"I'm afraid that something is going to happen in Ireland that will make our race wanderers on the face of the earth like the ancient Jews. I dream of many things. And in my dreams I see woeful destruction coming. But I dream, too, of a resurrection and a homecoming. Remember that, son. Look round you. Listen to the wind." (O'Flaherty, p. 123)
1937 was an important year in the history of Ireland. It was in that year that the Irish Free State was founded. This major event in Irish history coincided with the publication of Liam O'Flaherty's historical novel Famine. Curiously enough, there are obvious parallels between the message of the book and the foundation of the Irish Free State. O'Flaherty, in his novel, is pleading for a transformation, a resurrection, of Irish society. The foundation of the Irish Free State in 1937 was, at least for one part of the Irish society, the last step in this process of resurrection.
The Irish Famine of 1845-49 - one of the greatest calamities in Irish history - led to the almost complete destruction of the class of cottiers and labourers. One-and-a-half million people died of starvation and disease, another one-and-a-half million left the country going to America, Great Britain and other parts of the world. This is what Liam O'Flaherty describes so vividly in his novel. It is, however, just one side of the medal. What O'Flaherty actually wanted to put across is that precisely the suffering and the destruction that the Irish people experienced during those four years led to the formation of a new Ireland, of a new Irish people, willing and able to stand up for their rights, for justice and independence.
The issue of destruction and resurrection is mainly conveyed in a wide range of characters and their responses to the catastrophe. By judging those characters and their various responses O'Flaherty reveals his own view on the Famine. This paper is going to examine this view by describing the central characters of the novel and the author's attitude towards them.
The real protagonists of Liam O'Flaherty's novel are definitely the peasants and above all the Kilmartin family; and these are the characters I want to concentrate on. Nevertheless, it is important to mention some of the minor characters as well since O'Flaherty uses them to convey his view on Irish society in general and on the Famine in particular. He rejects the radical nationalist view of the Famine as a kind of genocide of the Irish population by the British government. For O'Flaherty the causes of the Famine lay deeply in Irish society itself, above all in its feudal system. First of all, O'Flaherty blames the land agents, represented by the devilish figure of Chadwick, who does not care about anything that is going on in the estate except for making money. Secondly, O'Flaherty criticises the Catholic Church, represented by Father Roche, who may care for his people but on the other hand rejects any threat to law and order. Thereby he actually encourages people to do absolutely nothing about their miserable situation. O'Flaherty himself, however, obviously holds the view that physical force is unavoidable to fight against an oppressing power. In Famine, Father Geeland and the Young Irelanders support this view. Thirdly, the author suggests that, to a certain degree, the Irish peasants themselves are to blame for their miserable situation since most of them are not even willing to change their way of life. Several of the peasant characters in the novel work as examples for that view.
The Kilmartin family, however, forms the centre of Famine and carries the author's message throughout the novel. The Kilmartins are small farmers, owning ten acres of land, a couple of pigs, sheep and fowls, and, above all, a cow. This enables them not to live entirely on a potato diet as most of the peasants did in the pre-Famine period. Although they mainly rely on the potato crop they also grow grain, which they sell on the market, as well as their pigs. Thus, they are able to gain money, which they use to pay their rent and to supplement oatmeal and other things to their diet. Compared to other Irish peasants, then, the Kilmartins live in a quite secure situation. A large part of the Irish peasantry completely relied on the potato crop in the pre-Famine period. Therefore, when the blight occurred again in 1846 and completely destroyed the potato crop, those peasants were deprived of their single source of food and thus of the basis of their existence.
The reason why O'Flaherty had chosen such a comparatively well-to-do family as the protagonists of his novel is quite obvious. All the people who were even poorer than the Kilmartins had actually no opportunity to change their miserable situation; they had to rely on outside help. For his actual purpose, however, namely to show that the Irish people just have to be brave enough to change their destiny, O'Flaherty needed protagonists who would have the realistic chance to achieve something if they fought against their misery.
The Great Irish Famine is generally seen as a watershed in Irish history. The old pre-Famine society was modernised after the Famine. The Kilmartin family, in O'Flaherty's novel, embodies this struggle between the old and the new order. The family is divided into two 'camps': the old people, Brian, Maggie and Thomsy, and the young people, Mary, Martin and Michael. The leading figures in those 'camps' are definitely Brian, on the one hand, and Mary on the other.
Brian Kilmartin, in the beginning of the novel, is presented as a rather crude person, treating his wife like a domestic slave and playing the boss in the house. That he is, however, not the hard-hearted bastard he seems to be, one realises when looking at the way he cares for his sick son Michael.
'"Well?" whispered the old man tenderly. "How are you today?" […] The old man clenched his fists and trembled, as he watched Michael writhe under the patched quilt. […] As he watched, the father's sorrow clutched his bosom, just like the living germs that tore at his beloved boy's lungs. […] Listening to that hacking cough, the outcome was all too manifest. That same cough had snatched five of his children in their childhood. And now, of the four that remained, Michael had it.'
(O'Flaherty, pp. 10/11)
Brian, although he is already seventy-one years old, is a very hardworking man, full of energy. He knows that he was only able to gain a certain grade of security because he had worked so hard. Therefore he expects the other family members to acknowledge what he has done and to contribute their own part to the upholding of the family's status of living. In this regard, the old man's harshness is understandable. After all, he has to live with the constant fear of losing everything he had worked for in his life.
Furthermore, Brian feels the threat of losing control over the household. He knows, of course, that he soon will be too old to rule the house. At the beginning of the novel, however, he is still struggling for supremacy with his son Martin. This brings us back to the issue of old order versus new order and, above all, to Mary, the actual representative of the new order in Famine. Although it is actually Martin who will take over the farm, Brian is more afraid of Mary since he knows that she is a very strong woman, stronger than his son maybe. The relationship between the old man and Mary, his daughter in law, is a central theme in Liam O'Flaherty's novel. This relationship changes in the course of the novel. The more Brian realises and accepts that the old order, his order, will die and that a new order, Mary's order, has to take over, the more he admires Mary. She, for him - and also for Liam O'Flaherty himself - becomes the incarnation of a new Ireland, a strong Ireland which is able to fight against its oppressors.
Mary is the daughter of Barney Gleeson, the weaver, a great talker who is interested in nothing but Irish politics and history. Their former landlord had evicted the family some ten years ago. When they came to Black Valley the Protestant parson helped them to build up a new basis for their existence. Since then, they have reached a quite secure status, although they have no land to cultivate, which makes Brian Kilmartin feeling superior to them. Their advantage, however, is that they need not rely on the potato since they have money and they are clever enough to grow different kinds of vegetables in their garden.
"It was the prettiest little house in the Valley and Mary felt a thrill of pride when she reached it. There was a little flower garden in front of it, with a gravelled path down the centre. […] The three rooms of the cottage faced south, but there was an additional room, built at right angles to the eastern gable, running north. In the angle made by this room there was another garden, where different kinds of vegetables grew, much to the envy and wonder of the Black Valley people, who knew only one vegetable, the potato."
(O'Flaherty, pp. 60/61)
In comparison to the life that Mary has to lead in the Kilmartin house, her former life at home must have been some kind of paradise for her. Therefore, right from the beginning, Mary is not happy with her situation in the Kilmartin family. She wants to change something, or, to be correct, she wants to change everything. This, however, is not possible as long as the old man rules the house. Therefore, Mary constantly urges Martin to be more courageous towards his father and gain more control over what is going on in the house. But it is not until Brian gives up his position of power, disillusioned by the reoccurrence of the blight in 1846, that Martin and Mary take over control in the house.
In this regard then, the old man and Mary have much in common, they are both very strong personalities. Mary, as soon as the old man has retired, begins to improve the conditions in the house - much to the anger of the old people, who cling to their old traditions.
'There was no end to her energy and to the new ideas she had about everything. She scoured the house from end to end, so that even poor Maggie rebelled, seeing the habits of her life so startling changed.
"There's no use trying to get rid of dirt in this house, asthore," she said. "The poor were born to be dirty."
"Well! I mean to get rich," said Mary. "And this dirt is the first thing that I find in the way." ' (O'Flaherty, p. 113)
The complete change of the Kilmartin household is, of course, a symbol for the resurrection of Ireland itself. What O'Flaherty probably wanted to say is that Ireland needs people like Mary, people who have enough ambition and energy to change something about their situation.
The old man, Brian Kilmartin, acknowledges that as well; he admires Mary for her strength and her courage. For that reason he actually allows himself to retire and hand over control to Mary and his son Martin. His retirement, however, is actually the final resignation in view of this great calamity. Brian realises that he is not able to face this challenge anymore. Mary, on the other hand, does not even think of resignation; she is fighting for a better life for Martin, their baby and herself. This is probably the big difference between Brian and Mary. O'Flaherty, however, does not condemn the old man's resignation. Quite on the contrary, he wants to point out that Ireland's only chance to become a strong nation is to give up old traditions and habits and to hand over control to younger people with new ideas and great ambitions. In this regard, one is actually supposed to admire Brian's decision to trust Mary in what she is doing. And, indeed, the old man is one of the most likeable figures in Famine.
Mary, on the other hand, is the figurehead of the novel. She impresses by her beauty, her intelligence - her capability to think rationally even in a situation where most of the people have lost any sense of judgement. On the other hand, her judgements sometimes seem to be very hard. Liam O'Flaherty was obviously influenced by the ideology of Social Darwinism - 'only the strongest will survive'. This influence, however, is not too strong: Mary remains a generous, soft-hearted person who helps other people where she can. It is this mixture of reason and emotion that makes Mary a heroine. By creating Mary as a heroic figure O'Flaherty, through her, reveals his own view on the Famine. Mary symbolises what the author regards as his ideal of a new Ireland and a new Irish people; her response to the Famine and the decisions she makes are considered to be the right ones.
Throughout the novel Mary is obsessed with the idea of going to America. Somehow she knows that this is the only possibility for her and Martin to survive this catastrophe.
'Mary began to dream. It seemed to her that an angel came to her and told her to rise up and follow him. She arose and went with the angel to a great ship with white sails, on which they embarked. They went over the western sea to a rich land where the corn grew taller than a man's head and there were no masters. She asked the angel where she was and the angel said: "This is America. Make a home here and God will bless you."'
(O'Flaherty, p. 53)
In the end, she sets this idea into action. Mary and Martin leave Ireland with their baby emigrating to America. On the one hand, this seems to be inconsistent with O'Flaherty's intention of creating an Irish heroine in Mary. Why does she leave the country then? The matter, however, is more complicated. Liam O'Flaherty's father was a Fenian; and O'Flaherty himself was obviously convinced that the Young Irelanders and the Fenian Brotherhood did a great deal to establish a new Irish consciousness; that they actually set an example for all those Irish people who fought for independence afterwards. The Fenian Brotherhood, however, was an organisation of Irish immigrants in America. From the other side of the world they wanted to fight for their country. No wonder then, that Mary's decision to go to America is presented as justifiable, if not as obligatory. Martin, her husband, already a member of the Young Irelanders, will fight for Ireland from America. The young couple and their baby are seen as Ireland's future. While the old Ireland dies in Brian Kilmartin a new Ireland is born in that young family going to America.
'"And the old people?" Martin said. Mary took the piece of mortar from her pocket and gave it to him. "He told me to give it to you," she sobbed. "It's from the hearth."
"I'll try not to disgrace his name," Martin whispered, as he looked at the morsel of clay, "out there in the new world."'
(O'Flaherty, p. 446)
Mary, Martin and the baby are the only members of the Kilmartin family who survive the Famine, they even seem to be the only surviving people in Black Valley. Black Valley has become a death valley - destruction is omnipresent. At the same time, however, resurrection is taking place, symbolised by the young Kilmartin family.
As stated before, Mary and Brian are the central characters in Liam O'Flaherty's Famine. Either of them symbolises Ireland - Brian the old Ireland and Mary the new Ireland. By making them the central characters of his novel Liam O'Flaherty reveals his view of the Famine as a watershed in Irish history. He seems not so much interested in the question of how the Famine could have been prevented, but in the various responses of Irish people to this great calamity. Therefore, the issue of blame is actually not too important in the novel. O'Flaherty, instead, views the Famine as one part of Irish history and is rather interested in its effects on the present.
Nevertheless, he judges the various responses of his characters in the novel: Those who survive are the fighters, brave people who really want to change something about the situation in Ireland in general and their own misery in particular. Those who die are the cowards and the old, people who do not trust themselves.
What O'Flaherty wanted to put across is that every kind of effort the Irish people make to free themselves from their misery - be it physical force against their oppressors or emigration to America - is better than just fall in a state of agony and resign themselves to their destiny. This is what he learned from Irish history; and this is what he wants his readers to learn from his historical novel Famine.
Bibliography
James M. Cahalan, Liam O'Flaherty's Natural History. In: Great Hatred, Little Room: The Irish Historical Novel, Dublin, 1983, pp. 133-154.
Liam O'Flaherty, Famine, Wolfhound Press, 1979.
Cormac O'Grada, Ireland Before and After the Famine: Explorations in Economic History, 1800-1925. 1988.
Gearoid O'Tuathaigh, Ireland before the Famine: 1798-1848, Dublin, 1972, pp. 203-218.
W. E. Vaughan (ed.), A New History of Ireland. Vol. 5: Ireland under the Union, I, 1801-70.
