Tinteán

by Julie Breathnach-Banwait

Scéalta Eile – Irish Short Stories with translations

Immortalise (immortalise.com.au), 2023 RRP $20

ISBN 978-0-6457721-0-4

Hot on the heels of Dymphna Lonergan’s first short story collection As Gaeilge, released in 2022, comes her latest release Scéalta Eile – Irish Short Stories with Translations (Immortalise, 2023). She is following suit with many other Irish language writers who seem to be more and more releasing bilingual books of Irish and English, these being a very helpful resource for the language learner and those of us who shift between these two languages regularly and enjoy them both. Scéalta eile – Irish Short Stories with Translations, continues on with the same gentle stories that Lonergan seems to write so effectively. The structure, size and design of the book is similar to her first collection ‘As Gaeilge – Irish Short Stories with Translations which is also published by Immortalise.The book has some serene black-and-white photographs placed between the stories, which adds to its presentation and serves as pause and reflection after each story.

Lonergan needs little introduction. Her reputation as a lover of the Irish language and linguistics is evident in her professional background of over thirty years as an academic. She has authored several books on the Irish language, published over the years, here in Australia. She has, over the course of her career, also researched the Irish language influence on Australian English, contributing to the lexicological discussion about English words of Irish derivations in the Macquarie and Oxford English dictionaries.

Her latest collection, aptly named Scéalta Eile (Other Stories) consists of  five short stories centred around the familiar themes of love and the value of family and relationships, presented neatly side by side in both languages. The first story, ‘His First Rodeo’ (A Chéad Róidió), is short and sweet and centres around a missed moment when a recorded incident was not presented as expected, leading to a disappointment and a reflection on the bigger picture of life. This story is light-hearted and humorous and makes for easy reading.

Following on from this gentle introduction is the second story, ‘The Forest’ (An Fhoraois). In this story,  Lonergan explores the redefining of roles, and the shuffling that takes place during the early stages of retirement. Re-adjusting to the presence of others in one’s life, for example, when one was independent before, filling one’s time with jobs that may have been put on hold but seem to still be sitting undone, and shifting personal identities are all included in the first few pages.

By chance, a surprise and rather unexpected inheritance completely changes the route of this story, followed by a tragic punch in the ending that no reader could see coming. This story has many elements, the gentle adjustment of marital role for retirement, the excitement and prospect of a new life including light-hearted references to the great Australian establishment that is ‘Bunnings’, and finally rerouting, as the inheritance brings us on an entirely different trajectory, with an ending that doubles as a hefty punch that reawakens us from the one anticipated.

As with most of Lonergan’s stories, the family is the centre, and her rerouting this story back to the family at the end is not surprising, ending it with ‘taking care of your own garden’ which is apt here considering the importance she places on the family unit in her writing. Once recovered from the ending of The Forest, this scribe endeavors to proceed with caution for any more surprises of that nature! We are lulled into the next story with a little more vigilance.

But it turns out the shield of alertness is not required. The next story is equally gentle and sad, nevertheless, it intrigues. The main character in ‘The Hairdresser’s Story’ (Scéal an Ghruagaire) is presented as a listener, someone who shares little of his own life but has an interesting and intriguing tale to tell of the tragic character of Eamonn na gCloch, that he seems to have held close to his heart for a very long time. Someone who encourages others to talk and provides for them a sounding board. We learn as we proceed that he carries his own weights. There is a tragedy to this story, of love lost and of secrets carried. I wondered why the hairdresser carried the story for so long? I was saddened that  Eamonn became disillusioned and why. I was saddened that the shop was no longer there when the author returned.  Lonergan’s attention to detail when presenting a scene is evident here as she paints a picture of the pausing listening hairdresser, one that seemed to be very much in tune with his customers,

‘sometimes with his comb and scissors in the air listening to them.’

It seemed his role was much more elaborate than that of cutting hair, but rather he served as someone who was very valued in the community, with the customers rushing to support him as he reminisced about his connection with Eamonn na gCloch. We see this again when,

 ‘the women all jumped up and ran to him. One of them took out a chair and the hairdresser sat in it. The girl came out of the kitchen with a glass of water and put it in her hands. Then I saw the woman who had brought the story of Eamonn of the Stones into the shop on her knees in front of the hairdresser.’

It seemed this support was reciprocated by the community.

We are taken on a further journey of reminiscence in the story ‘In Search of Snow’ (Ar Thóir Shneachta) back and forth between Ireland and Australia and partly, the US. Lonergan presents the immigrant experience here again, as she has done so many times in her first bilingual book. The experience of being torn between two countries, not being fully in either but somehow forming an in-between identity as you shift between both. Being familiar with this experience, I enjoyed the references to places in Ireland and how the main character’s connection to Ireland is still evident as she reflects on the changes experienced in her hometown since she had left.

The last story in this enjoyable collection is the longest. Unsurprisingly and remaining with the theme of love,  it is called ‘In Search of Love’ (Ar thóir an Ghrá)’ and is centred around a young woman who is attempting to engage with a new and modern dating scene but ultimately finding love closer than she thought.

Scothscéalta by Pádraig Ó Conaire came to mind as I read these stories, with the variety of settings but the themes staying firm throughout, those being of family, love and connection as well as the immigrant experience. Some tragic and some heroic, but all human and flawed. Lonergan presents real characters with real-life stories drawing her readers in to empathise. One can sway through a variety of emotions whilst reading them. Even though they are short, they feel complete as she wraps them up tidily leaving the reader needing to know more about the characters. There is a great variety in these stories and I enjoyed where each took me, mostly to places I had not anticipated.

An old Irish saying comes to mind when reading these stories, ‘An rud is gaire don chroí, is éa an rud is gaire don bhéal.’ What is closest to the heart, is what is closest to the mouth. Thus what we feel is of importance to us,  is what we speak about the most. This is clearly evident in both of Lonergan’s short story collections. I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Scéalta Eile- Irish Short Stories with Translations’ and look forward to Lonergan’s next collection.

Julie Breathnach-Banwait is a psychologist, poet, and prose writer from Ceantar na n-Oileán in Conamara, now living in Australia. She says of Irish, ‘The language owns me. It has made me who I am. It cannot be pulled from me or me from it. We are stitched and woven together on the complex tapestry of the mind.‘

 

Search

Search