Hugh Lane Controversy.

Hugh Lane Controversy.

                              Hugh Lane born in 1875 at Ballybrack House, county Cork.

Hugh Lanes 1904 exhibitions were critical in the history of the establishment of Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, (originally called The Municipal Gallery of Modern Art.  He launched one of the exhibitions of modern Irish art to tremendous success in the Guildhall, London, where over eighty thousand people paid admission to visit it.  It was the first time that modern Irish artists were exhibited side by side with the Impressionists painters.  Pictures by Monet, Manet, Degas, and Pissarro hung alongside Irish artists such as O'Brien, Osborne, Orpen, and J.B.Yeats amongst others. Lane saw the gallery as a place where people could see and appreciate art.

He went on to say that a gallery of modern art in Dublin would encourage both an interest in the arts and the purchase of art by the Irish people. He believed that people would not purchase art if they did not know about art and that such a gallery would serve as an inspiration to student artists which would enable them to express their soul.  Hugh Lane went on to exhibit three hundred and six paintings at the Royal Hibernian Academy; one hundred and six of them were presented to the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art when it opened in 1908.  This was done without any public financial support and it was to show how Hugh Lane's of visual art was to play such an important role in the birth of modern Ireland.

The Hugh Lane Controversy.

On the 7^th May 1915 the passenger ship RSM Lusitania was sank off the coast of Cork.  Among its dead was the art collector Sir Hugh Lane.  Lane was a private collector of art and the favourite nephew of Lady Gregory of Coole.  One of Lane’s greatest wishes was to present a large collection of important paintings to Dublin and the Irish nation but there was to be one condition, they must be housed in a suitable gallery.  His collection was opened in 1908 on a temporary basis in Clonmel House, Harcourt Street. 

However, Lane became irritated by Dublin’s failure to come up with a permanent home for his paintings and what he saw as a lack of commitment by the authorities.  In a fit of pique he withdrew thirty nine of the most important paintings from the gallery and made a will leaving them to the National Gallery of London.  Lane was to tell a colleague that he had done this in order to shake up the crowd in Dublin but at the end of the day it was his intention that Dublin should have them.  He wrote a codicil to this effect but unfortunately it was not witnessed. Here begins what became known as The Hugh Lane Controversy.

The National Gallery knew it had a great treasure and was not about to give it up.  The codicil attached to Hugh Lanes will was not witnessed and although a number of prominent people at the time insisted that it was Lane’s intention to bequeath the paintings to Dublin and the Irish nation, it was not to be.  In order to legalise the codicil it would take an Act of Parliament which no politician was willing to support.  The National Gallery was in possession and legally entitled to keep the paintings, morally there was a strong argument in favour of Hugh Lane and his last wishes but they were not giving up their legal right. 

This provoked a controversy that lasted throughout the twentieth century, many people including members of the ‘Coole Set’ such as W.B.Yeats and Lady Gregory campaigned to get the paintings returned to Dublin but to no avail.  To an extent the issue remains unsolved, however, a compromise was reached in 1959 and it was agreed that the main works in the collection were to be displayed at different times by both galleries.  It provides that the thirty nine Lane pictures will be divided into two groups, which will be lent, in turn, for public exhibition in Dublin for successive periods of five years, over a total period of twenty years. 

In 2008, the centenary of the opening of the Municipal Gallery, the centrepiece of the gallery’s display featured the full collection of thirty nine pictures for the first time since 1913. Hopefully we may see them permanently reunited one day to hang in the gallery that bears his name.

1st Image = Academy House 1938-1967 15 Ely Place. (www.royalhibernianacademy.ie)
2nd Image = Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh lane (originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. (www.royalhibernianacademy.ie). 
3rd Image = Royal Hibernian Academy as it is today 15 Ely Place. (www.royalhibernianacaemy.ie)
4th Image = Royal Hibernian Academy, Lower abbey Street, Dublin. 1824. (www.archiseek.com).

The Resurrection Men.

There was a time in Ireland when people feared the nocturnal activities of a group of men that went under the name ‘Resurrection Men’. They specialised in grave robbing and body snatching and were particularly prevalent during the early 1800s. Some of these nefarious characters would be happy just stealing the valuables that had been buried with the dead but some went further, they stole the bodies and sold them to supply doctors who used them in the study of human anatomy.

In order to thwart the activities of these grave robbers people resorted to a number of ingenious measures which included burying bodies in backyards or cellars until the remains were so far gone they were of no use as objects of anatomical research.  People stood guard over recently buried relatives and some people who could afford to erected grills, cages or iron bars around the grave site, these were known as ‘mortsafes’. Mortsafes date from the beginning of the nineteenth century and were designed to protect corpses. They came in a variety of designs and sizes and could be reused after six to eight weeks.

Two of the most notorious grave robbers were Irish and were active in Edinburgh, Scotland during the 1820s.  At the beginning of the eighteenth century Edinburgh had become an important centre for the study of anatomy. Students were assigned one cadaver – usually an executed criminal – on which to practice their studies. However this was not a sufficient amount and gradually students and surgeons began to seek other ways in which to obtain corpses to dissect. Grave robbing was such a common occurrence in Edinburgh at that time that some graveyards had high walls and railings around them and watchtowers were even erected with armed guards standing guard.

William Burke and William Hare were both from Ulster and had gone to Edinburgh to work as ‘navies’ on the New Union Canal.  They worked at this occupation during the day but once night fell they took to their other more sinister and profitable trade.  At first, grave robbing but eventually murder.  Their victims were the homeless who wouldn’t be missed but they soon began targeting drunks and others who they would follow down the dark streets before strangling them.  It was to be another Irish connection that would lead to the eventual end of their gruesome activities.  That connection was a recent arrival to Edinburgh in the shape of Mrs Docherty.  She had recently arrived from Ireland and Burke who met her in a local shop befriended her. He invited her home to his lodgings for a bite to eat and it was there he murdered her. It was believed that Burke and Hare murdered up to thirty people but Burke was the only one prosecuted and then it was for the murder of Mrs Docherty.  Hare turned Kings Evidence against him and Burke was hanged on 28^th January 1829.  Hare was reported to have died a penniless pauper in London in 1858.

There is a twist to the story, Burke’s body was donated to medical science for dissection, and his skeleton is still displayed in Edinburgh’s University Medical School. His skin was used to make a pocket book and this is displayed at the Police Museum in Edinburgh.
The Anatomy Act 1832,  allowed the bodies of paupers who died in workhouses to be used for anatomical research, this helped to end the activities of the body snatchers.

Now let us return to the tale of the Irish Resurrection Men.

The fear of being buried alive is as old as the hills.  Famous bards such as Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe have written grisly stories regarding it.  Macabre tales of narrow escapes when people who were discovered buried alive when grave robbers opened their coffins.  Contorted, twisted, petrified bodies of those poor unfortunates who upon waking found themselves trapped in a box doomed to a horrific death.  Here follows a story of one such woman who found that being buried alive would become a terrible reality.

Margorie McCall c1705.

Margorie McCall was married to a doctor and they lived in Lurgan, County Armagh.  They were very happy and content with their lot in life. Unfortunately Margorie became ill and although her husband was a doctor he was extremely worried. It should be remembered that in the early 1700s medical science was not what it is today and simple illnesses we would consider as easily cured today could prove fatal at that time. Sadly poor Margorie was to succumb to her fever and she passed away, she was buried in Shankhill Church of Ireland Cemetery not far from where they lived in Church Place.  Her burial was a speedy one for at that time fever was feared as it was known to spread; this should have been the end of the story.

Margorie was buried still wearing a beautiful gold wedding ring.  Her husband could not remove it from her finger due to the fact that her fingers had swollen since her death. People talked of the buried treasure and the Resurrection Men were listening. Here was a chance to make some easy money, not only could they sell the body but they were in for a bonus. That evening, before the ground she was buried in had time to settle upon poor Margorie’s coffin the boys paid a visit.  In the graveyard they worked under cover of darkness, digging down silently until they heard the scrape of the spade upon the lid of her box, they reached down and prised of the lid.

They saw the glitter of gold upon her finger. Realising the story they had heard was true they attempted to remove the ring, it would not budge. Well times were hard and money was as tight as that ring so they decided they were not about to let such a prize go to the surgeon’s slab. She was dead already so she wouldn’t need her finger would she? It was agreed, that they would cut off the finger to free the ring.  Unfortunately for them the shock of the knife slicing through her finger was just what she needed to wake her up from the catatonic state she had been in.  She sat up, eyes wide and screamed like a Banshee. Some say that one of the body snatchers had a heart attack and dropped dead on the spot, others say they took off like the devil himself was after them never to be seen again.  They were even reported as giving up their rather profitable trade.  Margorie rose from her grave and began to stagger to her nearby home
.
Back at the house her husband was sat talking to some relatives that had remain behind after the burial when he heard a bang at the door. He stood up, went to the door and opened it.  There like a scene from The Shining stood his wife (HI Honey I’m Home).  She was still wearing her dirt covered death shroud and she was dripping blood from her part severed finger.  Some stories tell us that he dropped dead from fright and was buried in the plot of ground his wife had recently vacated.  The poor relatives are not mentioned and it’s unsure whether they were pleased to see her alive or upset to see him drop dead.

It is said that Margorie went on to re-marry and to have a number of children.  Some say she was even pregnant when she rose from the grave.  She is still seen wandering the cemetery at night, although you would think she had had enough of that place.  If you visit the graveyard you will see her gravestone, upon it is written “Here Lies Margorie McCall, Lived Once, Buried Twice.

It is also said that some people hide behind the curtains and jump out shouting “it's me, it’s me, it’s Margorie” Now off you go to bed, sweet dreams, and try to Keep Smiling.

This will be the last entry until after my exams. I shall return on the 1st June, until then Keep smiling and look after each other.

Top Image = Mortsafes in various sizes.

Middle Image = Margorie McCall's grave marker.

Lower Image = Security railings around a grave.

 

FRANCIS TUMBLETY

FRANCIS TUMBLETY
(1833-1903)

What is it that makes a series of horrific murders so fascinating for a particular group of people?  They were the first set of murders that caused a media frenzy.  The story went global, it remains unsolved and it is still as popular today as it was over 120 years ago. There have been countless books written about it, television programmes and films made about the events, stage shows and stories.  Yet no one was ever apprehended, no one was convicted, no one ever served a single day in prison, and right up to today the crimes remain unsolved.  There is as much speculation now as there was in 1888-1891 as to who committed these horrific murders.  The question remains "Who was Jack"?

The last to fall victim to the knife of the Ripper was an Irish woman called Mary Kelly but there was another Irish connection.  One of the least likely suspects was a rather dubious character who was called Francis Tumblety (1833-1903) who was thought to have been born in Ireland although he may have been born in Canada.  However, he certainly had Irish parents, James and Margaret and was one of eleven children.  He spent his early years in Rochester, New York and it was there that his rather unsavoury personality was forged.  Neighbours remembered him to be a dirty scruffy boy who was uneducated and always getting into trouble.  By the time he was a teenager Tumblety was working for a shady pharmacist and was also selling pornographic material.  It looks like his life was mapped out.

It’s possible that while working for the pharmacist Tumblety picked up a little knowledge as he began to practice as an “Indian Herb Doctor” or as we call them today “Quacks” selling pseudo cures and ‘snake oil’.  This may also account for his basic knowledge of the anatomy as he had no real medical training although he paraded himself as a doctor.  It is important to point this out as Jack the Ripper was suspected of having some knowledge of anatomy as was shown by the extraction of various organs from his victims.

In 1857, Francis Tumblety was known to have been in Montreal where once again he posed as a doctor.  He was actually arrested for trying to carry out an abortion by administering pills and liquid medication to an unfortunate prostitute, for some reason he was released within a week.  In 1860 he had made his way to St. John where once again he found himself in trouble with the law.  He was questioned regarding the death of one of his ‘patients’ who had died after taking medicine prescribed by Tumblety.  He went on the run to Maine and from there to Boston, all the while making a handsome profit from his medical pretence. This is another important point as some experts believe Jack was a wealthy man.

While in Boston, Tumblety hit on another addition to his deception, he began dressing in pseudo-military uniform and wearing service medals that he certainly had never earned the right to wear.  He began to ride around the streets on a white horse and developed a huge air of self importance and believed himself to be above everyone else.  A trait that Jack was to portray only too well.  He left Boston and began to move around the country, the Civil War saw he arrive in Washington, D.C. where he posed as a surgeon in the Union Army and he impressed all he met with stories of heroism.  He also claimed to have met many famous people including President Abraham Lincoln.  Another point worth considering is that while in Washington it transpired that Tumblety let it be known that he hated women with a passion.  Another link to Jack the Ripper.
 

Tumblety was reported as calling women nothing better than cattle especially fallen women.  When asked why he had such hatred he replied that he had once been married only to find out later that the woman in question was a prostitute.  What happened to her was never made clear.  At a dinner party given by Tumblety, one of the guests took note of a hideous collection of jars containing human uteruses, each marked by medical condition and category.  They were also marked regarding social class of the people they belonged to.  This was exactly how Jack the Ripper acted.  This does not mean that Tumblety was the Ripper but it certainly sounds suspicious.

Next we head to Missouri. Here Tumblety was arrested twice for wearing medals that he was not entitled to.  He was also arrested in connection with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (later released), and he was arrested for having homosexual affairs (quite possibly true).  He was also arrested in 1888 in Liverpool, for indecent exposure and indecent assault.  Jack the Ripper committed the first of his known murders in 1888.  Francis Tumblety was arrested on November 12^th 1888 concerning the murder (he was a likely suspect in the case at that time).  He was bailed out on November 16^th and fled the country eight days later heading to France (the murders stopped).  He returned to New York where the Police arrested him.  However, there was no proof that he had committed any of the Ripper murders so he was released and he then returned to Rochester.  Here he was to live with his sister; he died in 1903 in St. Louis after amassing considerable wealth as a medical quack.

There was never any proof that Tumblety was ever violent against women so all of this is just mere conjecture. In fact in 1888 when the first murder was committed Tumblety was 55, older than anyone described by witnesses at the time.  Homosexual serial killers usually prey on their own sex rather than on women.  However, serial killers are not exactly predictable.  So here we leave the story once again, it won’t be the last time you will read something on Jack, as long as no real evidence surfaces there will always be speculation.  I'll leave you to make your own mind up.

Upper Image-Artists impression of Jack the Ripper in Whitehall.

Lower Image- Francis Tumblety.

Source= www.casebook.org/suspects/tumblety 

The Island Magee Witches.

March 31^st 1711 was to be the date of the last witch trial in Ireland.  No one was burned at the stake; no one was ducked or drowned.  However eight women were to serve one year in prison and time in the public stocks. Here they were to suffer the indignity of being pelted with rotten fruit and the jeering of their neighbours on market day. Some threw so violently they took at least one woman's eye out.

These eight women became known as the Island Magee Witches as all of them were from that area of County Antrim. They were tried at Carrickfergus court and were found guilty of bewitching a local girl by the name of Mary Dunbar.  It was said that Dunbar suffered fits, trances, and vomiting up household objects.  She was also known to throw bibles while uttering gross profanities.  She blamed all of this on witchcraft and said she had been cursed by those she accused.  The community and local clergy were easily led by this young girl as the women accused fell short of their sanctimonious charges.  They were all poor, some drank (frowned on by the community), some were disabled, and therefore they failed to meet the standards of womanly beauty and female behaviour. They must be witches.  They were an easy target, and it suited the politicians at the time as it was seen by them as furthering their goals.

However, in order to understand the background to the accusations and subsequent trial we need to go back a little further. A series of extraordinary incidents preceded the events that led up to the arrest of the accused. In September 1710, Mrs Anne Haltridge, widow of the Rev. John Haltridge, late Presbyterian minister at Island Magee was staying in the house of her son of the same address.  It was reported that every night she suffered great annoyance from invisible objects that threw stones and sods of turf at her bed. The curtains around her bed opened on their own, pillows were pulled from under her head by unseen hands and the bedclothes were pulled from the bed. Although a thorough search was made of the room nothing was discovered to account for these disturbances. She requested she be moved to another room as she was afraid to remain in that room on her own.

We now move forward to December 11^{th 1710}, surprisingly Mrs Haltridge is still there.  Sitting by the kitchen fire at twilight she is joined by a little boy who sits beside her. He looks as if he is around eleven or twelve years of age, with short black hair, an old hat upon his head, he is wrapped in an old blanket that trails behind him and he wears an old torn vest.  He keeps his face hidden by the blanket.  Mrs Haltridge asked him if he is hungry, where he came from, who he is and so on but to no avail.  Instead of answering her he jumps up, dances around the kitchen, out the door and disappears into the nearby cowshed.  Mrs Haltridge sends the servants to search for him but they can find no trace of him. However, when they return to the house the boy is stood beside them.  Each time they try to catch him they fail. Eventually the boy vanishes and they are not troubled by him again until February 1711.

On the 11^th February 1711, Mrs Haltridge, (yes, she is still there), is sat reading her book. She puts the book down for a moment, nobody but her is in the room.  She reaches for her book only to find it missing. The following day the apparition of the young boy reappeared, breaking a window he thrust in his hand with the missing book in it. He told a servant girl that was standing there that he had taken the book and that her mistress would never see it again.  When she asked him if he could read it he replied that he could, and that the devil had taught him. He further stated that within a few days a corpse would leave the house but he refused to name it.

Mr Robert Sinclair, the Presbyterian minister, and two of his elders came to the house and stayed there with the distressed family, spending much of their time in prayer.  Mrs Haltridge went to bed as usual in the haunted room but got very little rest and around midnight a scream was heard.  Mr Sinclair rushed to her room asking what had happened; Mrs Haltridge said she felt as if she had been stabbed in her back with a sharp knife.  Next morning she left the haunted room and went to another but the pain in her back persisted and by the end of the week, on the 22^nd February, she died.

Now we come to Mary Dunbar. Around 27^th February 1711, a young girl of around eighteen years old came to stay with Mrs Haltridge junior to keep her company after her mother in laws death.  There was already a rumour spreading that Old Mrs Haltridge had been bewitched into her grave and this had a bad effect upon Mrs Haltridge junior.  It was on the night of Mary’s arrival that strange things began to happen. When Mary and another girl retired to their room they found a number of their clothes had been removed from their trunk. When they went looking for the missing items they found them scattered throughout the house.  That night Mary was seized by a violent fit, when she recovered she cried out that she had been stabbed in her thigh and that she had been attacked by three women who she went on to describe. Around midnight she was to suffer a second fit in which she saw a vision of seven or eight women talking together and calling each other by name.

When Mary came out of her fit she gave the names as Janet Liston, Elizabeth Cellor, Kate McCalmont, Janet Carson, Janet Mean, Latimer, and one known as Mrs. Ann. She gave such a good description of the women that even those she did not name were guessed at. All the women were sent for and those she had not named were paired with other ‘innocent’ women, Dunbar then identified each of them as her tormentors. One was even picked out of a group of thirty women.

Between the 3^rd and 24^th March seven women were arrested, their names were

Janet Mean, of Braid Island.
Jane Latimer, of Irish quarter, Carrigfergus.
Margaret Mitchell, of Kilroot.
Catherine M'Calmont, of Island Magee.
Janet Liston, alias Sellar, of Island Magee.
Elizabeth Sellar, of same Island Magee.
Janet Carson, of same Island Magee.

The accused women were brought to trial on 31^st March 1711 at Carrigfergus before judges Upton and McCartney.  Dunbar stated that her tormentors had told her she would be unable to give evidence against them in court and she was reported as being struck dumb the day before the trial, this was to continue through the whole trial.  The accussed had no legal representation and no medical evidence regarding Dunbar was ever given.  Of course they all denied the charges, they even went as far as to take communion and call upon god as their witness.  Judge Upton in his summing up instructed the jury that in his opinion they could not bring in a guilty verdict based upon the evidence of one person’s visions.  He went on to say that there was no doubt in his mind that there appeared to be some diabolical work going on but if the persons accussed were really witches and in league with the devil they would not attend service and partake of communion on such a regular basis. Unfortunately his brother judge on the bench was not so open-minded.  Judge McCartney instructed the jury to find them all guilty. The jury lost no time in doing so.

This ended the last trial for witchcraft in Ireland.  Judge Anthony Upton committed suicide in 1718.

We live in better times yet some people still view the disabled as 'not fitting in'. So we're only one step away.

Upper Image: A 17th century Ducking Stool.

Middle Image: A 17th century stocks.

Lower Image: A disabled woman, did 'not fit in' so she must have been a witch.

Dust Jackets/Book Covers

The Art of the Dust Jacket.

Anyone who walks past a bookshop today will take for granted the display of assorted books in their eye catching colours.  Dust jackets that will whisper to you of the delights you might expect upon purchase of your choice.  Yet how many of those who pass by will be aware of the amount of thought, creativity, and planning that has gone into the design of those covers?  The Dust jacket must convey to the viewer, by word or design the character of a book that may run into hundreds of pages.  Those who manage to do this have every right to be called true artists.

The Art Of The Dust Jacket.

The dust jacket was an English invention but it was not originally made of paper.  In the early years of the nineteenth century velum and calf bindings began to be replaced by less durable cloth ones and these required some form of covering.  Cardboard protective covers (slipcases) intended to protect the fine leather and watered silk bindings were in use before the first known dust jacket and it was around these covers that book-sellers wrapped plain sheets of poor quality paper in order to further protect the books.  These covers were discarded as they had no value.  It was well into the nineteenth century before the dust jacket as we know it today was to appear. Publishers began to realise that the cover could provide a dual purpose in life, (a) to inform and (b) to protect.  The importance of this would be seen after the First World War by which time almost all books had a printed jacket.

The years between the two World Wars saw the art of the dust jacket being developed and refined as publishers began to understand the relationship between well-designed dust jackets and book sales. At the same time artists who would previously have worked exclusively in the world of fine art began seeking work as commercial artists. Gradually, good book design began to be considered an important factor in the world of publishing.

Today old dust jackets have become valued items. A first edition book becomes infinitely more collectable (and valuable) if paired with its original dust jacket. What was once a throw away item used purely to preserve the book it housed has now become collectable in its own right.  In 2009 a 1925 first edition, first issue copy of The Great Gatsby was sold.  Its most outstanding feature was its remarkably good dust jacket.  The dust jacket was considered to be exceptionally rare and contributed to its record price of $180,000.

My thanks to the V& A Museum for their assistance.

Upper Image: The Catcher In The Rye. A rare copy was sold for $25.000.

Middle Image: Tender Is The Night. Auction value $6,000.

Lower Image:  The Great Gatsby.  In 2009 this achieved a record price of $180,000.

I will follow this post with others.  There is little recorded about dust jackets as they were and surprisingly still are regarded as being of little value.  However, there are many beautiful works of art and I hope to bring some of those to you.

Derek Mahon. Irish poet. Born in Belfast (1941).

After The Titanic .

They said I got away in a boat
And humbled me at the inquiry. I tell you
I sank as far that night as any
Hero. As I sat shivering on the dark water
I turned to ice to hear my costly
Life go thundering down in a pandemonium of
Prams, pianos, sideboards, winches,
Boilers bursting and shredded ragtime. Now I hide
In a lonely house behind the sea
Where the tide leaves broken toys and hat-boxes
Silently at my door. The showers of
April, flowers of May mean nothing to me, nor the
Late light of June, when my gardener
Describes to strangers how the old man stays in bed
On seaward mornings after nights of
Wind, takes his cocaine and will see no-one. Then it is
I drown again with all those dim
Lost faces I never understood. My poor soul
Screams out in the starlight, heart
Breaks loose and rolls down like a stone.
Include me in your lamentations.

by Derek Mahon.

Joseph Bruce Ismay survived the sinking of the Titanic. He was the president of the White Star Line, the company that built the ship.  This poem is about the sinking of Ismay as much as it is about the sinking of the Titanic. He lived or should I say existed after the death of the ship and the huge loss of life of those who left our shores on that doomed vessel.  The poem seems to suggest that although Ismay survived in the physical sense he was a broken man both in spirit and in mind. He was emotionally and mentally destroyed because of his actions on that fateful day and he died a broken man, his reputation in ruins, his nights haunted by the screams of the dying as they appeared to him in his dreams.

The inquiry that followed suggested that he acted in the manner of a coward. It would have been expected of him to ‘go down with the crew’. The adult male’s on board, both crew members and passengers sacrificed their life’s to save others and were called heroes. Ismay stood accused of ‘running away’, he rejected this but it did him no good and he was to carry the shame with him to the grave.  It has been said that Ismay didn’t escape the sinking of the Titanic as it stayed with him emotionally for the rest of his tormented life. His name destroyed, his conscience causing him great pain and the pain and suffering of the third class passengers resulted in a living death for him.

Derek Mahon seems to have got into the mind of Ismay. His poem reflects the isolation and disgrace that Ismay carried with him. His poem portrays Ismay as a man who feels he has been wronged by his peers, the media and the inquiry. It is as if he wants you to feel some sort of sympathy or empathy for the character of Ismay. You begin to think that Ismay feels that he has been unfairly treated and that the only way he would have been accepted by the public is if he had drowned with all those others who died in the North Atlantic.  Ismay actually wants you to believe that he lost everything that day as he saw his life’s work disappearing beneath the waves: ‘I tell you I sank as far that night as any hero’. He feels that the drowned were praised for drowning yet those who survived were condemned for being alive.

Does he actually believe that he is a victim? Are we to feel sorry for him because he lost his investment?

Some would say that Ismay went into hiding to escape from his persecutors. Those who would hunt him down. The press, the public, the families of those who died. He hides away in his fishing lodge located in Casla, in Connemara on a secluded part of the coastline. Believing that even there the Titanic is mocking him. The incoming tide brings with it reminders of those lost at sea, the women and children ‘the tide leaves broken toys and hat boxes silently at my door’. Ismay has become a paranoid broken man with no joy left in his life, unable to face people. He donates huge sums of money to charities that support retired seamen.

He has taken to using cocaine to block out the visions, the nightmares of people he never knew or even understood.  They came from a different world, one of poverty, he moved in higher social circles. He was a rich man, what care he for those in third class ‘Lost faces I never understood’. Having read this poem I felt that Ismay felt abandoned by his god, it is as if he has lost his soul as well as his faith. Ismay has the last word for he feels so guilty, so distraught; he makes one last request to those who mourn the victims when he says: ‘Include me in your lamentations’.

There were around 120 Irish passengers on the Titanic most of whomwere emigrants hoping for a better life in America. Most of them did not make it.  However, Anna Kelly who had gone up on deck to investigate what had happened, survived in lifeboat 16.  She later became a nun.  There were 706 third class passengers on board-462 men, 165 women and 79 children.  178 third class passengers survived the disaster-75 men, 76 women and 27 children. (www.historyonthenet.com/Titanic/thirdclass)

In first class over a third of the men, almost all the women and all the children survived.  In second class it was less than 10% of the men, 84% of the women and all the children. In steerage/third class 12% of the men, 55% of the women and less than one in three of the children survived. The figures show that despite the "Women and children first" rule, a greater proportion of first class men survived, than third class children.  So it wasn't just Ismay that could be described as a coward. Some third class passengers were denied initial access to the lifeboats by the crew who forbade them to enter the first class area. These included three IUrish girls. (www.independent.co.uk/titanic). I'm not suggesting that there was a deliberate policy of class distinction being operated by the company in regards to lifeboat seat allocation. I will let you decide after you have read the historical accounts. 
Upper Image: Derek Mahon.
Middle image: J. Bruce Ismay.
Lower image: RMS Titanic.

Samuel Beckett. Irish Author (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989).

Krapp’s Last Tape.

 A Review:

The play opens with Krapp sitting on his own behind an old desk. Aged 69, a writer filled with sadness and regret.  Since his early childhood Krapp has yearned for happiness.  Upon reaching adulthood, on each birthday he has made an annual tape recording of his activities the previous year.  The day on which the play is set Krapp sits at his desk. It is sometime in the early evening.  Every year since he was 24, Krapp a failed writer, has recorded his impressions on tapes which he has catalogued in a ledger and locked in a box.  The play depicts Krapp as a weary old man, a clown like figure. He is wearing trousers that are too short for him, a sleeveless waistcoat, and a dirty looking white shirt without a collar. Upon his feet there is a pair of dirty white boots, very long, very narrow and pointed.  He has a pale face that seems to accentuate his purple nose.  He begins eating a banana, throwing the skin onto the floor he begins to chew, staring into the distance.  He turns and walks, slipping on the banana peel, clown like.  This is a bit of comic relief but the play is also tragic as you soon realise you are looking at a lonely old man, unfulfilled, full of regret, full of bitterness.

Krapp sits at his desk and begins to look in his ledger.  He is looking for a particular set of events. He finds what he seeks, box three spool five.  He speaks, “box three, spool five, box three, spoooooool fivvvve” and laughs at his own little joke.  His eyesight is not what it used to be, after all he is 69 and the years of writing in dark rooms have done him no favours.  Peering at the journal he begins to read an entry made 30 years previously when he was 39.  He fails to remember the events of which he has written.  “Memorable equinox”? “Farewell to love”, as he listens he peers into the distance, a blank look upon his face.  He reflects upon the past, he begins to relive the past while still in the present.  He start the tape running, “39 today, sound as a bell apart from my old condition” he hears his younger self begin.  As he listens he tries to forget while at the same time remembering. He tries to manipulate the spool, stopping and fast forwarding in order to block out events.  Krapp drinks a lot, maybe he is hoping to block out the past or the visions that haunt him?  “Viduity” he hears the voice say, what does that mean? Krapp looks in a dictionary, “Viduity. That state or condition of being or remaining a widow or widower” Being or Remaining, these words seem to have an effect upon Krapp and we will return to them again.

Krapp listens to his younger self describe an episode in a punt with a young lady, was this his one chance of love? He stops the tape as he tries to remember, rewinding the tape he replays it, he begins to relive the night as he listens to his younger self describe the events of the night.  He appears to bend over the tape machine, hugging it; touching it with his cheek in a display of intimacy he closes his eyes. Reaching out he turns off the tape, slowly he sits up, and looking into the distance he wipes his eyes and sobs.

Krapp takes out his watch from the pocket of his waistcoat, peering at its face.  A look of loss and regret is written upon his face and he pours another drink.  He begins to load an empty spool onto the tape machine as he prepares to record his latest tape.  He reaches into the pocket of his waistcoat and pulls out a slip of paper, looks at it but puts it down.  He turns on the machine and begins to speak.  “Hard to believe I was as bad as that”, he looks into the distance and begins to remember the girl in the punt, “the eyes she had”.  Once again he stops the tape.

Starting the tape once more he begins to speak, his voice full of frustration, “Maybe he was right, maybe he was right” he says. He stops the tape.  Once more he looks at the slip of paper, screws it up and throws it away.  He starts the tape, speaking into the microphone he realises his failure as a writer.  “Seventeen sold of which eleven were at trade price”.  He realises he has sacrificed his life and soul for nothing and each new day brings nothing but new tears and a step nearer to death.  He could have been happy with her; instead he has attempted to find solace with banana’s, alcohol, and old whores.  This he realises is his last tape, “leave it at that, leave it at that”

“Be again, be again”  The play ends with Krapp listening once more to spool five and the nights events spent in a punt with the love he could have had.  A look of despair upon his face as he realises his loss.  “Be again, be again.”

Time and memory are constant themes throughout Beckett’s play’s, they seem to stress the importance of ‘being’ within the human psyche. Being involves thinking and remembering. Remembering involves thinking of things that are not happening now, but happened before. We therefore exist both in the past and in the present. This is why time and memory are absurd.  Beckett allows the viewer/reader to interpret human existence with all its pains and joys while at the same time refusing to be drawn on his own thoughts.  What you see is what you get, there is no more. In many ways Krapp is everyman for we all have regrets.  How many of us would not turn the clock back if we could?  Beckett also uses light and darkness within many of his plays to emphasise the passage of time.  Light and darkness is also used to open and close the performance rather than the use of the curtain as seen in traditional theatre.  The use of light and darkness is a theme that runs throughout the play and we see it in the white dog playing with the black ball. On another occasion we hear Krapp reminiscing about the stark white uniform of the young woman pushing the black perambulator. This absence of colour draws you into the play and in some ways you begin to feel connected to the character.        

 Shakespeare wrote “to be or not to be”.  Krapp sits listening to silence.  He will inevitably die and his voice will also be silenced.  He will no longer be and he will no longer remain.  This play is longer than the text would first suggest as it is full of stops and starts and periods of silence.  These periods allow you to reflect upon the theme of Beckett’s play and marvel at the actor’s portrayal of this comic yet profoundly tragic figure.  You too are left with a feeling of loss for the character of Krapp.

Upper image = John Hurt in a potrayal of Krapp.

Middle image = John Hurt in a portrayal of Krapp.

Lower image = Samuel Beckett.

My apologies to those who follow this blog for my silence over the past few weeks. Upcoming exams are my excuse. May I wish you all a glorious Spring Equinox. I hope you enjoy my little review of Krapp's Last Tape. For those who wish to view some of Samuel Becketts play's they can be accessed on You Tube and I highly recommend you do so.