From the outset, the nature and function of Irish literature has always been political or used for political ends. However, it is a mistake to bind Irish Literature to nationalism to the exclusion of Protestant culture, identity and politics. The role of art in Irish culture, and in particular Irish literature, is best summarized by James Joyce in the Scylla and Charybdis episode of Ulysses. He writes, “The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring. The painting of Gustave Moreau is the painting of ideas. The deepest poetry of Shelley, the words of Hamlet bring our mind into contact with the essential wisdom, Plato’s world of ideas. All the rest is the speculation of schoolboys”. It is not just the voice of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, but also the voice of the poor and dispossessed. O’Casey writes similarly in Juno and the Paycock: “What was the pain I suffered, Johnny, bringing you into the world to carry you to the cradle to the pains I’ll suffer carryin‘ you out o’ the world to bring you to your grave! Mother o’ God, Mother o’ God, have pity on us all! Sacred Heart o’ Jesus, take away our hearts o’ stone, and give us hearts…
Writers from Ulster Antrim: Sam Millar, William Hamilton Drummond, Alexander Irvine, Sam Burnside, Paula Clamp, Gréagóir Ó Dúill Armagh: William Drennan, Louis MacNeice, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, Medbh McGuckian, Brian Keenan, Ray Givans, Jarlath Gregory Cavan: Cathair Mac Cabe, Thomas Sheridan, Henry Brooke, Philip Connell, Mary-Anne Madden Sadlier, Agnes O’Farrelly, Shane Connaughton Derry: Seamus Heaney, James Simmons, Joyce Cary, George Farquhar, Antonia Logue Donegal: William Allingham, Patrick MacGill, Frank McGuinness, Brian Friel, Francis Harvey, Patrick McGill, Charles McGlinchy, Peadar O’Donnell, Cathal Ó Searcaigh Down: Martin Waddell, Maurice Hayes, MJ Murphy Fermanagh: Frank Ormsby, Shane Connaughton, Carlo Gébler, John Kelly, Eugene McCabe, Blánaid McKinney, Nigel McLoughlin, Mary Montague Monaghan: Patrick Kavanagh, Patrick McCabe Tyrone: William Carleton, Brian Friel, Benedict Kiely, John Montague Writers from Connaught Galway: Augusta Gregory, Liam O’Flaherty, Desmond Hogan, John Arden, Nora Barnacle, Ken Bruen, Eilís Dillon, Frank Harris, Rita Ann Higgins, Fred Johnston, Walter Macken, Edward Martin, MJ Molloy, Tom Murphy, Padraic O’Conaire, Máirtín Ó Díreáin, Brendan O’hEithir, Mary O’Malley, Joe Steve O’Neachtain Leitrim: Brian Leyden, Vincent Woods Mayo: George Moore, John F Deane, John Healy, Mike McCormack, Michael Mullen, Pat O’Brien Roscommon: Douglas Hyde, Percy French, John Waters, Patrick Chapman Sligo: William Butler Yeats, Leland Bardwell, Dermot Healy, Neil Jordan, Joe McGowan, Eoin McNamara Writers from Leinster Carlow: William Francis Maher MacNevin, Michael Farrell, Deirdre Brennan, Pádraig Ó Snodaigh Dublin: Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce Brendan Behan, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, James Clarence Mangan, Roddy Doyle, Flann O’Brien, John McGahern, Sean O’Casey, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Katharine…