Such gestures are a testament to how seriously the Irish take their literature — would that we all held our nation’s writers in such esteem. Drama, prose, verse: whatever the medium, Irish writers seem to have a peerless facility for the written word. It emerges that among Irish writers the English language is of the utmost concern. He was too busy writing Ulysses. The trick — and this is what makes Irish literature so beloved by the Irish — is the distinction Elizabeth Bowen explains in her introduction to her masterpiece of the Irish countryside, The Last September.

Source: National Post March 14, 2019 18:20 UTC