A Christmas Archive Miscellany - Festive Acts and Writings

Christmas has inspired personal stories and writings for so many of Ireland's writers. From playwrights to novelists, the story of Christmas and what it means, in comedy and tragedy, for so many has resulted in great works, many of which are within the Archives of the Hardiman Library here at NUI Galway.

Draft of story, Christmas, by John McGahern

The writer John McGahern explored this particular time of year in one of his short stories. How that story even came to be is a story in itself. Christmas is the story of the young boy deposited to a family at Christmas time from an orphanage. He rejects a gift he is given, that of a toy aeroplane and this act forms the centre of McGahern's attention in the drafting of the story. The McGahern Archive contains numerous drafts of the story which was first published in the Irish Press in 1968. Numerous titles range from Santa Claus, A Gift for Himself, The Aeroplane, before finally being published as Christmas in the volume of short stories Nightlines in 1970.

Draft of story, Christmas, by John McGahern

The opening line of many of the drafts begin with "The thaw overhead in the bear branches had stopped the evening we filled the load for Mrs. Grey". This would imply that winter has passed and Christmas is over. Yet the published story opens with a different scene, one of a young boy being boarded onto a train, described as a "ward of State" and being sent to live with 'Moran' for the Christmas period. Moran is a recurring name within McGahern's work, also being the family name within his 1991 novel Amongst Women. The novel itself was nearly called The Morans, only to be changed very close to publication.

Given so much effort of redrafting, editing and re-titling of the story is evident with McGahern's papers, it is clear this particular story meant quite a deal for the writer in the late 1960s. The variances in handwriting styles also show the revisions were carried out over a number of years, as McGahern's hand changed over the years.

Cover of A Christmas Carol, Lyric Theatre Archive, 1981

Another traditional Christmas tale is that of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. The Lyric theatre in Belfast staged in 1980 in a version by John Boyd. Boyd was a prolific playwright during the previous decade of the 1970s, writing some of the most important plays regarding the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland with works such as The Flats in 1972 also presented by the Lyric Theatre. In his introduction to the play, Boyd writes of Dickens' story being linked to the plight of everyday life in Belfast at the time. The Lyric theatre founding director, Mary O'Malley, was so enthused with Christmas-themed drama that one of the very first productions by the Lyric players was a version of The Nativity, by Lady Augusta Gregory in November 1950. The script of this had to be procured from the Gate Theatre, Dublin, as seen in the letter here.

Scene from the Nativity by Lady Gregory, Lyric Theatre Archive, 1950

Letter from Gate Theatre sending script of The Nativity to the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre Archive.

At the Gate Theatre itself, the theatre staged a revival production of Micheál MacLiammóir's Christmas play, Home for Christmas or A Grand Tour. First staged in 1950, in the original programme note, reproduced in the 1976 revival programme, MacLiammóir recounts how he was prompted to write the play by Orsen Wells about an prosperous English family touring across Africa and Europe at a time of Victorian empire and exploration. MacLiammór took that advice but set the story among an wealthy Irish family who are returning from world travels to Ireland for Christmas.

We wish all our readers a very

 happy Christmas and best wishes for 2017!

A Christmas Archive Miscellany - Festive Acts and Writings

Christmas has inspired personal stories and writings for so many of Ireland's writers. From playwrights to novelists, the story of Christmas and what it means, in comedy and tragedy, for so many has resulted in great works, many of which are within the Archives of the Hardiman Library here at NUI Galway.

Draft of story, Christmas, by John McGahern

The writer John McGahern explored this particular time of year in one of his short stories. How that story even came to be is a story in itself. Christmas is the story of the young boy deposited to a family at Christmas time from an orphanage. He rejects a gift he is given, that of a toy aeroplane and this act forms the centre of McGahern's attention in the drafting of the story. The McGahern Archive contains numerous drafts of the story which was first published in the Irish Press in 1968. Numerous titles range from Santa Claus, A Gift for Himself, The Aeroplane, before finally being published as Christmas in the volume of short stories Nightlines in 1970.

Draft of story, Christmas, by John McGahern

The opening line of many of the drafts begin with "The thaw overhead in the bear branches had stopped the evening we filled the load for Mrs. Grey". This would imply that winter has passed and Christmas is over. Yet the published story opens with a different scene, one of a young boy being boarded onto a train, described as a "ward of State" and being sent to live with 'Moran' for the Christmas period. Moran is a recurring name within McGahern's work, also being the family name within his 1991 novel Amongst Women. The novel itself was nearly called The Morans, only to be changed very close to publication.

Given so much effort of redrafting, editing and re-titling of the story is evident with McGahern's papers, it is clear this particular story meant quite a deal for the writer in the late 1960s. The variances in handwriting styles also show the revisions were carried out over a number of years, as McGahern's hand changed over the years.

Cover of A Christmas Carol, Lyric Theatre Archive, 1981

Another traditional Christmas tale is that of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. The Lyric theatre in Belfast staged in 1980 in a version by John Boyd. Boyd was a prolific playwright during the previous decade of the 1970s, writing some of the most important plays regarding the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland with works such as The Flats in 1972 also presented by the Lyric Theatre. In his introduction to the play, Boyd writes of Dickens' story being linked to the plight of everyday life in Belfast at the time. The Lyric theatre founding director, Mary O'Malley, was so enthused with Christmas-themed drama that one of the very first productions by the Lyric players was a version of The Nativity, by Lady Augusta Gregory in November 1950. The script of this had to be procured from the Gate Theatre, Dublin, as seen in the letter here.

Scene from the Nativity by Lady Gregory, Lyric Theatre Archive, 1950

Letter from Gate Theatre sending script of The Nativity to the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre Archive.

At the Gate Theatre itself, the theatre staged a revival production of Micheál MacLiammóir's Christmas play, Home for Christmas or A Grand Tour. First staged in 1950, in the original programme note, reproduced in the 1976 revival programme, MacLiammóir recounts how he was prompted to write the play by Orsen Wells about an prosperous English family touring across Africa and Europe at a time of Victorian empire and exploration. MacLiammór took that advice but set the story among an wealthy Irish family who are returning from world travels to Ireland for Christmas.

We wish all our readers a very

 happy Christmas and best wishes for 2017!

Christmas Greetings from the Archives

It's that festive time of year again and rounding off this semester it really has been an exceptional time of late here in Archives and Special Collections. Over the past semester, we have settled into our new home and premises here at the Hardiman Building; wonderful new collections have arrived into our strong-rooms, more have been catalogued and made accessible; it has been our pleasure to have you with us for Open Days, tours, Culture Night, exhibitions and launches, guest talks and more. We have been delighted to welcome so many new users to our Reading Room and indeed to welcome back all our regular users and friends! 

We hope all research and projects have gone well and not too many sleepless nights were had ahead of ahead of exams.

Our semester is winding to a close this week and already a new start is on the horizon so to all friends of the Archives and Special Collections, to users new and not so new, to all University staff and students and to those who visit us from afar, we wish you a very festive, enjoyable and safe Christmas and look forward to seeing you all here at the Hardiman Building in 2014.

As a final piece from our collections for this year here is an image from the Lyric Theatre Belfast production of 'The Nativity'. The production was a staging of the version written by Lady Augusta Gregory, organised and directed by Mary O'Malley prior to the formation of the Lyric Players Theatre.

T4/1 - the Nativity written by Lady Gregory, staged in 1950

Le gach dea-ghuí don Nollaig agus don bhliain nua.

The Nativity - Christmas Scenes, Lady Gregory and Douglas Hyde

Cover of The Nativity script by Lady Gregory

For a festive themed update from the archives of the James Hardiman Library, we delved into our collections and discovered this wonderful overlap between two of the most prolific of literary and political figures from the West, Lady Gregory and Douglas Hyde. The pair penned a version and  presentation of The Nativity which took to the national stage, the Abbey Theatre, in Dublin and to the stage of the Lyric Theatre in Belfast many years apart, but not without incident in between.

The play would begin its life by being written in Irish by Douglas Hyde in 1902 and translated into English shortly thereafter by Lady Gregory. However, it would be 1911 before the play would reach the Abbey Theatre stage in Dublin.

It is noted in Douglas Hyde – Maker of Modern Ireland (Janet Egleson Dunleavy and Gareth W Dunleavy, University of California, 1991) how on one of Hyde's many visits to Coole Park, the home of Lady Gregory in Galway, how Hyde's playwrighting was inspired by his muse – Gregory – and flourished while writing in quiet solitude in Coole Park. "In late August of 1902, [Hyde's] diary entry in Irish for (August 25) reads, "They shoved me into my room and I wrote a small play in three or four hours on Angus the Culdee. Entitled An Naomh ar Iarraid (The lost saint), it was published in the 1902 issue of Samhain and performed in early 1903. A first attempt to adapt for popular theater themes and characters from the Irish manuscript tradition, it drew upon Hyde's reading and research in ninth-century monastic Christianity, especially the legends that had been woven around the figure of Aongus Céile Dé (Oengus the Culdee).

Encouraged by the ease with which An Naomh had almost written itself, Hyde decided that his next subject would be the Nativity; his source, a medieval miracle play.

Dráma Breithe Chríosta, Hyde's nativity play, was finished within the month that followed and published in the Christmas, 1902, double number edition of the Weekly Freeman, accompanied by a translation in English by Lady Gregory. There was trouble about it almost from the start. A 1904 performance scheduled for Christmas had to be cancelled when it became the subject of a resolution passed by priests in Kilkenny, criticizing some questionable passages that they perceived as causing possible confusion between superstition and dogma. Continually refused for six years thereafter, Dráma Breithe Chríosta finally had its premiere at the Abbey Theatre in January 1911, with Sara Allgood as the First Woman, Máire O'Neill as the Second Woman, and Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh as Mary. The Abbey sets were designed by Robert Gregory, Lady Gregory's son.

The production charmed both audiences and reviewers. Other productions followed. For almost a quarter of a century—until the offending passages were blacked out in a school edition of the play printed in 1935—no one took notice of the problem that had troubled the Kilkenny priests."

The Nativity play as written by Hyde and translated into English by Gregory did find its production on the Abbey stage in 1911 and again in December 1932. These records and indeed all of the Abbey Theatre productions are currently being digitised here in NUI Galway as part of our recent digital archive partnership with the Abbey Theatre. The Lady Gregory Library also resides as part of Special Collections here at the James Hardiman Library.

Scene from the Lyric Theatre production of The Nativity

First page of the Gregory script of The Nativity, Lyric Theatre Archive (T4)

What people may not know about is that this Nativity was in fact also produced by the Lyric Theatre in Belfast in December 1950. The archive of the Lyric Theatre here at the James Hardiman Library notes material which includes that relating to the production of Nativity by Lady Augusta Gregory, organised and directed by Mary O'Malley prior to the formation of the Lyric Players Theatre. The files include a copy of the script with some handwritten annotations, and with a rough drawing of the set design, and two card-mounted photographs, one showing two female characters on stage, the other an image of the actors playing Joseph and Mary at the crib, two copies of a photograph of six male cast members and the introductions to each piece of entertainment, written by John Irvine.

As you can see in, these wonderful images of the Lyric production highlight what is not just perhaps a lost or unknown production of this Hyde/Gregory play but also how this piece, a direct product of the Irish Literary Revival saw professional productions North and South of the border over forty years apart.

For a full listing of the Lyric Theatre Archive click here