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Life
[var. Merryman]; b. Ennistymon, Co. Clare, son of itinerant stone-mason; Cúirt an Mhéan-Oíche (c.1780), set on the shores of Lough Graney, was composed while recovering from a broken leg during a prolonged engagement and argues for women’s right to sexual self-expression (‘Melted by lust [...] for long I’ve been patient; give me relief!’ - P. C. Power trans.); m. 1787, with two daughters; won prize of two spinning wheels from RDS for growing flax, 1797; moved to Limerick to teach, 1802; d. 5, Clare St., Limerick; bur. Feakle, in an unknown grave; brief obit. in General Advertiser & Limerick Gazette (29 July 1805): ‘Died on Saturday morning in Old Clare St., after a few hours of illness, Mr. Bryan Merryman, teacher of mathematics, &c.’ |
| the earliest trans. of the Cúirt was made by Dennis Woulfe [Donncha Ulf] in the 1820’s; others were made by Michael C. O’Shea, Arland Ussher, Frank O’Connor, Ciaran Carson and Seamus Heaney, et al.; there is an active Merriman Society [Cumman Merriman], fnd. by Con Howard in 1967; a Brian Merriman Summer School convenes annually in Ennistymon, Co. Clare [subseq. Lisdoonvarna], since 1968; Druid Theatre (Galway) produced a Musical Interpretation of Midnight Court in 1993. DIW DIB FDA OCIL |
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Works| Printed Editions |
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| Translations |
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Note: versions of his famous poem by O’Connor and Heaney are included in Shirmer’s After the Irish: Anthology of Poetic Translations (2009) |
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Criticism
Declan Kiberd, ‘Brian Merriman’s Midnight Court’, in Irish Classics (London: Granta 2000), pp.182-202. See also Sarah E. McKibben, Endangered Masculinities in Irish Poetry 1540-1780 (UCD Press 2010), espec. Coda: ‘Illegitimate, Abased ... and Triumphant: Merriman’s Embrace of Bastard Culture’.
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Commentary
W. B. Yeats wrote in his preface of ‘This vital, extravagant, immoral and preposterous poem’, remarking that it was ‘so characteristically Gaelic and medieval’, and that it was actually inspired by Swift’s Cadenus and Vanessa ‘read perhaps in some country gentleman’s library’; Yeats considers Standish O’Grady’s estimate of The Midnight Court as the best poem written in Gaelic extravagant, but though that Merriman ‘might have founded a modern Gaelic literature’ in different political circumstances; Further, ‘Certainly it is not possible to read his verses without being shocked and horrifed at the free speech and buffoonery of some traditional festival.’ (Preface to Arland Ussher, trans., Brian Merriman, The Midnight Court, 1926, p.8; cited in Costello, The Heart Grown Brutal: the Irish Revolution in Literature from Parnell to the Death of Yeats, 1977, p.251.)
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Daniel Corkery tends to downgrade Merriman, ‘[His opening lines] are commonplace - nature apprehended by a spirit only slight raised. His way of seizing nature is blunt, and worlds away from the early Gaelic manner.’ (Hidden Ireland, p.238.) [SEE Walsh, UUC MA Diss., 1993; LIB.] Note that Frank O’Connor, spells the name ‘Merryman’ (Backward Look, 1967).
John Eglinton [William Magee], ‘The Best Irish Poem’ [on The Midnight Court], Bards and Saints (1908), notes that The Midnight Court was published in translation in Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie, by L. C. Stern. Eglinton gives a paraphrase of the poem (op. cit. pp.49-54).
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T. F. O’Rahilly, long review of Cúirt an Mheadhon Oidhche, ed. Riseárd Ó Foghludha (Dublin: Hodges Figgis and Co. [n.d.]). in Gadlica, Vol. I (1912-13) , pp.190-208; writes: Mr. Foley’s recently published edn. removes the reproach that nothing like a good edn. of this important work [by far the most successful sustained effort in verse in Mod. Irish] ... &c. / To Mr Foley’s ed. Mr Peirce Beasley contrinutes a very interesting introductory essay. Mr Beasley is an enthus. admirer ... a fact which contributes not a little to the readability of his essay. But he has sometimes allowed his enthusiasm to get the bertter of his critical judgement, and the result is he lays himself open to the charge of exaggeration.’ [190] To much has been made of the singularity of Merriman’s attitude towards life, as seen in the Cúirt. Merriman’s “revolt”, as such, had nothing unique about it; the uncommon thing was that he had the courage ... to record his ideas in verse the striking way he did. [cites An mangaire Súgach and Eoghan Ruadh] [191] Identifies name of Merriman with Mac Meanman, and cites O’Donovan as source (Clare Letters, ii, 183], and refers also to the line, meadhreach meanmnach a aimmn ’s aorach (l.988). O’Rahilly cites the printed editions of Jaohn O’Daly and P. O’Brien, and lists the MSS: , incl. Eg. 111; 3 in possession of D. Hyde; five more listed by Foley; and adds 14 ‘under my notice’. The earliest of all these is written by Seán Mac Searraidh, 1792 ?Clare; the latest by Ml. Ó Raghallaigh, c.1850, Clare. A description of Humphrey O’Sullivan’s diary is ‘not very accurate and plainly second-hand’; apparently O’Sullivan of Callan collated texts K and S, together with some other, and made marginal corrections and additions to each of them.
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Frank O’Connor, The Backward Look (London: Macmillan 1967), ‘Bryan Merryman [sic] was a fine poet - as good as Swift, Goldsmith, or Burns, all of whom me seems to have studied closely - and, writing in Ireland, he had the advantage, which only the writer in Irish had, of not worrying whether what he wrotes was IIrish or not. Accordingly he wrote of simple things that mattered in his own neighbourhood - the unmarried girls, the illegitimate children and the priesets who had love affairs on the side. / “Many a girl filled byre and stall / And furnished her house through a clerical call; / Everyone’s heard of priests extolled / For the lonesome women they consoled.” / But Irish was dead, and Merryman was to have even less influence than Wolfe Tone.’ (p.130.)
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| Section from Cúirt and Mhéan Oíche |
Gan seilbh, gan saoirse ag síolrach seanda, [Without property, without freedom for an ancient race, |
| Seamus Heaney, The Midnight Verdict: |
| It’s goodbye to freedom and ancient right, To honest dealing and leadership; The ground ripped off and nothing put back, Weeds in the field once crop is stacked. With the best of the people leaving the land, Graft has the under and upper hand. Just line your pockets, a wink and a nod, And to hell with the poor! Their backs are broad. Alas for the plight of the underclass And the system’s victims who seek redress: Their one recourse is the licensed robber With his legalese and his fancy slabber. Lawyers corrupt, their standards gone, Favouritism the way it’s done, The bar disgraced, truth compromised, Nothing but kick-backs, bribes and lies. |
—Given in Gregory A. Schirmer, ed, After the Irish: An Anthology of Poetic Translation (Cork UP 2009); quoted by Hugh McFadden in review of same, Books Ireland (April 2010), p.78. |
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References
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1 [297-303], cites a translation of Cúirt an Mhéon-Oíche by Dennis Woulfe (c.1820) and notes that an expurgated version appeared in The Irishman in 1880
Helena Sheehan, Irish Television Drama (RTE 1987), lists Cuirt an Mhean-Oiche, Merriman; directed by Louis Lentin (1966).
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