Peter CostelloGreat Irish Lives: Obituaries of Ireland’s Finest
edited by Charles Lysaght
(Times Books / HarperCollins, £12.99)
If our daily newspaper provides (as the Washington Post often claimed) “a first rough draft of history”, then the lengthy obituaries that some papers still manage to provide can be taken to be the first draft of an eminence’s biography.
For many decades the obituaries in The Times of London (the only Times for journalists, despite the careless habit of many in Ireland in using the term for another paper) were among the most distinguished of their kind.
Yet even great papers go into decline. Though it was once said (by the paper itself) that “top people take The Times”, that is no longer true – it is well outclassed by The Daily Telegraph (also excellent for obituaries), The Guardian and The Financial Times. It can no longer live upon the legend of Delane and Moberly-Bell.
Volume
In this volume the biographer Charles Lysaght, himself a noted obituarist for The Times, has collected 104 obituaries from Henry Grattan to Sir Terry Wogan. (This is an enlarged edition of a book, with a foreword by Garrett Fitzgerald, which first appeared in 2008.)
Most of these belong to 20th and the present century. Having myself some years ago put together an account of 100 great Irish people, I found that what American and British publishers regard as “eminent Irish people” does not always accord with the choice an Irish editor might make.
This problem had been adroitly handled by Charles Lysaght. He has, however, confined himself to those born in Ireland who made a mark in Ireland; those born in Ireland who rose to greatness abroad (such as Charles Gavan Duffy, or ‘Boss’ Croker) do not find a place.
One important figure who does not find a place is Jack Butler Yeats, to my mind the greatest Irish artist of the last century, far more important than Francis Bacon in an Irish context.
We have also to note that the articles represent the views of writers who were not always historians or disinterested observers. The Times (no more than the notorious Morning Post) was not always a friend of Ireland (especially at the time of the Famine) and the views of its writers were often adjusted accordingly.
However, bearing in mind that what is said here is an epitome of what their contemporaries felt about these indivudals, this book provides a range of fascinating reading. Lysaght has also sought to balance the books about the political traditions in Ireland. We have Grattan, O’Connell, Parnell and Redmond, but not Thomas Davis. Carson, Brookeborough and Lord O’Neill are all included.
But by including numerous artists, writers, educators (such as Sr Genevieve O’Farrell of Belfast) he also balances the books about just what constitutes greatness. This maturing vision is symbolised by the substitution on the cover for a hectoring Dev on a wartime hustings of Ulster artist Colin Davidson’s calm, interiorised portrait of Seamus Heaney.
This book will undoubtedly be widely read and will provide many with new and perhaps unaccustomed views of our eminent folk. But it is to be hoped that having found figures that interest them among these obituaries, readers will go on to engage with the full length biographies of the subjects.
In that regard this is a book which many homes and most schools will find enlightening, informative, and entertaining, and fruitful of further reading.
The publishers, however, have chosen not to make clear which items are by the editor – this is a great pity indeed, for his classic biography of Brendan Bracken revealed him to be a very accomplished and penetrating writer at full length.