Bruna Giulia - J.M. Synge and travel writing of the Irish revival

Abbreviations

Giulia Bruna is a research associate of the University College Dublin (UCD) Humanities Institute in Ireland. She has written on J. M. Synge, the Irish Revival, and Irish travel writing in book collections and journals such as the Irish Studies Review and Studies in Travel Writing. She is the cofounder of the Irish Revival Network, an interdisciplinary network of researchers working on the Irish Revival. She has also coedited the podcast series Modalities of Revival with UCD Scholarcast and curated a physical and online exhibition on the Irish writer and revolutionary Thomas MacDonagh for UCD Library Special Collections.

Acknowledgments

T his book has been a life-changing experience that took me on a journey to Ireland, where I found the support of colleagues, family, and numerous friends. First of all, I thank P. J. Mathews at the School of English, Drama, and Film at University College Dublin. He has been a fantastic mentor, and I am grateful beyond words for his intellectual guidance, expertise, and constant support throughout my career.

At University College Dublin (UCD), I found a supportive and thriving academic community that helped me and sustained me from the first moments I set foot in Belfield. I acknowledge most sincerely the UCD Humanities Institute and its directors over the years, in particular Gerardine Meaney. The institute has been a comfortable academic home to me. Its research support, the stimulating intellectual environment, as well as the other researchers company and camaraderie were crucial to me in many phases of this project. John Brannigan in the UCD School of English also deserves a special mention for his mentorship in 2015, when I worked there and for the Humanities Institute as a research assistant. In the School of English, I am also indebted to the numerous staff, fellow lecturers, and tutors with whom I worked. Among them, I thank in particular Fionnuala Dillane for her help and guidance in teaching matters and for her ongoing support.

I thank Professor Melita Cataldi for the passion and intellectual acumen she demonstrated for Irish literature at the onset of my Irish journey (in Italy!). She inspired my travels to Ireland and in the academic world and always encouraged me during my studies in Italy and Ireland during her numerous visits. At the beginning of my Irish journey in Ireland, Professor Declan Kiberd was a wonderful teacher while I was pursuing an MA in Anglo-Irish literature at UCD. I thank him for his encouragement that I undertake doctoral studies and for his ongoing support over the years.

For this book, I had the fortune to carry out research in a number of libraries, archives, and special collections in Ireland and the United States. I am thankful to various institutions for granting permission to publish various manuscript materials and illustrations. The Board of Trinity College Dublin generously gave me permission to quote from Synges manuscripts and to reproduce his Aran photographs. Sincerest thanks to the National Gallery of Ireland for also granting me license to reproduce important material held in the Jack B. Yeats Archive: two photographs by Synge, Jack Yeatss sketch from his trip to the Congested Districts with Synge in 1905, and the postcard with a photograph of a jaunting car that graces the cover of this book. At the National Gallery, I am thankful to Barry McLoughlin and in particular Sean Mooney for their help in retrieving these important materials. All of Jack Yeatss material used here is published with permission from the Estate of Jack B. Yeats, Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) London/Irish Visual Artists Rights Association (IVARO) Dublin. I thank Adrian Colwell at IVARO for his assistance. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature in the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, granted permission to reproduce three of Jack Yeatss sketches in . I am indebted to the Berg curator Isaac Gewirtz and in particular to Berg librarians Joshua McKeon and Mary Catherine Kinniburgh for their assistance. My friend Irene Bulla, teaching fellow in Italian and comparative literature at Columbia University, also provided invaluable help in retrieving the reproductions. The images from Mary Banims book Here and There through Ireland in chapters 1 and 2 have been published courtesy of the National Library of Ireland, Dublin. J. M. Synges poem Abroad in the epilogue is printed by permission of Oxford University Press.

I am also most indebted to Ondej Piln at Charles University in Prague for providing important Czech sources used in also appeared in my article On the Road in the Congested Districts with John Synge and Jack Yeats: Visual and Textual Shaping of Irishness, in Founder to Shore: Cross-Currents in Irish and Scottish Studies, edited by Shane Alcobia-Murphy, Lindsay Milligan, and Dan Wall (Aberdeen: Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen, 2010), 4354. I am grateful to Shane Alcobia-Murphy for granting me permission to republish that material. The conference he organized in 2009 at the University of Aberdeen Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies provided another useful forum for discussion.

In 2009 on Inis Mein, I attended the launch of an exhibition of J. M. Synges photographs arranged by Siamsa Tre (National Folk Theater of Ireland) that I discuss in . I thank its curator, Ciarn Walsh, for facilitating my visit to the island for the exhibition launch.

A special mention must also be made of the staff at Syracuse University Press. This book would have never seen the light of day without the unstinting support of acquisitions editor Deborah Manion, whose enthusiasm, professionalism, and always helpful guidance have sustained me throughout the publishing process. I am grateful to her for passionately believing in this project and for seeing it through completion. I would also like to acknowledge the two anonymous readers who reviewed my manuscript and offered precious advice.

Warmest thanks go to my friend and colleague at UCD Catherine Wilsdon for her friendship, collegiality, and support in this and other projects. With Catherine, I share a passion for J. M. Synge and many academic adventures: from Irish Revival conferences to the Irish Revival Network and more.

My gratitude also goes to a number of friends I have made in Ireland since 2006Carlos Castro, Leo Close, Tom Cronin, Ritchie Jorge Fernandez, Ciaran McCabe, Anna Molinari, Anne Mulhall, Robert Murphy, David Ryan, and others. They have sustained me with their laughter, innumerable coffees, dinners, pints, and unforgettable literary chats in front of the library and football matches. Very special thanks go to Elena Boychenko, Gabriella Caminotto, Paola Cortese, Chih-Hsien Hsieh, Sonka Ihnen, my Irish sister Monica Insinga, Michiko Okazow, Antonio Pieri, Silvia Pischedda, Maurizio Pittau, Corinna Ricasoli, Viviana Spagnuolo, Chiara Tedaldi, Ben Tsutomu, Kumiko Yamada, and Ciarn Young as well as to all the Radio Dublino crew. Grazie to Marguerite Duggan for her kindness and support. Thanks also to Barry Curran, Lorraine Forde, and the Curran families in Headford.