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Outer Edge of Ulster: A Memoir of Social Life in Nineteenth-Century Donegal
Hugh Dorian was born in poverty in rural Donegal in 1834. He survived Ireland’s Great Famine, only to squander uncommon opportunities for self-advancement. Having lost his job and clashed with priests and policemen, he moved to the city of Derry but never slipped the shadow of trouble. Three of his children died from disease and his wife fell drunk into the River Foyle and drowned. Dorian declined into alcohol-numbed poverty and died in an overcrowded slum in 1914. A unique document survived the tragedy of Dorian’s life. In 1890 he completed a “true historical narrative” of the social and cultural transformation of his home community. This narrative forms the most extensive lower-class account of the Great Famine. A moving account of the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, it invites comparison with the classic slave narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Dorian achieves a degree of totality in his reconstruction of the world of the pre-Famine poor that is unparalleled in contemporary memoir or fiction. He describes their working and living conditions, sports and drinking, religious devotions and festivals. And then he describes the catastrophe that obliterated that world. Horror is remembered vividly but with “in a very short time there was nothing but stillness; a mournful silence in the villages; in the cottages grim poverty and emaciated faces showing all the signs of hardships.” The picture of starvation is stark but “the cheek bones became thin and high, the cheeks blue, the bones sharp, and the eyes sunk . . .. the legs and the feet swell and get red and the skin cracks . . .”. And at last came “the dispersion . . . to places which their fathers never heard of and which they themselves never would have seen, had the times not changed.” No one," he writes, “can measure the distance of the broad Atlantic speedier and better than a father whose child is there.” A sense of loss, closer to bereavement than nostalgia, is threaded through the it is a lament for the might have been ― the future as imagined before the Famine ― rather than the actual past. The final and lasting image is of trauma without the wise-men who had sat late into the small hours debating politics in the years before the Famine congregated in the after years but sat now in silence “their subjects . . . lacking words.” Dorian’s narrative was never published in his own lifetime and all but forgotten after the author’s death. First published in Ireland in August 2000, The Outer Edge of Ulster includes a scholarly introduction that traces the troubles that beset the author and locates the narrative in wider literary contexts. Appearing for the first time in America, this critically acclaimed book offers an intimate look at the everyday lives of ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges.
358 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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September 2, 2020
The Introduction is perhaps the key to the context of the setting of the book which is set in Fanad, north County Donegal, a forgotten part of Ulster. Why did Hugh Dorrian end up in Derry is explained in the introduction. It can be seen that there are several layers of interpretation within the narrative of the book some are overt and some are covert which the introduction elucidates. There is the impact of changes in society with different people being in charge of schools, churches and estates.
It is interesting to understand change and reaction when new Clergymen both Protestant and Roman Catholic take up their posts, or move on. The teaching and establishment of schools is given incontext, being a rural area harvesting crops or cutting turf had an impact on attendance. How the educational system functioned at the time is seen and the life before the advent of the electric light can be seen. The unruly episodes in the classroom as well as how justice is meted out throw light on such times.
Likewise different Landlords as well as Bailiffs bring changes, not necessarily beneficial to the Tenants.
It is indeed true that there are changes in rural society seen here as well as the Great Irish Famine. The changes in population and the use of the potato are seen. When providence supplies of food by a wreck on the Shore during this time of food shortages. It is interesting to see that the Red Coats did not hinder the people getting the food from the wreck under their watchful eye.
Land reform and an aggressive form of Landlord control using the clout of the Law on the Leitrim Estate is seen in the dire way that houses are demolished and people turfed out into the elements. It can be seen that unfettered commercial gain of the Landlord and Legal interests have severe impact on the hapless Tenant. The rugged nature of country also brings these burdens to the fore. The Revenue comes into the fore as part of the oppression.
Hugh Dorian also gives a commentary of customs of the life on the land from Births, Marriages and Death. He also gives commentary on collecting Kelp on the Sea Shore to illicit distillation of Poteen.
It is interesting to understand change and reaction when new Clergymen both Protestant and Roman Catholic take up their posts, or move on. The teaching and establishment of schools is given incontext, being a rural area harvesting crops or cutting turf had an impact on attendance. How the educational system functioned at the time is seen and the life before the advent of the electric light can be seen. The unruly episodes in the classroom as well as how justice is meted out throw light on such times.
Likewise different Landlords as well as Bailiffs bring changes, not necessarily beneficial to the Tenants.
It is indeed true that there are changes in rural society seen here as well as the Great Irish Famine. The changes in population and the use of the potato are seen. When providence supplies of food by a wreck on the Shore during this time of food shortages. It is interesting to see that the Red Coats did not hinder the people getting the food from the wreck under their watchful eye.
Land reform and an aggressive form of Landlord control using the clout of the Law on the Leitrim Estate is seen in the dire way that houses are demolished and people turfed out into the elements. It can be seen that unfettered commercial gain of the Landlord and Legal interests have severe impact on the hapless Tenant. The rugged nature of country also brings these burdens to the fore. The Revenue comes into the fore as part of the oppression.
Hugh Dorian also gives a commentary of customs of the life on the land from Births, Marriages and Death. He also gives commentary on collecting Kelp on the Sea Shore to illicit distillation of Poteen.
January 17, 2010
As well as providing a an unusually detailed and long-spanning account of what life was like for the impoverished Irish of the 19th century, Dorian's memoir also highlights some of the most significant changes that occurred in this period, such as:
The increasing deferral of avoidance of marriage after the Famine (probably due to widespread trauma of watching family members die).
The shift to a primarily monolingual populace called the "Great Silence".
The burial of divisions with the Irish Catholic community in favor of alliance to promote Home Rule and land reform.
A literary revival which reconstructed and idealized West Ireland as the home of Irish identity and nationhood (versus Dorian's firsthand experience of degraded and downtrodden misery).
These changes were accelerated by the Famine. For one thing, it killed off the elderly, and marginalized groups like traveling musicians and storytellers, creating a rift in the oral tradition. Also, the work house experience introduced new notions of time and discipline, as well as contributing to the lasting bitterness towards England.
The increasing deferral of avoidance of marriage after the Famine (probably due to widespread trauma of watching family members die).
The shift to a primarily monolingual populace called the "Great Silence".
The burial of divisions with the Irish Catholic community in favor of alliance to promote Home Rule and land reform.
A literary revival which reconstructed and idealized West Ireland as the home of Irish identity and nationhood (versus Dorian's firsthand experience of degraded and downtrodden misery).
These changes were accelerated by the Famine. For one thing, it killed off the elderly, and marginalized groups like traveling musicians and storytellers, creating a rift in the oral tradition. Also, the work house experience introduced new notions of time and discipline, as well as contributing to the lasting bitterness towards England.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews