ABSTRACT
To speak of tradition in nineteenth century Irish literature is to be conscious of an absence. In an eloquent and deeply influential lecture by Thomas Kinsella, on ‘Irish Poetry and the Nineteenth Century’, delivered at the Merriman Festival in Ennis in 1968, the lecturer went over the names of the nineteenth century poets who have assumed a place in the roll-call of honour. This was his verdict:
Callanan, nothing. From Thomas Davis, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Speranza…rhetorical fluency, savage indignation, high purpose…Mangan and Ferguson, with Moore and perhaps Allingham…it all amounts to very little…. From John Todhunter…nothing…waste characterizes the scene.1
