Ireland. Eire. Part III. Фомина И.В. - 7 стр.

       After the Viking invasions of Ireland literature received a severe setback,
lasting some 400 years. However, during the twelfth century, just before the
Norman invasion of Ireland, important satirical works were written. In the Early
Modern period of Irish literature, which ran from 1250 to 1650, much bardic
verse was written. Poets (fildh) were trained in special secular schools to com-
pose elaborate verse often in praise of their patrons for up to twelve years.
Fenian (Ossianic) literature was popular at this time and continued to influence
writers in English through to the nineteenth century. The works centre on the
legendary hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill, his son Osín and their followers, the
Fíanna. When the Gaelic order ended in the seventeenth century these poets lost
their patrons and were displaced. At this point, Irish prose writers began to pre-
serve a record of Gaelic civilisation. The Cromwellian invasion of the mid-
seventeenth century brought an immense change in literary style; during the late
seventeenth century, most Irish language literature satirized the new settlers in
merciless fashion. The greatest of the new poets, Aogán Ó Rathaille, wrote epic
verse lamenting the disappearance of the old order.
       Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, members of the clergy,
schoolteachers, artisans and some colourful poets continued to write in Irish.
Perhaps the best-known poem of the eighteenth century was Cúirt an Mheán
(Midnight Court), by Brian Merriman, which was strongly Rabelaisian. The last
great traditional poet, before the Great Famine of the mid-nineteenth century,
was Antoine Ó Reachtabhra, the blind fiddler. Towards the end of the nineteenth
century, new Irish language writers were much influenced by contemporary
European writers, such as Peadar Ó Laoire, who wrote drama, poetry and along
European lines.
       In the twentieth century writers such as Patrick Pearse (1879–1916) and
Pádraic Ó Conaire (1883–1928) opened Irish literature to European influences.
Pádraic Ó Conaire wrote short stories of Chekhovian quality.
       Seán Ó Riordáin, who died in 1977, wrote highly imaginative poetry and
is well-remembered today. Máirtín Ó Direáin is another modern poet of note as
is Máire Mhac an tSaoi. The outstanding modern novel is Cré na Cille by
Máirtín Ó Cadhain. Despite the general decline in the use of Irish, literature in
Irish continues to flourish, helped not only by RTE, but also by the weekly ‘Tu-
arascail’ column in the Irish Times and the growing number of Irish language
book-publishing houses.
       Distinguished writers and poets of the modern era include Liam
Ó Flaitheartaigh (1896–1984), Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906–1970), Seosamh Mac
Ghrianna (1901–1990), Seán Ó Tuama (b. 1926) and Michael Hartnett (1941–
1999). Some wrote in English and Irish often translating the work of their peers
as well as early texts. Although few wrote for the stage, among those who did
were Douglas Hyde (1860–1949), the first president of Ireland, Brendan Behan
(1923–1964), Mairead Ní Ghráda (1899–1971) and Cristóir Ó Floinn (b. 1927).

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