The
catalyst of this novel is a wild goose by the name of William Maginn, an émigré
Irish Literary editor who resides in 1950s London. A visit to The
Antelope pub has him hear mention of his home town, and an intriguing story
besides. Maddeningly, the tale's relater just gives away a few juicy
details. Since Maginn is a professional literary editor, who makes
"a show that the very epicentre of the world was located precisely where
my desk met the floor", he has no option but to follow the story by
doing his own research - "as sure as my name is William Maginn an editor
is an editor and closer to his magazine than to his wife". A
little digging reveals that he's related to the main star of the show, a
certain Father Hugh McGreevy. And a wee bit of thievery reveals
Father McGreevy's deposition.
From the start,
we know what's going to happen in the end - we know what will become of Father
McGreevy. Yet, once we become embroiled in Father McGreevy's narrative,
we forget all that and concentrate on his story. Father McGreevy is a
priest of a mountain community in County Kerry which is always cut off by the
snows of winter. However, this winter has been particularly bad, and a
disaster sucks the life out of the community, as one by one, all the women
die. The men of the village are also afflicted by the same mystery
illness, but recover. Due to the hardness of the frozen land, none of the
men can bury their wives until the thaw comes. No one from the town below
can reach them, and there isn't any way of communicating their plight.
It's just as well that the one woman who remains, Biddy McGurk, is well used to
tending to the dead. The thaw brings some relief and some grief also, for
it is decided by a county doctor that the women's bodies must be disinterred
for an inquest. The medical authorities are fearful of a virus that kills
only women, and memories are still haunted by the 1918 flu
epidemic. Father McGreevy intervenes on the behalf of his small
community, for he knows only too well how the men would react. So it
is that Father McGreevy first assumes the role of protector. It's not
long before he's called upon his duty once more, as the Bishop desires to avoid
a repetition of the last winter by having Father McGreevy's community broken up
and brought down to the town. So it is that Father McGreevy pleas a stay
of execution for just one year, and so sets in motion a dramatic series of
events. But is Father McGreevy really the best guardian of his
community? Does not pride come before a fall?
One
of the things that has whittled away McGreevy's community is the disease of the
diaspora. The young people have an overwhelming desire to leave, to go
away as far away as America, or as near as the next town. The
opportunities for long range travel has been drastically reduced by the
coincidence of the Second World War. The good Father listens to his radio
hoping that the English will win, but also that they will have a good beating,
all the while puzzling over Wilfred Pickles' accent. He would be
justified in thinking that his own community has had its own share of
misery. But then he witnesses a beastly sin which sickens him to the
core, and which he cannot ignore. Here I think is where O'Doherty is at
his bravest, since the novel could have descended into some cheap sheep joke
(indeed, Doctor McKenna cannot help but chuckle when Father McGreevy goes to
him for advice). This is where O'Doherty's choice of priest as narrator/protagonist
really shines, since it allows a very controversial subject to be dealt with in
all its ramifications without ever becoming crude.
It would also
seem of a necessity that William Maginn and Father McGreevy be related, since
both are greatly interested in the traditions of Irish literature - it is just
as well that Maginn is a literary editor. This poetic theme has
retreats as well as victorious advances however. The artifice of Father
McGreevy's deposition is openly admitted by Maginn, who remarks that the
policeman who has the patience to jot down the priest's tale must be very green
indeed, especially as "Fr Hugh seems to forget his listener
more often than he remembers him". O'Doherty seems conscious of this
flaw, which is no doubt why he invented Maginn in the first place. I have
to admire O'Doherty for doing this, and I suspect it's just the kind of thing
that I would do in his place - to have any criticisms of the novel already
articulated within the text. Maginn does describe his footnotes in the
text as "intrusions", and it does seem very much at times as though
the literary editor is trespassing. I had a personal reason for
disliking the footnotes, since I tend to see myself as a proactive reader who
likes to look up references for myself. I'm not one of the "slothful
and careless readers" that Maginn has expected to read Father McGreevy's
narration. One particular footnote irritated me: Maginn's definition of a
quiff. I can't make up my mind whether this is Maginn's idea of humour or
O'Doherty's. Surely everyone knows what a quiff is? Maybe Maginn
has it included for his imagined conservative Fifties' audience. But then
Father McGreevy is himself quite conservative, and he's heard of quiffs.
The footnotes are also dry in comparison with the prose, and one suspects that
O'Doherty has derived them from the world of art criticism, of which he is very
familiar.
Yet without the
footnotes, you probably wouldn't appreciate the poetic theme which culminates
in Muiris' dream. The aisling form runs throughout this carefully
constructed novel: the vision of Ireland as woman visiting the poet, offering a
message of hope. Father McGreevy seems determined to hold onto the old
world, but recognises a superior storyteller in Muruis. Muruis
, for his part, whilst still keeping the stories of the past, cannot but help
adapting them in the face of stony reality. It seems ironic that now that
the Wild Geese are returning to the Celtic Tiger, something is being
lost. As this novel mentions, the aisling form kept the oppressed alive,
and gave them at least some hope. As someone related to a flock of Wild
Geese, I can understand why O'Doherty wrote this novel. There's
something about the old country which pulls you in, and plucks at your heartstrings,
a land where all old women are potential Biddy Earlys, surrounded by myth
(although Biddy McGurk doesn't quite have the same magic, even if she shares
Early's superstitions).
Until tonight,
I was convinced that O'Doherty, whilst providing a most poetic narrative,
hadn't yet produced that vital spark to really get me drawn into his
tale. But then I began to wonder about William Maginn.
I discovered that Maginn was an Irish writer who had contributed to
legendary Blackwood's magazine. That made me curious, so I did some
further research on Fraser's Magazine. I found the connection in an
article about a writer who I've studied much recently, the Reverend Francis
Sylvester O'Mahony, the one and only 'Father Prout'. As Maginn himself
remarks, "everyone in Ireland is related to everyone else", so I was
drawn to this literary figure who shares my surname. I'm delighted by
O'Doherty's literary teaser, for it turns out that William Maginn founded
Fraser's Magazine in 1830 (he was also known as "Ensign O'Doherty" on
Blackwood's Magazine). And considering that he must he 150 years
old by the time that he stumbles upon Father McGreevy's deposition, William
Maginn's not that bad as a narrator at all. He certainly got me hooked by
the end.
authortrek
rating 8/10.
Kevin
Patrick Mahoney
Visit
our Brian
O'Doherty page
Here
are some links to topics and people mentioned in The Deposition of Father McGreevy
- and a possible solution to a literary teeaser in the novel at the end:
John Henry Newman -
English convert to Roman Catholicism and founder of the Catholic University of
Dublin
Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman
- a wealth of links for Cardinal Newman
Lead
Kindly Light - written by Cardinal Newman
Literature in
Irish - the 18th and 19th centuries - covers some of the poets Father
McGreevy mentions
At
the Western Ocean's edge – is a Thomas Kinsella poem featuring Aogan O Rathaille
Brain
Merriman - author of 'Midnight Court', a poem which takes on the
aisling form which so resounds throughout The Deposition of Father McGreevy
The Irish Fairy Folk -
including a definition of a Pooka
When the
Bishop's blessed the Blueshirts - Father McGreevy wasn't alone in his
desire for a benign dictator, although he clearly doesn't think much of Eoin
O'Duffy. An interesting contrast to the Communists in Margaret Atwood's
'The Blind Assassin', who went to Spain to fight the Fascists.
Maire Rua -
Muiris' wife is the first to succumb to the mystery illness. Here is an
account of her famous namesake
Mary
Aikenhead - an account of her life and
work
Amadan - a definition
Just
who is William Maginn? The following links give a trace of the historical
Maginn:
John
Wilson "continued to edit "Blackwood's Magazine", using it to
promote the Tory cause and his own opinions. The long-running column
"Noctes Ambrosianae" (1822-35) took the form of supposed
conversations at Ambrose's Tavern, a real Edinburgh pub (now gone). More than
half of the pieces were by Wilson, who appeared as "Christopher
North". Hogg was "The Ettrick Shepherd", and was praised and
savaged by turns; other regulars were "Timothy Tickler" (Robert Sym),
"Ensign O'Doherty" (William Maginn)"
Folklore and Writings of
St. Patrick - featuring a poem by William Maginn
Father Prout - The Reverend
Francis Sylvester O'Mahony joined "Fraser's Magazine", then under the
editorship of his fellow-townsman, Maginn.
Fraser's Magazine -
proof that William Maginn founded Fraser's Magazine in 1830!
