Desmond Carolan Fennell (29 June 1929 – 16 July 2021) was an Irish writer, essayist, cultural philosopher and linguist. Throughout his career, Fennell repeatedly departed from prevailing norms. In the 1950s and early 1960s, with his extensive foreign travel and reporting and his travel book ,''Mainly in Wonder'', he departed from the norm of
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...
writing at the time. From the late 1960s into the 1970s, in developing new approaches to the
partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. ...
and the
Irish language revival, he deviated from political and linguistic
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
, and with the philosophical scope of his ''Beyond Nationalism: The Struggle against Provinciality in the Modern World'', from contemporary
Irish culture
The culture of Ireland includes language, literature, music, art, folklore, cuisine, and sport associated with Ireland and the Irish people. For most of its recorded history, Irish culture has been primarily Gaelic (see Gaelic Ireland). It has ...
generally.
Fennell opposed the Western
neo-liberal
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
ideologies. In 1991, Fennell wrote a pamphlet challenging the prevalent critical view of
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. as a poet of the first rank; in 2003 he wrote a small book where he revised the standard account of European history, and in 2007, his essay ''Beyond Vasari’s Myth of Origin'' offered a new version of its early history.
Biography
Early life and education
Desmond Fennell was born on the Antrim Road in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
in 1929.
He was raised in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
from the age of three—first in East Wall, and then in Clontarf.
[ His father, a Sligoman, lost his job during the American Great Depression but prospered in Dublin in the wholesale grocery business. His mother was the daughter of a Belfast shopkeeper. His grandfather was a native Irish-speaker from the ]Sperrins
The Sperrins or Sperrin Mountains () are a range of mountains in Northern Ireland and one of the largest upland areas in Northern Ireland. The range stretches from Strabane eastwards to Slieve Gallion in Desertmartin and north towards Limava ...
in County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...
.
In Dublin, Fennell attended the Christian Brothers O'Connell School and Jesuit Belvedere College.[ In the Leaving Certificate Examination, he obtained first place in Ireland in French and German and was awarded a scholarship in classical languages at ]University College Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...
, which he entered in 1947. While completing a BA in history and economics, he also studied English and Spanish at Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
.
Inspired by the teaching of Desmond Williams, Fennell went on to pursue an MA in modern history from University College Dublin, which he obtained in 1952 after spending two semesters at Bonn University in Germany. He then spent three years teaching English in a new Opus Dei secondary school near Bilbao, Spain, and conducted a study tour of American schools on its behalf.
Back in Germany in 1955, as an English newsreader on Deutsche Welle, he contributed articles to Comhar and The Irish Times; radio talks to writer Francis McManus at Radio Éireann; and theatre criticism to the London Times. Travel in the Far East 1957-58 gave the material for his first book Mainly in Wonder, 1959. His immersion in German culture resulted in Fennell's interest in the human condition.
As a student, Fennell contributed a column in Irish to The Sunday Press. There he befriended Douglas Gageby, who later became editor of The Irish Times. Gageby gave Fennell free rein to publish in the newspaper. After a year saving money as the first sales manager in Germany for the Irish airline Aer Lingus, he spent 1960 researching a book in what was then "pagan" Sweden and contributed the first direct reportage from the Soviet Union (15 articles) to appear in an Irish newspaper to The Irish Times.
In the early 1960s, Fennell contributed essays for several Dublin publications and was briefly exhibitions officer of the new Irish Arts Council. Influenced by the approaching fiftieth anniversary of the 1916 Rising, he read the writings of the leaders of the Irish Revolution, identifying their project as "restorative humanism": a movement aiming to redefine Ireland as a democratically self-governing nation, economically self-sustaining, intellectually self-determining and culturally self-shaping. Some Fennell essays of this time were "Will the Irish Stay Christian?", "The Failure of the Irish Revolution – and Its Success", "Cuireadh chun na Tríú Réabhlóide" and "Irish Catholics and Freedom since 1916". He collaborated with Fr. Austin Flannery OP, editor of the monthly journal ''Doctrine and Life'' which published his writings.
Back in Ireland in 1961, Fennell outlined his Swedish experience in an essay "Goodbye to Summer" which drew press reaction from Sweden to the US and was referred to by President Eisenhower. Fennell had visited Sweden attracted by what he believed was a new liberal, post-European, post-Christian venture in living, but it did not meet his expectations. As a result, that year began his long-lasting effort to understand the history and ideology in the contemporary West.
In 1963, in Dublin, Fennell married Mary Troy, a Limerick woman and student of Semitic languages at Trinity College.[ The couple went on to have five children.
]
Developing career and publications
In 1964 Fennell moved with wife and son to Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, as assistant editor of ''Herder Correspondence'', the English-language version of ''Herder-Korrespondenz''; a Catholic journal of theology, philosophy and politics which played a leading "progressive" role during the Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...
. In 1966, as editor, Fennell returned to Dublin. Two years later he resigned and moved with his family to Maoinis in Irish-speaking South Connemara
Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...
. In a book which he edited, ''The Changing Face of Catholic Ireland'' (1968) he included many of his anonymous essays for ''Herder Correspondence''.
During the following four years, Fennell wrote an influential column for the Dublin ''Sunday Press''. His principal themes in the Connemara period (1968–79) were the "revolution" of the Gaeltacht
( , , ) are the districts of Ireland, individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home.
The ''Gaeltacht'' districts were first officially reco ...
or Irish-speaking districts (which he helped to initiate and in which he participated, drawing on Maoist ideas) and advocating, in imitation of the revival of Hebrew, migration of the nation's scattered Irish speakers to the Gaeltacht to build there the base for the restoration of Irish; the pursuit of a settlement in Northern Ireland at war; decentralisation of Irish government to regions and districts; and a "Europe of Regions". In those last pursuits he was inspired by Tom Barrington, director of the Institute of Public Administration and by the Breton political ''émigré'' in Connemara, Yann Fouéré
Yann Fouéré (26 July 1910 – 20 October 2011), also known as Seàn Mauger was a Breton nationalist and a European federalist. His French birth certificate names him as ''Jean Adolphe Fouéré'', a French name, as the Third French Republi ...
. This activity issued in an advocacy, partly inspired by the early Irish socialist William Thompson, of an Ireland, a Europe and a world rendered self-governing as "communities of communities". It was spelt out in the pamphlet with maps "Sketches of the New Ireland" (1973) and the book ''Beyond Nationalism'' (1985).
Mainly in ''The Irish Times'', ''The Sunday Press'' and several pamphlets, Fennell substituted for the nationalist aim of an all-Ireland Irish state for a supposedly all-Ireland Irish nation the recognition of the Northern unionists as British – "the Ulster British" – and the aim of British-Irish joint rule in the North. Having persuaded the North's Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
to declare for this, he helped Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
to elaborate its four-province federal proposal of ''Éire Nua
Éire Nua, or "New Ireland", was a proposal supported by the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin during the 1970s and early 1980s for a federal United Ireland. The proposal was particularly associated with the Dublin-based leadership group centred on ...
'' (a policy later dropped by Provisional Sinn Féin, but retained by Republican Sinn Féin). In 1977 he made the first of what would be six visits to literary congresses in Zagreb, Croatia, in the course of which he would become an admirer of Yugoslav Marxist socialism.
From 1976 to 1982, Fennell lectured in political science and tutored in modern history at University College Galway
The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...
. In 1980 he resumed his column in the ''Sunday Press'' and two years later returned to Dublin as a lecturer in English writing at the Dublin Institute of Technology
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath) was a major third-level institution in Dublin, Ireland. On 1 January 2019 DIT was dissolved and its functions were transferred to the Technological U ...
.
Global experience and activism
Approaching consumerist liberalism
In his column, and in the books ''The State of the Nation: Ireland Since the Sixties'' (1983) and ''Nice People and Rednecks: Ireland in the 1980s'' (1986), while continuing his "two ethnic identities" line on the North, he shifted focus to the consumerist
''Consumerist'' (also known as ''The Consumerist'') was a non-profit consumer affairs website owned by Consumer Media LLC, a subsidiary of '' Consumer Reports'', with content created by a team of full-time reporters and editors. The site's foc ...
liberalism he believed had risen to ascendancy in the Dublin media (associated with what Fennell perceived as the 'smug liberal elite' of Dublin 4
Dublin 4, also rendered as D4 and D04, is a historic postal district of Dublin, Ireland including Baggot Street Upper, the southernmost fringes of the Dublin Docklands, and the suburbs of Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Irishtown, Merrion, Ringsend ...
). He opposed the standard divorce legislation which the new liberals sponsored — preferring a choice of indissoluble and soluble marriage[ — and their soft line on abortion and anti-nationalist historical revisionism as well. In the view of Tom Garvin, lecturer in politics in University College Dublin, Fennell saw "the rise of the liberals" in Ireland as part of a process "which is turning the Republic back into a mere province of the United Kingdom". With ''A Connacht Journey'' (1987) Fennell returned to travel writing. In 1990, the National University of Ireland awarded him its DLitt (Doctor of Literature) degree for his published work.
In the early 1990s, Fennell recognised that the Irish Revolution had not achieved its national self-determining aim, especially in the intellectual, cultural and economic fields. At the same time, in face of what he termed "the consumerist empire", Fennell moved on from his communitarian social idealism, and directed his efforts to a realistic, rather than idealistic, approach.
''Bloomsway: A Day in the Life of Dublin'' (1990) was a visit to ]Joycean A text is deemed Joycean when it is reminiscent of the writings of James Joyce, particularly '' Ulysses'' or ''Finnegans Wake''. Joycean fiction exhibits a high degree of verbal play, usually within the framework of stream of consciousness. Works ...
territory. Fennell also visited East Germany to record (sympathetically) the last days of that Communist state in ''Dreams of Oranges''. His pamphlet on Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing: Why Seamus Heaney is No. 1" angered admirers of Heaney because, apart from contesting Heaney's reputation as a major poet (Fennell referred to him teasingly as "Famous Séamus"), it found fault with him for ignoring the struggle of his fellow Catholics in Northern Ireland.[ Still, the pamphlet's full text was republished in the UK and the US. The following year, Fennell was proposed a second time for membership of ]Aosdána
Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association of artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the country's Arts Council. Membership, which is by invitation from current member ...
, the Irish state-funded association of writers and artists, this time by the novelists Francis Stuart and Jennifer Johnston, but again without success, because he was ineligible as a non-fiction writer.
Post-western theories and later life
A month in Minsk, Belarus, in 1993 and a six-week holiday in the US in 1994 initiated Fennell's second abroad period. During it, he perceived that the US, since the justification of the atomic bombings of 1945 and what he believed to be a comprehensive new morality of the 1960s and 1970s, had rejected European civilisation, embarked on a new "post-western" course, and brought Western Europe along with it. After a further 15 months in Seattle exploring this idea, he returned briefly to Dublin, published ''Uncertain Dawn: Hiroshima and the Beginning of Postwestern Civilisation'', and in 1997 left for Italy to reflect further on this and related matters. He remained there for the following 10 years, in Anguillara on Lake Bracciano near Rome. In 2003 he and his wife, who had remained in Galway with three of their children, agreed to divorce. Shortly after, a Dublin friend, Miriam Duggan, a teacher who had often visited him in Italy, became his partner. During those Italian years, Fennell developed his post-European view of the present-day West and in ''The Revision of European History'' (2003) explored how the course of Europe had culminated with an exit from it. He returned to Ireland in 2007.
In 2008, Fennell created controversy in the letters columns with an article in ''The Irish Times'' on the decline of the West's white population. Western society once had "a mighty will to reproduce" which resulted in "Westerners overflowing from Europe to populate much of the world". Now "in North America, as in Europe, the white population is not reproducing itself". Fennell argued that the decline in the Western birthrate was due to the replacement, after WW2 "of the rules of European civilisation with new rules"."Grim reality of why the West's white race is now a dying breed"
''The Irish Times'', 21 August 2008
Archived
27 March 2019 at archive.today.
In his final years Fennell had contact with the successor group of the British and Irish Communist Organisation
The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a number of pamphlets and regular publications, including ''The Irish Comm ...
, although he differed from them on certain points. Some of his final books were published by their Athol Press imprint, and he wrote articles for their monthly magazine, the ''Irish Political Review''.
Publications
Books
*''Mainly in Wonder'' (1959)
*''The Changing Face of Catholic Ireland'' (1968)
*''The State of the Nation: Ireland since the 60s'' (1983)
*''Beyond Nationalism: The Struggle against Provincialism in the Modern World'' (1985)
*''Nice People and Rednecks: Ireland in the 1980s'' (1986)
*''A Connacht Journey'' (1987)
*''The Revision of Irish Nationalism'' (1989)
*''Bloomsway: A Day in the Life of Dublin'' (1990)
*''Heresy: The Battle of Ideas in Modern Ireland'' (1993)
*''Dreams of Oranges: An Eyewitness Account of the Fall of Communist East Germany'' (1996)
*''Uncertain Dawn: Hiroshima and the Beginning of Postwestern Civilisation'' (1996)
*''The Postwestern Condition: Between Chaos and Civilisation'' (1999)
*''The Turning Point: My Sweden Year and After'' (2001)
*''The Revision of European History'' (2003)
*''Cutting to the Point: Essays and Objections 1994–2003'' (2003)
*''About Behaving Normally in Abnormal Circumstances'' (2007)
*''Ireland After the End of Western Civilisation'' (2009)
*''Third Stroke Did It: The Staggered End of European Civilisation'' (2012)
*'' About Being Normal: My Life in Abnormal Circumstances" (2017)
Pamphlets
*''The Northern Catholic'' (1958)
*''Art for the Irish'' (1961)
*''The British Problem'' (1963)
*''Iarchonnacht Began'' (1969)
*''A New Nationalism for the New Ireland'' (1972)
*''Take the Faroes for Example'' (1972)
*''Build the Third Republic'' (1972)
*''Sketches of the New Ireland'' (1973)
*''Towards a Greater Ulster'' (1973)
*''Irish Catholics and Freedom since 1916'' (1984)
*''Cuireadh chun na Tríú Réabhlóide'' (1984)
*''Whatever You Say, Say Nothing: Why Seamus Heaney Is No.1'' (1991)
*''Savvy and the Preaching of the Gospel'' (2003)
References
Further reading
* Quinn, Toner, ed., ''Desmond Fennell: His Life and Works'', Veritas, Dublin, 2001
* Deane, Seamus, ed., ''The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing'', Vol. III, Faber and Faber, 1991, pp, 586–90, 677.
* Share, Bernard, ed., ''Far Green Fields: Fifteen Hundred Years of Irish Travel Writing'', Blackstaff, Belfast, 1992, pp. 71–80.
External links
Tuairisc
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fennell, Desmond
1929 births
2021 deaths
Academics of the University of Galway
Writers from Belfast
Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland
21st-century writers from Northern Ireland
Anti-Revisionism (Ireland)
People educated at Belvedere College
Linguists from Ireland