Shelley and Revolutionary Ireland

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday September 18, 2002 12:56 by freedom of speech - read what you like- this posting was removed

Booklaunch on Thursday-all welcome

Paul O'Brien's original and engaging new book, Shelley and Revolutionary Ireland, tells the previously untold story of Shelley's relationship with Ireland. When Percy Bysshe Shelley set sail for Ireland in 1812 he was only 19 years old. He was full of radical enthusiasm and energy, having recently been expelled from Oxford for making his atheism public.

Shelley and

Revolutionary Ireland

by Paul O’Brien

When: Thursday 19th September, 8-30pm

Where: Hourican’s Public House (Upstairs)

7 Lower Leeson Street (St Stephens Green End)

Shelley was born in the shadow of the French Revolution and the rebellion of the United Irishmen.

Paul's book reveals is just how thoroughly and whole heartedly the young poet Shelley threw himself into the cause of Irish freedom.

Later generations of Irish writers appreciated Shelley's influence. For example, the poet WB Yeats said, 'Shelley shaped my life', and playwright Sean O'Casey described himself as a 'Shelleyan Communist'.

Paul O'Brien's fascinating exploration of Shelley's relationship with Ireland is an antidote to much writing on Shelley which portrays him as a brilliant lyrical poet, but an ineffectual dreamer.

Paul O'Brien important book describes Shelley's world with great skill and a real depth of understanding. It will be of interest not just to scholars of Shelley, but those interested in Irish literature and the history of radical thought.

What has been said about the book so far:

The complex engagement of the English Romantics with Ireland remains an untold story. In this fine book, Paul O'Brien explores the Shelley chapter of the narrative, restoring to visibility the buried history of the poet's passionate engagement with the Irish revolutionary response to the French revolution. After reading this book, we can never read Shelley the same way again.

Kevin Whelan, Director Keough-University of Notre Dame Centre, Dublin. His many publications include, Fellowship of Freedom: The United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion.

Percy Shelley was a devoted and courageous advocate of Irish freedom. His poetry and prose had a seminal influence on Shaw, Joyce and O'Casey, as Paul O'Brien shows in his lively and exciting study of the Promethean radical poet, who was spied on by the government when he visited Ireland and who narrowly escaped being murdered by a political opponent on his return to Britain.

Tom Paulin, G M Young Lecturer in English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford. His books include The Day-Star of Liberty. The Faber Book of Political Verse and The Invasion Handbook.

Paul O'Brien floods a hidden Irish area of Shelley's life with light and in the process throws every aspect of his art and especially his politics into sharp new relief. A fine, necessary book.

Eamonn McCann, Ireland's leading radical journalist, whose book War and an Irish Town has become the classic account of the origins of the’ troubles' in Northern Ireland.