The Papers of Daniel Corkery
(Donal Ó Corcora) held in the Boole Library,
University College Cork.
by
Carol C.
Quinn. B.A., D.A.A.
Archivist,
Boole
Library
To many Irish people the
name Daniel Corkery (1878-1964) is
synonymous with the title of his most well known
book The Hidden Ireland, a seminal work
in which Corkery put forward the case for the
wealth and depth of the native Irish literary
tradition. In it he argued that modern Irish
writers should try to emulate their forbears,
rather than take on the genres of English
authors. It is as a cultural nationalist that
Corkery is widely remembered today a sometimes
stern opponent of those writers (Frank O'Connor
and Sean O'Faolian to name two prominent
examples) who strayed as his saw it from the
true path of Irish literary tradition. However
there were many facets to this remarkable man
who in his youth studied French and German so he
might read influential authors without
translation. He was also a master of the art of
the short story, and his collections The
Hounds of Banba and The Stormy Hills
contain many wonderful vignettes of contemporary
rural and urban life in Cork city and county. He
was an accomplished watercolourist, a dramatist
and co-founder in 1908 of the Cork
Dramatic Society. He was an inspiring teacher
for many years and of course he was an avid
supporter and member of the Gaelic League and
worked for many years as one of their roving
teachers giving Irish classes throughout Cork
county. This part of his life is commemorated
each year in Inchigeela where the Daniel Corkery
Summer School is run every year and in
Ballingeary (where he came early in the century
to Colaiste Na Mumhan). A friend of both Tomas
MacCurtain and more especially Terence
MacSwiney, Corkery was a Nationalist who saw his
role post Independence as promoting the native
Irish language and its literary tradition.
Preserved in the Boole Library, UCC are
Daniel Corkery's papers as donated after his
death by his nephew Bill Corkery. This
collection of letters, diaries, notebooks,
drafts of publications and lectures provide a
unique resource for the student of modern
Ireland in the era pre and post Independence.
The collection especially provides an in depth
account of the undercurrents in the organisation
of the Gaelic League in that period, and lays
bare the formation of the mind of one of that
organisations most illustrious supporters. The
surviving papers span those years of Corkery's
life devoted to Arts and Literature, with
nothing surviving from his childhood or the era
pre 1900 and only a few items reflecting his
career as a teacher and educationalist. The bulk
of the collection is formed by various drafts of
his books, short stories, essays and notes from
his voracious reading. Very little remains from
his early days with the Gaelic League but an
account of those years can be found in the
manuscript of a lecture 'Corcaigh le linn
m'oige'
What can be best gleaned from
the early records however is an insight into the
mindset of Corkery, the young man, and his hopes
and aspirations for himself at that time.
Between the period July 1907 and August 1910
Corkery kept a somewhat sporadic diary,
recording conversations and literary discussions
with friends, comments on and quotes from books
he was reading, impressions of sights and people
he encountered during the day and his hopes and
fears for his literary endeavours.
In his
diary Corkery rarely referred to his working
life and his role as a National School teacher,
a role at which he was considered gifted, but
considered himself to be drudgery. On the 12th
August 1907 he remarks ruefully "A teachers is
one of the most melancholy lives." On occasions
his job included looking for truant children and
on the 20th August 1907 he records a
visit to Paul Street, then a notorious slum in
the centre of Cork, where everywhere he
encountered "an ashamed look in the faces of
those who opened the door for me; their faces
always unwashed, with hair hanging, and effort
made to draw the clothes over the breast, half
naked children running around….it is such lanes
as these turn out soldiers".
In November
1908 Corkery became a founder member of the Cork
Dramatic Society, which had their headquarters
at 'An Dún' in Father Matthew Street, Cork. It
was here that he came into close contact with
Terence MacSwiney amongst others, and in 1911
the CDS put on a production of 'The Epilogue '
by Corkery together with 'Holocaust' by
MacSwiney and 'The Lesson of his Life ' by
Lennox Robinson. Although never very active in
the Republican movement Corkery was a
Nationalist and sympathetic to the aims of
MacSwiney and MacCurtain. In 1952 he wrote to
many of his old contemporaries asking them to
record their memories of Easter 1916 in Cork,
some of the replies to which are still extant.
After 1916 Corkery channelled his patriotism
into working within the Gaelic League to promote
cultural nationalism. By 1921 he was travelling
throughout West Cork organising Irish classes,
recording as he went stories of the War of
Independence told to him . This association
remained one of the touchstones of Corkery's
life until his death in 1964.This is reflected
in the Corkery papers by the large volume of
correspondence stretching over almost 30 years
between Corkery and his friend the prominent
Gaelic Leaguer Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh. These
letters are probably the heart of the Corkery
collection. Invariably these two men discussed
most often in their letters the subject that lay
closest to their hearts; the Gaelic League and
the struggle for an ongoing literary tradition
in Irish. Cut off somewhat in Cork from the cut
and thrust of the movement in Dublin, Corkery
relied on Ó Muircheartaigh to keep him informed
about activities within the League and to keep
him up to date with the comings and goings of
various friends and acquaintances. It is
revealed also through this correspondence that Ó
Muircheartaigh also provided a vital support for
Corkery in proof reading and advising him on his
works written in Irish. Although devoted to the
Irish language Corkery never achieved the easy
fluency of the native speaker and it was one of
the great regrets and ironies of his life that
he felt he never mastered the language enough to
write novels or stories in it. The letters paint
a vivid insight into the internal wrangling of
the Gaelic League throughout the 1940's and
1950's, and give a revealing insight into the
fears and hopes of two of the last 'Irish
Irelanders'. Often lenient in print Corkery
could be cutting in private about authors who
failed to follow his dictums and whose
dedication to the Gaelic tradition was less than
his. A friendly rivalry or game playing is also
revealed in the letters where Corkery and Ó
Muircheartaigh (a native of Kerry) would try to
best each other at coming up with archaic or
local Irish phrases each hoped would be unknown
to the other.
In 1931 in recognition of
his contribution to Irish Literature Corkery was
appointed Professor of English at UCC, a post he
held until his retirement in 1947. One of the
other candidates he beat for the position was
his one time acolyte Sean O'Faolain. It was one
of Corkery's regrets that throughout his life he
always had to work to support his family and so
could never devote himself to writing full time
in the manner O'Faolain and O'Connor did.
Although he never married, Corkery was
responsible for the care of his widowed mother
until her death after which he lived with his
sister who acted as housekeeper. The surviving
letters and statements between Corkery and his
publishers show just how little he earned during
his lifetime from royalties and reveal quite
starkly how with his family responsibilities he
would never have been able to support himself if
he gave up teaching. In 1917 with his first
collection of short stories A Munster Twilight
and his novel The Threshold of Quiet both
in print he earned less than £50 in royalties
for the year. In 1925 he received just under £2.
Since their deposit in the
Boole Library the Corkery papers have been
cleaned, sorted and listed. A full Descriptive
List of the content of the collection is
available at the staff desk in Q-1, the basement
floor in the library. The Archives Service is
open from 9.30 -4.30 (closed 12.45 - 2.15)
Monday to Friday. Researchers who are not
students or members of UCC staff can consult the
collection once that have a valid research
reason. The collection cannot be accessed for
casual browsing. Unfortunately given limitations
of space school groups on not at this point be
catered for. Anyone wishing to enquire about the
Corkery collection can ring 021- 903180 or
e.-mail c.quinn@ucc.ie