn by his name. Thus, the child remains nameless and intuitively reacts to this deprivation of love by becoming unlovable himself, both inwardly and outwardly. Once the excitement of the first week of his life is over, his mother falls into a state of deep depression and apathy. She looks after the unruly child, but he slips more and more out of her control. Again and again, she sits outside on the front steps with him longingly searching the night sky for the stars of all her dead children. The chapter ends with a reference to a future event beyond the pages of this novel. Years from then, in the desert of Utah Henry is still fighting night after night to escape from the shadow of his dead brother by screaming at the starry sky: ‘My name is Henry Smart!’ (p. 35) Chapter Three: The father meets his female boss, the son conquers Dublin (p. 36–48) After finally realising that the happiness he experienced in the week following Henry’s birth was nothing more than a passing interlude that has been lost forever, Henry Smart Senior vents his frustration

26

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary on the customers of the brothel where he works as a bouncer. Whereas, previously, he never failed to distinguish between good customers and troublemakers, now he turns them all away and even bashes someone’s head in with his wooden leg. Following this incident, he is ordered to see the owner of the brothel, Dolly Oblong. She receives him in the twilight of her salon and leaves a deep impression on him, even though he does not get to see her properly. At 25 years old, she is younger than him but is already an excellent businesswoman who has been running the brothel for years. To him, she appears to be the true queen of Dublin. She threatens to sack him, but at the same time she mentions the good work he has done in his role as a hit man, and it is thanks to this that he is allowed to stay. It suddenly dawns on Henry Smart Senior Dolly Oblong and Alfie Gandon that Dolly Oblong and his long-standing, but to him hitherto personally unknown, employer, Alfie Gandon, must be one and the same person. Filled with enthusiasm, he begins to idolise Dolly and, smitten, he decides to dedicate himself entirely to her services. He leaves her salon as a new man. Henry Smart Junior starts exploring Dublin on his own at the tender age of three. In the meantime, two more siblings have been born. Henry’s father has left the family, returning only sporadically and to father another child. Henry roams the city looking for adventure, food and love. His home is on the street. Longingly, he observes and approaches women who are complete strangers to him, but they do not pay him any attention. Henry’s childhood is dominated by house moves, births and funerals. His mother spends all her time sitting on the front steps, coughing. Finally, after the deaths of two baby Victors, a third Victor is born who survives. At nine months old, he follows his older brother onto the streets. Henry is now five years old. Chapter Four: King Edward VII visits Dublin; Henry sees his father for the last time (p. 49–62) Henry Smart Senior carries out further contract killings. Dolly Oblong passes him a note with the names of the people Alfie Gandon wants eliminated. He dumps the bodies in Dublin’s rivers. On his 2. Text analysis and interpretation

27

2.2 Summary way back from one of these nightly killings in July 1907, he sees the excited crowds lining the streets to see Edward VII, the British monarch. When his carriage comes past, something untoward happens. A small boy with an even smaller boy on his back climbs onto a lamppost and screams repeatedly at the king: ‘Fuck off!’ The boy is Henry. Members of the enraged crowd tear the children down to the ground. Henry Smart Senior defends them by raining down his wooden leg on their attackers. The police arrive. The father grabs his son – and his brother who as yet is unIn the catacombs of Dublin known to him – and takes off with them. After a wild chase, he disappears into the sewerage system. It is cold, dark and smelly down there, so he wraps the children in his coat and carries them through the catacombs of Dublin, telling them stories on the way. He reemerges in a safe district, but he himself stays down in the sewerage system. Henry knows intuitively that he will not see his father again. He continuously hits his head on the pavement until he loses consciousness. Victor saves his life. They return to the bleak cellar room, where they enjoy one of their fleeting moments of comfort in the arms of their mother. When Henry’s father opens the brothel for business the next morning, he is set upon by a large number of policemen. They tear him down. Against all the odds, he manages to escape but loses his coat in the process. The police find the piece of paper listing the contract killings which Dolly Oblong had given to him and which he has kept for sentimental reasons and out of love for her. His cover has now been blown. The question of what has happened to Henry’s father in the meantime is left unanswered. Chapter Five: Henry and Victor; first meeting with Miss O’Shea; Victor’s death (p. 63–84) In the following years, Henry and Victor become inseparable. They have now moved onto the streets permanently. They are agile and savvy. They feel invincible and have their own incomes. They catch rats, for instance, which are used as bait for the dogs at betting races. The more distinguished visitors to such events regard Henry’s cold-

28

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary bloodedness with a mixture of disgust and admiration. He is well respected, but he knows he will never be able to escape from the misery of his existence. Now and again he drops off a bottle of gin for his mother, who has since become an alcoholic. Henry is now eight years old but looks considerably older. He has a strong impact on women, of which he is clearly aware. Already they are beginning to see in him the attractive and sexually insatiable man that he will one day become. The brothers, who from time to time link up with other children to go about their business, are approached by members of the Irish independence movement. They are given money to help in the fight against large landowners. Henry proves himself to be competent despite the fact that his native country means absolutely nothing to him. At the age of nine, Henry decides that he and Victor need to do something about their education. Henry wants to learn how to read. The brothers find a state school and enter the first classroom they can find. The teacher is kind and allows them to join in. Henry realises that she likes him. She cannot supA brief spell at school press her urge to touch him. The first day at school is a success. Henry excels at maths. On the second day, he also does very well and is praised in front of the other children. He begins to believe that he can achieve anything he wants. However, just as he has learned to write his first sentence ‘MY NAME IS HENRY SMART’ his school career abruptly comes to an end. A nun, the school’s principal, reprimands Miss O’Shea and makes it unmistakably clear to the boys through actual physical force and verbal insults that they do not belong there. Henry, who always carries his father’s spare leg, brings it down on her nose. Then, the brothers take off. Shortly afterwards, Victor dies. He had been coughing up blood for months. But as all poor people in Dublin cough, Henry had not paid much attention to it. Then one day, Victor does not wake up again. Henry is shocked but he decides not to get too sentimental about it. Victor and he had seen dead children on their forays through town 2. Text analysis and interpretation

29

2.2 Summary often enough. He leaves Victor behind and spends the rest of the day walking through town. It is the day of the coronation of King George V, the new British monarch. Later that day, he comes across a small political protest group. Two men and a woman are openly burning the Union Jack, the Great British flag. They are sworn at by the crowd before police lead them away. At the end of the chapter, Henry returns to his mother’s house in the hope of spending a few moments in her arms, but she has gone, has moved away with his siblings. Henry starts searching for her. Part 2: The Easter Rising of 1916 (p. 85–148) Chapter 6: The occupation of the General Post Office; reunion with Miss O’Shea; the suppression of the rebellion; Annie (p. 87–148) The second part of the novel is set in April 1916. At the age of 14, Henry has joined the Irish Citizen Army. Commander Connolly had taken him under his wing three years previously and Henry is loyal to him rather than to Ireland and the national cause. On Easter Monday, 1916, the armed uprising against the British Empire takes place. Henry is part of a group who occupy the General Post Office. They barricade themselves in and wait for the British army to arrive. Commander Pearse, the leader of the insurgents, reads out the proclamation which had been written out the night before. It proclaims the Irish Republic and declares him as its The Proclamation president. Connolly had given Henry the manuscript to read and to take to the printers, and on his advice, a passage on the rights of children is added. He regards this as his gift to Victor. When, early in the morning, the insurgents first gather in front of Liberty Hall – the headquarters of the ‘Irish Transport and General Workers Union’ and Henry’s home for the past three years – and start to march through the city, neither the general public nor the British soldiers who are stationed all over town take them seriously. They are a small group dressed in shabby uniforms and poorly

30

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary equipped with arms. They are hoping that thousands across the country will join them once they see that a start has been made. This is supposed to be the spark that ignites the flames that will spread like wildfire. Without any trouble, they are able to occupy strategically important points across the city. Nothing happens for quite a while, apart from a few onlookers gathering in front of the General Post Office. The waiting is a test of patience but eventually a group of women appear from the poor district of Summerhill. Their husbands are serving with the British army and are fighting on the continent against the Germans. They have come to collect their financial support. Michael Collins, one of the insurgents’ officers, tries to push them back, threatening them with his gun. Henry manages to give them their money. The women gaze at him desirously and he promises to go and visit one of these women, Annie, once the rebellion has ended. Directly after this incident, the first confrontation takes place. The sixth cavalry regiment attacks and is beaten back. It is an easy victory which puts everyone in a euphoric mood. Henry’s first shots are aimed, not at the opposing soldiers, but at the shop windows across the square from them, and at a children’s shoe shop in particular. He is not in this to achieve political liberation, for him this is more of a personal vendetta. He wants revenge for Victor and himself and for all the other working class children who never had shoes. (Now he is the only insurgent to be dressed in a full uniform which he has paid for out of his own money). On the morning of the second day, Henry meets Miss O’Shea in one of the cellar rooms which has been transformed into a kitchen. She is dishing out porridge and recognises him instantly. He is now taller than her and is well aware of the effect he is having on her. She asks him about his father’s wooden leg, which he is still carrying around with him. The second day starts off with another long wait and Henry is already becoming bored by the rebellion. Rumours reach them that German support is on its way in the form of arms and soldiers. Henry starts dreaming about how he is going to seduce Miss O’Shea. 2. Text analysis and interpretation

31

2.2 Summary He and his friends from the Irish Citizen Army watch members of the Irish Volunteers sink to their knees and pray, clicking the beads of their rosaries. To Henry, these comrades are nothing more than idealistic wimps. God means nothing to him. He is tempted to disappear. Then some fireworks go off outside. After a short while it becomes clear what has happened: some children have looted a toy store. And looters suddenly appear from Looting and class differences all over the place. The Irish Volunteers are shocked by these attacks on Irish businesses. An example has to be made of them. But then Henry and his friends respond by taking sides against their own allies and protecting the looters. Henry points his gun at Commander-in-Chief Pearse, shouting: ‘Fuck the nations of the world.’(p. 114) At this critical moment in time, it is the class differences which prove to be stronger than any political union. Connolly intervenes and tells Henry in confidence about how little respect he has himself for their allies, those Catholic capitalists. Despite their attempts to put an end to the looting without bloodshed, it continues. Even Granny Nash appears with a big stack of books. In the meantime, government troops have recaptured all the strategic points of the rebels, although at this point in time those barricaded in the General Post Office are completely unaware of this. The sound of gunfire draws closer and machine guns are being installed on all the surrounding rooftops. Liberty Hall is bombed out and Connolly is delighted that they are finally being taken seriously. With that, the final battle for the Post Office begins. At this most crucial point, Henry is not at his post but in the cellar with Miss O’Shea, where they sleep together on top of several blocks of stamps. Henry had imagined he would be in charge, but it is Miss O’Shea who takes control. She gives the orders and he has to follow them. She is still his teacher! They reach their climax together while the walls shake around them. Afterwards, Henry and Miss O’Shea Miss O’Shea tells Henry that she is there because she, too, wants to be free. She wants the right to be able to act like a man. But Henry thinks the most important thing is not to care about what others think.

32

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary The battles outside in the city are of unimaginable cruelty. Connolly orders tunnels to be dug to neighbouring buildings. Henry joins his comrades again. Under the unceasing fire of the besiegers, the insurgents work on their escape routes. Wednesday turns into Thursday. The city is on fire. The barricades start to burn. The heat is unbearable and everywhere there are dead and injured people. Connolly, Henry’s surrogate father, is hit and will more than likely lose his leg. It was Connolly who had taught them to believe in themselves. Everyone is starting to get scared now. The refinery is hit and oil barrels rain down from the sky, resulting in a fire storm. The besieged insurgents manage to break through underground to the theatre. But first Henry is sent to Connolly and then onto the roof of the building to ensure that air vents are kept clear. If he does not succeed, the post office will burn out from the inside. From the rooftop, Henry has a view across the city and can see the level of destruction. The Red Cross is helping women out of the side entrance of the building. Miss O’Shea is among them, but only reluctantly. She does not notice Henry. Once back on the ground floor, he is informed that the rebels who are still besieged are going to try and make a run for it. Henry is one of the first group of 30 men to try. He dives into a front entrance and is the only one to survive. All the others The surrender succumb to the hail of bullets. Then, on Saturday night, the insurgents capitulate. They are led away and disarmed. Even Henry’s father’s wooden leg is thrown into the fire, despite Henry’s best efforts to save it. The next day, the prisoners are led through the city to Richmond barracks. The crowd spits on them and insults them. Henry can understand their anger. In the barracks they are again mistreated. De Valera, the last insurgent to capitulate, is brought there. A picture is taken that is going to become famous. Henry is standing next to De Valera but does not make it into the picture, only his elbow does. And even that is edited out later.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

33

2.2 Summary At regular intervals, insurgents are brought out of their cells and shot. At the next roll call, Henry manages to escape. He smells the water, runs towards it and pulls up a manhole cover, thus shielding himself from the bullets of the guards, and drops into a dark hole of nothing. He escapes and flees to Piano-Annie. While other prominent insurgents are shot, Henry becomes Annie’s lover. In the night after his escape, Henry manages to find his father’s lightly singed wooden leg. Annie helps him to cope with his nightmares. The mood in the city has already changed again. Pictures of the insurgents who have been executed sell like hotcakes and the legend of the Easter Rising is born. Wearing Annie’s dead husband’s clothes, Henry ventures out into the street again with Annie by his side. The prisoners that are being sent to England pass by. A few men recognise Henry, amongst them Michael Collins, and they make signs at each other. On Friday, 12 May 1916, a seriously ill James Connolly is tied to a chair and shot. He is the last of the leaders to die. Annie predicts that Henry will become one of the future heroes of the movement: ‘They’ll need new men to shoot and love.’ (p. 147) Part 3: Henry, the hero – the rise of Sinn Féin (p. 149–289) Chapter Seven: Henry’s year working on the docks, his return into the newly formed movement (p. 151–184) With Annie’s help, Henry manages to get a job from the autumn of 1916 working as a labourer on the docks under a false name (Fergus Nash). The work is hard and damaging to his health; often 30-yearold dockers’ bodies are wrecks. However, the 14-year-old Henry is in good shape. He feels alive. He enjoys being part of the hardest men around. Like the other workers, he, too, diverts some of the goods for Annie’s and his own use. The following months pass with working, drinking, and life with Annie. Meanwhile, there are signs that the flames of the Easter Rising have not been extinguished. By-elections are won by Sinn Féin candidates.

34

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary The first fighters begin to return from British prisons but Henry does not feel part of the movement any more. One day, Annie’s dead husband, for whom the war is over after losing his hand, opens the door instead of her. Henry quickly manages to conceal his surprise by pretending to have drunkenly knocked on the wrong door. That same night, Henry tries to find his mother again, but without success. He seeks out Granny Nash Granny Nash who either does not know, or is unwilling to say, where she is. (Later, she claims that his mother is dead.) However, she does hint at a link between Henry’s father and Alfie Gandon. When Henry tries to get more information out of her, she demands more reading material. From then on, every time he brings her books she is interested in, she divulges another small piece of information. Henry patiently tries to piece the puzzle together. Henry also tries to find Miss O’Shea, whom he has never stopped thinking about. But she too has disappeared. He starts watching the entrance to Dolly Oblong’s brothel and sees Alfie Gandon coming and going. He is an elegant businessman who allegedly is connected to the War of Independence, but whom Granny Nash also refers to as a murderer. His relationship with Annie continues, but is severely reduced. When her husband is at work on the docks, she puts Henry’s father’s wooden leg into the window to give him a sign. Henry goes up to her room for a quickie. One day, Henry is approached on the docks by a stranger who knows his real name. He first takes him to be a plain-clothes policeman, a member of the political police known as G-men, but then his confidence in the stranger who introduces himself as Jack Dalton grows. He has just been released from a British prison. He was one of the occupiers of the College of the Surgeons during the Easter Rising. Immediately after returning to Ireland, he signed up with the Volunteers. Jack lets Henry stay over and they quickly Jack Dalton become friends. Henry learns much to his surprise that he has become one of the popular heroes of the Easter 2. Text analysis and interpretation

35

2.2 Summary Rising. There is even a song about him. He feels flattered and his self-confidence is boosted by this. Jack Dalton is an intellectual, an architect, who has big plans for rebuilding Ireland. He says that later he would like to name a bridge after Henry, but first Ireland needed to be liberated. Henry allows himself to get carried away by Jack’s visions and is now ready to die for Ireland again. Henry spends the next months in a euphoric mood. Convinced that they will eventually win the fight for a free Ireland, the members of the newly forming resistance groups provoke the omnipresent civil servants and spies by training and recruiting new members before their very eyes. They buy weapons and prepare for a new round of conflict. Wherever he goes, Henry is admired by everyone as one of the surviving members of the uprising. He is a living legend. Annie senses the change that is taking place in him. She foresees how it will end, but Henry does not want to know. He is no longer dependent on her. He can now have as many women as he likes. They are queuing up for their three minutes of fame with the hero of the Easter Rising. One of the girls even gets him to bless her rosary. In the end, Henry collects his father’s wooden leg from Annie. More and more men are returning to Dublin from British prisons. A sense of disquiet fills the air. They want to fight again. Things start getting serious and the first internal conflicts break out. Annie’s husband, who in the meantime has joined the movement, is criticized bitterly for having fought for the British army. The fact that he had only been motivated to do so by his financial hardship is of no consequence. Henry stands by and does not say anything, even though he realises that he is betraying everything James Connolly has instilled in him. He does not think he belongs there any more. At this moment of doubt, it is Jack who brings him back into line and draws him more deeply into the heart of the movement. He tells him that he was right not to take sides openly, Henry’s oath of allegiance as half of the men were spies anyway and to the Brotherhood the other half idiots. He believes that if they go on with their childish squabbles, this will serve to distract

36

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary the attention of the police from the group’s real activities. There were cells within cells. They were the ones that mattered. That same night, he takes Henry to see Michael Collins, who makes him take the oath of allegiance to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the movement’s secret command. A few days later, Henry commits his first murder; he kills a policeman. Chapter Eight: Preparations in and beyond Dublin (p. 185–204) The murder takes place during an illegal protest rally which is being held to demand prisoner-of-war status for the remaining prisoners of the Easter Rising. Henry beats a secret policeman to death with his father’s wooden leg and remains undiscovered. The incident is supposed to look spontaneous, more or less like an accident. Only the people in Dublin Castle – the headquarters of the political police – are supposed to interpret it as a declaration of war. And the plan works. The opposition overreacts, just as anticipated. During the ensuing conflict, large sections of the population now withdraw their support for the British troops, whose overbearing manner they are beginning to despise more and more, and take sides with the freedom fighters instead. Jack points out to Henry that they are about to make history. Collins sends Henry back down to the docks where he receives the shipment of arms and other materials which are to be distributed by other couriers across the country. Henry learns more about Alfie Gandon from Granny Nash. From Jack Dalton, whom he also asks, he hears only words of praise: Gandon is said to be a benefactor to many and represents the honorable face of the resistance movement. Henry is confused by these conflicting pieces of information. Then, Thomas Ashe, a veteran of 1916 and Michael Collins close friend of Michael Collins’, dies after being force-fed by the British in an attempt to end his hunger strike. His funeral is designed as a grand protest rally against Britain. Jack and Henry write a song about him, which is printed and distributed the very same evening. Collins develops into a brilliant strategist and proves himself to be a true master of disguise. He equips Jack and Henry with business 2. Text analysis and interpretation

37

2.2 Summary suits which turn out to provide them with the perfect cover. Collins passes through police checkpoints without showing the least sign of nerves. He has his own spies in the enemy’s headquarters who are helping him carry together information such as names, faces and addresses. Henry is not bothered by the fact that he will have to commit further murders because he does not consider policemen to be human beings. In any case, he comes from a family of police murderers after all. Bicycles become strategically important. Collins explains that men on bicycles are his cavalry, so Henry obtains one and learns to ride it. His first important assignment leads him to Granard. For the first time in his life, he leaves Dublin. It is one hell of a ride but he reaches his destination and is greeted there by Collins. The assignment was only a test; the envelopes he had been given to transport were empty. He had been under surveillance for the whole journey and had proved himself to be reliant. Collins Cycling through the countryside starts a small fight that nearly costs Henry his eye. He regains consciousness in the care of an old woman whose name is O’Shea and who sympathises with the resistance movement. Henry hopes that he has ended up with Miss O’Shea’s mother. But she denies having a daughter who is a teacher. Once they are back in Dublin, Collins informs Henry that the time for the next phase has come. The lads in the country need to be drilled and trained up in the use of weapons. The best of them are destined to fight for the movement. It is Henry’s role to be one of the inner circle. Chapter Nine: Recruiting youth from the countryside; reunion with Miss O’Shea and marriage; contract killings (p. 205–257) Before Henry sets off to enlist youth from the countryside to the movement, he goes to see Annie for the last time. At the end of 1918, a General Election takes place, in which Sinn Féin win many of the votes and mandates. Within a short space of time, the party has been successful in convincing the broad middle-classes that they are a respectable alternative. However, at this stage these supporters are

38

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary still completely unaware of the fact that the party is also the headquarters of the underground terrorist movement. Michael Collins, Jack Dalton, Alfie Gandon and others are voted into parliament. Henry is too young to stand as a candidate. He does not realise until a lot later, in 1922, that he was not even asked. The same is true for other fighters from the lower classes, like Annie’s husband. Their role is only to carry out orders and to kill. For the time being, though, Henry does not think of himself as just a henchman, but rather as a living legend, as one of the chosen ones. During the election campaign, Sinn Féin had promised not to accept any seats in Westminster. So in early 1919, an Irish parliament convenes instead. De Valera, who like numerous other candidates is still sitting in a British prison, is elected the new President in his absence. Collins is appointed Minister for Finance, Gandon becomes Minister for Trade and the Navy. The murder of two policemen, which had not been carried out on the orders the party, but by a few impatient lads from the country whom Henry had been drilling, triggers the start of the Irish War of Independence the same day. In the meantime, there is a warrant out for Henry’s arrest. One of his missions leads him to the place where the old Miss O’Shea lives. He recruits and trains another group of young fighters there. To all intents and purposes, he does not need to teach them anything. He only needs to instil in them a sense of discipline and a sense of their own self-importance – from now on, they are outlaws and one wrong word can mean the death of a comrade. They need to rid themselves of their deep-rooted respect for the squires and the rural upper classes. Henry, because he is from Dublin, is regarded with a mixture of both hostile defiance and deep respect. One of the group, Ivan Reynolds, Missis O’Shea’s nephew, Ivan Reynolds to whom Henry becomes close, shows himself to be the born leader. For the first time in his life, Henry is given fresh vegetables to eat at Missis O’Shea’s. He thinks that this kind of food is worth dying for. Henry travels a lot and is often lonely. During this time, he starts to think about all the people that have been important to him in his life, 2. Text analysis and interpretation

39

2.2 Summary especially his parents, Victor, Connolly, his comrade Paddy, and Miss O’Shea, of course. The British military introduce restricted zones. Sinn Féin make sure that the situation escalates by systematically carrying out terrorist activities. The first dead people are found with a sign on them reading ‘spy – killed by the IRA’. One day, Missis O’Shea greets him with the news that her well has run dry. Henry promises to find her a new source for her. He still trusts in his ability to find water, even though he has not used this skill for a very long time. He takes his father’s wooden leg and searches the surrounding area. Suddenly, Miss O’Shea appears in front of him and starts talking to him. The old Missis O’Shea is her mother after all. Miss O’Shea looks as if she has been ill for a long time. They vow to see each other more often. Once alone again, Henry finds a new source of water. On 12 September 1919, Henry and Miss Marriage to Miss O’Shea O’Shea get married. Collins has provided him with a birth certificate that makes the 18-year-old four years older. Miss O’Shea is 32. During the ceremony, Henry covers his ears with his hands when the priest addresses his bride by her Christian name. He wants her to remain Miss O’Shea to him. Ivan acts as their witness because Jack Dalton, who had actually been chosen, has apparently not been able to make it through the barricades. The day runs smoothly. Ivan’s men are standing guard and have taken a British officer as a hostage as a precaution. In the meantime, Ivan has built up a ruthless and brutal regiment which has the surrounding area completely under its control. On the day of their marriage, the Irish Parliament is declared illegal by the British Parliament. A picture is taken of the bride and groom which Henry carries with him until years later it is burnt before his eyes, just before he is about to be shot in an old Chicago warehouse. When Henry tells Granny Nash at the next opportunity that he has married, she tells him (as her wedding gift to him) that Alfie Gandon has not changed in the least since Henry’s father used to carry out killings for him.

40

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary After returning to Dublin, Henry becomes an assassin himself. He is one of Michael Collins ‘twelve apostles’, a secret elite of assassins. He is passed a piece of paper with a name on it, and it is his job to carry out the murder – often in conjunction with another assassin. This is the fate that befalls Smith, a policeman and a father of seven, who is shot in broad daylight almost in front of his own house. The message to their enemies is clear: they will never ever be able to feel safe anywhere. Since Henry’s apartment in Dublin – the room he once shared with Jack – is now also under permanent observation, there is nowhere in his home town where he can feel safe either. Thus, he roams the streets at night. On one of these trips he meets David Climanis, a Jew who was driven out David Climanis of Latvia by the Russians, and who now lives in Dublin with his Irish wife and earns his living from carving pipes. Mister Climanis gives Henry a case of pipe samples so that he can pass himself off as a simple salesman at the British checkpoints when he travels across the country. He carves Henry’s face onto the head of the last pipe. Henry gives it to Miss O’Shea as a wedding present. In the meantime, Miss O’Shea has decided that she no longer wants to be just the wife of an underground fighter and carries out guerilla warfare with him. Together, they rob a post office. Their getaway vehicle is Henry’s bike. Miss O’Shea sits on the crossbar and steers while Henry peddles holding a machine gun attached to a device on the crossbar (an invention that Miss O’Shea came up with). The loot goes into the war fund (apart from the ten percent that Henry keeps for himself as always.) Henry thinks that these activities will provide the material for future ballads. Back in Dublin, he meets up with Jack whom he has not seen for over a year. He asks him who the Jew is that Henry has been spending so much time with. Jack orders him in no uncertain terms to steer clear of Climanis. Apart from this minor irritation, Henry enjoys catching up with Jack again. He feels isolated in the countryside despite being with Miss O’Shea, and often misses Dublin. Jack has no illusions about their current situation: He thinks they 2. Text analysis and interpretation

41

2.2 Summary have no chance of winning the war. The only hope they have is that the British occupying force will tire of their relentless campaign and leave them to get on with it themselves. But until that day came, they needed to reckon with the never-ending supply of British forces and arms. Everything that had happened up to now had only been the beginning. Jack says that he is tired of his role within the movement as the writer of ballads and speeches and as a specialist in propaganda, and goes on to say that he envies Henry because he is the one that people will remember. The chapter that began with a farewell to Annie ends with the assassination of Annie’s husband: ‘Shot as a traitor and a spy. The IRA.’ (p. 256) Chapter Ten: Severe injury; a Catholic miracle; a further killing (p. 258–289) The British forces have recently started to send war veterans into the conflict, the ‘Black and Tans’ (p. 258), who are brutal and experienced fighters. To obtain new arms, Henry, Miss O’Shea and Ivan’s troops attack a barracks. Just as the soldiers are ready to capitulate, back-up arrives in the form of four cars packed with Tans. The rebels are forced to flee and run across a field floodlit by enemy headlights. Miss O’Shea is hit in the arm by three bullets, and as Henry tries to carry her to safety, he is hit in the chest. So Miss O’Shea ends up carrying him. Suffering from traumatic fever, Henry is not really aware that he is being moved from one place of hiding to the next. When he finally comes round, an old man and his daughter are taking care of him. The daughter is keen to sleep with him but since she is ugly, it does not seem an appealing prospect to him. That night, Miss O’Shea comes to pick him up and they make a clandestine getaway. Having recovered relatively quickly from her injuries, Miss O’Shea now feels invincible and that she can stand up to anything. While Henry has been recovering, she has car‘Our Lady of the Machine Gun’ ried on the fight and has earned herself the name of ‘Our Lady of the Machine Gun’ (p. 273). Henry, who is

42

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary still weak from his injuries, and Miss O’Shea spend the following time escaping from the British soldiers. The Black and Tans are brutal in the extreme, even towards the civilian population. When they wreak havoc in the village of Templemore, a seminarian (a budding priest) is visited by an apparition: The holy shrines start bleeding and within a short period of time the village becomes a place of pilgrimage.The police and the army keep away from it. The town now belongs to the pilgrims and the IRA, who use it as a cover to distribute arms. When the miracles which are needed to prolong these exceptional circumstances cease, Henry and Miss O’Shea travel to Templemore, on the orders of Michael Collins, to stage a fake one using the wooden leg. The illusion pays off. While Henry is there, he receives his next assignment. He is ordered to return to Dublin. Before carrying out his next assassination, Henry meets Mister Climanis again. It has been nearly a year since Jack Dalton had ordered him not to see Climanis again. Henry had not been able to give him any warning at the time. Now he informs him that his life is in danger. His usually amiable acquaintance withdraws from Henry on hearing this. He barely thanks him and leaves. On the morning of the 21 November 1920, a large-scale IRA operation takes place against the members of Assassination of the ‘Cairo Gang’ the ‘Cairo Gang’, British Intelligence agents who are dangerously near to closing in on Michael Collins. To prevent his own elimination, Collins orders 13 secret agents to be assassinated at different locations all over Dublin. Henry carries out on of those murders with other hit men. Part Four: Renunciation of the movement and from the fight (p. 291–342) Chapter Eleven: Imprisonment, torture and escape (p. 293–309) Henry is tracked down and overpowered when he carelessly decides to pay his grandmother a visit in the evening after the killings. He is beaten and his toes are broken. Henry knows that under no circumstances can he reveal his true identity because once his captors have discovered who he really is, he will be shot. But before that can 2. Text analysis and interpretation

43

2.2 Summary happen, they need confirmation from him. They have already killed too many innocent people and cannot afford to make any further mistakes. In the meantime, the public the world over has started to take a close interest in the way the British have been behaving in Dublin. Despite their tactics of violence, Henry insists that his name is Fergus Nash. First of all, Henry is imprisoned in Dublin Castle but is then later moved to Kilmainham, where the those sentenced to death after the Easter Rising had been shot in 1916. He is joined twice in his cell by Ned Kellet, who addresses him as Henry Ned Kellet Smart. Despite Kellet’s assurances of not being a spy, Henry keeps his distance. After the British have failed for the second time to get Henry to reveal his real name with Kellet’s help, Kellet is (allegedly) shot. Even an identity parade, at which the person who is supposed to identify him is concealed behind a glass screen, is not able to conclude satisfactorily that his real name is Henry Smart, or does not provide sufficient evidence against him. On this occasion, Henry also sees Jack Dalton again. He has also been badly mistreated while in prison. Henry manages to escape on 21 March 1921. Miss O’Shea has bribed the prison guard who leaves the cell unlocked and gives him money for the tram. After four months of torture and imprisonment, Henry feels like an old man; his body has been systematically broken down. A few stops later, his wife boards the tram. Her hair is very short. Shortly after Templemore, her head had been shaved by Ivan’s people. She had crossed their path once too often. Henry promises to kill Ivan but Miss O’Shea dismisses this idea as there are more important issues. Chapter Twelve: Henry’s insight into his role as a useful idiot; his revenge on Alfie Gandon and his departure into a new life (p. 310–342) Henry is still on the run but at the same time is recuperating in the good care of his wife, who is now pregnant again. While spending the night in the ruins of an old birthing center, Ivan pays him a visit.

44

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary He wants Henry to persuade his wife to give up her guerilla warfare. He says that in the past few months he has Ivan, the businessman discovered that he is much better at doing business than at fighting. London and Dublin are now engaged in negotiations and the war will soon end. Ivan has made secret contact with the British in the area he controls and has already reached an agreement with them. The deal is that he will organise a ceasefire and the British will do nothing without his approval. The Tans must continue to be seen to be committing their acts of brutality, but this will only be for show. Ivan is convinced that once the war is over he will be elected and will continue to rule as the man who brought freedom to the people, and because he will still be feared by them. The campaign led by Henry’s wife’s is interfering with Ivan’s plans. Henry responds by telling him that he has no say over his wife’s actions, but in the end he says that he is willing to talk to her. Ivan also makes it clear to him that the only reason that Henry is still alive is out of personal respect for him. On his last visit to Dublin, people had given him to understand that they would not be sorry to see him eliminated. He advises Henry to leave the country for America and promises to give him the financial assistance he needs to do so. Henry begins to understand that in all those long years he has been nothing but a useful henchman working in the interests of others. All the assassinations that he has committed without ever questioning them, all the pain and persecution to which he has been subjected were all in vain. They did not serve a higher purpose. They merely provided a smoke screen for dirty deals. On the morning after their conversation, the barn in which the old Missis O’Shea has been living since the destruction of her house, is set on fire by the Tans. The incident is proof that Ivan is not bluffing. Shortly afterwards, Henry meets up with his wife and at least manages to persuade her to continue to operate outside of Ivan’s area. Then, he returns to Dublin where he searches in vain for David Climanis and his wife. They have disappeared and new people occupy their old apartment. He does not contact anyone from the organisation, but realises that he is being watched. Finally, he goes to see Jack 2. Text analysis and interpretation

45

2.2 Summary Dalton. At first Jack denies knowing anything about Climanis, but then admits that he has been liquidated for spying. His wife is also dead. Henry denies that Climanis was a spy. Jack becomes aggressive, saying that they had not fought for Henry, the ‘trouble-maker’ the independence of Ireland for them to hand over their country to the Jews. Jack further accuses Henry of not always having had the right ideological conviction himself, at least not until the day he had heard that song about himself. As it turns out, he informs him, that ballad had only been used as bait, the cheapest way of paying Henry for his services. For the last time, Jack passes Henry a piece of paper with a name on it. It is Henry’s. Jack asks him if he wants to carry out the assassination himself. Henry says no. He notices that the handwriting on the piece of paper is not Jack’s, and the latter confirms that he himself would not have put Henry’s name on the list, but it was on it all the same. Henry was nothing more than a ‘trouble-maker’ (p. 327), even if he was the best in the business. But now, he had served his purpose and his services were no longer needed. With that, Jack puts the piece of paper back into a drawer, thus signaling to him that he will allow him a little time. In spite of this, two killers Henry used to work with are already waiting for him on the street. Taking them by surprise, he runs off, loses them and for the last time he hides in the sewerage system. For the next few months, for almost a whole year, Henry is on the run. In July, a ceasefire is agreed between Britain and Ireland. Henry remains underground while the Irish Free State is being created and the country is descending into Civil War. On the day Michael Collins is murdered, Henry sees his five-month-old daughter, who is staying with the old Missis O’Shea, for the first time. His wife carries on fighting. Henry, however, has given up on the cause. He returns to Dublin once more. Granny Nash tells him that Alfie Gandon was responsible for killing Climanis and that his wife has been locked up in Kilmainham, which now serves as a women’s prison. Henry gains access to Dolly Oblong’s brothel, forces his way into her room and waits for Mister Gandon, who has not yet been

46

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.2 Summary able to bring himself to sever his ties with his old contacts. However, Dolly Oblong suspects that this may happen soon and that he will kill her when it does. Henry is one step ahead. He kills Gandon, who recognises him as the son of his former Back to Dolly Oblong henchman, with his father’s wooden leg. Alfie Gandon had ordered Climanis to be killed because his wife had been one of his prostitutes. After this final murder, Henry disposes of his wooden leg, which has now served its purpose. Before leaving the country, he manages to contact his wife again. Their communication consists only of a few brief shouts at each other. Miss O’Shea promises to search for him after her release. Henry is twenty-yearsold when he starts afresh. Against all the odds, he is still alive. He goes off on an uncertain path into the future.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

47

2.3 Structure

2.3 Structure When examining Roddy Doyle’s novel, it is important to pay particular attention to the relationship between The relationship between the the narrated time and the narrating time. narrated time and the narrating On the one hand, the main plot is based time around the story of Henry Smart’s life up to the age of 20, on the other, it is about the Irish Struggle for Independence between 1916 and 1922. Within the two storylines, which not only move forward continuously side by side but are also closely interwoven with each other, the narrative pace at times varies quite considerably. The narrative structure of the novel alternates between vivid descriptions that bring important scenes to life and factual reports which are presented in summary form. Several flashbacks are interspersed throughout, which serve either to fill in information that has previously been omitted or to explain the context or give reasons for certain events. Some of the passages contain hints about forthcoming events awaiting the country and, in particular, the hero, but which are beyond the scope of those recounted in this novel (see chapter 2.6 of this study guide). In a novel such as A Star Called Henry, which is packed with a wealth of material, a fluctuating narrative pace is to be expected and is also difficult to avoid. The narrator has to make a choice, he has to decide which elements need to be emphasized so as to allow individual episodes to be portrayed as vividly as possible and to be experienced by the reader at close hand (which takes up space). In return, he needs to summarise, or even leave out other parts entirely (not only in order to move the story forward and prevent the reader from tiring of it, but also because not everything can be of equal importance). The ever changing pace of the novel, sometimes moving more quickly, sometimes more slowly, and the unequal number of pages allocated to different events in the book give important clues to the structure of the novel.

48

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.3 Structure

Part One June 1987 October 1901 1904–1906 July 1907 1907–1910 Part Two 24 April – 12 May 1916 Part Three 1916–1917 1917–1918 December 1918 – January 1920 1920 Part Four November 1920– March 1921 March 1921– August 1922

Henry‘s parents meet (chapter one) Henry‘s birth and the first week of his life (chapter two) The family breaks apart Henry‘s life between the age of 3 and 5 (chapter three) Henry’s escape from the police and the disappearance of his father (chapter four) Henry and Victor go to school and meet Miss O‘Shea (chapter five) Easter Rising (chapter six)

Henry becomes a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (chapter seven) Henry goes to the countryside to seek new recruits (chapter eight) Miss O‘Shea, Marriage on 12 September 1919 (chapter nine) Henry is wounded and ‘Bloody Sunday‘ on 21 November 1920 (chapter ten) Imprisonment (chapter eleven) He escapes and takes revenge (chapter twelve)

The first chapter (consisting of 17 pages) functions as a prologue. The reader finds out about Henry’s parents and about their first meeting in June 1897, in particular (p. 7). However, the real story does not actually begin until Henry’s birth on 8 October 1901 (p. 22) 2. Text analysis and interpretation

49

2.3 Structure in the second chapter. This becomes quite clear towards the end of the first chapter when the narrator tells the reader: ‘I’m just around the corner, gathering steam. (…) I’m looking for the door, trying to find my way in. It’s dark, but I’m nearly there.’ (p. 14, see also the beginning of chapter two, p. 18)12 Most of the second chapter (p. 18–35) is devoted to the relatively short time period of Henry’s birth and the glory of his subsequent first week of life. At long last, the depressing and hopeless circumstances of his parents’ lives so far are miraculously reversed by the arrival of this radiant hero, a baby who exceeds all expectations and who enters the story very much as the Saviour. This makes the renewed plight which is about to befall the family all the harder to bear: Both parents, who had had so much hope in their hearts, and even the baby (who is equipped with a sense of perception far beyond his years) now descend into a state of deep despair. The baby experiences this crisis at close hand and is shockingly aware of it, in the way the narrator must later have imagined these events to have taken place at that time. Henry’s birth was supposed to save the family; instead, it breaks it apart. The consequences of this break-up are made clear at the end of the second chapter (p. 33 ff.) and in the short A broken home third chapter (p. 36–48): Henry’s mother becomes apathetic and depressed, Henry’s father abandons his family and becomes his boss’ (Dolly Oblong’s) slave, and Henry takes to the streets. While the father’s reaction to this new situation, which, chronologically speaking, follows on closely from the events of chapter two, is described in graphic detail (his conversation with Dolly Oblong, p. 38–43), Henry’s experiences on the streets (between the age of three and five, p. 45 and 48) are merely summarised (p. 44–48). At the end of the chapter, his brother,Victor, who in the subsequent years will become Henry’s constant companion, makes his debut. He is around four years younger than Henry (p. 48).13 12 This narrative style of referring to a character who has not yet been born is reminiscent of Laurence Stern’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760–1767). 13 Henry informs the reader about two other babies who have been born in the meantime, Alexander and Susie (p. 44), who were followed by ‘another new baby’ (p. 47) and two further ones who died shortly after birth (‘Two Victors … I saw neither of them’, p. 47). If this is true, Melody Nash must have been pregnant six times following Henry’s birth. In this point, the time frame of novel appears not to be correct.

50

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.3 Structure Chapter four (p. 49–62) contains an event of pivotal importance which the narrator again describes in great detail. In July 1907 (p. 51), Henry sees his father for the last time when he rescues Henry and Victor from an angry mob and from the police, after Henry has shouted terrible insults at the British monarch during his visit to Dublin. Henry is still five years old.14 For once in his life, his father lives up to his responsibilities as such (even though the circumstances leading up to his intervention are more accidental than anything else.) However, he is there at the right moment and he protects his children. Just how much Henry is in need of a father figure like this is illustrated by his desperate overreaction to his father’s renewed departure once his children are safe (p. 51). Henry believes – rightly, as it turns out – that he will never see him again. At this point, it becomes clear that it is all too much for the five-year-old Henry, who is not only having to look after himself, but is having to care for his younger brother as well.His emotional outburst (‘And I loved him so much.’ p. 60) merely serves to further underline the extent of his disappointment at his father. This chapter, which only covers more or less 24 hours, ends with the arrest of his father and his escape the next morning (p. 60–62). In chapter five (p. 63–84), which concludes the first part of the novel, Henry meets Miss O’Shea (p. 71–79) First meeting with Miss O’Shea and shortly after that loses Victor, the companion of his childhood years (p. 80–83).15 These two crucial events are preceeded by a summarised report of Henry and Victor’s life in the three years following the episode described in chapter four (p. 63–70). Henry’s words both at the beginning and at the end of the chapter: ‘I shared everything with Victor (…). There was never me; ‘it was always us.’ (p. 63) ‘Us. We. I’d no more use for those words.’ (p. 81) serve to emphasize the symbiotic nature of the relationship between the two brothers. Some years later, it will be Miss O’Shea 14 Victor cannot be older than two according to the time scale provided at the end of chapter three. However, no two-year-old could act in the way Victor does in this episode. This contradiction is either down to an error in the construction of the plot or serves as an indication to the reader that the credibility of the narrator is only limited. 15 See p. 71 (‘Nearly nine, I said.’) and p. 82 (‘I was only nine.’)

2. Text analysis and interpretation

51

2.3 Structure who takes Victor’s place. The brother is replaced by the lover who later becomes his wife and closest comrade in arms. The literary historian Clement Lugowski calls this phe‘Motivation from behind‘ nomenon a ‘motivation from behind’: The introduction of Miss O’Shea into the story means that Victor has to go, so that she can fill the gap that he leaves behind. It is Victor himself, who, on their first day at school, predicts his own replacement when he naively asks his brother: ‘–She was nice, wasn’t she? said Victor. / –Yeah, I said. / –Are you going to marry her? / –Don’t know, I said. –I might.’ (p. 73 f.) There is a five-year gap between the first and the second part of the novel. When the plot continues, the reader finds himself in the early stages of the Easter Rising of 1916. The whole of the second part of the novel, chapter six (p. 87–134) is dedicated to the events of the rebellion (six days, from 24th to 29th April 1916,16 p. 87–134) and its immediate aftermath (29 April until 12 May,17 p. 134–148), but also includes a retrospective account of the events leading up to the rebellion (p. 91–95 and 96 ff.) as well as a few details about the five years missing from Henry’s life (especially p. 91, 96 and 127). In the midst of the rebellion, Henry sees Miss O’Shea again (p. 107–109) and becomes her lover (p. 119–124). They both remain outsiders within the independence movement. This is partly due to their own behaviour and partly to the behaviour of the others towards them. The conduct of each side is necessitated by the other. Although their togetherness, over and beyond the sexual aspect, is illustrated very clearly here, they are nevertheless torn apart again. They lose sight of each other, but this time, the reader can safely assume that their paths have not crossed for the last time. This is done to create an air of expectation and dramatic suspense and thus to encourage the reader to continue on with the story. However, before this happens, the role of Miss O’Shea as Henry’s lover and confidante falls to Annie, a character who was introduced into the story during the early stages of the rebellion – even before Henry had met 16 See p. 90 and 135 17 See p. 135 and 147

52

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.3 Structure up with Miss O’Shea again – and who is clearly going to become important to Henry, too, as is made obvious when he tells her: ‘I’ll come looking for you, Annie, I said.’ (p. 104). After his escape from British captivity after the end of the rebellion, it is with Annie that Henry seeks refuge. (p. 141–148) The third part of the novel (p. 149–289) follows directly on from the events previously described and ends on 21 November 1920 (see p. 285 and 297), thus covering a time period of four and a half years. These four years are so full of political and military events that they are recounted more and more in the form of a summary. As before, there are still a number of episodes which are described in graphic detail to create vividness and the illusion of proximity, but, as a rule, these are by far less detailed than those in chapter four (Henry and Victor are rescued by their father) and chapter six (defending the General Post Office). At first, Henry hangs around at Annie’s with nothing to do (p. 151). Then she manages to find him a job as a labourer on the docks (see p. 152, 159 and 160) for about a year (see p. 151–167). Following an encounter with Jack Dalton there, he decides to return to the political battle. The new direction that his life is Return to the political battle now taking is further underlined by his new living arrangements. Henry, who had first spent months living with Annie before returning to the streets (p. 160, 162, 164 and 166) after they have gradually drifted apart – the return of her husband from the First World War (p. 160–162) earlier than expected merely marks the end point of their relationship –, now moves in with Jack. ‘The night before I’d been homeless and alone and now I was warm and full, in the wild and generous company of Jack Dalton, my new friend and old comrade in arms.’ (p. 171) In the same way that the first chapter of the novel serves as a prologue to Henry’s life story, it appears, in the light of the events narrated in parts three and four, that the function of part two (the Easter Rising in 1916) is to provide a detailed preface to the historical events recounted in the novel (but also, as it gradually transpires, to provide a contrast to the second, nasty phase of the rebellion). Henry’s year 2. Text analysis and interpretation

53

2.3 Structure of working on the docks not only separates the second prologue from the descriptions of the subsequent events, but also fills in – to some extent in the form of a delaying factor – the gap of one year which was needed by the movement to regain its strength and to re-form following their defeat in 1916. The real struggle of the Irish for self-determination, which starts halfway through chapter seven (p. 172), Underground fighter and hit man takes up the whole of the second half of the novel and is divided up into several phases: The first phase, which sees the formation of new groups and takes place in a relatively harmless and rather playful manner and lasts for several months (p. 172–180) is followed by a second phase which is marked by a number of ideological disagreements (p. 180–183). Henry is bored to tears and he is beginning to detest the movement, so Jack Dalton and Michael Collins decide to involve him more closely: They make him a member of the ‘Irish Republican Brotherhood, the secret society at the centre of the centre of all things.’ (p. 184) This marks the beginning of a contrarotating-movement: While his ‘commanding officers’ (Jack Dalton and Michael Collins) become protagonists of achieving success by legal means (see p. 207 and 209), Henry becomes a wanted man (see p. 209 f.), a military instructor, partisan and hit man of the underground movement (chapter eight). This development is then taken further in the third part of the novel when Henry is sent into the countryside (first on p. 195–203), where he feels alienated, isolated and marginalised (see p. 227 f.). However, he does meet Miss O’Shea again there (p. 229–231, chapter nine), whom he marries soon after on 12 September 1919 (p. 232–236).18 Neither ‘Mick nor Jack’, as the narrator refers to them on this occasion with an air of familiarity, take part in the wedding 18 On the same day the Irish Parliament is declared illegal by Westminster (p. 236). The choice of date is an attempt to link the marriage with the dissolution of the Irish Parliament. The author enjoys linking actual historical events with Henry’s life story. He also links the day Henry sees his five-month-old daughter for the first time with the date Michael Collins is murdered (p. 329): While his daughter stands for hope in a new future and innocence, as indicated by her name, Saoirse (meaning ‘Freedom’), the dubious figure of Michael Collins who has turned Henry into a hit man has lost the moral right to represent the new fair Ireland.

54

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.3 Structure despite having accepted an invitation (Jack was even supposed to be the best man) which is indicative of Henry’s waning importance. His marriage to Miss O’Shea not only isolates him further, but also makes him become an annoyance to his superiors, because Miss O’Shea – unlike Henry, who, despite for a long time trying to pretend otherwise, is in fact very good at following orders – shows herself unwilling to follow any instructions at all. Not only does she insist on taking an active part in the fight, but also on employing her own ideas to do so. This becomes quite clear in Henry’s conversations with Ivan and with Miss O’Shea in the last chapter (p. 312–319 and p. 319–321). Henry’s friendship with David Climanis (p. 241–246) is symptomatic of his increasing isolation, even when in Dublin. His old friends turn away from him and no longer make him feel welcome. This friendship acts as the catalyst that transforms his inner self: He changes sides; he no longer sides with the perpetrators, but almost becomes a prototype victim instead. His inner transFrom hit man to victim formation is helped by the fact that in chapter ten Henry, who had previously always been on the winning side, for the first time suddenly becomes a victim himself: During a raid on a British barracks he is seriously wounded, from which he takes a long time to recover (p. 258–275). His decision to stop using dum-dum bullets from now on marks a crucial turning point:

‘If it had been one of my bullets, one of the dum-dums, I’d have been pulped. I wasn’t sure why – there was no such thing as a fair fight and there was no God out there to thank – but I decided never to use them again.’ (p. 269)

The next stage on Henry’s road towards his renunciation of violence comes in the form of his four-month imprisonment which is described in chapter eleven (p. 293–309). Chronologically-speaking, this follows directly on from the end of the third part of the novel. Although Henry proves himself to be tough enough, both inwardly and outwardly, not to break down under torture, his body is physically weakened after his successful escape (p. 309). His conversations 2. Text analysis and interpretation

55

2.3 Structure with Ivan Reynolds (p. 312–319) and with Jack Dalton (p. 324–327) in the concluding chapter twelve, finally open his eyes. He is forced to recognise not only the extent to which he has allowed others to misuse him for their own agendas and the extent to which the movement’s leaders have been guided by their own self-serving ideologies and idiosyncrasies (for example, Jack Dalton’s hatred of the Jew, David Climanis), but also the fact that he has earned so little gratitude for himself: His name has been added to a list of traitors that are to be liquidated. As a result, he is now not only wanted by the British, but by his own former allies as well. This last year of the narrative (1921/1922) is merely summarised on one page (p. 328). In the final episode of the novel An act of revenge (p. 332–339) the different strands of the to end the violence plot all come together: Henry commits his final murder. In Dolly Oblong’s establishment, he kills Alfie Gandon, who, like no other, represents the double standards of the leaders of the movement (this has become clear in the course of the novel from the conflicting information about him given by Granny Nash and Jack Dalton). Henry thus takes revenge for the murder of the innocent David Climanis, for his father and lastly for himself. For the first time in his life, he acts openly against the movement that he has always served so obediently. Finally, he disposes of his father’s wooden leg, which until then has accompanied him everywhere. He is now ready for a new start. But the fact that his wife and daughter cannot join him when he leaves the country (Miss O’Shea is in prison) shows that this will not be easy for him, either. Miss O’Shea promises to look for him. Whether she will find him or not is left open.19

19 This open ending is also part of the structure of the novel because it arouses the interest of the reader as to how the story of Henry and Miss O’Shea will develop and allows the author the chance to follow it with a sequel (see chapter 1.3 of this guide).

56

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations

2.4 The characters and their constellations Introductory remarks All the events in A Star Called Henry are narrated from Henry’s perspective and are in some way connected to him as both the narrator and protagonist of the novel. He is both the source and the point at which all ends meet. The world he describes in the novel is the world as he perceives it, or as he would like the reader to perceive it. For this reason, the characterisation of all the important figures in this book, which is packed full of different people, all contribute implicitly to the characterisation of Henry Identity of the protagonist himself. It is also the reason why the analand narrator ysis of Henry’s character has been placed at the end of this chapter in the form of a resume. However, it is not only the other characters in the novel who help the reader to understand and to build up a bigger picture of Henry, but also the narrative style and the storylines which have been examined in other chapters of this guide. In first-person narratives, every word is potentially of importance in relation to the protagonist of the story. This is something that needs to be considered when specific information about the protagonist is given at the end of this chapter. The minor characters in the novel can be divided essentially into two groups: Henry’s family (they dominate the first part of the novel) and Henry’s political friends and leaders (they dominate the second part). Henry’s parents, Granny Nash, and his brother Victor form part of the first group, while James Connolly, Michael Collins, Jack Dalton, Alfie Gandon and Ivan Reynolds form part of the second. Amongst the most important minor figures is Miss O’Shea, who has a special status. Other minor characters who cannot be assigned to either group are Piano-Annie, Dolly Oblong and David Climanis (for lack of space only Piano-Annie will be characterised).

2. Text analysis and interpretation

57

2.4 The characters and their constellations

Main character and first-person narrator Henry Smart (the son), p. 82 of this guide Minor characters (group 1): Henry‘s family Henry Smart (his father), p. 61 Melody Nash (his mother), p. 58 Granny Nash (his grandmother), p. 60 Victor (his brother), p. 63 Henry (the brother who died before Henry was born), p. 63 Minor characters (group 2): Henry‘s political friends and leaders James Connolly (militant workers’ leader), p. 68 Michael Collins (head of the Irish resistance movement), p. 70 Jack Dalton (propagandist), p. 74 Alfie Gandon (the movement‘s secret patron), p. 76 Ivan Reynolds (Henry‘s pupil), p. 79 Minor characters (group 3): Other figures Miss O‘Shea (Henry‘s wife), p. 64 Piano-Annie (Henry‘s lover), p. 66 Dolly Oblong (owner of a brothel) David Climanis (friend) Melody Nash The reader does not learn much about Henry’s mother, simply because Henry is unable to remember much about her before her misfortune began, as he himself explains: ‘I try to make her stand up and walk back, to see her as she had been. (…) but I’ll never see Melody Nash, my sixteen-year-old mother.’ (p. 5) He hardly knows anything about her: ‘And what do I know about poor Mother? Precious little.’ (p. 2) He only knows that she had a pretty name, was born in Dublin and started working in a factory making rosaries at the age of 12. (p. 2 f.). At the age of 16, she met Henry Smart (p. 3) whom she mar-

58

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations ried before her seventeenth birthday (p. 9). When she married, she was totally innocent and naïve according to Henry (p. 9 f.). The first moments of marital bliss (p. 12 f.)20 did not A life without perspective last long. A series of never-ending pregnancies were followed by a never-ending chain of house moves, each time into living conditions more miserable than before. The first children died and the first child to survive (Henry) soon turns into a monster (p. 33 f.) because he senses the ambivalence shown towards him by his mother, who is unable to come to terms with the fact that her newborn son has been given the same name as one of her dead children. Melody Nash is a broken woman, destroyed by her yearning for her dead children. In Henry’s earliest memories, his 20-yearold mother appears ‘already old, already decomposing, ruined beyond repair, good for some more babies, then finished’ (p. 1). From the age of five, Henry follows his father’s example of returning home only sporadically with his brother, Victor, in search of a few precious moments of his mother’s love. ‘If she was on the steps, I’d go over and say hello. She knew me; she’d smile. She’d open her arms and I’d crawl in, with Victor, over the other children, just for a minute. She’d cry, and sometimes I would too.’ (p. 65) He brings her gin. Her alcoholism has progressed so far that she can hardly string a sentence together by that point. Later, they all vanish and are untraceable. Granny Nash claims that they are dead (p. 167 f.). However, she does not know this for certain. That is the last piece of information the reader learns about Henry’s mother. She stands for all the misery, all the human injustice of Henry’s origins. Emotionally de20 Roddy Doyle uses, amongst other things, two literary references to describe the marital bliss of the newlyweds despite their poverty: When he describes Henry and Melody Smart’s room, he incorporates both the title of a famous essay by Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1929), which is about the importance of having one’s own private space for the intellectual development of young women, and E.M. Foster’s novel, A Room with A View (1908), which is about the difficult, but ultimately successful beginning of a happy marriage born out of mutual love, ‘(…) the top front room. A room of their own (…) The front top room, a room with a view.’ (p. 12 f.) Of course, these quotes are used for purposes of irony – the view the newly married couple have from their room is quite miserable – but they nevertheless provide the reader who understands the allusions with a glimmer of hope for the happiness of the couple. The allusions extend well beyond the horizon of the couple, as well as beyond Henry’s. Therefore, it is fair to speak here of a break in the narrative perspective.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

59

2.4 The characters and their constellations stroyed at such a young age, she develops into the passive and somewhat repulsive silent sufferer, until finally she vanishes altogether. Granny Nash The fact that people cannot always blame everything on circumstances beyond their control, that, with the right energy and a thirst for knowledge, individuals are quite capable of overcoming poverty, or of at least keeping it at bay, is clearly demonstrated in the figure of Granny Nash, who has been created to some extent to provide a contrast to her daughter, Melody. It is no coincidence that she enters the story at the same time as her daughter, right at the beginning of the novel, with Henry pointing out how little he knows about her, either. He does not even know her Christian name:

‘I don’t know. (…) I don’t know any of this. (…) I don’t know. She’d become a witch by the time I saw her. Always with her head in a book, looking for spells. She shoved her face forward with ancient certainty, knew every thought behind my eyes. She knew how far evil could drop.’ (p. 2)

While her weak-willed daughter devotes herself to her children (the dead as well as the living), Granny Nash is stubborn and selfish. She is a real bookworm who is always An insatiable bookworm looking for new books to collect and forever giving her expert opinions on them (see p. 188). She is particularly interested in novels written by women (see p. 165), which also demonstrates her unwillingness to give up her own individuality and to the see the world from a male perspective. Granny Nash lives in the real world. She is incredibly well-informed and opinionated. She has a strong sense of survival and a fighting instinct bordering on the grotesque:

60

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations

‘Granny Nash jumped onto one of them and bit him on the cheek. (…) Their neighbours queued up to have a go at the moochers but Granny Nash wasn’t ready to give up and hand over. She was growling and chomping like a scorched bitch from hell; (…)’ (p. 11)

In Henry’s narrative, she has been assigned the role of the oracle. With the appearance of a witch and the penetrating look in her eyes of a clairvoyant, she divulges information, of which neither the source nor what to make of it is clear, nor indeed whether it can be believed. (see p. 23)21 People bring her books and in return, she gives them information and explains the contexts of certain events which are not immediately obvious to the normal observer (see p. 162–164, 165 f., 167 f., 176, 188, 238 f., 241, 288 f., 331 f.). Granny Nash is a picturesque figure and stands for the exaggerations that have been used in the novel (see also p. 117). Henry probably has her to thank for his stubborn will to survive. It is also from her that he learns how to analyse situations and ideas: ‘I took away what clues she gave me and let them fall apart and reassemble’ (p. 164). Henry Smart (the father) From his father, Henry inherits his ability to spin a tale and thus to create his own legend:

‘I know nothing real about my father; I don’t even know if his name was real. There was never a Granda Smart, or a Grandma, no brothers or cousins. He made his life up as he went along. Where was his leg? South Africa, Glasnevin, under the sea. She (Henry’s mother) heard enough stories to bury ten legs. War, an infection, the fairies, a train. He invented himself, and reinvented. He left a trail of Henry Smarts before he finally disappeared. A soldier, a sailor, a butler – the first one-legged butler to serve the Queen. He’d killed sixteen Zulus with the freshly severed limb. / Was he just a liar? No, I don’t think

21 It is possible to conclude from this passage that Granny Nash is ‘(t)he banshee (…), an evil old hag, (…) announcing the coming of death’ (p. 23).

2. Text analysis and interpretation

61

2.4 The characters and their constellations so. He was a survivor; his stories kept him going. Stories were the only things the poor owned. A poor man, he gave himself a life. He filled the hole with many lives.’ (p. 7) Seen from his son’s perspective, Henry Smart is a man full of contradictions. He is a huge man (see p. 3), who is so strong that not even a dozen policemen can keep him under control (see p. 53 ff. and 60 f.), but at the same time he is also a cripple who falls over into the dirt in front of the feet of his future wife on their first meeting (see p. 3 ff.). He works as a bouncer for Dolly Oblong’s brothel and at a glance he is able to distinguish the good customers A man full of contradictions from the bad (see p. 15), but he draws the wrong conclusion about his boss and Alfie Gandon (see p. 41–43). He longs to have children (see p. 15 and 26), but ends up abandoning them. He is a sensitive man (see p. 30 f. and 37) but at the same time he is a cold-blooded killer (see p. 17 and 50). Correspondingly, Henry develops an ambivalent relationship to his father. He is full of love and understanding for the father who is there to care for him, but is desperately disappointed and angry with him when he leaves. Then his judgement of him is harsh: ‘My father, as usual, had been wrong. (…) My father was a gobshite.’ (p. 164 f., see also p. 60) Henry’s ambivalence towards his father is expressed symbolically in the form of his father’s coat. On the one hand, Henry feels protected by it, but on the other, this is the coat that has soaked up the blood from years of violence (although Henry is oblivious to that fact at the time): ‘He opened his coat, then tucked us inside it; I liked the smell of animals and blood that crept from the fabric that now cuddled me – I didn’t know I was inhaling years of violence and murder.’ (p. 56) His feelings of ambivalence do not mean he does not miss his father. He subconsciously identifies himself with him and as a result, and without realising it, he follows in his footsteps. He takes his father’s spare wooden leg everywhere, which he uses as a deadly weapon whenever the occasion demands, just as his father had done (see p. 185 and 336–338). Like his father, he too becomes a hit man.

62

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations Finally, it transpires that he has even worked for the same man as his father had done before him. When he is taking stock of his life, he is forced to recognise that he has been an even bigger idiot than his father: ‘I was a slave, the greatest fuckin’ eejit ever born.’ ‘Just like my father, except he’d been paid for it.’ (p. 318) His final murder, which he actually commits after deciding to turn his back on violence, is an act of revenge for his father. This is when Solidarity between the solidarity between the father and son son and father becomes clear. Having come to terms with his father, Henry is now able to get rid of the wooden leg. Henry’s closeness to his father is further underlined by his ability to find water. When his father is taking his children through the sewerage system to safety, Henry first notices that he, too, has been endowed with this gift: ‘I could smell the water’ (p. 57). It is a gift which will continually save his life (see p. 139 f. and 327), and with whose help, in addition to his father’s wooden leg which he uses as a dowser (p. 228 f.), he is able to find an all important new water source for his future mother-in-law, the old Missis O’Shea, after her old one has dried up. Victor and Henry: The brother he loved and the one he hated Victor is not an important figure on his own for the story. He does not live long enough to develop any importance since he is probably only about five when he dies. His role is rather as an accessory, somebody who follows in the wake of his older brother. However, his character is important because he is important for Henry. Between the age of five and nine he becomes a part of Henry’s own self (see p. 63 and 80 f.). Victor accompanies him everywhere, in the same way that his parents should have accompanied Henry. He is his family. When Victor dies after coughing up blood for a considerable amount of time (see p. 82 f.), Henry is The dead brother as the completely alone. The death of his beloved imaginary enemy brother turns him into a loner, while the death of his hated other brother, the first Henry, has made him 2. Text analysis and interpretation

63

2.4 The characters and their constellations feel unwelcome and unloved. The two dead brothers are continuously in his thoughts, with the dead Henry remaining his imaginary enemy who, in the form of a bright, radiant star, deridingly smiles down on him from the night sky (see p. 34, 35, 176 and 319). Henry is just as obsessed with the dead Henry as his mother was (p. 1, 18, 34), only in the opposite way from her. In contrast, he mourns his other brother, his beloved Victor, (p. 160) whom he misses deeply (see p. 227 f.), even though he is determined not to show or experience any emotion over his loss (having experienced the traumatising effect of his mother’s cult-like behaviour towards her dead children):

‘He was dead. I wouldn’t let myself be fooled into thinking anything softer. I wasn’t going to see him up there with the other stars, with the first Henry – burning gas, a celestial fart – and all his brothers and sisters, twinkling up there in a happier place. He was dead. I wasn’t even going to look at the sky.’ (p. 81)

Miss O’Shea Miss O’Shea is a female warrior. She is not only a fighter but at the same time a seductive woman, – at least, that is the effect she has on Henry. The fact that Henry is unwilling to seriously consider any other woman beside her, despite his remarkable success with them, speaks volumes for her charisma and personality. It is tremendously important for their relationship that she has been his teacher for two days, in which she has instantly recognised his intelligence and has praised him for that, thus inspiring him with the feeling that nothing is impossible (see p. 76). Her encouragement helps him to lose his feelings of inferiority towards educated people and liberates him. In her relationship with Henry, Miss O’Shea too finds the liberty that she has been seeking herself: to do anything she pleases, to fight like a man and never to have to subordinate herself to anyone (see p. 122 f.). Henry not only accepts her attitude, but is even willing and shows himself to be sufficiently confident to defend it in front

64

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations of the hardened rebel leader, Ivan Reynolds, when he insists that he has no say in the actions of his wife: ‘Have you any control over your wife at all? / –No, I said proudly.’ (p. 312) Miss O’Shea is unwilling to bow to the dominance of any man, as becomes evident when she sees Henry Teacher and lover again while defending the General Post Office. At their first meeting, he was merely a boy. Now he has turned into a man – at least as far as his physical development is concerned, if not by age. He starts imagining how he will seduce her, but when they sleep together shortly afterwards, things turn out completely differently. It is Miss O’Shea who unmistakably takes the initiative:

‘I tried to grab hair, cloth, anything (…) but she slapped my hands away, and harder when I slapped her back. / –I’m still your teacher, Henry Smart, she said. / –Yes, Miss, I said. (…) A nipple closed my eye as a hand grabbed my wee fighting rebel and he skipped from her fingers and then she grabbed again. (…) –Do what you’re told, she said. (…) She gave me a hiding I never recovered from.’ (p. 119–121)

During their first sexual encounter, they develop a game that is simultaneously a travesty of a pupil-teacher question-and-answer session:

‘Her mouth was on my ear. / –What if they came in now, Henry? / Who? I said. –The other women? / She grunted. / –Pearse and Plunkett? / She licked my ear. / –The British? / –Oh God. / –The Dublin Fusiliers? / –Oh God. / –The Royal Norfolks? / –Yes. / –The Royal Irish Rifles? / –Yesss. / I was running out of soldiers. She pulled my ear with her teeth. She growled. / –The Scottish – oh fuck – the Scottish Borderers? / –Maithú, Henry! / –The Sherwood Fah-fah-foresters? / –Maithúúúú, – oh – maithú – / –The Bengal fuckin’ Lancers! / And we came together (…).’ (p. 120 f.)

They carry on this game until the end (see p. 321 f.), with Miss O’Shea insisting on playing the role of Henry’s teacher. Henry is not only a willing partner, but also benefits emotionally from it. The 2. Text analysis and interpretation

65

2.4 The characters and their constellations game gives him the chance to experience love paired with authority which he had missed out on as a child, without Miss O’Shea, who is 14 years older than him (see p. 232), having to take on a maternal role. This is also the reason for his comical and exaggerated refusal to hear Miss O’Shea’s Christian name at their wedding: He holds his hands over his ears when the preacher addresses his bride: ‘She was and stayed my Miss O’Shea.’ (p. 233) Further signs of Miss O’Shea’s superiority become evident while they are fighting their guerilla war: When they are shot at by the British troops and hit while trying to escape, she is the one who saves him (p. 262 ff.). She helps him escape from prison (p. 305 ff.), an act he is later not able to reciprocate (p. 340 ff.). The machine gun holder on their bike is also her idea (p. 247). She acquires combat names for herself (p. 273): Ivan calls her ‘a holy terror’ (p. 317). She finds fulfillment in her role as comrade in arms. Unlike Henry, she never renounces violence and, after having given birth to their daughter, she leaves her in the care of her mother to take Refusal to give up fighting up the fight again at the earliest opportunity. ‘–We fought the English’, this is what Henry tells the old Miss O’Shea in 1922. ‘The English are gone. / –And what about Ulster? / –Fuck Ulster, I said. / (…) Maybe you’re right, said Old Missis. –But there’s no talking to her. / –I know.’ (p. 329) The steadfastness of this seductive female warrior appears to be her only weakness, and turns her, at least in comparison to Henry, into a one-dimensional character. She has the courage and toughness to be what she wants to be, but, having achieved this goal, she does not develop any further, unlike her former pupil and husband. Piano-Annie The character of Annie represents the solidarity amongst Dublin’s working class. Her lifestyle has already left its mark:

66

‘She was old and young at the same time, Annie. Young thighs, old neck. Young wrists, old hands. Young hair, old teeth. Young eyes – gorgeous, brave things drilling into me – and an old voice made filthy by a 2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations life of Dublin air, a thing made of smoke and sex. (p. 205 f., see also p. 104) She is used up, but simultaneously hungry for life. Out of financial hardship, her husband has joined the Great War on the continent as a British soldier and she now believes him to be dead, which is why she takes Henry in. For a short while, AnWorn-out and fun-loving nie replaces Miss O’Shea; who has since vanished, but Henry never really feels at home with her. Although the relationship between the two (see p. 166 f., 173 f., 180 and 205–207) does continue even the after the unexpected and early return from the war of her husband (‘Annie’s dead man’ as he is referred to from then on, see p. 144 and 160) – having lost a hand – Annie nevertheless still stands by her husband: She would like to go to America, ‘I could do things there’, but her husband ‘wants to die for Ireland’, as she herself points out, voicing her clear dislike of men who are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater cause. However, at the same time, there is never any question of her ever leaving him: ‘I’m married, remember.’ (p. 206) Her dream – ‘I want to own a piano, Henry’ (p. 206) – remains unfulfilled. She will have to confine herself forever to playing the piano on the backs of the men she has sex with: ‘Annie ran her fingers up and down my back.’ (p. 158, see also p. 142 and 174) She is under no illusions about her future. Before her husband returns from the war, she walks past Dolly Oblong’s brothel with Henry and says: ‘That’s where I’ll be going when the war’s over. If I’m not too old by then. (…) There’ll be no place else for me. (…) the times never get better for the likes of us.’ (p. 145 f.) She shows Henry compassion without becoming sentimental (see p. 147), because she knows from the start The promised farewell letter that she will lose him to the political fight, too: ‘They’re wondering’, she says referring to the other women, ‘what sort of love letter you’d write to me if you were going to be executed’ (p. 145, see also 144). She keeps on reminding him about this farewell letter which he has promised her (see p. 147, 174, 206 f.). Annie also immediately notices the change in Henry after Jack Dalton has successfully won him back to their cause: ‘Annie noticed the 2. Text analysis and interpretation

67

2.4 The characters and their constellations change in me. (…) –What about another song? she said. –It’s early yet. / –Sorry, Annie. I’m a busy man. / –I knew it, she said. –Dying for Ireland. / –I’m dying for no one, I told her.’ (p. 173 f.). But of course she was right. Unlike Annie, Henry betrays his working class background when he kills Annie’s husband (p. 256), but he had already let him down a lot earlier than that:

‘I’d lived in Liberty Hall during the Lockout; I’d been taught to read, write and stand up straight by James Connolly himself; (…). And now, I sat there and listened and let Annie’s dead husband stranded. (…) I let Archer insult him and me and the only people and everything I’d ever believed in.’ (p. 182)

During the Easter Rising of 1916, he had still possessed this feeling for class solidarity when – against Michael Collins’ initial resistance – he had insisted on giving the women from Summerhill their money (p. 101–104), and a short while later, he had sided with the looters from the lower classes and had protected them from punishment by the middle class Irish Volunteers (p. 113–115). It is this stance –’Jesus, I hated the Volunteers. (…) When was the last time Collins had been hungry?’ (p. 103) – that wins him Annie’s heart. His relationship with her starts to disintegrate when he allows himself to become manipulated by Jack Dalton and Michael Collins. It is only after he has caused himself and others much pain that Henry realises that he has taken the wrong road. Annie never strays from her path. James Connolly James Connolly is one of the characters in the novel who has been based on a real historical figure: Connolly was the second leader of the workers’ movement (see p. 127, as well as chapter 2.5 of this guide) after James Larkin (1876–1947). In Doyle’s novel, Connolly assumes the role of the positive father figA positive father figure ure for Henry. He offers him a home within the workers’ movement, takes care of him, gives him parental

68

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations love, teaches him to read and explains social structures to him (p. 127 and 96). He teaches him to be prepared to fight for a cause (p. 182). He is never condescending towards Henry – despite being a figure of unquestionable authority –, treating him instead with an air of trust:

‘Connolly was beside me, his moustache almost in my mouth. (…) –Good man. We’re surrounded by gobshites, Henry. / –I know, sir. / –Catholic and capitalist, Henry. It’s an appalling combination. / –Yes, sir. / –I want you near me, Henry. / –You can count on me, sir. / And I meant it. (p. 115 f.)

Connolly even asks Henry for his opinion, which he takes seriously (see p. 97). The fact that he is willing to die for the cause himself, that he has few illusions about the outcome of the rebellion, which has already served its purpose by acting as a wake-up call to the working class, is clearly shown in the delight he expresses at the progressively worsening situation at the General Post Office: ‘(…) they’d be coming over the river any minute. / –This is it, men, said Connolly. (…) –Our time has come, he said. / I’d never seen a man look so happy.’ (p. 117)

’The headquarters of the I. T. G. W. U., my home and the birthplace of our revolution, was being battered into the ground. / And Connolly was delighted. He clapped his hands and thumped his chest. / –Now they’re taking us seriously! he shouted at the dome. –They’re rattled!’ (p. 119)

Connolly is considered by his followers to be the soul of the movement. When he is seriously injured, at a stroke they lose all hope:

The soul of the movement

‘The word came up: Connolly had been shot. It stunned us. (…) –He’s not dead, is he? / –No, he’s not, but he’ll lose the leg. / –Is his tongue still working? / –Yeah. / –He’ll be grand, so. / It scared us, though. We had to force ourselves to work and get back our rhythm; it seemed like a waste of time. (…) He wasn’t just a man; he was all of us. We all needed him. He’d made us believe in ourselves.’ (p. 126 f.)

2. Text analysis and interpretation

69

2.4 The characters and their constellations The fact that Connolly nearly loses a leg further underlines his role as Henry’s surrogate father almost to the point of exaggeration. Even his strategy to dig underground escape routes – ‘Connolly’s idea of urban warfare was tunnelling and more tunnelling’ (p. 94) – is rather reminiscent of the scene in which Henry’s father escapes from his pursuers by vanishing into the sewerage system; as Henry is to do later, too. But these outward parallels ultimately only serve to show how very different from each other these two men in fact are: On the one hand, there is Henry’s real father, who abandons his own family and becomes the slave of a brothel owner who exploits working class women; on the other, his surrogate father, who takes on responsibility for the entire working class and is adored and respected as their leader. All the harder to bear, therefore, is Henry’s late realisation that he has strayed from the path that Connolly had shown him, that he would even have killed Connolly (see p. 318), the same way that he had killed the others, had he been told that he was a traitor by Michael Collins – the same Michael Collins who during the Easter Rising of 1916 had been an ally of the ‘Citizen’s Army’ (p. 87) led by Connolly, but whose difference in class had in fact made him no less an an enemy than the British government were. It is this realisation that leads Henry to finally give up the fight. Michael Collins Michael Collins serves to fill the void left by James Connolly’s death. He is based on a real historical character (1890–1922, see chapter 2.5 of this guide). After Henry rejoins the fight, it is from Collins that he receives his orders. As long as Henry had been under James Henry’s motives Connolly’s command, he had been fighting for a political idea which was compatible with his own working class background, even if he himself scornfully rejects any form of heroism out of political idealism (see p. 89) and as a resistance fighter is unreliable. His willingness to fight stems primarily from his pent-

70

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations up aggression (see p. 99). When the fight begins, Henry aims at a shop window, taking revenge on all businessmen and owners who have denied him and Victor access to their world:

‘My aim was true and careful; every bullet mattered. (…) I shot and killed all that I had been denied, all the commerce and snobbery that had been mocking me and other hundreds and thousends behind glass and locks, all the injustice, unfairness and shoes – while the lads took chunks out of the military.’ (p. 105)

Henry is fighting his own anarchistic, private war. He does not really care about anyone else’s rebellion: ‘Another day of waiting. Day Two of the Revolution and I was already bored. (…) Waiting to shoot and wreck and kill and ruin.’ (p. 109) Later, when the looting starts, he is tempted to abandon the insurgents, who all seem to have different motives for fighting, and to join in with the looters (see p. 113, 115). It is only his personal loyality to James Connolly that stops him and binds him to the mutual cause. Henry has a mind of his own, but this is lost completely the moment Michael Collins, who in the meantime has been released from British captivity (p. 146 f.), admits him to the inner circle of the underground movement:

‘–Well, mister, he said in that accent of his. –Are you ready for the next round of the fight? / –I am, I said. / He looked at Jack and back at me. / –The best of men, he said. / Before I went back to my bed that night I’d been sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the secret society at the centre of the centre of all things. I was a Fenian. I was special, one of the few. And before the end of the week, by late Saturday afternoon, I’d murdered my first rozzer.’ (p. 184)

From now on, Henry is no more than a subordinate. On the one hand, Collins makes him feel important (see p. 191, 204 or 240), but on the other, he treats him callously in the extreme (p. 197–200 and 203). While Collins and the other protagonists of the movement from the middle class become men of respect (Collins is even voted into Parliament in 1918, p. 207, and becomes the first Minister for 2. Text analysis and interpretation

71

2.4 The characters and their constellations Finance of the Free Irish Republic, p. 209), Henry is promised his reward later: ‘You don’t exist, Collins had A strategic planner said. –Do you understand that, Henry? / –I who reels in people do, I said. / –We’ll give you your rank when it’s all over.’ (p. 215) Henry had admired James Connolly as a person. With Michael, he admires his cold-blooded brilliance as strategic planner of the underground movement (see p. 194): Collins explains to Henry and Jack: ‘you can evade arrest much more successfully if you’re dressed like a company director’ (p. 191). And Henry comments: ‘The suits were the work of a genius. (…) the use of other people’s snobbery and stupidity for our gain, that was class. Collins was full of plans and skits that dropped us there with admiration’ (p. 191). ‘(…) and I bought a grey suit (…) and it became my real uniform’ (p. 191). Fine feathers make fine birds; this is an experience that Henry makes for himself. By giving him business suits to wear, Collins tricks him into feeling that he too can become part of the world of the educated, the wealthy and the confident, from which he had previously always felt automatically excluded (see p. 66). Of course, this turns out to be a deception, as the very nature of the relationship between Collins and Henry makes perfectly appparent. They come from two completely different worlds. This is what the files being kept on the two of them by the political police, and which Collins manages to obtain, also say: ‘He read his own file: He comes of a brainy Cork family. He read mine: He comes of no known family.’ (p. 229) But Henry wants to be deceived. He does not realise the extent to which he has been used until Collins is killed in 1922. For the moment, though, he is fascinated by Collins. He is impressed by the way Collins insolently gives the police his real name when he is stopped by them (p. 192). Henry decides to adopt this strategy, too, and from then on often claims to be ‘Michael Collins’ (p. 192, 237, 277), right up until after his arrest when finally this trick only seems to have the effect of angering his captors still further (p. 295). Unlike Henry, Collins is a master of disguise. This applies not only to his appearance, but also to his double life as a respectable politician on

72

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations the one hand and a powerful leader of the underground movement on the other (see p. 194, 198 f., 204, 229, 239 f., 276, 286): ‘Collins was running the fight but talking peace: We started the war with hurleys and, by God, we’ll finish it with fountain pens.’ (p. 311) The extent to which he manipulates and exploits the men and women under his command is also evident in his rhetorical speeches: ‘The best of men’ (p. 184) and ‘the best of men and women’ (p. 194) seems to be the standard catchphrase that he uses to flatter the egos of those fighting for his cause. It had already become clear to Henry while they were defending the General Post Office during the Easter Rising of 1916 that Collins, who was fighting on the side of the Irish Volunteers, was not trustworthy (see in particular p. 131). It was also clear to him that Collins’ loyalties were soon forgotten when it came to impressing a goodlooking woman: ‘I’d heard the stories about Collins.’ (p. 103, compare also 199 f.). As soon as they meet up again, Henry recognises that he must watch his step with him: ‘You had to be careful. (…) But I was adaptable. The bossman liked a mill, so I gave him one, enough to let him think that he was winning.’ (p. 198) However, shortly afterwards, he does not heed his own warning and receives a black eye. Later, once Henry has become Collins’ man for the dirty work, he no longer gets off with just a black eye; his own name ends up on the list of traitors who are to be eliminated (p. 326). The reader never discovers who placed Henry’s name (or had it placed) on this list, but obviously it could never have happened without the approval of Michael Collins. As a revolutionary, Michael Collins is the The antithesis of James Connolly exact opposite of James Connolly. Connolly was admired by his followers (see p. 127), Collins becomes more and more feared by them (p. 229). Whilst Connolly had tried to instill in Henry and his fellow members of the working class a belief in their own strength, in their own ability to shape events with their own interests at heart, Collins only uses Henry and people like him as ‘trouble maker’ (p. 327), as Jack Dalton expresses it, to further the interests of his own class. Having served his purpose, Henry is to be 2. Text analysis and interpretation

73

2.4 The characters and their constellations disposed of. Henry recognises too late that he has betrayed his own class (p. 318). Jack Dalton Jack Dalton (whose character is fictional) is the one who pushes Henry back into the arms of liberation movement, which is no longer about liberating the working class but The seducer about achieving the right to self-determination of the propertied, of the middle-class. He lures Henry (and others) into his fold by offering them exactly what they – and the outsider, Henry, in particular – are seeking: popularity and fame as a living legend. Jack makes a cynical and blunt reference to this in their last conversation:

’–Mind you, you always were a bit of a Bolshevik yourself, weren’t you, Henry? / –Yes, I said. –I was. / –Until you heard your name in song. / He laughed. / –A friend to the Yid, was the bold Henry Smart. / –You wrote it, didn’t you, Jack? / –You wrote it yourself, you fuckin’ eejit. It was only ever a couple of lines. (p. 326)

Dalton throws down his bait as soon as they meet:

74

‘He loved singing out of doors. He fought like a lion with an Irishman’s heart. (…) –You could be arrested for singing that, I told him. / –Quite right too, he said. (…) And he sang to the lit windows of the Rotunda. The pride of all Gaels was young, Henry Smart. / That stopped me. I nearly fell onto the street. Jack laughed at my shock. He held me up by my collar. / –You didn’t know they were singing about you, did you, Henry? / –No, I said. –I haven’t heard that one. / –You haven’t been listening. It’s doing the rounds, man. I heard Dev himself singing it when he was in solitary. He hasn’t a note in his head. / –Who wrote it? I asked him. / –Who knows? He said. –The people. That’s where all the real songs come from. Come on now. I’m starving. / –Sing the rest of it, will yeh. / –Tomorrow, he said.’ (p. 170)

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations Exhilerated by his belief that he is now a folk hero, Henry is more than happy to return to the movement because that is where he can best enjoy his popularity. His expectations become a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’: He is admired by men (and especially women) as the hero he thinks that he is (see p. 172 ff.). With hindsight, he realises that he had been filled with such elation that he had never really thought about what he was actually fighting for: ‘I was ready to die for (…) a version of Ireland that had little or nothing to do with the Ireland I’d gone out to die for the last time (p. 171). Henry is prepared to die for the image of himself as a folk hero. He cannot get the song out of his head (see p. 171, 174, 175). Annie is the only person not to be impressed by this (p. 174). Jack has his own ambitions. He is an architect, but he wants more. He wants to go down in memory as a city planner once the revolution is over: After the city has been razed to the ground, Jack wants to use his own ideas to rebuild Dublin, to create a jewel of a city (see p. 170). Jack’s visions for the new city and his blatant hatred of Jews (see p. 250 f., 325 f. as well as 172), which emerges later, are distantly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler. He does not become one of the leaders, but stays in the background. Although he does become a Member of Parliament (p. 207), to the end he is really only in charge of providing propaganda (see p. 190 f., Jack’s role as propagandist 255 f.) for the speech writers (see p. 254), for the ‘civil servants with no state’ (p. 255), as he defines his own role with some displeasure. He helps others to become famous without achieving this for himself: ‘Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column ambushed and killed seventeen Auxiliary Cadets. Jack Dalton (…) wrote their song in his Mary Street office and the boys, hard men with years of fight behind them, became instant heroes.’ (p. 310)22 22 See the explanation on ‘Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column’ in chapter 2.5 of this guide. Henry is too trusting and the thought that the story of his own legend might have originated the same way obviously does not occur to him for a long time, despite the fact that Jack even asks him to work on a song for another martyr of the movement (see p. 190). Or maybe he does suspect such, but does not ask any questions so as not to spoil his own illusion (see also his last conversation with Jack Dalton, p. 326).

2. Text analysis and interpretation

75

2.4 The characters and their constellations Jack even shows himself to be jealous of Henry (although it is never quite clear whether this is out of conviction or just clever calculation on his part (as he may just want to give him the feeling that he is jealous): ‘(…) that’s what I am every time a new hack hits town. A bloody tour guide. But you’re the real thing, look at you. You’re the one that’ll be remembered, not me.’ (p. 256) Henry believes him and trusts him almost to the end: ‘It was good being with Jack again.’ (p. 253) But the feeling is not mutual, as a comment made by Ned Kellet, Henry’s cellmate during his imprisonment, shows: ‘Fuck off, yourself. Jack always said you were a snarly gob.’ (p. 303)23 At their last meeting, Jack is brutal to Henry (see p. 324–327). He shows him a piece of paper with Henry’s name on it. Although he tells him that he is going to allow him some time to get away, in fact, the hit men have already been posted outside. As an intellectual (Henry realises this when they first shake hands, as his hands are not that of a worker, see p. 169) it is Jack’s role to fabricate and spread ideological propaganda, but he ends up becoming susceptible to it himself: He sees Henry as a disguised Bolshevik, and the friendly David Climanis grotesquely as the threatening Jew (see p. 326). He uses others, but also allows himself to be used. Like Henry, Jack, too, is working for different aims, but on a higher level within the hierarchy. His personal dreams, too, remain unfulfilled. Alfie Gandon (and Dolly Oblong) Alfie Gandon is to some extent the patron of the independence movement. His character clearly demonstrates just what the takeover of political power for men of his calibre more than anything else means: it is the freedom to go about their The patron of the movement business with fewer hindrances and more 23 Jack is also arrested after the ambush on the ‘Cairo Gang’ and is badly beaten up whilst in prison (see p. 303 f.). He is later released (see p. 310). This indicates to the reader that Jack, too, is only one of the smaller fish that always get caught while the big ones always seem to escape: Michael Collins who had ordered the ambush (see p. 286) was clever enough to ensure that his name would not be linked to this.

76

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations unscrupulously than before, to give their personal enrichment the appearance of legality, whilst at the same time managing to keep themselves in the limelight and to satisfy their own vanity. Like a mafia boss, on the one hand he helps people with his good deeds, but on the other, has those who get in his way removed: ‘Once, she (Dolly Oblong) gave him (Henry’s father) two pounds, and the name of a man. / –Mister Gandon does not like this man, she said. –He is not good for business.’ (p. 49 but see also p. 17) He runs a system of personal loyalties whilst ensuring that people are afraid to cross him.24 When Jack Dalton is released from prison, he is offered accommodation in one of Gandon’s houses (p. 172 and 178). Since Jack gives Henry a place to stay, for a time he too unwittingly becomes one of Gandon’s men: Already on the second night he is offered a fresh mattress to sleep on (see p. 172). Dalton is dependent upon Gandon, so his comments about him are only ever positive:

‘–He’s one of us, man. / –Organisation? / –Not at all, said Jack. –He can’t get his hands that dirty. (…) He’s a giant in this city, man. Property, transport, banking, Corpo. He is in on them all. He’s a powerful man, Henry. And a good one. There’s more widows and orphans living off that fella’s generosity than the nuns could ever handle. And he doesn’t like to boast about it either. Chamber of Commerce, Gaelic League and a great sodality man. He’s perfect. I’ll tell you what Mister Gandon is. He’s our respectable face. He’ll declare for us when the time is right. We’re keeping him on ice.’ (p. 189)

Jack later invents and spreads the lie that Gandon had been among the fighters defending the General Post Office, to boost Gandon’s popularity (see p. 254). When Henry sugGandon’s popularity gests at the beginning of their friendship that they distribute amongst the poor the meat, which had been destined for England but which the rebels have seized, Jack dismisses this idea, saying: ‘We don’t want to interfere with internal trade or anything like that. What we want to do is show everyone that we can 24 Granny Nash sums him up his double-life, commenting: ‘He’s a landlord and a killer.’ (p. 165)

2. Text analysis and interpretation

77

2.4 The characters and their constellations run our own country. (…) That’s what this is all about. Keeping our own money.’ (p. 178 f.) He phrases his revolutionary interests carefully to make them compatible with Gandon’s business interests. And Gandon is clever enough to give even so-called simple people the feeling that basically he is just one of them:

‘Mister Gandon was a businessman, and one of our own, the bouncer from across the street told me. He was a Home Ruler and a Catholic, not like most of the tail-coated fuckers who robbed the people blind and called it business. (…) Mister Gandon had his first bootstraps on a ribbon around his neck, the bouncer from across the street told me, to remind himself of where he’d come from. (p. 165 f.)

When Henry beats Gandon to death at the end of the novel, he checks to see if this story was really true:

‘His face smacked the carpet and made very little noise. I pulled off the collar and threw it away. (…) I pulled again and two pieces of leather, two little bootstraps came out with the ribbon. / –Jesus, I said. –It’s true.’ (p. 337)

Gandon’s character is emphasised by his appearance. However, it is not his sheer physical presence that makes him dominant, but rather his ability to impose his will upon others: ‘He was elegant, I could see, small but properly shaped, still managing to dominate the solid men who hopped out of his way when he left and arrived.’ (p. 166) He keeps this composure until his last breath. He has nothing to counter Henry’s brutal force or the wooden leg he is using as a weapon with, he has no means of defending himself, but he does not panic. Even when he is lying seriously injured and badly abused on the floor, he maintains his composure until the bitter end. Henry has to hit him quite a few times before he is finally dead (see p. 336–338). In the end, it is his inability to leave his old life as godfather and brothel owner completely behind him Gandon’s double life which becomes his undoing. Although he

78

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations has worked hard to provide his existence with a legal facade: he is voted into parliament (see p. 207), becomes a minister (see p. 209), changes his name into O’Gandúin (see p. 239), receives two ministerial posts (after he has been imprisoned by the British forces) (see p. 328) and enters into a marriage with a wife who is suited towards advancing his political career (see p. 335), despite all this, he keeps on coming back to Dolly Oblong, the woman he first slept with when, according to her, she was only thirteen years old (see p. 336). Dolly Oblong is the one who knows him best. She sees through him. She knows what his real motives are and she knows that she poses a danger for him:

‘He is going to kill me. Mister O’Gandúin is a national politician, of a new nation eager to prove itself to the world. The world is watching Mister O’Gandúin and he loves this. More than the girls here in his house. More than anything. But he has been slow to give up his old life. He is still Alfie Gandon. He was worried that the new nation would not live. And so, he kept his old business interests. But he was wrong. The nation will live and he must kill Alfie Gandon. He must kill the past. I am his past and he will kill me.’ (p. 336)

Thus, Henry, who, just like his father twenty years before him, was overwhelmed by her grandiose appearance (see p. 334 f. and 39–43), probably saves Dolly Oblong’s life when he kills Gandon in revenge for David Climanis, Climanis’ wife, Maria (a former prostitute who worked for Gandon), for his father and for himself, who, as he finally learns from Gandon himself, unbeknown to him, had for years been doing Gandon’s dirty work for him (see p. 337). Ivan Reynolds The role of Ivan Reynolds’ character is to demonstrate that Alfie Gandon was in no way unique. There were many more people just like him, willing students, who did not enter the political battle out of ideological convictions or for the good of the people, but out of financial gain and to further their own careers: They did not want to liberate Ireland, but to take it over. During the course of the novel, 2. Text analysis and interpretation

79

2.4 The characters and their constellations Ivan combines terror tactics with his unscrupulous business skills to obtain a position of supreme power to purTerrorist and entrepreneur sue his own business interests in his home region in the countryside, in the same way that Alfie Gandon has long been doing in Dublin. It is no coincidence that in his last conversation with Henry, Ivan shas nothing but praise for Alfie Gandon:

‘–Did you ever meet Gandon? / –O’Gandúin? / –Yeah. / –No, said Ivan. –But I’d love to, and I will. Running the country from a prison cell, he is. There’s not much anyone can teach me but he’s one man who could teach me a thing or two, or even three.’ (p. 318)

At the beginning of his career as a resistance fighter, Ivan, who is still very young – merely a boy – is taken under Henry’s wing, after he has been given his name as a contact person. Henry, is quick to recognise his extraordinary talents: (see p. 214).

‘It had all gone to plan; I’d be leaving soon and I wanted Ivan to take over. (…) Ivan was born to it. He had respect, know-how, he never slept. But he was no one; he’d no land, no connections. I wanted to leave him in charge, our own man. The coming war was his big chance and I needed him to see that, to fight for the leadership and what he could do with it.’ (p. 226)

Ivan seizes his chance. With excessive brutality, he establishes IRA rule in his region (see p. 233 f., 235 and 310), earning himself the nickname of ‘Ivan the Terrible’’ (p. 236) in the process. At this point, Henry and his wife, Ivan’s cousin Miss O’Shea25, who happen to be conducting their own guerilla warfare in the same region, start getting in his way. They do not always work well together; Ivan even seems to be deliberately trying to make trouble for them (see p. 260). Gradually, Ivan discovers his true calling as a businessman, which he explains to Henry during their last conversation with an air of both cynicism and complacency: 25 Miss O’Shea’s toughness (see p. 264 f.), her sheer invulnerability (see p. 273 f.), her success (see p. 269 and 317) as a resistance fighter, her inflexibility and her stubbornness (see in particular p. 329) are all given credence by the fact that she is related to Ivan. She carries on the fight right up to her imprisonment, even turning against Ivan at the end. (p. 329)

80

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations

‘Enough playing around. Here’s how it is. I’m a businessman. You said it yourself there, a young man on the make. That’s me, boy. I discovered this a few months ago only. All these years I thought I was a soldier, a warrior even. A fuckin’ nation builder. Fighting for Ireland. And I was. But here’s the truth now. All the best soldiers are businessmen. There had to be a reason for the killing and late nights, and it wasn’t Ireland. Ireland’s an island, Captain, a dollop of muck. It’s about control of the island, that’s what the soldierings’s about. (…) Nothing moves in this country without my go-ahead. (…) I’m a roaring success, boy. (…) An Irishman is in charge around here, Captain. We’re free.’ (p. 314 f.)

Ivan has come to an agreement with the British troops in his region. Peace talks with Britain are on the horiIvan’s attitude towards zon. The war is to be continued on the Henry and Miss O’Shea surface only, for the sake of appearances. Miss O’Shea’s continued activities are interfering seriously with this new deal. To frighten her, Ivan’s men shave off her hair (see p. 308 and 312) and British troops burn down her parents’ house (see p. 311 f. and 320). However, these actions fail to intimidate her. So Ivan seeks out Henry and tries to open his eyes (see p. 312 ff.). He tells Henry that he and his wife are on the list of people to be eliminated (see p. 313). In the end, it is only thanks to the respect and loyalty, which Ivan still feels for Henry, that he does not kill them both, despite being aware that he has now overtaken and left Henry far behind him. Henry is still only ever rogue enough to take his harmless ten per cent, but never hits on the idea of lining his pockets on a grander scale at the expense of others (see p. 103, 225 and 249). Ivan is the one who encourages Henry to go to America, which he eventually does, and even offers to give him the financial support to do so (see p. 314). Paradoxically, it is this ruthless terrorist, the monster that Henry has himself created, who in the end Desire for love and admiration turns out to be the only one who has any sign of respect for him – if only with a sense of irony – and who does not betray him.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

81

2.4 The characters and their constellations Ivan Reynolds differs from Alfie Gandon in that he is boastful and lacks self-discipline. As soon as he has become the undisputed ruler of his region, he starts overindulging in food and drink: ‘Ivan Reynolds was on the rampage, getting fatter on power and all the food and drink that got in his way.’ (p. 310) ‘ He took a bottle from his coat pocket. / –We’ll drink to it. (…) I’d smelt it off him earlier. It was going to kill him; I could see his face out here – it was killing him already. But much too slowly. He still had years left in him.’ (p. 317) This prophecy is the last the reader will learn about Ivan. Henry Smart (the son) Henry is driven by his need for praise, admiration, love and care. For a long time he does not realise why this is so. After his first meeting with Jack Dalton, who is to lure him back into the movement, this need becomes confined to merely wanting to become a living legend, to be a star. The title of the novel – a play on words – is a reference to this wish: Henry wants to become a star so that he will be on a par with his older dead brother, who as a star – untainted, innocent, radiant and loved by an adoring mother – has found his place in heaven. When Henry discovers in his early childhood that, once his father has named him Henry after his dead brother, his mother is unable to love him as she would have liked (because she is afraid that the living Henry will rob her of her memories of the dead one since there can only be one Henry, see p. 28–34), he experiences an emotional trauma which dictates his Henry’s trauma future life and causes him grief well beyond the twenty years covered by this novel (see p. 35). Henry narrates the story of his life from the perspective of a child destined for greatness (see p. 76) but who, through the fault of others as well as his own, is unable to live up to this expectation. His arrival into the world is compared with the coming of the Saviour (see his own description of his birth and the first week of his life p. 18–28) but in the end he causes his parents nothing but despair (p. 28–38) – even though he himself is in no way to blame for this. This pattern is to

82

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations repeat itself in Henry’s years as a political rebel and as an underground resistance fighter: He starts off as the hero of the Easter Rising only to end up a hit man who does not shy away from killing his own (see p. 256 f.). Traumatised by his mother’s adulation of her dead children, he despises religion:

‘ And religion. I already hated it. Holy God we praise Thy name. Fuck Him. And your man on the cross up over the blackboard. Fuck Him too. That was the one good thing that came out of all the neglect: we’d no religion. We were free. We were blessed.’ (p. 79)

Yet, the way in which he interprets and portrays his own life provides testament against his fierce but superficial rejection of anything to do with the transcendental. (His own urge to write down his story on paper displays his need to find a meaning to his life.) Despite a hopeless reality which is dominated by stark and crude descriptions, the underlying tone clearly noticeable in the first half of the novel, in particular, points to a hero with legendary status. Whilst there may be a ring of irony to this, at the same time it is based on Henry’s own human experience. This means that on the outside, Henry shows himself to be unscrupulous, rational and unemotional, but on the inside, he harbours a completely different image of himself: ‘I was the Glowing Baby. (…) The women who’d seen me went through the rest of the day feeling special. (…) The Glowing Baby had entered their lives and tickled their misery with his pudgy wee fingers.’ (p. 22 f.) ‘I was a walking saint.’ (p. 172) ‘ She took her hand from her pocket. / Will you bless my beads for me? / And I did.’ (p. 178) Henry demonstrably rejects all values of idealism – ‘And fuck the nations of the world, I said.’ (p. 114) – but ultimately displays a much greater idealism (even if it is just motivated by his desire to be a star) than that of some of the leaders of the independence movement who use idealistic rhetoric merely to push through their own shabby interests. With a perfidious sense of logic, Henry, the loner and outsider, fights for the common cause, the needs of the poor (see 2. Text analysis and interpretation

83

2.4 The characters and their constellations p. 103 and 178) far more selflessly than those who have made it onto the political stage. The fact that he keeps his ten percent makes him appear almost humble in the light of Ivan’s greed; this is also the reason why he does not have the financial means to start afresh in America. Henry’s wish to be a ‘star’ remains unfulfilled. He stays the invisible man in the background. This role is underAlmost a star lined symbolically in the scene where he almost manages to make a name for himself as a freedom fighter and to become a legend. After the capitulation following the Easter Rising of 1916, he is standing behind Éamon de Valera – who will later become President of the Irish Republic26 – while his photo is being taken in the prison yard following his arrest.

‘–Photograph first, sir. The last of the Shinners. / The famous photo. The last man to surrender. (…) I was there, to the left of de Valera. (…) I was beside the great man but Hanratty wouldn’t see me. (…) I wasn’t important. The first time I saw the photo my elbow was in it, but even that went in later versions. (…) If Hanratty had moved his camera just a bit to the right, just a fraction of a bit, I’d have been in. You’d know my face, you’d know who I was. (…) It became the photograph of Éamon de Valera. It became proof, part of the legend. (…) I was there.’ (p. 138 f.)

Henry remains unrewarded: ‘Collins was Minister for Finance. (…) and Mister Gandon got Commercial Affairs and the Sea. / Henry Smart got wet.’ (p. 209) ‘I wasn’t a captain, or any other rank. / –You don’t exist, Collins had said. –Do you understand that, Henry? / –I do, I said.’ (p. 215). At the end of his tortuous journey, Henry openly admits to himself that he has allowed himself to be used (see p. 318). Whilst his father had murdered for money, Henry has murdered simply because he believed in the higher wisdom of his superiors. Through his misguided actions he has ladened himself with guilt, which he knows he cannot atone for (see p. 318). Seen in religious 26 See the entry on ‘De Valera’ in chapter 2.5 of this guide

84

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.4 The characters and their constellations terms, Henry recognises at the end that he has sinned badly; this is also a characteristic of legends. The path to sainthood typically involves giving in to temptations, becoming a sinner, passing through the deep valley on the road to salvation, being betrayed by everyone and having only oneself to rely upon. It is the depth of this fall from grace that provides the prerequisite for purification. In Henry’s case, this happens in the form of him being labeled the greatest ‘trouble-maker’ (p. 327) in the armed independence movement before he turns his back on violence (see p. 288). This leaves the reader feeling hopeful at the end of A Star Called Henry, both for Henry’s future as well as for this war-torn country as a whole. The fact that Henry has changed for the better27 is also a sign that conditions within the country can equally improve.

27 In the sequel, Oh Play That Thing!, however, he shows himself not to have made progress at all.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

85

2.5 Glossary of terms

2.5 Glossary of terms28 blight, p. 2: plant disease which affected potato plants. Van Diemen’s Land, p. 2: The original name of Tasmania, which up to 1853 was a British penal colony. The Famine Queen, Victoria, p. 7: Queen Victoria (1819–1901), who ruled Britain and Ireland from 1937 onwards. Edward VII, p. 50: Queen Victoria’s oldest son, born in 1841, became her successor in 1901. He died on 6 May 1910. Sinn Féiner, p. 52: Sinn Féin was founded in 1905. Its aim was to unite all nationalist groups who were in favour of Home Rule and of an Ireland independent of Great Britain. At the 1918 General election, the party won 73 of the 105 mandates. Rather than going to Westminster, the MPs founded their own parliament, Dáil Éireann, in Dublin. D. M. P., p. 53: Dublin Metropolitan Police, founded in 1836, was based on the London Metropolitan Police. Lusitania, p. 67: Famous cruise-liner which ran between Liverpool and New York from 1907 onwards. In 1915, it was hit by a German submarine and almost 1200 people died. Halley’s Comet, p. 67: Comet which returns every 76 years, the second-last time in 1910. Home Rule, p. 70: Political movement whose goal was Home Rule. Supporters demanded greater self-government on domestic issues, independent of London. It was founded after 1870 (Home Government Association; 1873: Irish Home Rule League). The Irish Home Rule Party was founded in 1874 and was successful at the General Election of 1885. In 1890, it broke apart and subsequently lost influence. Later, it was substituted by the Sinn Féin Party. the new king was crowned, p. 80: The coronation of King George V took place on 22 June 1911. the Countess, p. 84: Countess Constance Markievicz (née GoreBooth), born in 1868 in London, studied Fine Arts in Paris and married Casimir Markievicz, a painter, but gradually became more 28 The most important source of information for this is Lalor.

86

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.5 Glossary of terms and more involved in the fight for Irish independence. She was one of the co-founders of Sinn Féin and fought as one of the officers of the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising. Her death sentence was converted into a prison sentence (because she was a woman). In 1918, she was voted into the House of Commons as the first woman ever, but like the other Irish delegates, she refused to take up her seat at Westminster. Instead, she became the Irish Republic’s Minister for Work in 1919. Having chaired the Cumann na mBan from 1917, she rejected the Anglo-Irish Agreement and was imprisoned during the Civil War. She was voted back into the Irish government in 1927, but she died before she could take up her post. Griffith, p. 84: Arthur Griffith (1872–1922), journalist and politician, co-founded Sinn Féin. Imprisoned several times between 1916 and 1921, he led the Irish delegates from the Dáil Éireann during the Anglo-Irish negotiations of 1921. He was President of the Dáil Éireann from January 1922 up to his death in August of the same year. Cumann na mBan, p. 84: female auxiliary force of the Irish Volunteers, which was founded in 1914. Some of their members participated in the Easter Rising. Following its defeat, the organisation continued encouraging resistance against the British. In 1921, there were nearly a thousand sections of this movement. More than 300 female Cumann na mBan members were imprisoned during the Civil War (see p. 340). This movement remained affiliated with the IRA for a long time and only disbanded in the 1980s when the IRA allowed females to join. Commandant Connolly, p. 87: Born in Edinburgh as the son of Irish parents, James Connolly (1868–1916) joined the Scottish Socialist League in 1889 and founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in Dublin in 1896. In his writings, he tried to demonstrate that the national issue was also a social issue. In 1903, he emigrated to America, returning to Ireland in 1910. He became the General Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and Commander of the Irish Citizen Army, participating in the 1916 Easter Rising. After the defeat of the insurrection, he was shot by the British on 12 May 1916. 2. Text analysis and interpretation

87

2.5 Glossary of terms Volunteers, p. 87: The Irish Volunteers were founded as a reaction to the Ulster Volunteer Force, which had been established shortly before. In the summer of 1914 (on the outbreak of World War One), this nationalist army of volunteers had around 200,000 members. John Redmond, the President of the Irish Party, tried to gain control over the Volunteers to use them in support of the Home Rule movement. When it was decided by Westminster that the Home Rule policy should come into effect at the end of the war, Redmond appealed to the Volunteers to support the British Army. This appeal caused a split in the movement. The majority complied and founded the National Volunteers. A minority of around 11,000 members refused to cooperate. They continued to be known as the Irish Volunteers and were reorganised by the founder of the Gaelic League (1893), Eoin MacNeill (1867–1945). Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett and Thomas MacDonagh, all members of the secret Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), played key roles in this reorganisation. They initiated the Easter Rising in 1916 against MacNeill’s wishes (see p. 92). After the defeat of the insurrection, the remaining Irish Volunteers formed the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Citizen Army, p. 87: The Irish Citizen Army (ICA) was founded in 1913 by the leader of the workers’ movement, James Connolly. Their original cause had been to support the workers who had been out on strike since August (the Dublin lock-out). Most of the members of this army belonged to the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. Under Connolly’s leadership, 210 (of 340) men and women took part in the Easter Rising in 1916. Most of them fought at St. Stephan’s Green and at the College of the Surgeons. Eleven of these were killed in action. Commandant Clarke, p. 88: Thomas James Clarke (1857–1916), the English-born (Isle of White) son of Irish parents, was an experienced revolutionary who from 1907 helped to reorganise the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). He founded the Irish newspaper, Irish Freedom, in 1910. In 1915 he became a member of the Military Council of the IRB, which planned the Easter Rising. He was among the group who occupied the General Post Office and was the first

88

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.5 Glossary of terms person to sign the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Following the defeat of the rebellion, he was executed on 3 May 1916. one of the Christian Brothers’ boys, p. 89: Catholic institution, founded by Edward Rice in 1802, which educated boys from poor backgrounds. The organisation disassociated itself from the national school system, played an important part in reviving Catholicism in Ireland and from the nineteenth century established a number of links to Nationalist groups. Roddy Doyle himself was a pupil at one of these Christian Brothers’ Schools (see chapter 1.1 of this guide). G. P. O., p. 89: General Post Office. O’Donnovan, Rossa, p. 90: Jeremiah O’Donnovan Rossa (1831– 1915) was the leader of the IRB after 1877. His burial in Dublin turned into an important rally for Irish nationalism. The Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, p. 90: The ITGWU, a nationalist trade union, was founded by James Larkin (1874–1947) at the end of 1908. It led to the strengthening of trade unions in Ireland and was heavily opposed by entrepreneurs, who banned their workers from joining it. The conflict finally culminated in the workers’ strike of 1913 (the Dublin Lockout). Pearse, p. 91: The poet and political visionary Patrick Pearse (1879– 1916), who was born in Dublin, became well-known following his obituary to Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa (1915). A leading figure of the IRB from 1913, he was also head of the Irish Volunteers. During the Easter Rising, he was declared the President of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. Following its defeat, he was shot by the British forces on 3 May 1916. The O’Rahilly, p. 92: Michael Joseph O’Rahilly (1875–1916), who was known as The O’Rahilly, emigrated to America in 1898 and returned to Ireland in 1909. He became a leading member of the Gaelic League and co-founder of the Irish Volunteers. As he was not a member of the IRB, he was not involved in the planning of the Easter Rising. Like Eoin MacNeill, he thought that the rebellion was doomed from the start and that, for that reason, the plans should be stopped. In Limerick, he gave instructions to that effect. However, as soon as he realised on his return to Dublin that it was still going to 2. Text analysis and interpretation

89

2.5 Glossary of terms go ahead, he decided to join them. He died on Friday, 28 April 1916 while trying to escape from the occupied General Post Office. The Irish poet Yates dedicated his 1937 ballad, The O’Rahilly, to him. the new Irish Republican Army, p. 92: The IRA did not come into existence until a few years later, when more and more people joined the Nationalist Freedom fighters – which initially consisted largely of former Irish Volunteers – and they began to operate under the new name as the military arm of the Sinn Féin party. MacDiarmada, p. 93: Seán MacDiarmada (1883–1916) was a member and treasurer of the IRB and one of the leaders of the Sinn Féin party in its early stages from 1907 onwards. As a member of the Military Council of the IRB, he was involved in the plans for the Easter Rising and co-signed the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He was shot on 12 May 1916 by the British forces. Plunkett, p. 93: The poet and revolutionary Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916) was born in Dublin as the son of George Noble Plunkett (1851–1948), the curator of the Irish National Museum. He published a collection of poems, The Circle and the Sword, and co-founded the Irish newspaper, Irish Review, and the Irish Theatre (1914). As a member of the IRB and the Irish Volunteers, he led the Easter Rising of 1916 as Commander-in-chief. The night before his execution, he married the artist Grace Gifford at Kilmainham prison (see p. 142). Mick Collins, p. 93: Michael Collins (1890–1922) originated from Cork but moved to London at the age of 15. Back in Ireland, he began to play an important role in the IRB, as well as in the Gaelic League. After the defeat of the Easter Rising, he was imprisoned in Wales. Following his release and return to Dublin, he quickly became the leader of the IRB. In 1919, he became Minister for Finance in the new Irish government. After De Valera had left for America, he became the real leader of the revolution. His position of power was primarily based on his role as ‘Director of Organization and Intelligence’ within the Irish Volunteers, who were in the process of reinventing themselves as the Irish Republican Army (IRA). His role allowed him to infiltrate the British security services to a surprisingly

90

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.5 Glossary of terms high degree. He had many security officers killed. However, it was also largely down to his skills of negotiation that the British government finally agreed to enter into talks with the leaders of the independence movement. Collins was among the Irish delegates who went to London to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which after intense debate was finally agreed upon by the Irish government, Dáil Eìreann, in January 1922. Collins was made Chairman of the Provisional Government, which was responsible for Southern Ireland until it officially became a Free state. When turmoil broke out, under massive pressure from the British government, he ordered force to be used against the insurgents, resulting in the outbreak of Civil War. He became Commander-in-chief of the National Army before he was murdered on a mission to visit troops on 22 August 1922 (see also p. 329). Paddys, p. 94: Nickname for the Irish and for Patrick, the first Christian missionary in Ireland (fifth century AD), who is also the Patron Saint of Ireland. T. B., p. 95: Tuberculosis. We declare the right of the people of Ireland, p. 95: The declaration of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic by Patrick Pearse outside the General Post Office was the start of the Rising. The Proclamation was modelled on a similar text issued by Robert Emmet (1778–1803) during the 1803 Rebellion. Kitchener, p. 98: The British Field Marshall and African war hero Horatio Herbert Kitcheners (1850–1916) was a war hero who was nominated as Finance Minister at the start of the First World War. His name was connected to the famous recruitment posters with headlines such as: ‘Your country needs you!’ George V, p. 98: George V (1865–1936,) Edward VII’s second son, followed his father onto the throne in May 1910. From 1921 onwards, he was no longer King of Ireland, but only of Northern Ireland. in the mud of Verdun and Ypres, p. 103: This refers to the French stronghold of Verdun and the Belgian town Ypres, two World War One settings where hundreds of thousands died. The Lancers, p. 104: The Uhlans; riders armed with lances. 2. Text analysis and interpretation

91

2.5 Glossary of terms De Valera, p. 106: Born in New York to a Spanish father and an Irish mother, Eámon de Valera (1882–1975) was sent to Ireland by his mother in 1886. From 1906, he worked as a maths teacher in Dublin and became a member of the Gaelic League in 1908. In 1913, he joined both the newly founded Irish Volunteers and the secret IRB. During the Easter Rising, he led the the rebels who occupied Boland’s Mills and was condemned to death. However, his sentence was subsequently converted to life imprisonment following a public uproar. De Valera was held in Dartmoor prison in England, but released in June 1917. Shortly afterwards he took over the leadership of the Sinn Féin party from Arthur Griffith. After the success of the party at the General election in December 1918, De Valera was elected Prime Minister of the non-recognized Parliament of the Irish Republic in April 1919. Between June 1919 and December 1920, he sought financial and political support in America for the new Republic. When he returned to Ireland, the Anglo-Irish war led by Michael Collins against the British authorities was already in full swing. In 1921, De Valera opened talks with the British government but refused to travel to London in person which is why the delegation was accompanied by Griffith and Collins (see p. 328). From this point onwards, De Valera’s political position went into decline. After the Civil War, he was interned by the government of the Free State. However, he achieved a political comeback in 1927 and remained one of Ireland’s most important politicians up to his death. He was President of the Republic between 1959 and 1973. the Starry Plough, p. 106: The flag of the Irish Citizen Army displayed a pattern of stars resembling that of The Plough. William Martin Murphy, p. 106: He was an Irish entrepreneur (1844–1919) who owned an extensive railway network in Ireland, England and Africa, as well as a number of newspapers with a mass circulation. He led the employers during the workers’ strike of 1913. locked us out in 1913, p. 106: During the famous Dublin LockOut of 1913, William Martin Murphy and James Larkin, the radical leader and founder of the General Workers’ Union, found them-

92

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.5 Glossary of terms selves at loggerheads. In mid-August 1913, Murphy sacked union members who were employed in his companies (the Dublin United Tramway Company and the Independent Newspapers). The Trade Union reacted by declaring a General Strike on 26 August. Violent riots followed, particularly on 31 August, which entered the history books as ‘Bloody Sunday’. In September, Murphy was backed by 400 of his employees who locked out more than 20,000 of the other workers. The resulting long hard dispute between employers and employees finally ended in January 1914 with the workers’ defeat. Thomas Ashe, p. 109: Thomas Ashe (1885–1917) was a member of the Gaelic League and of the Irish Volunteers. During the Easter Rising he was in command of the Volunteers at Ashbourne. Following its defeat, he was condemned to death, but this sentence was later converted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1917 only to be rearrested shortly afterwards. While in prison, he went on a hunger strike and died as a result of force-feeding (see p. 189). Dick Mulcahy, p. 109: Richard Mulcahy (1886–1971) worked for the Irish Postal Company prior to the uprising and was also a member of the IRB, the Gaelic League as well as the Irish Volunteers. During the Easter Rising, he was second-in-command to Thomas Ashe at Ashbourne. Later he was interned in Wales. In 1918, he was voted into the Irish Parliament, of which he remained a member up until 1961. During the War of Independence, he became an important ally of Michael Collins (see p. 240) and later held several ministerial posts during his long-lasting political career. Irish Brigade, p. 110: Irish troops which formed part of the British Army in World War One. Jim Larkin, p. 110: James Larkin (1874–1947), the leader of the Irish workers’ movement, was born in Liverpool to Irish parents. He left school at the age of eleven to work on the docks. In 1907, he went to Dublin as member of the National Union of Dock Labourers, where a year later he founded the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. He became famous in the course of the industrial dispute of 1913. In 1914, he emigrated to America where he co-founded the American Communist Party in 1919 and was imprisoned shortly 2. Text analysis and interpretation

93

2.5 Glossary of terms afterwards. On his release in 1923, he returned to Dublin where he tried to regain control over the union he had founded. This led to its split. Up to his death, he remained a unionist leader, even holding influential parliamentary positions over many years. Robert Emmet, p. 117: Robert Emmet (1778–1803) joined the exiled leaders of the United Irishmen who were a radical organisation fighting for Irish independence. On his secret return to Ireland in 1800, he organised a revolt in 1803 which was unsuccessful. He was hanged on 20 September by the British forces. (Doyle’s stated date of 1813 is incorrect). This is the first time a capital city …, p. 126: Reference to the Fire of Moscow on 15 September 1812, following the arrival of Napoleon the day before. It was the Russians themselves who set the abandoned city on fire. dum-dum-bullets, p. 134 and 269: Very effective bullets with exposed lead cores which were named after the Indian city of Dum Dum. The Hague Convention of 1899 prohibited the use of these bullets in international warfare. Tommies, p. 135: Common nickname for English soldiers, used up to the mid-twentieth century. G-men, p. 136: Members of the G-division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, whose task was to gather information about the insurgents. The first Battle of Ypres, p. 137: The first Battle of Ypres lasted from 20 October until 18 November 1914. O’Linn, Brian, p. 138: see chapter 2.7.2 of this guide (p. 118). the Castle, p. 138: Dublin Castle, which dates back to the thirteenth century, was the headquarters of the British government up until 1922. It was officially handed over to the Irish Free State in January 1922 after the War of Independence. Kilmainham Gaol, p. 141: Kilmainham prison became a symbol of the Irish War of Independence. It was closed down in 1924. Huns, huns, huns, p. 142: The ‘huns’ was a common British swearword for the Germans during the First World War.

94

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.5 Glossary of terms John McCormack, p. 158: The singer John McCormack (1884– 1945) is rated as one of Ireland’s most lyrical tenors of his time. He débuted on stage in Dublin in 1906 and soon after enjoyed enormous success at America’s great opera houses. Count Plunkett, p. 159: Count George Noble Plunkett (1851– 1948), whose revolutionary son was shot in 1916, lost his position as curator of the Irish National Museum following his son’s execution. In 1917, he ran for Sinn Féin at the by-election in North Roscommon; his victory was seen as a sign of change in the country’s political positions of power. He was a member of the first Irish government of 1919, in which he held the post of Foreign Secretary. Defence of the Realm Act, p. 179: In 1914, a law was passed by the British government giving them wide-ranging powers to uphold law and order throughout the United Kingdom. This Act virtually placed the country in a permanent state of martial law. It allowed the authorities to deal rapidly with and execute the revolutionaries after the defeat of the Easter Rising in 1916, and it also served subsequently as a means of fighting Sinn Féin’s ever increasing popularity. The British authorities even used this law to push through a ban on general assemblies. Following the war, the Act was replaced by a new law with similarly wide-ranging powers, which was known as the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act (1920). the Irish Republican Brotherhood, p. 184: The IRB, founded in 1858, was a secret revolutionary organisation which was dedicated towards achieving independence for Ireland, if necessary by the force of arms. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, it had lost most of its political influence, which it did not regain until Thomas J. Clarke’s arrival in Dublin in 1907. Clarke gathered together a new generation of revolutionaries and began to infiltrate the leadership of the Irish Volunteers, thus preparing for the Easter Rising of 1916. Following his release from prison, Michael Collins became the new president of the IRB. He turned the organisation into the secret control centre in the armed fight against the British government. The organisation was disbanded after the founding of the Free State.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

95

2.5 Glossary of terms a hurley, p. 185: A wooden bat (similar to a baseball bat) used in hurling, a team sport which is mainly played in Ireland. President Wilson, p. 186: Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was the President of the USA from 1913 to 1921. It was largely as a result of his initiative that the League of Nations was founded following World War One. The Royal Irish Constabulary, p. 192: Founded in 1822 as the County Constabulary and reorganised in 1836 under the new name of Irish Constabulary, this police force was the British government’s most important instrument of power in Ireland. The divisions of the RIC forces spread across Ireland in hundreds of barracks. In 1922, the force was disbanded and replaced by the Irish Free State’s own police force (in Ulster, they were replaced by the Royal Ulster Constabulary). An I. R. B. Member, p. 192: Member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Trinity College, p. 194: A college of the University of Dublin founded by Elizabeth I in 1592. Black and Tans, p. 195 (see also p. 258): In 1920, auxiliary troops were recruited in England and Scotland and sent to Ireland to assist the Royal Irish Constabulary, which was under fire from partisan units of the IRA, and also to prevent a feared loss of power of the British authorities. They became known as the ‘Black and Tans’, a reference to their uniforms which were stitched together out of a selection of British army and RIC uniforms. In 1920, they had more than 2000 members and were widely feared for their level of brutality and combat experience. Cosgrave, p. 197: William T. Cosgrave (1880–1965) took part in the 1916 Easter Rising as a member of the Irish Volunteers, became a member of parliament for the Sinn Féin party in August 1917 without taking up his post in London, and following his re-election at the 1918 General election held the position of Local Government Minister both in the newly formed Irish Parliament (1919–1921) and in the Provisional Government of 1922. In August 1922, he became President of Dáil Éireann and Chairman of the Provisional Government.

96

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.5 Glossary of terms For ten years from 1922 to 1932, he was also head of government of the newly founded Irish Free State. and tried to bring in conscription, p. 207: Great Britain’s plan to introduce conscription to Ireland led to an overwhelming victory of the Sinn Féin party at the 1918 General Election. Cathal Brugha, p. 207: The Dublin born revolutionary, originally named Charles Burgess (1874–1922), became a member of the Gaelic League in 1899 and joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913. He was seriously wounded during the Easter Rising of 1916. He was the IRA’s chief of staff from 1917 to 1919 and took up the post of Minister for Defence in the new Irish Government (1919–1922). He died in 1922 in the Dublin riots. Ernie O’Malley, p. 209 and 218: Ernie O’Malley (1897–1957), the writer and revolutionary, was a leading member of the IRA, first during the War of Independence and later during the Civil War as an opponent of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. His two books, On Another Man’s Wound (1936) and The Singing Flame (1978) are among the most famous eye-witness accounts of the brutal events leading to the founding of the Irish Republic and are important sources of Doyle’s novel. Small Wars: Their Principles and Practices, p. 220: This book by the British Officer C. E. Callwell was first published in 1896 under the title: Small Wars. A Tactical Textbook for Imperial Soldiers. The Republican Loan, p. 229: During his time as Minister for Finance for the revolutionary Irish Parliament of 1919, Michael Collins successfully organized a bond issue to finance the new Irish Republic: the Dáil Loan, or Republican Loan, was also known as National Loan (see also p. 248). Count von Clausewitz, p. 255: After Napoleon’s defeat of Prussian troops in 1806, the Prussian General and military writer Claus von Clausewitz (1780–1831) joined the circle of army reformers around Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. His main work, Vom Kriege (About War), contains the famous phrase: ‘Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln.’ (‘War is merely a continuation of politics by other means.’) 2. Text analysis and interpretation

97

2.5 Glossary of terms Madame MacBride, p. 256 and 340: Maud Gonne MacBride (1866–1953) was the daughter of a British army officer of Irish descent. She became rich through an inheritance and led a free and eventful life supporting the Irish War of Independence by campaigning for political prisoners. During the Civil War she founded the Women’s Prisoners’ Defence League and was imprisoned by the new Provisional Government. She is still worshipped today as one of the heroines of the Irish War of Independence. Lloyd George, p. 264: Lloyd George (1863–1945) was British Prime Minister from 1916 until 1922. the Auxiliary Cadets, p. 274: In July 1920, the British Government recruited a second special force to serve in Ireland in addition to the Black and Tans, consisting of retired officers from World War One. They received double the salary of members of the RIC and were sent to particularly hard-fought areas. They soon became widely hated by the population on account of their high degree of brutality. The Bolsheviks, p. 283: Lenin’s supporters within the Russian Social Democratic Worker Party became known as the Bolshewiki (Russian for Majority). They were the prime force behind the October Revolution of 1917. In March 1918, they formed into the Russian Communist Party. shtetl, p. 284: Jiddish name for small towns in the west of the former Russian Republic (Latvia, Poland and the Ukraine) and in the east of the former Habsburg Empire (in particular in Galicia), which were inhabited – predominantly – by poor Jews, who kept to themselves and cultivated their traditions more strongly than was possible in the bigger cities, where many of them bowed to the Christian lifestyle of the majority. The Cairo Gang, p. 286: A group of twelve British agents who were entrusted with the task of infiltrating the Irish resistance movement. On the night of the 20 November 1920, Michael Collins had all twelve members of the Cairo Gang liquidated. Terence MacSwiney (...) Brixton Gaol, p. 310: The writer and politician Terence MacSwiney (1879–1920) co-founded the Cork Celtic Literature Society in 1908 and later became a member of the

98

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.5 Glossary of terms Gaelic League and the Irish Volunteers. He spent 1916 and 1917 in British prisons. Following the 1918 General Election, he co-founded the revolutionary Irish Parliament, Dáil Éireann. In 1920, he was elected Lord Mayor of Cork, but arrested soon after and imprisoned for two years. On 24 October 1920, he died in the London prison of Brixton after a hunger strike. B Specials, p. 310: This was a new police force which was established at the request of the Ulster Unionists in 1920 to protect the six counties in the northeast of Ireland against attacks by the IRA. The majority of people in this area were opposed to a separation from Britain. The force, which was subordinated to the RIC, was equipped and financed by the British Government. Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column, p. 310: The revolutionary Tom Barry (1897–1980) joined the British army in 1915 and was wounded during the First World War. From the mid-1920s he worked as an instructor of the West Cork Brigade of the IRA and headed the controversial ambush on 28 November in Kilmichael. Following the creation of the Free State, he remained an active member of the IRA and became their chief of staff in 1936. In this role, he devised plans of attack on Northern Ireland, but was unable to push through his ideas and resigned in 1938 as a result. Briscoe, p. 326: The Irish Jew Robert (Bob) Briscoe (1894–1969) travelled to Germany and America during the War of independence on the orders of Michael Collins. From 1927 to 1965, he was a member of the Irish Parliament and between 1956 and 1961, he was Lord Mayor of Dublin. 1847, p. 328: Between 1846 and 1848, famines caused by bad harvests decimated the population by almost a quarter. Many Irish citizens emigrated to America as a result. In 1848, hunger riots broke out which were suppressed by force. Missis Despard, p. 340: The Edinburgh-born French writer and nationalist Charlotte Despard (1844–1939) turned to politics following the death of her husband and because she was appalled by the conditions in the slums of London. She founded the Women’s Freedom League and moved to Ireland in 1910, where she joined the 2. Text analysis and interpretation

99

2.5 Glossary of terms Sinn Féin party and remained an active member of the party during the War of Independence. Mary (...) MacSwiney, p. 340: The London born Mary MacSwiney (1872–1942) was a sister of Terence MacSwiney, the writer and politician who had died in prison in 1920. She had already been removed from her teaching position in 1916 on account of her political activities. Throughout the 1920s, during the foundation of the Irish Republic, she was one of the most influential political advisers to the new government.

100

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.6 Style and presentation

2.6 Style and presentation 2.6.1 Narrative viewpoint and narrative mode In his role as first-person narrator, Henry’s tendency to present himself as a kind of legendary figure whilst reflecting on the story of his life (particularly in the early chapters of the novel) has the effect of blurring the boundaries of fact and fiction. Realism and fantasy Whilst the narration of some of the passages is almost clinical in its description of the facts, there are equally other passages which are written in an exaggerated style which is almost obtrusive in nature. This is particularly visible in the account of the argument between Henry’s parents over how to name their one-week-old baby: Henry hears everything and worries about it, as a child the age of a schoolchild would (see p. 28–33). This episode stands out quite clearly because this memory is obviously not being narrated from the perspective of the adult who is recalling the event at the time of writing his autobiography. Of course, there are passages of this kind, too (see also p. 2, 3 and 5), as there are in all autobiographical novels. As is typical of this genre, the narrative viewpoint continuously switches back and forth from the perspective of the adult narrator who is recalling and reflecting on events in his life, to the perspective of the character who is reconstructing these events in the respective stages of his development from a period of time much closer to the original events and with a greater level of understanding. Both these styles are used to portray the realism which can be said to dominate in A Star Called Henry. Next to this, there is also Henry’s tendency to afford himself legendary status whilst recounting the story of his life.29 Here it is the sense of the words themselves rather than the reliability of the actual 29 This tendency is closely connected to the narrator’s other tendency to recount the story of his life in the form of a picaresque novel, which may at first glance appear like a paradox to the reader. Both genres, that of the picaresque and that of the (sacred) legend, are prone to exaggeration, and transgress the real world into which the hero does not fit. Both tendencies are more strongly portrayed in the first chapters than in the last.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

101

2.6 Style and presentation memory which is important: ‘Only a week in the world and already there were serious stories spinning up and down the streets and alleys, through the open windows of the slums.’ (p. 23) But Henry’s character is not the only one to be exaggerated for effect, his father’s is, too: ‘Henry Smart the First, my father, was already famous. Still a bigger legend than his newly arrived son, the tap tap of his famous leg was a sound more feared than the banshee’s wail.’ (p. 23) The astonishing ability and strength of his one-legged father to evade the police using his wooden leg as a weapon as well as a means of escape further indicates that his character has been exaggerated well beyond any realistic scale. This is also true of Henry’s activities and his ability to survive even the most dangerous of situations. Thus, father and son are portrayed at the same time as both mere henchmen and mythical heroes. 2.6.2 ‘In medias res’: the technique of beginning a narrative in the middle of the story The narrator – or rather the author, Roddy Doyle, – loves using the ‘in medias res’ (Latin for ‘in the middle of things’) narrative technique which, according to Horaz, is a ‘poetic technique which does not dwell on any lengthy introductions and descriptions, but throws the reader right into the middle of the action and uses a series of flashbacks to catch up on the events leading up to this.’30 The technique of throwing the reader straight into the middle of the action always delivers the desired dramatic effect and keeps the suspense of the narrative alive for the reader, who is aware of the consequences before he has been filled in on the event itself. This kind of artistic and natural portrayal of events apThe art of verbal story-telling proaches the art of verbal story-telling. A particular example of this technique of the ‘in medias res’ narrative can be found at the beginning of the fourth part of the novel (chapter eleven). Henry is being interrogated and tortured: ‘I 30 Gero von Wilpert: Sachwörterbuch der Literatur. Stuttgart: Kröner, 7th, improved and enlarged edition 1989, p. 410 f.

102

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.6 Style and presentation couldn’t see. / –Name? / I didn’t answer. / –Name? / I didn’t answer. / And one of them, more of them hit me again.’ (p. 293) This short introductory sentence (‘I couldn’t see.’) seems to emphasise not only the disorientation of the character, but of the reader as well, who does not learn how Henry has ended up imprisoned until two pages later; and characteristically, even this passage begins in media res after only a brief reference to the location (‘Granny Nash’s room’, p. 295), in other words without any mention of what has happened and who is talking to whom. So, even this subsequent explanation of the events prior to Henry’s imprisonment remains sparing in detail. Appropriately, one page later, the narrative once again slips a few minutes further back in time with a description of the events immediately preceding Henry’s arrest: ‘I didn’t know where she’d gone. She’d been in the room when the door had come down. (…) – (…) You’ve five minutes if you – /And that was when the door came down.’ (p. 296) Then it flicks back to where the reader originally started off (Henry’s imprisonment and torture): ‘The man in front of me (…). I looked straight into the light.’ (p. 296 f.) Chronologically, the second flashback immediately follows on from the end of the third part of the novel (see p. 288 f.). Then comes the first flashback immediately after that. Together they suffice to fill in the gap of information left at the beginning of the fourth part of the novel, thus allowing the narrator to return to the original thread of the narrative. A further short passage in which the main character again reflects on the dramatic events that have taken place finally also makes it easier for the reader as well to fit the order of the events into the general plot. It becomes clear that Henry’s visit to his grandmother’s house following his last contract killing was careless: ‘That was then. I remembered. I’d been caught. Sunday night – how long ago? – after the killings and the other killings, that afternoon in Croke Park. In Granny Nash’s room. I’d gone there – stupid, stupid, fuckin’ stupid – to try and get more out of the Granny. Away from the safe house, out into the fury of the Tans and Auxiliaries. / The door opened. (…)’. (p. 297)

2. Text analysis and interpretation

103

2.6 Style and presentation Many of the episodes in the novel are constructed in this way. Chapter six, which takes up all of the second part of the novel and covers the Easter Rising of 1916 and its defeat, also starts off ‘in medias res’ (‘I held my left arm across my eyes and smashed the window.’ p. 87), before the reader is subsequently informed about the events immediately preceding the occupation of the General Post Office (see p. 91–95 and 96 f.), and only after several attempts.31 The same is true of chapter ten (see p. 258 ff.) of the novel and of other episodes as well. Even a chapter like chapter five, in which the first few pages give an account of Henry’s and Victor’s lives between the ages of five and eight, opens up with a short sentence to set the scene: ‘Tell me again, he’d say.’ (p. 63) However, because this opening sentence refers to a situation which keeps recurring, as opposed to the singular situation of the “in medias res” technique, Iterative narrative here one can rather speak of an iterative narrative: In the iterative narrative, a scene which happens quite often is only mentioned once. The short opening sentence of chapter five bears a resemblance to the opening sentence of the novel. It, too, starts off in medias res by confronting the reader with a situation without offering any prior information about it: ‘My mother looked up at the stars. (…)’ It does not become clear until later that this is not an special situation, but a repeated one, a situation which stands symbolically for the entire existence of the mother. 2.6.3 Motifs and symbols Like most writers of novels, Roddy Doyle also uses recurring motifs, constellations and situations to help give unity to the plot of the novel and to complete it as a work of art. These recurring motifs signalise to the reader that every single component of the narrative is potentially meaningful. This serves both to intensify the reading 31 The second mention of prior events contains an additional flashback which in this example goes back a lot further in time than previous ones: ‘The Proclamation of Independence. (It was Connolly who’d finally taught me how to read. (…) I drowned in the words.) Three years later, (…).’ (p. 96)

104

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.6 Style and presentation experience and, hopefully, to heighten the reader’s interest in the story. The most important motif of the novel is the father’s (spare) wooden leg, which his son inherits after his disappearance. It represents the flawed existence of both the faThe father’s wooden leg ther and the son as thugs and contract killers, who are employed in the service of and exploited by others. Used as a club to beat people’s heads in with, it is the unchivalrous weapon of a fighter who is unfamiliar with all the more sophisticated customs of war and who only has his own physical strength to rely on. It is an extremely brutal and extremely simple weapon. The fact that Henry is unable to part with it (see p. 136 and 142 f.) symbolises the depth of his affection for his father, in whose footsteps he is following. This is made quite clear when Henry uses the leg as a murder weapon (see p. 185 and 336–338) but also, on a more humorous note, when he uses it to stage a miracle in Templemore (see p. 276– 282). At the end of the novel, when Henry leaves his old life behind him, the wooden leg, too, loses its purpose. It is for this reason that after his final escape (see p. 340), Henry leaves it behind in the water, the element which has also served to demonstrate just how similar in character both father and son are. Another recurrent theme of the novel is the escape motif. With hindsight, Henry and his father’s escape from the police, described in detail in chapter four, appears to have been the prototype for all the subsequent ones.The use of the sewerage system as an escape route is repeated after the Easter Rising, as well as at the end of the novel when Henry’s former friends have turned on him. The parallels between these are given special emphasis here: ‘And we fell. / We fell into darkness and nothing.’ (p. 55) ‘And fell. / Into darkness and nothing.’ (p. 140) ‘The cover came up for me like a paper and I held it up, a shield against the bullets that were coming for me, and I walked backwards into the hole. I sent the cover spinning at the G-man.’ (p. 140) ‘Left, a few yards and I had the manhole cover in my hands. It was as weightless as the one I’d thrown in Richmond Barracks. This time I 2. Text analysis and interpretation

105

2.6 Style and presentation held it over my head, arms straight above me, and I walked, dropped into the hole, and I left skin on the rusting edge of the cover as I dropped into the river.’ (p. 327) His compulsion to repeat this method of escape is so strong that when his wife, who is helping him to escape from Kilmainham, insists that he uses the tram, he even has to suppress a surge of anger: ‘It annoyed me, her deciding my route of escape, and means. But I fought it.’ (p. 307) Henry’s ability to find water, a further important motif in the novel, is also linked to this theme of escape (see p. 57, 139, 228, 306, 323). In addition to these more important motifs, there are also a number of details which keep recurring at different times in the novel: Particularly memorable in this context, even if somewhat ridiculous and incredulous, are the sheets of stamps Sheets of stamps which Henry falls onto when he first sleeps with Miss O’Shea (see p. 119, 120 and 121). Nearly a week later, when Henry escapes to Annie’s and she helps him to undress, some of these stamps are still stuck to him: ‘Together, we pushed and pulled my britches down to my thighs. Then Annie grabbed my arse before it had had a chance to draw breath. /–Jesus, what’s that? / It was a sheet of twopenny stamps, still stuck to my cheeks a week after Miss O’Shea had thrown me down onto them. / –Stamps, I said. / –What are they doing there? / –It was the only way I could smuggle them out. You can write to your husband now, Annie, I said.’ (p. 141 f.) Much later, after Miss O’Shea and Henry, now man and wife, have robbed a post office, the idea of the stamps being used for purposes other than intended is brought up once again – although this time for nostalgic reasons: ‘We rode into the dark until it was too dangerous and, in a wood behind Kilbegnet, we lay down and rode away into the night on a bed of stolen stamps.’ (p. 250)

106

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.6 Style and presentation 2.6.4 Constant exaggeration and crass behaviour The blocks of stamps that Henry and Miss O’Shea used for support the first time they slept together and, even more so, the permanent imprints of Miss O’Shea’s nipples left on Henry’s forehead (see p. 121 and 158) are two obvious examples Braggart and rogue of the many exaggerations contained within the novel. These serve to characterise the narrator. In line with his social background, Henry shows himself to be lacking in tact and good taste. Moreover, he never misses an opportunity to brag about his good looks and his success with women. At times, this proletarian egocentricity and his disposition towards exaggeration makes the narration seem in some parts like a picaresque novel. Further examples of exaggerations of this kind can be found: during the occupation of the General Post Office: ‘I stood straight in the main hall and ate the Volunteer’s dinner, the best bit of chicken I’d ever tasted. I felt the hot draught of passing bullets, a slice of shrapnel flew into one of my spuds and fizzled, but I ate it all up, every last mouthful.’ (p. 130) shortly before the capitulation: ‘Every bullet ever made flew up that street, at me, at my feet, at my head. (…) They fractured, made powder of the pavement right beside me.’ (p. 134) when he is working on the docks: ‘I suffocated all day long, fought back death with my shovel. (…) A day in the bowels of a boat full of phosphorite was a message from hell (…). (…) I felt my gums being eaten, a growing itch and pain, teeth wandering if I clenched them.’ (p. 155) ‘I was being eaten alive by phosphorite.’ (p. 156) on a high because of Jack Dalton: ‘I was (…) the best-looking man in the room, owner of the eyes that brought tears to the fannies of every woman who ever as much as glanced at them.’ (p. 177) 2. Text analysis and interpretation

107

2.6 Style and presentation Closely linked to these exaggerations, and not always easy to distinguish from them, are examples of crass behaviour which are also a feature of Doyle’s narrative style in A Star Called Henry. Their purpose it seems is to prove that nothing has been glossed over here – and they often overshoot the mark, thus creating the impression that the narrator is actually enjoying the shock Desire to shock that these descriptions are having on the reader. So they, too, can be said to characterise the narrator as well. Talking about how his father uses his wooden leg, Henry comments: ‘In one neat hop he’d have the leg off and their heads open and the leg back on before they hit the ground.’ (p. 15) After Henry’s father has rescued the five year-old Henry and his younger brother, Victor, only to abandon them once again a short time later, the young Henry bangs his head on the pavement until he is bleeding and loses consciousness (see p. 59). Henry’s method of catching rats and presenting them to his customers (see p. 66 f.) is also crass, particularly considering that he is only eight years old at the time. Equally crass is the uninhibited violence when he attacks the nun who is trying to throw him and Victor out of the school: ‘I didn’t wait for an answer. I just lifted the leg and whacked at the nose. She rose and flew and skidded across three desks (…).’ (p. 78) During the Easter Rising, the violence then escalates: ‘They marched through blood and entrails and the cries of dying teenagers calling out for their mammies and the vapour coming from the guts of the ones already dead.’ (p. 122) ‘(…) the sparks fucked above us and the heat whipped slices off my face’ (p. 125). The description of Paddy Swanzy’s death (see p. 133), the nightmare Henry has following it (see p. 143) and the situation the imprisoned revolutionaries find themselves in following the capitulation are just three more examples: ‘And there all night without food or drink or permission to piss. The coldest night. (…) Men cried, awake in their sleep, continued to die

108

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.6 Style and presentation in their dreams, cried out for their mammies and God. They shat themselves and stayed put in their shit, afraid of the drunken officers.’ (p. 136) The descriptions of the murders of a policeman and of Alfie Gandon, Henry’s last killing, are equally shocking: ‘I ran back towards him and shot twice. Once into the mess on his chest. Once into his face. It came away from bone and seemed to linger in front of me for the time it took him to fall again.’ (p. 246) ‘I hit him again. I’d broken his head, the carpet was drenched and so was I before he stopped laughing. But still, he wasn’t dead. I could see it in his back, life, intelligence waiting for the chance. There was bone and brains on my trousers and hands before I was certain that it was over and I dropped the leg and stood up straight. My back was killing me.’ (p. 338) 2.6.5 The two faces of the narrator and the ‘expressionistic narrative’ Throughout most of the novel, the narrator of A Star Called Henry tries to pretend that he has no literary skills at all, as the previous section illustrates particularly well. He does not present himself as an educated man of letters who is telling a cleverly crafted story full of innuendo to entertain the reader as much as possible. On the contrary, he tells his story without any consideration for the reader’s tastes: out of his own need for recognition (or rather to overcome his early trauma of neglect) and because he Artistic artless narration would like to come to terms with and understand himself: In writing he is seeking to find the identity that has so far escaped him in real life. Beneath the surface of this crude and egocentric narrative style, however, lies much literary expertise. The narration is artful and artless at the same time. The use of the in medias res technique for instance, which at first glance may be construed as a lack of discipline on the part of the narrator (the narrator seems to be too impatient to follow the natural chronological 2. Text analysis and interpretation

109

2.6 Style and presentation order of events, which is why he keeps on having to add details retrospectively to allow the reader to follow the plot), at second glance demonstrates just how skilful he is at dramatizing these particular passages with effect. Although throughout most of the novel Henry is unable to step back and examine his own role, and the narrator points out frequently enough how long it has taken him to realise that he has just been mistreated as a useful idiot, he nevertheless proves at certain points that he is in fact quite capable of critical analysis: ‘I was delighted, that was what I was. Thrilled. I’d passed. The big test. A bit hysterical, to be honest. Not that far from angry.’ (p. 199) The narrative style of this passage shows itself to be too literary, too educated and too reflective. And therein lies the predicament, when an educated and clever author chooses a hero who, because of his background and family history, can actually only be of limited intelligence. This is what causes breaks in the narrative style. Particularly noticeable in this respect are the two references to literary works on pages 12 and 13 of the novel.32 However, the metaphors and personifications, which at times give the narrative an almost expressionistic tint, equally point to a literary form which to some extent stands in conflict with the dominant, crude narrative style. The author has not refrained from using these stylistic devices, but at the same time he has been careful to Metaphors and personifications ensure that the overall picture remains as real as possible, that the metaphors do not seem like acquired knowledge but as having come directly from Henry’s own experience: ‘I heard water settling and the house above us groaning like a ship fighting a rope, objecting to our presence.’ (p. 47) ‘The fading horse’s hooves drove nails into his stupid, saturated heart.’ (p. 49) ‘(…) that was what we heard – the city coughing’ (p. 82). ‘The city killed Victor.’ (p. 83) ‘Collapsing walls nearer the river were huge, furious footsteps (…)’ (p. 123). 32 See footnote 20

110

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.6 Style and presentation ‘The bullets chipped at the doorway, eating away my hiding place.’ (p. 134) ‘A gob of poor man’s spit landed on my cheek. I could smell the furious breath of the city.’ (p. 138) ‘(…) we turned right onto a narrow road with a beard of rough grass growing down its centre (…)’ (p. 250). ‘The city still off work and yawning.’ (p. 288) This linking of literary phraseology directly with Henry’s own experiences of everyday life means that the reader does not find these inconsistencies in the style of the narrative too disturbing.

2. Text analysis and interpretation

111

2.7 Interpretation aids

2.7 Interpretation aids 2.7.1 Henry, the hero – Henry, the nameless Henry regards himself as a person with no name and therefore with no identity. To fill this void, he would like to become a hero. Paradoxically, as a consequence of this, not only is Henry’s namelessness intensified, but he also loses touch more and more with his inner self. The different stages of his development are described in detail in chapter 2.4. of this guide; hence, a short résumé will suffice here. As already indicated by the title of the book, the actual star in the novel appears to be Henry, the dead, older brother who has robbed the narrator both of his parents’ love as well as of his own name; thus giving the younger Henry constant cause for distress and permanent reason to hate him. Hence, the novel begins with the experience of hardship which is then compensated for by the legend of his glorious birth and the first week of his life. Henry regards himself as superfluous and unwanted. This point is further underlined when the famous picture of De Valera is taken after the Easter Rising (at first, only Henry’s elbow is visible, but then even this is removed from the picture despite the fact that just moments before Henry had shown enormous patriotic courage). Henry does not learn from this key expePersona non grata instead of rience. On the contrary, due to his overliving legend whelming desire to become famous, he is completely taken in by Jack’s flattery: As soon as he hears that a song has been written about him, that he is already a living legend, he rejoins the independence movement. However, the political fight does not make Henry famous, it merely turns him into a persona non-grata. Within a year of the defeat of the Easter Rising, he is forced to go into hiding and even to assume an alias (Fergus Nash). Later, while working as an instructor training up the new rebels in the countryside and as a hit man, he has to move underground into

112

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.7 Interpretation aids complete anonymity. When he is finally imprisoned and tortured, it is only because of his steadfast denial of his true identity that he is able to survive. Instead of creating a stage for him and giving him the opportunity to achieve stardom and thus to triumph over his dead brother, the political fight systematically prevents him from acquiring an identity for himself and building up stable relations. At the end, he is marked by his ordeal and even has to leave his home country in order to survive. Whether, under these circumstances, he will ever manage to make peace with himself and his dead brother is left open and remains uncertain. 2.7.2 Undermining the myth – Henry and the legendary hero of Cuchulain If you concentrate on Henry as a person, the story – as summarised above – appears to concern itself largely with a psychological problem. On the other hand, if you look more closely at the aims of the author, it seems rather more plausible that it was Doyle’s intention to write a satire exposing the myth that has been created around the Easter Rising of 1916 and the years of the War of Independence against Britain. This thesis is based on two informative essays by Janis Dawson and José Lanters (see also the bibliography), whose main lines of argument will be closely analysed in the following paragraphs. Janis Dawson concentrates on the parallels Parallels to the ancient Irish between Henry and the legendary hero, Ulster Cycle Cuchulain, from the Ulster Cycle, one of the oldest and most important myths of Irish history, and she comes to the following conclusion: ‘Doyle parts company with the Cuchulain legend at the end of his novel. Cuchulain deliberately chose fame and greatness over a long life, and, according to some versions of the Tain, died a hero at the age of twenty. Henry, however, shakes himself free from the myth of heroic sacrifice and the spell of Mother Ireland: ‘I was going. (…) I’d 2. Text analysis and interpretation

113

2.7 Interpretation aids start again. A new man. (…) I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t know if I’d get there. / But I was still alive. I was twenty. I was Henry Smart.’’ (p. 342)33 Henry’s connection to Cuchulain is already alluded to in the description of the first week of his life. He not only experiences his first adventure from his cot, as illustrated by his threatening encounter with the rat family, but Lady Gregory’s head gardener also arrives with a request to use the baby’s excrements as fertiliser for his mistress’ roses (see p. 23; roses symbolise sufferance and self-sacrifice, which is why they are also identified in Irish literature with Ireland itself). Lady Augusta Gregory (1852–1932) was the author of a book about Cuchulain of Muirthemne, which was published in April 1902, and which she was therefore probably just completing at the time of Henry’s alleged birth. Beyond that, it is also widely known that Patrick Pearse and other rebel leaders of 1916 worshipped the cult around the legendary hero, Cuchulain, and liked to class their revolutionary actions as a natural succession to the heroic myths of early Irish history.34 Ironically, although the revolutionaries failed at first, the mythical hero with whom they identified triumphed: The Irish government had the bronze statue of The Death of Cuchulain by Oliver Sheppard placed in the main hall of the General Post Office after its reconstruction. A further sign of irony seems to be that in Roddy Doyle’s novel, the revolutionary leaders of 1916, who worship their national legend, appear to consist of a group of invalids35, whilst Henry, who is not bothered about Ireland’s fate, reemerges at the same time after a gap 33 Dawson, p. 180. Dawson also notes: ‘It should be noted that Doyle would not be the only writer in recent years to use the legend of Cuchulain to deconstruct Irish nationalism. In his play No Country for Old Men (1986), Sam McCready presents the story of a young IRA terrorist who identifies with the Celtic hero.’ (Dawson, p. 172) 34 The Irish poet William Butler Yeats, who was admired by Pearse and his followers, referred to the legend of Cuchulain in many of his lyrical and dramatical works, specifically in four which were published in 1916. 35 ‘A fine body of men: Clarke was there, as old and as frail as Ireland; MacDiarmada, left lopsided by polio, was leaning on his stick; Plunkett had his neck wrapped in bandages and looked like a death congealing.’ (p. 93)

114

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.7 Interpretation aids of several years in the narrative (between part one and part two) as the glorious hero.36 The central episode of the Ulster Cycle, the Tain Bo Cuailnge, tells the story of how the young Cuchulain successfully defends Ulster’s borders against attack by a foreign army completely on his own for a full nine days until help finally arrives. This action – one man successfully standing up against a superior force – became the symbol of Ireland. Henry, the outsider, fits into this role much better than any of the real revolutionary leaders of the independence movement despite the fact that he does not manage either (or is denied the chance) to alter the course of history through some decisive act of his own. Henry’s role as the hero is underlined by the obscure family background from which heroes typically Henry’s obscure come, by the emphasis given to his mothfamily background er’s virginity up to her marriage and to his father’s fame (see p. 10 and 23). Both parents thus also fit into the pattern – a pattern, however, which is simultaneously ridiculed by the fact these people are obviously far from being of secret noble descent. From his father, Henry inherits a powerful weapon comprising supernatural powers: It enables him to find water, which is essential for survival and sometimes even saves his life when he is in need of an escape route. However, this weapon is no chivalrous sword either, but a type of club, an uncivilized weapon, the artificial limb of a cripple which is used for purposes other than originally intended. Henry’s mother develops from a graceful woman full of pure innocence, as Henry subsequently pictures her in his mind, into a depressed, unkempt, stammering alcoholic. This provides further evidence of the stylistic device used by Doyle throughout the novel of breaking with the conventional hero by confronting the sublime with the repulsive. The mother of the hero meets his father for the first time on her way home from Sunday church: He, how­ 36 ‘I was fourteen. None of the others knew, or would have believed it. I was six foot, two inches tall and had the shoulders of a boy built to carry the weight of the world. I was probably the bestlooking man in the G. P. O., but there was nothing beautiful about me. My eyes were astonishing, blue daggers that warned the world to keep its distance. I was one of the few real soldiers there; I had nothing to fear and nothing to go home to.’ (p. 89, see also p. 108)

2. Text analysis and interpretation

115

2.7 Interpretation aids ever, falls in front of her feet and throws up ‘(a) day and a half’s drinking’ (p. 4).37 The figure of Henry’s grandmother, Granny Nash, also seems to have been taken directly from a folk legend. She resembles Morrigan, the deadly Celtic goddess of war, who often assumes the guise of a raven or a crow. Beyond that, she is also connected to Cuchulain’s maternal grandfather, Cathbad, a great Druid and adviser to the King of Ulster. Like the legendary Cuchulain, Henry begins to explore his surroundings at the tender age of five in preparation for his future life. (Generally, all of the age details revealed about Henry seem to have the sole purpose of synchronizing his life with that of Cuchulain). However, while Cuchulain is trained to become an adviser to the king, Henry trains on the streets of Dublin’s suburbs for a life as ‘trouble-maker’ (p. 327), underground fighter and hit man. Following Victor’s death, Henry tries in vain to find his mother, who has disappeared without a trace. Granny Nash refuses to help him in his quest. In light of the traditional nationalist image of Ireland as a mother who is willing to make sacrifices, for whom in return every sacrifice must be made – an idea Patrick Pearse seems almost obsessed by in his writings – the question must be raised as to whether Henry’s mother gone missing is also meant to be a metaphor for Ireland, for a vision which turns out to be empty and can therefore be misused for different purposHenry’s mother as metaphor es. This point illustrates the susceptibility for Ireland of heroes, in as much as their lives revolve totally around heroic deeds. Heroic actions can be carried out for good or bad purposes, which is something Henry starts considering too late. During the years of the War of Independence against the British Empire, Henry shows himself to be such a misguided hero. The description of his surroundings whilst traveling through Ireland are reminiscent of those against which Cuchulain’s heroic actions in Tain take place. This phase of Henry’s life is comparable to the period in 37 Throughout Roddy Doyle’s novels, there are an astonishing amount of characters who throw up. Some critics have referred to this phenomenon as cathartic.

116

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.7 Interpretation aids Cuchulain’s life in which he allows himself to be so misguided over the question of who his true enemies are that he temporarily goes mad and starts fighting the sea. It is only after years of committing murders that Henry finally recognizes that he has merely succeeded in replacing old suppressors by new ones. This once and for all disavows the myth of the liberation of the pure and holy mother country by self-sacrifice. 2.7.3 A Star Called Henry – Deconstructing the nationalists’ transfiguration of history José Lanters draws similar conclusions in his essay, but takes them even further by emphasizing the satirical angle of the novel. In general, the satirical narrative is directed against authoritative discourse but with the additional side effect, as a rule, that all reliable attempts at interpretation underpinned by satire Satirical narrative also consider the voice and position of the satirical narrative itself. This is why many of the critics raised objections to the concept of A Star Called Henry because they found it difficult to sympathise with the main character and narrator on account of the very ambivalent feelings that he triggers. The novel also fails to provide a clear answer to any of the questions it raises. However, Lanters does not regard these objections as a weakness of the novel, as he does with others: ‘Doyle does not maintain the satirical perspective consistently to the end, and that ultimately leads to an imbalance in the novel.’38 Lanters points out that in his novel Doyle demonstrates how myths are created. The consequence of being aware of this is that the myths lose much of their supposed natural and therefore untouchable authority. Henry knows so little about his own mother that he has to invent her: ‘I can create a good-looking sixteeen-year-old. I can make her (…).’ (p. 5) His father, too, reinvents Melody in the same way as he reinvents himself over and over again (see p. 5 and 7). Henry 38 Lanters, p. 346

2. Text analysis and interpretation

117

2.7 Interpretation aids emphasises the fact that his father was not simply a liar, but somebody who came to life through his stories, somebody who created his own myth. Henry’s attempt to create his own myth first of all sees him take on the role of Brian O’Linn when he is arrested and questioned about his name (see p. 138) following the defeat of the Easter Rising of 1916. Brian O’Linn is the hero of a folk song well-known in Scotland, Ireland and America and of which there Henry identifies himself are a number of different versions. He is a with Brian O’Linn penniless lad, but a survival artist who, time and time again, manages to reinvent himself and his life literally from nothing. However, the song also demonstrates that people who, though flexible and adaptable, but who also have an unstable personality, are at risk of remaining unstable and of turning into ridiculous figures. Henry’s identification with Brian O’Linn begins at birth in the form of a gift from his father, a creator of myths, who sings the song about Brian O’Linn whilst cradling his newborn baby in his arms (see p. 24). Creating myths, however, is a double-edged sword, a fact which is emphasised in the character of Henry’s father, who has not only invented himself but is also permanently in danger of falling victim to his own self-delusion. His wish to idolise Dolly Oblong results in him fabricating his own reality and making a fool of himself in the process: ‘She was God. She was her own invention – like him, but successful (…). She was the Queen of the city, and nobody knew. Except herself and, now, my father.’ (p. 43) Years later, Henry reconstructs this myth which had been his father’s downfall: ‘He’d become devoted to a woman of his own making (…) he fell in love with another of his own creations (…). She knew how to make money but she was just a big old tart who was too lazy to get out of bed more than once or twice a week.’ (p. 165) His ability to see through his father’s blindness and to despise him for it does not stop Henry from creating his own myth by styling his life on that of the mythical hero, Cuchulain. Like Cuchulain, he un-

118

2. Text analysis and interpretation

2.7 Interpretation aids dergoes a name change (see the episode on his baptism which other than that event does not seem to serve any other purpose: p. 28 f.), and like him, he becomes a relentless fighter. As the reincarnation of the mythical hero, he soon no longer needs to identify himself with the protagonist of a folk song, because he is going to have his own ballad39 written about him – or at least so it seems. Henry falls for this ploy because he craves recognition. This too contributes to the reader distancing himself from Henry and no longer being able to regard him as trustworthy. The presentation of the years of fighting from Henry’s viewpoint radically questions the traditional version of the collective selfless act of sacrifice to liberate Mother Ireland. Doyle provocatively counters the ideology propagated by Pearse of the chaste hero who liberates the chaste land he equates with the Madonna, with his hero, Henry, a womaniser and a sex god Womaniser instead of chaste hero who is driven by an endless craving for admiration. Henry does not even stop at the martyrs’ mothers: ‘I was riding the arse off the mother of one of 1916’s executed heroes. I won’t name names. Her son’s portrait was wobbling on the opposite side of the wall (…).’ (p. 177) The willingness of Irish women to engage in sexual activities is emphasized at every opportunity. This is in stark contrast to the patriotic Irish legend which saw in every woman either the chaste virgin or the devoted mother. Henry’s story exposes such self-righteous hypocrisy, but at the same time it does not offer any alternative which the reader would be more willing to trust in. This is what bothered critics, as previously mentioned. However, seeing that at least one of the intentions of this novel is obviously to dispel patriotic myths, this should be considered an advantage. 39 This process has been taken over from Ernie O’Malley’s novel, On Another Man’s Wound: ‘In his account of the revolutionary period, Ernie O’Malley comments on this tendency of the insurgents to mythicize the events of the time: ‘Our own critical judgements, which adjudged action and made it grow gigantic through memory and distance, were like to folklore. (…) Even the living were quickly becoming folklore; I had heard my own name in song at the few dances I had attended.’ (…) Lanters also points out that O’Malley had not been as impressed by such popularity as Henry in the novel. O’Malley wrote: ‘I resented the legend. It made me other than myself and attuned to act to standards that were not my own.’ (Lanters, p. 253)

2. Text analysis and interpretation

119

2.7 Interpretation aids Accordingly, José Lanters’ objection to the novel, focuses above all on the lack of consistency in the satirical narrative. According to Lanters, while the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, who are worshipped both in the official history books as well as in the novel itself, are portrayed in a satirical light, the Dispelling of patriotic myths new suppressors à la Ivan Reynolds are not. He is not ridiculed when he half cynically, half under the spell of his own lies, declares that he is ready to lead the people into a new Ireland of his creation: ‘It’s only my version that’ll get talked about.’ (p. 316) The fact that Doyle allows this version of history to triumph is, however, not without inner consequences for the structure of the narrative which he has chosen: It ensures that the role of useful idiots like Henry – whose actions would have been suitable to expose completely the real motives of the new business-minded, ideologyfree rulers – is eliminated from the official version of history, which is always the version of the victor. This in turn then gives Doyle the opportunity to tell the other side of the story anew without having to reveal whether his version is more historically accurate than previous versions or just simply a well thought out story.

120

2. Text analysis and interpretation

3. Topics and assignments

3. Topics and assignments The answers can be found in the previous chapters of this guide. Write a text summarising the events leading up to the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

See chapter 1.2

Characterise Roddy Doyle‘s literary writing using ten keywords.

See chapter 1.3

Does the character of Henry Smart in Oh, Play That Thing meet the expectations the reader has of him based on the ending of A Star Called Henry? Give reasons for your answer.

See chapter 1.3

What made Doyle decide to base A Star Called Henry on historical facts?

See chapter 2.1

How did Doyle use his sources? Which source did he rely upon most? Which information did he extract from this?

See chapter 2.1

Summarise the second part of the novel.

See chapter 2.2

Explain why Victor‘s death can be considered in dramatical terms as a ‘motivation from behind‘.

See chapter 2.3

To what extent can the first chapter and the entire second part of the novel be considered as a prologue? What does this tell the reader about the structure of the novel?

See chapter 2.3

3. Topics and assignments

121

3. Topics and assignments

122

Find character traits which link two of the following pairs of characters: Henry Smart senior and Henry Smart junior, Melody Nash and Granny Nash, Miss O‘Shea and Piano-Annie, James Connolly and Michael Collins, Alfie Gandon and Ivan Reynolds.

See chapter 2.4

Choose a suitable passage in the novel to illustrate how Doyle heightens the suspense using the in medias res narrative technique.

See chapter 2.5

Trace the use of the central motif of the wooden leg through the novel. Make a note of the contexts in which they occur and explain the function of the motif in the light of each context.

See chapter 2.6

Make a note of passages which contain exaggerations and stark language and discuss them. Are these passages aesthetically justified or do they serve as an end in themselves? To what extent do they influence the reader‘s experience and your opinion of the novel?

See chapter 2.6

Novels that portray the development of a character depict the process of the formation of an identity. Is Henry Smart successful in creating his own identity? Justify your opinion.

See chapter 2.4, 2.6, 2.7

Discuss to what extent the novel can be seen as a deconstruction of the nationalists’ viewpoint of historical events.

See chapter 2.7

3. Topics and assignments

4. Reception of the novel

4. Reception of the novel In English-speaking countries, Roddy Doyle’s novel was met with much approval, even enthusiasm, and 120,000 copies were sold in the first week alone. Susanne Mayer summarised the Anglophone critics in DIE ZEIT as follows:

’The novel is being compared with the greatest, the critics are bending over backwards to outdo each other. As good as a Stendhal! A masterpiece! For The Irish Times, it is reminiscent of Grass, Oskar Matzerath and also of Louis F. Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night. The Independent on Sunday considers the novel an intellectual challenge. It is as if the book is so light and sweet that you get drunk on it. Of course, all comparisons aim high.’40

The reactions from the German critics Mixed reactions were more mixed. Literary critics familiar with Irish history and literature, such as Thomas David41, were full of praise for the novel, while those with no particular liking for or specialist knowledge of the subject tended to reject it. Alexander Kissler also found the hero’s narcissism annoying, as he voiced in the FAZ: ‘Any further information required can be obtained by reading the three sequels which have already been planned by the author. The eventful first novel, which consists entirely of the loud-mouthed bragging and sentimental memories of the main character, makes it hard to believe that this nineteen-year-old hero, whose character has been spelled out in ample detail, will be able to mature. The one true and inextinguishable character trait of Henry Smart is his narcissism.’42 However, English-speaking and German critics have both commented on Doyle’s controversial use of language. This applies not only to the content (criticized as being too vulgar and unnecessarily brutal) 40 Trans.: DIE ZEIT, no.16/2000. This is also where the mention of the sales figures can be found. 41 Cp. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18 March 2000 42 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 May 2000

4. Reception of the novel

123

4. Reception of the novel but also to the style (which is too fake). Susanne Mayer commented as follows:

‘The story is definitely fast-paced. But it’s not a plot that would develop from an inner logic. It could be summarised as the rise and fall of an IRA-killer. However, as the main character has been sketched in the true style of a picaresque novel, it does not leave much space for development of the character. We just learn that his enthusiasm for the political war declines over the years. He always feels lonely, angry and horny. The characters are memorable, they romp about without a care in the world, come and go as they please and the audience rejoices because whenever Henry’s grandmother makes an appearance they know it’s going to be funny. One can almost hear the music starting up, as many of the episodes have been written in the manner of a film script or are at least reminiscent of it.’43

43 DIE ZEIT, no. 16/2000

124

4. Reception of the novel

5. Materials

5. Materials 1) Doyle’s novel as alternative historiography ‘Doyle’s novel (…) is based on real events and characters but magnifies them. In that sense, Henry’s story resides somewhere between myth and history. His account not only makes the events larger than life but also presents them through a late twentieth-century lens that highlights politically correct issues such as class, colour, gender and ethnicity. Richard Kearney argues that such a fictional revisions are necessary, ‘our narrative of cultural self-identity is itself a fiction’ (…) that must be renewed and challenged if it is to survive. Doyle demolishes many of the pious images associated with the received sacrificial myth of 1916, while at the same time writing into existence the myth of those who were never given a place in the official version: independent, sexually active women, slum-dwellers and those who are not of Gaelic, Catholic descent. / (…) Henry’s narrative is a palimpset in that it is presented as true, but as a truth subsequently erased from official history. This questions the nature of ‘truth’ itself -a typical device of narrative satire: is Henry’s story not to be found in Irish history books because it was subsequently erased from all accounts, or because he made it up? Henry says: ‘I’d played The Last Post at the grave of O’Donovan Rossa the year before. The history books will tell you that it was William Oman but don’t believe them: he was tucked up at home with the flu’ [p. 90]. (…) Henry’s story thus exists as a veiled reality. Written and yet non-existent, present and yet invisible, like Dublin’s underground rivers it harbours hidden secrets and opens up unexpected escape routes. Such alternative versions of reality have the potential to free us ‘from the strait-jacket of a fixed identity’ ans as such disclose ‘other possibilities of being’ (Kearney […]). The historical truth of Henry’s tale cannot be verified, but its claims serve to destabilize the official accounts, and to highlight that every narrative of self-identity is a fiction, allowing each one of us the freedom to re-invent our past (Kearney […]). At the very least, alternative histories point up the notion that every ‘truth’ is an ideological construct – a myth.’44 44 Lanters, p. 248–250

5. Materials

125

5. Materials 2) Glorifying violence? To mark the publishing of a German version of A Star Called Henry, Susanne Mayer interviewed Roddy Doyle for the German weekly DIE ZEIT: DOYLE: I tried to capture the air of excitement people will have felt during the Easter Rising (…). ZEIT: In any case, Henry has a lot of fun. Does Ireland need the glorification of an IRA fighter? DOYLE: That’s a legitimate question if you only read the first half of the book. I, however, wrote a whole book and any glamour associated with the violence of the first half completely disappears when Henry becomes a killer and is tortured. ZEIT: Henry’s first comment following his first murder is: What a great feeling! DOYLE: There is nothing noble about him shooting someone in the back of the head. I intended to insinuate that many of these men, the so-called heroes, are in fact nothing but tyrants, who were only interested in advancing their own ambitions, i. e. lining their own pockets and hungry for power. There are places in Ireland where it would be seen as a sacrilege to insinuate anything like this. ZEIT: How do you think the novel will be perceived by the members of the IRA? DOYLE: I don’ t see anything heroic about exploding a bomb in any city centre on a Saturday afternoon! ZEIT: But that’s exactly what happens. DOYLE: Luckily, there aren’t that many of them left. And if they should read the book, assuming they are intelligent enough to do so, and my feeling is that some of them are not, they will realise that Henry questions everything they believe in – namely that they have apparently inherited from the men of the 1916 Easter Rising the absolute right to dictate how Ireland should be. Henry Smart realises that he has been stupid because he thought that whatever he was doing was for Ireland, whereas in actual fact he was only following orders. I think that if they read this book, they would probably not like that.45 45 Trans.: DIE ZEIT, no. 16/2000

126

5. Materials

Literature

Literature Primary Literature Doyle, Roddy: A Star Called Henry, Volume One of The Last Roundup. London: Vintage Random House, 2005. (The quotes and page references relate to this version.) Secondary Literature Dawson, Janis: Aspects of the Fantastic in Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry: Deconstructing Romantic Nationalism. In: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, No. 2/2001, p. 168–185. Donnelly, Jr., James S. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture. Volume 1: A–O. Farmington Hills: Thomson Gale, 2004. Lalor, Brian (ed.): The Encyclopaedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2003. Lanters, José: Demythicizing / Remythicizing the Rising: Roddy Doyle’s ‘A Star Called Henry’. In: Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies. Irish Issue, Vol. 8, No. 1/2002, p. 245–258. Maurer, Michael: Kleine Geschichte Irlands. Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag, 1998. Webster Hollis III, Daniel: The History of Ireland. Westport, Connecticut, London: Greenwood Press, 2001 (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations). Materials from the Internet Interviews with Roddy Doyle: Brockes, Emma: ‚Sexy Dublin? It‘s a con.‘ In: Guardian, 6 September 2004. Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/sep/06/booksforchildrenandteenagers.fiction

Literature

127

Literature Mayer, Susanne: Draufhalten, ballern. Roddy Doyles Buch ‚Henry der Held‘ und ein Gespräch mit dem Autor über harte Männer und Dichtung. In: DIE ZEIT, 16/2000. Online: http://www.zeit.de/suche/ index?q=mayer+und+roddy+doyle Stella, Laura: Interview with Roddy Doyle (Dublin, 12 May 1997). In: Film Anthology, no. 1/November 1999. Online: http://dinamico. unibg.it/fa/fa_stel.html Sbrockey, Karen: Something of a Hero: An Interview with Roddy Doyle. In: The Literary Review, 22 June 1999. Taylor, Charles : The Salon Interview: Roddy Doyle (28 October 1999) http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/10/28/doyle/index.html Reviews on the Novel: Feder, Richard: Unrest Was General All Over Ireland. Roddy Doyle rages against history in this novel set during the Easter Rebellion. In: The New York Times, 12 September 1999. Online: http://www.times. com/books/99/09/12/reviews/990912.12eder2t.html Kissler, Alexander: Dublins heimliche Fluesse. Untergetaucht: Roddy Doyle‘s Roman über den Helden Henry. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 May 2000. Online: http://www.faz.net/s/Rub79A33397BE834406A5D2BFA87FD13913/Doc~EADEF7117BC194023A7E45F00 28146C18~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html

128

Literature