James Joyce agus an Ghaeilge: ‘You are an Irishman and you must write in your own tradition’

‘He’s English, Buck Mulligan said, and he thinks we ought to speak Irish in Ireland. Sure we ought to, the old woman said, and I’m ashamed that I don’t speak the language myself. I’m told it’s a grand language by them that knows it’ (Ulysses)

Dála mórán de mhórscríbhneoirí Béarla na tíre seo, bhí caidreamh casta crosta ag James Joyce leis an nGaeilge.

Deir Stephen sa Portrait of the Artist as Young Man go mbeadh an Béarla i gcónaí mar “an acquired speech” aige.

‘My soul frets in the shadow of his language,’ a deir sé agus is amhlaidh an cás ag saothar Joyce agus litríocht Bhéarla na hÉireann tré chéile.

Agus é ar an ollscoil i mBaile Átha Cliath ag tús an fichiú haois, chláraigh Joyce le cúrsa a bhí á reáchtáil ag Conradh na Gaeilge agus thug cúpla bliain ag foghlaim na teanga, an t-aon iarracht ‘foirmeálta’ a dhein sé an teanga a shealbhú.

Ba é a dhlúthchara George Clancy, Iar-Mhéara Luimnigh, ar mharaigh na dúchrónaigh ina leaba é le linn cogadh na saoirse, a ghríosaigh Joyce chun tabhairt faoi na ranganna.

D’fhéadfadh go raibh spreagadh breise ag Joyce chomh maith, áfach, mar sa leabhar Stephen Hero, tugtar le fios gurb é an t-éileamh atá ag Stephen ar chailín áirithe a thug air tabhairt faoin nGaeilge a fhoghlaim. Ceistíonn Stephen a chara Madden (carachtar atá bunaithe ar Clancy) le fáil amach cén rang go díreach ina bhfuil Emma Clery.

‘So it was decided that Stephen was to begin a course of lessons in Irish. He bought the O’ Growney primers published by the Gaelic League but refused to either pay a subscription to the League or to wear the badge in his buttonhole. He had found out what he desired, namely, the class in which Miss Clery was.’

Ba é Pádraig Mac Piarais a bhí ag teagasc ins na ranganna ar a bhfreastail Joyce agus ní róthógtha a bhí an Seoigheach lena chur chuige ná, go deimhin, leis na ranganna féin. 

Tugann a bheathaisnéisí Richard Ellman le fios gur éirigh sé as toisc gur mheas an Piarsach gur den riachtanas é “to exalt Irish by denigrating English”.

Áitíonn Ellman gur ghoill sé go háirithe ar Joyce go ndein a mhúinteoir beag is fiú den fhocal ‘thunder’, ceann de na focail ab ansa leis an mac léinn óg.

Maidir le ranganna Chonradh na Gaeilge féin, tá duairceas ag baint leis an gcur síos atá ag Joyce in Stephen Hero orthu:

‘The Irish class which Stephen attended was held in a very sparely furnished room lit by a gasjet which had a broken globe. Over the mantelpiece hung the picture of a priest with a beard who, Stephen found, was Father O’Growney.’

Ní róbháúil ach an oiread atá an cur síos a deintear ar Hughes, múinteoir an chúrsa Gaeilge, in Stephen Hero; “a young man in spectacles with a very sick-looking face and a very crooked mouth” a labhair “in a very high-pitched voice and with a cutting Northern accent”.

“Hughes never lost an opportunity of sneering at seoininism,” a scríobhann Joyce agus cé go bhfuil teist an “great enthusiast” ar an múinteoir, níl dóthain den teanga aige chun óráid i nGaeilge a thabhairt ag cruinnithe an Chonartha.

Tá an naonúr a fhreastlaíonn ar an gcúrsa Gaeilge in Stephen Hero díograiseach i mbun na foghlama agus cé go ndéanann siad dul chun cinn an-thapaidh, deirtear linn chomh maith go raibh na ranganna “retarded by the stupidity of two of the young men”.

Maidir le Stephen, dhein sé a dhícheall ach chuaigh sé dian air “to pronounce the gutturals”.

De bharr a chumais, ba dheacair a shamhlú go bhféadfadh mórán dua bheith ag Joyce féin i mbun Gaeilge a fhoghlaim. D’fhoghlaim sé an Ioruais, mar shampla, chun go mbeadh ar a chumas saothar Ibsen a léamh sa teanga inar céadcheapadh é.

An amhlaidh nach raibh na ranganna agus graiméar O’Growney dúshlánach a ndóthain dó?

Cé gur éirigh Joyce as ranganna Chonradh na Gaeilge le teann bailitheachta agus cé nár cheil sé an seanbhlas a bhí aige i gcónaí ar chuid de lucht na hathbheochana, ní shin le rá nár fhág an cúrsa ná an teanga rian éigin air.

Scríobh a dheartháir Stanislaus faoin suim a chuir ‘Jim’ sa teanga timpeall an ama seo agus ar an urraim a thug sé di. 

Maidin áirithe agus an bheirt acu ag éisteacht le giolla an bhúistéara ag casadh amhrán ar Pharáid an Ghleanna Ghairbh, mar a raibh na Seoigigh ag cur fúthú ag an am, fuair Stanislaus ceacht dinnseanchais óna dheartháir.

‘A rival poet’, I said unsmiling to Jim, who had come to the window. But Jim was amused. He called him “the poet of the rugged glen”, which he said was the meaning of the name Glengariff. (He had been studying Irish for a year or so.) Jim was not limitary in his sympathies as I was; they extended in Ireland from Mangan and Yeats to the unlettered poets of the rugged glens, where a few years later Synge was to stake out his claim. If he sometimes seemed to be limitary in his sympathies it was because he had no doubt as to their order of importance.’

Cé go nglactar coitianta leis gur beag spéis a chuir Joyce sa Ghaeilge tar éis dó éirí as ranganna an Chonartha, tá fianaise ann gur threisigh a spéis sa teanga agus ina saíocht de réir mar a chuaigh sé in aois.

Níl an chuma air go ndein sé puinn staidéir breise ar an nGaeilge sna blianta beaga i ndiaidh dó Éire a fhágáil in 1904 agus bhí an méid seo le rá aige le Stanislaus i 1906, “If the Irish programme did not insist on the Irish language I suppose I could call myself a nationalist. As it is, I am content to recognise myself an exile: and, prophetically, a repudiated one…”

Ach i léacht a thug sé i Trieste san Iodáil in 1907 –  Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages – mhol sé iarrachtaí cuid de lucht na hathbheochana agus labhair sé ar a shaibhre agus a shainiúla is a bhí cultúr cianárasa na hÉireann.

“The Irish language although of the Indo-European family, differs from English as much as the language spoken in Rome differs from that spoken in Teheran,” a dúirt sé.

Bhí suim thar na bearta ag Joyce i stair litríocht na Gaeilge, i logainmneacha agus i miotaseolaíocht na hÉireann agus d’fhág leithéid Annála na gCeithre Máistrí, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, Immram Maele Dúin, Táin Bó Cualaigne, Leabhar Gabhála na hÉireann, Togáil Bruidne Dá Derga, Cúirt an Mheán Oíche agus saothar scoláirí Gaeilge éagsúla, go háirithe P.W.Joyce, rian láidir ar fhriotal, ar stíl agus ar leagan amach Ulysees agus Finnegan’s Wake go háirithe.

Cé gur i mBéarla a scríobh an Seoigeach, maíonn Thomas Kinsella go bhfuil saothar Joyce mar chuid de shnáithe leanúnach traidisiúin litríochta na hÉireann:

‘…Yeats stands for the Irish tradition as broken; Joyce stands for it as continous, or healed – or healing – from its mutilation’.

Ach is díol suntais a laghad suime ar an mórgóir a bhíonn ag scoláirí Joyceacha sa Ghaeilge agus i litríocht na Gaeilge, “an extraordinary situation” i gcás Finnegan’s Wake, dar le Diarmuid Curraoin, “when one considers that, firstly, the author declares in the book Irish to be the second language of the ‘Wake’ and secondly, that there is hardly a page of the novel which does not contain at least one Irish language element”.

Is fuirist, ní foláir, glacadh leis gurb ionann dearcadh Joyce féin agus tuiscint neamhfhuinte Stephen Dedalus ar thír agus ar theanga.

Cé gur ghlac Stephen col leis an gconraitheoir a d’áitigh i Stephen Hero that ‘you must have a nation before you could have an art’ agus le Hughes a dúirt, ‘A man that was of all countries was of no country’, seans go ngéillfeadh na conraitheoirí céanna leis an gcomhairle a chuir Joyce féin ar Arthur Power i 1921:

‘You are an Irishman and you must write in your own tradition. Borrowed styles are no good. You must write what is in your blood and not what is in your brain…They [mórscríbhneoirí na Fraince] were national first, and it was the intensity of their own nationalism which made them international in the end.’

‘The language in which we are speaking is his before it is mine,’ arsa Stephen faoin mBéarla sa Portrait agus ba é an réiteach a d’aimsigh Joyce ar an iomarbhá sin a dhein mórscríbhneoir na haoise de.

Dúirt Seamas Heaney go ndein Joyce “native weapon” de “colonial humiliation” an Bhéarla, ach thaibhseofaí duit gur le cabhair agus le háis na Gaeilge a dhein sé amhlaidh.

I 1924, le linn tréimhse a thug sé sa Bhriotán, scríobh Joyce litir, inar mhaígh sé gurb ‘íne’ agus gurb uaisle mar theanga an Ghaeilge ná an Bhriotáinis.

‘And though Breton (when costumed and visited by tourists and blessed by Rome and câline [fawned upon] by S. Pseudonymous & Co.) is probably more picturesque, of course Irish is FAR SUPERIOR.”

N’fheadar cad a bheadh le rá ag an James Joyce óg leis an ngrádú agus an rangú mínáireach seo ar theangacha?

Tuairiscítear go raibh cóip d’fhoclóir an Duinnínigh i measc na leabhar a bhí ag an Seoigeach i 1939, dhá bhliain roim bhás dó agus nach mór daichead bliain ó chláraigh sé le ranganna Gaeilge an Chonartha.