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Kerry on my mind. Of Poets Pedagogues and Place.(1999) Gabriel Fitzmaurice.

Notwithstanding the interesting title, and elegant cover, this collection of essays by the poet and schoolteacher Gabriel Fitzmaurice is chiefly a hagiography of the Kerry writers the author adores: Bryan Mac Mahon, John B. Keane, Brendan Kenelly, Maurice Walsh, Thomas Mac Greevy, George Fitzmaurice and so forth. So despite being the author of over 20 books, we find only sporadic criticism and analysis. Indeed with lines like, "we should be grateful for Brendan Kenelly" some of the essays in this collection are not so much a dance of ideas, as a sublime licking of arse. It's best summed up by the following passage: "“It'’s a matter of awe that the Listowel area has, for well over a hundred years now, regularly produced worthwhile writers, some of them writers of genius. It remains a mystery, and, like all mysteries, defies explanation. All we can do is wonder about it. In wonder writing begins...". Sigh Gabriel. But sure, aren't we all just fantastic…I'’ll just open my mind and you can shovel the platitudes right on in. Later the essay Creating the Conscience of the Race carries the subtitle "‘Portrait of an artist as a national school teacher"’, and as such Gabriel Fitzmaurice throws his paper aeroplane into that irresistible wastebasket of facetiousness titles, which dog Joyce's masterpiece. Yet unfolding it, we find a small gem in his poem At the ball game, which chalks a quintessential Irish mantra nothing is but is revealed /and tested on the football field. The cultural resonance from such lines on any reading is striking and worthy of applause. And indeed wherever Fitzmaurice focuses on poetry, or the subject of poetry, his thinking is slightly more interesting and appears noticeably sharper -although it must be stressed never quite dazzling. For example, noting the unwise segregation of Irish and English language poetry, Fitzmaurice banally suggests moving beyond the set texts, letting children write for themselves, and bringing writers into the classroom. This is sensible, but hardly the stuff of revolutions. Though I hesitate to give it a thumbs up, this collection of essays, will nevertheless strike a chord with any poet or writer who dabbles in the thankless art of pedagogy. With for example, his use of George Fitzgeralds observation, that youth seldom learns from others experience, there are enough day to day observations on the dual role of artist and teacher scattered over the various essays, and some additional nice pointers to the works of other poets, which might console, enlighten, or even dispel the mystery of how such a life can be balanced.

Available from Salmon publishing.