FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W266579513> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W266579513 startingPage "279" @default.
• W266579513 abstract "The ferocity of the Irish Republican Army's bombing campaign in the 1970s and 1980s led many Irish nationalists to reexamine their commitment. Most were horrified at the thought that such deeds could be perpetrated in their name. Calls for the abandonment of the constitutional claim on the six counties of Northern Ireland (a claim seen by some as validating the IRA campaign) came thick and fast: but equally urgent were attempts to come to a deeper understanding of the unionist tradition. Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme, which was first staged in Dublin in 1985, seemed to capture that new mood, for in it a playwright from the staunchly republican county of Donegal set out to confront 'my own bigotry' and to introject his unionist Other. (1) The drama was an immense success not only in Dublin but also in Belfast. Although some initial reviewers in Dublin took it for a scathing expose of unionist hysteria, it has come to be regarded as a genuinely sympathetic, if critical, exploration of the minds and hearts of young men who fought on 1 July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme. That battle is, of course, a milestone in the history of Ulster loyalism. Over six thousand members of the Ulster Division were killed in a single day of fighting. Entire streets of Belfast and small villages of Antrim were left without young men, because the authorities had made a point of bonding new recruits with neighbours from their own communities. That policy died the death after July 1916 but while it lasted it meant that recruits were deeply committed to one another as they went over the top. They had to be, because an edict just before the battle confined commissioned officers to headquarters. (2) This meant that many units going into battle had nobody above the rank of captain leading them. 'In the end, we were not led, we led ourselves', says the sole survivor, Kenneth Pyper, at the start of the play: 'We claimed we would die for each other in battle.' (3) By a strange kind of irony, much of the IRA campaign in the streets of Belfast and Derry in the decade before the play seemed to feed off similar feelings. The journalist Mary Holland reported the insistence of a Derry IRA man that he was dying not so much for a united Ireland as to protect the neighbours in his street. It is also true that many loyalist gunmen saw themselves as community defenders. Moreover, the idea of an independent Ulster, as a real alternative to integration with either Britain or the Irish republic, had been openly considered by many loyalist leaders. This was in keeping with the growing awareness of regional cultures which had developed not only as a response to the ever-larger bureaucracy of the European Economic Community but also as a direct consequence of the introduction of local radio and publishing houses committed to the study of local history and culture. McGuinness's play was as much a product of the 1980s as it was a study of an Ulster mind-set which achieved definition all of seven decades earlier. For perhaps the greatest irony of all about the soldiers at the Somme was their discovery of a version of their own Irishness. Back in Dublin, over the previous two years, Patrick Pearse and Desmond FitzGerald had feared that the very notion of an Irish identity would disappear in the trenches of the Great War: (4) but quite the reverse happened. New and unprecedented ideas of Irishness emerged, as so often in the past, as a consequence of an intense experience overseas. In the muddy fields of the Somme, a generation achieved a form of self-definition. Observe the Sons is open to many interpretations. Some have read it as a suggestion that a repressed homosexuality underlies unionism. (5) This possibility might have troubled some minds following the Kincora Boys' Home scandal of the early 1980s, when the attempt by loyalist politicians to hush up an expose of coercive sexual activity with orphaned boys made headlines. …" @default.
• W266579513 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W266579513 creator A5059919905 @default.
• W266579513 date "2005-01-01" @default.
• W266579513 modified "2023-09-24" @default.
• W266579513 title "Frank McGuinness and the Sons of Ulster" @default.
• W266579513 hasPublicationYear "2005" @default.
• W266579513 type Work @default.
• W266579513 sameAs 266579513 @default.
• W266579513 citedByCount "3" @default.
• W266579513 countsByYear W2665795132012 @default.
• W266579513 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W266579513 hasAuthorship W266579513A5059919905 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C120060458 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C124952713 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C140713313 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C166957645 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C17744445 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C195244886 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C199539241 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C2549261 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C2778627824 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C2779816988 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C2780623531 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C3019011928 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C41895202 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C523419034 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C81631423 @default.
• W266579513 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C120060458 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C124952713 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C138885662 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C140713313 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C142362112 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C166957645 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C17744445 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C195244886 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C199539241 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C2549261 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C2778627824 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C2779816988 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C2780623531 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C3019011928 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C41895202 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C523419034 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C81631423 @default.
• W266579513 hasConceptScore W266579513C95457728 @default.
• W266579513 hasLocation W2665795131 @default.
• W266579513 hasOpenAccess W266579513 @default.
• W266579513 hasPrimaryLocation W2665795131 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W119219395 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W151302531 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W1621731047 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W1967768845 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W1985430472 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2076371315 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2082251681 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2082585319 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2096774967 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2163885740 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2184611760 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W227442391 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2332790351 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2490895720 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2599950745 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2960610453 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2992712316 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W2992907174 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W3196926675 @default.
• W266579513 hasRelatedWork W92815376 @default.
• W266579513 hasVolume "35" @default.
• W266579513 isParatext "false" @default.
• W266579513 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W266579513 magId "266579513" @default.
• W266579513 workType "article" @default.