RIDERS TO THE SEA

RIDERS TO THE SEA by John Millington Synge

Synge, Women and Love

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by Ann Saddlemyer

Throughout his life Synge was surrounded by women – brought up by his mother (who became the model for old Maurya) and grandmother, living next door to his only sister, his closest playmate a cousin with whom he experienced the first childish flush of passion and rejection, his mother’s houseguests a series of dedicated women missionaries. His first marriage proposal was refused by Cherrie Matheson, a member of the Plymouth Brethren who lived just three doors away… …When he fell passionately in love with the young actress Molly Allgood his mother was deeply troubled by the difference in age (he was 35, she was 19), religion (Molly a Roman Catholic, he a non-believer) and social status (he from the professional classes, she from the workers).

Molly Allgood as “Pegeen Mike” in Synge’s THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD.

Background of the play Riders to the Sea is a play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on February 25, 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin by the Irish National Theater Society. A one-act tragedy, the play is set in the Aran Islands, and like all of Synge's plays it is noted for capturing the poetic dialogue of rural Ireland. The very simple plot is based not on the traditional conflict of human wills but on the hopeless struggle of a people against the impersonal but relentless cruelty of the sea. Sara Allgood as Maurya from a 1938 production of the play.

Characters in the play Only four characters are named: Maurya, her daughters Cathleen and Nora, and her son Bartley. Also mentioned are Maurya's deceased sons Shawn, Sheamus, Stephen, Patch, and Michael. The young priest is also important to introduce controversies about Maurya's sons, e.g. whether the clothes are from Michael's body, whether the young priest let Bartley go to sell his horse, etc.

Annie, Sara and Molly Allgood in Abbey Theatre production of “Riders to the Sea” (1906)

The Aran Islands. Inishmor, Inishmaan, Inishere are the three largest.

Photos of the Aran Islands

Where Synge stayed while living on the Aran Islands.

Galway

Coast near Galway

Donegal Bay

MAN OF ARAN (1934) Man of Aran is a 1934 British fictional documentary (ethnofiction) film directed by Robert J. Flaherty about life on the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland. It portrays characters living in premodern conditions, documenting their daily routines such as fishing off high cliffs, farming potatoes where there is little soil, and hunting for huge basking sharks to get liver oil for lamps. Some situations are fabricated, such as one scene in which the shark fishermen are almost lost at sea in a sudden gale. Additionally, the family members shown are not actually related, having been chosen from among the islanders for their photogenic qualities. The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh is a play set on the Aran Islands at the time of the filming of Man of Aran. The film won the Mussolini Cup for best foreign film at the 2nd Venice International Film Festival.

Fishing boats - Inishmaan

A photo by J. M. Synge of life on Aran Islands

Men and boys of the Aran Islands

Mother and Daughter of Aran

A photo by J. M. Synge of life on Aran Islands

Girls at the waters edge - Aran

A photo by J. M. Synge of life on Aran Islands

A photo by J. M. Synge of life on Aran Islands

A photo by Synge, gathering turf on Aran Islands

A photo by J. M. Synge of life on Aran Islands

Sligo peelers with a poteen still.

Opening scene from “Riders to the Sea”

MAURYA from “Riders to the Sea”

Bartley and Maurya – “Riders to the Sea”

Bartley’s body is returned from the sea.

SAMHAIN (October 31) Maurya: …I’ll have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in the dark nights after Samhain, and I won’t care what way the sea is when the other women will be keening…

The Samhain holiday is more commonly known to us as Halloween. It originated in the Celtic lands of Northern Europe many centuries before the birth of Christ. Along with its sister holiday Beltane, Samhain was a major seasonal event celebrated by the Celtic people.

KEENING

Keening is a form of vocal lament associated with mourning that is traditional in Ireland, Scotland, and other cultures. The principle of improvised vocal lament is in no way reserved to the Gaelic world and that laments are documented from various cultures around the world. The Irish tradition of keening over the body at the burial is distinct from the wake the practice of watching over the corpse - which took place the night before the burial. The "keen" itself is thought to have been constituted of stock poetic elements (the listing of the genealogy of the deceased, praise for the deceased, emphasis on the woeful condition of those left behind etc.) set to vocal lament. While generally carried out by one or several women, a chorus may have been intoned by all present. Physical movements involving rocking, kneeling or clapping accompanied the keening woman ("bean chaoineadh") who was often paid for her services.

An Irish keener "The keener is almost invariably an aged woman; or if she be comparatively young, the habits of her life make her look old. We remember one, whom the artist has pictured from our description; we can never forget a scene in which she played a conspicuous part. A young man had been shot by the police as he was resisting a warrant for his arrest. He was of 'decent people,' and had a 'fine wake.' The woman, when we entered the apartment, was sitting on a low stool by the side of the corpse. Her long black uncombed locks were hanging about her shoulders; her eyes were the deep set greys peculiar to the country, and which are capable of every expression, from the bitterest hatred and the direst revenge to the softest and warmest affection. Her large blue cloak was confined at her throat; but not so closely as to conceal the outline of her figure, thin and gaunt, but exceedingly lithesome. When she arose, as if by sudden inspiration, first holding out her hands over the body, and then tossing them wildly above her head, she continued her chant in a low monotonous tone, occasionally breaking into a style earnest and animated; and using every variety of attitude to give emphasis to her words, and enforce her description of the virtues and good qualities of the deceased." From Ireland, Its Scenery, Character, &c, by Mr & Mrs S. C. Hall, circa 1850.

The language of the play is an extremely important element and reflects Synge’s interest in Irish. He is using the dialect of the people in Aran in a highly exaggerated manner. Part of the effect has to do with the way in which Gaelic translates into English, that is, some of the original syntax is retained. As a dramatist, Synge has pulled off the improbably trick of seeming to write in two languages at the same time. To quote Tim Robinson in his introduction to The Aran Islands: “the elegiac rhythms of Synge’s dialogue are those inherent in the English of native Irish speakers, an English the grammar of which has been metamorphosed by the pressure of Irish, and the works of which have therefore been galvanized into new life by syntactic shock.” An example given is that there is no word for “yes” in Irish. Instead one repeats the verb of a question: “Is it Bartley that is there? It is.” This feature involves repetition and rhythm when imitated in English. Also prevalent in Irish, and thus in translation, are little tags and pieties that prolong a sentence or question: “It is, surely, God rest his soul.”

[To be] "after" doing something in Irish English Past-tense verb formation The Irish-English past-tense is peculiar within the English language, its manifestations a vestige of Gaelic Irish. In the simple past tense, the Irish say "[am/is/are] after [doing something] Example: "He's after writing a letter." This is equivalent to the standard English expression "He wrote a letter." To form the "recent news" past tense, the Irish say "I'm only after [doing something.]" Example: "I'm only after getting here." In the perfect past tense, the form that in standard English uses "had [done something,]" the Irish say "(was/were) after [doing something.]" Example: "I was after buying the paper" means "I had bought the paper (when [something else happened.])” It is also common that the past-tense conditional is quite Irish — "would have been" is often expressed as "were/was." Example: "One more step and you were dead."