An tOileán Rúin / "Give up Paris... Go to the Aran Islands!"
An tOileán Rúin
Is é príomhchomhartha sóirt fhilíocht Uí Dhireáin an stoiteachas a bhraith sé mar dheoraí ar an míntír i bhfad ó sheasmhacht a oileáin dhúchais.
D’fhéadfaí a rá gur tháinig an Direánach ar a ghairm fhileata de bhrí go raibh air an t-oileán a thréigean. Ar an láimh eile, mhol W. B. Yeats do John Millington Synge in 1898 a inspioráid chruthaitheach a chuardach i measc charraigeacha aoil Árann:
“Give up Paris... Go to the Aran Islands. Live there as if you were one of the people themselves; express a life that has never found expression.”
Bhí taithí mhaith ag Máirtín ar chuairteoirí agus shíl sé agus é ina pháiste go raibh ‘leath an tsaoil’ ag scríobh leabhair ar Árainn. Ó lár an naoú haois déag ar aghaidh, ba gheall le Meice na hOileáin Árann do chuairteoirí agus ealaíontóirí, agus ba mhór an spreagadh a thug na hoileáin do scríbhneoirí éagsúla, fearacht Phádraig Mhic Phiarais, James Joyce agus Earnán Ó Máille, d’ealaíontóirí ar nós Maurice MacGonigal agus Elizabeth Rivers, agus do dhéantóirí scannán dála Robert J. Flaherty.
Is dóigh gurb é leabhar John Millington Synge, The Aran Islands (1906), an téacs is mó a mhúnlaigh saol na nÁrannach i súile mhuintir na tíre. Ach tá an Direánach ar dhuine de lear suntasach scríbhneoirí de bhunadh na n-oileán féin, ar nós an úrscéalaí Pat Mullen, na deartháireacha Liam agus Tom Ó Flaithearta, agus an t-iriseoir agus údar, Breandán Ó hEithir.
Sa dán ‘Ómós do John Millington Synge’, gabhann Ó Direáin buíochas le Synge thar ceann na n-oileán as ucht traidisiún a mhuintire a chaomhnú i gcló focal. Ach meabhraíonn sé freisin go bhfuil freagracht eiticiúil ar ealaíontóirí gan neamhaird a dhéanamh de fhíorshaol ná de nósanna na ndaoine.
Ómós do John Millington Synge
“Give up Paris... Go to the Aran Islands!”
Much of Ó Direáin’s work is characterised by the defining moment of being uprooted from the stable world of Aran and finding himself in exile on the mainland.
Ironically, while Ó Direáin’s artistic inspiration derived from his leaving the island, W. B. Yeats advised John Millington Synge in 1898 to seek his creative inspiration among the limestone rocks of Aran:
“Give up Paris... Go to the Aran Islands. Live there as if you were one of the people themselves; express a life that has never found expression.”
Máirtín was well used to visitors to the island, and as a child believed that ‘half the world’ was writing a book about Aran. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Aran Islands have served as a type of Mecca for visitors and artists, providing inspiration for writers such as Patrick Pearse, James Joyce and Ernie O’Malley, painters like Maurice MacGonigal and Elizabeth Rivers, and filmmakers like Robert J. Flaherty.
Knowledge of the island in English has largely been moulded by John Millington Synge’s The Aran Islands (1906). However, Ó Direáin is one of a significant number of writers native to the islands, such as novelist Pat Mullen, brothers Liam and Tom O’Flaherty, and journalist and author Breandán Ó hEithir.
In the poem ‘Homage to John Millington Synge’, Ó Direáin expresses his gratitude to Synge on behalf of the islands for forever preserving the ways of his people in his work, but points to the ethical responsibility of artists not to neglect the realities and traditions of the local people.
Homage to John Millington Synge