Playwrights Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson are in a war of words over Irish identity.
Dublin-born McPherson dismissed London-born McDonagh ("The Beauty Queen of Leenane," "In Bruges," and "The Lieutenant of Inishmore") as "more like stage Irish," in an interview with The New York Times four years ago.
Last week, McDonagh ("The Eclipse," "The Seafarer," and "The Weir,") returned the compliment.
“Seriously, that’s a ludicrous thing to say," he said.
"Dublin people think they are the center of the world and the center of Ireland. And they don’t realize that people have to leave Ireland to get work, and they look down on people who do.
"It strikes me as an odd thing — that someone who grew up in one town thinks they know everything about a nation and a diaspora.”
He's got a point, methinks.
The Irish Prime Minister made the same point last week when he said Irish people were prone to dismissing Irish Americans.
"I've always felt that there was an element in this country that looked over at the diaspora in a rather patronising way, as the shillelagh and the Aran jumper brigade," he said.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.liliying | Jun 11, 2010, 09:26 PM EDT
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KevinCarroll | Mar 31, 2010, 11:32 PM EDT
Dear DrTrelawney,It really upsets me when I hear an Irish person telling someone that their not Irish so they shouldn't be calling themself's Irish. Well I'm Irish born and reared, and I love it when I hear members of the diapora reclaiming their Irishness. In fact I've had Irish people tell me that I'm not Irish anymore because I left and don't live there anymore, even though in many case I've live there longer than they have. Well here what I tell those people and this is what I think my diapora brothers and sisters should tell them, "I don't get my identity and my citizenship from them or from anybody belong to them and I don't lose it on their say so, I got it from my ancestors who lived and died for Ireland. In fact I would exchange the diapora who care about Ireland for many of the Irish that were born in Ireland who don't care about anything Irish. In fact I think the diapora should move to Ireland, then Ireland would be filled with people who love it.
DrTrelawney | Mar 21, 2010, 06:07 PM EDT
I'm more Irish than you derbinma. Do you know why? Because I'm from Ireland, that's why. You are an American. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't know why you have to pretend to be from a foreign country.
derbinma | Mar 10, 2010, 04:11 PM EST
I am an Irish American and I challenge anyone to be more Irish than I am. My grandparents came from Ireland and I feel I am just as much Irish as if I had been born in Ireland. I'm a proud American but just as proud Irish-American. I remember the first time I landed on Irish soil and at that moment in time I felt like I had come home. Each additional visit I feel the same way.
ColleenUSA | Mar 10, 2010, 02:56 PM EST
McDonagh is a joke - he is an Englishman who makes a lot of money selling the stupid old image of Ireland. McPherson knows what he's talking about - he's Irish for God's sake!! He is also contributing to improving and making more sophisticated the image of Irish people...so you obviously don't know what you're talking about
olovely | Mar 10, 2010, 07:57 AM EST
A dick-waving contest between two second rate writers: McDonagh's plays are stupid Oirish pantomimes (spare me the "self-hatred" nonsense, his character's are cartoons). That's fine as long as you don't think you're looking at something more challenging than an episode of Eastenders. In reality McDonagh is an odious macho tool, as his recent comments in the press make clear. McPherson writes odd, supernatural plays. Neither of them is Samuel Beckett or J.M. Synge. All of Ireland's best younger playwrights at the moment are women.
hyattsville | Mar 09, 2010, 04:24 PM EST
Stage Irish like who? John Millington Synge who’s ‘Playboy of the Western World’ cause riots in Dublin over a century ago because the bourgeoisie Dubliners were embarrassed at the illustration of the raw Irish Countryman. The same bourgeoisie Dubliners booed and hissed at O’Casey’s portrayal of the Irish in his ‘Plough and the Stars’. They were embarrassed at how the English might perceive us from viewing either play, self-hatred really? I like the way that both McDonagh and McPherson write, they are both excellent Irish writers writing convincingly about Irish people, and I actually think that their characters share a lot of similar traits.
hyattsville | Mar 09, 2010, 09:56 AM EST
Growing up in the West of Ireland in the 1950's and 1960's I can certainly attest to the attitude of many Dubliners regarding the rest of the country, as exemplified on Radio Eireann and later on RTE. I doubt that this was true of most Dubliners - who had little to feel superior about as they struggled to survive but to the well-heeled, theatre-going crowd the Culchies were something of an embarrassment - or a joke, the lower end of the culture bar.