Where would we be without the summer schools? Yeats, Merriman, Humbert, McGill, Parnell, Hewitt, Hopkins, Goldsmith, Greaves - does anyone know how many there are in total? What would the newspapers do if they couldn't fill columns with summaries of the lectures given in them? And wouldn't the academics of the country be lost without them?
But what do the people who attend the summer schools actually do?
I recall a journalist who attended Merriman a few years ago, writing thay they liked to walk along the banks of the river, near the woods and in the shadow of the mountains, without hurry or care, day and night. This is all very well, I suppose, and of course they are not doing much harm, but couldn't they behave like this without ever attending a summer school?
Scholars in pubs
Another thing this journalist revealed was that some of those in attendance didn't bother going to the lectures at all. They preferred to speak to the scholars in the pubs instead. I believe myself that the pub is the best place to meet the scholars and, to tell you the truth, you have a better chance of meeting them there than anywhere else.
But what about the people commemorated in the summer schools? The Yeats Summer School is the most enduring. W.B. Yeats was probably the best Irish poet to have written in English. His poetry is internationally famous and everyone in Ireland knows at least some of his lines. His plays are obscure and few go to see them.
His personal writings are interesting from a historical point of view. I had occasion to research some of them when I was working on my biography of Arthur Griffith. Although the two got on well enough at first, they came to a fierce parting of the ways.
Yeats had little respect for those who opposed him. He was "at war with every knave and dolt", according to himself. When asked his opinion of a young contemporary poet (Seamus O'Sullivan), he replied: "A clever dog doesn't admire his own fleas". But in any event he left behind him an extensive, valuable body of work which deserves close examination.
The Merriman Summer School is around for a long time too. As far as I know, it is the only school that commemorates a writer in Irish. There was a strong streak of humour in Brian Merriman and his Cuirt an Mheanoiche (The Midnight Court) gives pleasure to anyone who reads it. The craic that is supposed to go on at this school is famous and, well, anything that keeps up the spirits under the grey skies of the west of Ireland cannot be bad.
Parnell still has a magnetic power 110 years after his death. His life, the history of his times, of Irish nationalism and of Anglo-Irish relations in general deserve close analysis.
Humbert's army
I have to plead ignorance about Patrick McGill, and so will not venture any opinion about the summer school held in his honour in Donegal. But I am not so sure about the other summer schools. Humbert was a French general who brought a small army to the west of Ireland to assist the rising of 1798. He came to the wrong side of the country and too late, but that's another story. His success was short-lived and he had little respect for the Irish who fought for him. No doubt he should not be forgotten, but I think there are others from '98 more deserving of remembrance, or who have done more to bring Ireland closer to the continent of Europe.
The Gerard Manley Hopkins Summer School is held in Monasterevin but the poet had little association with the place. He occasionally spent holidays with friends there. Hopkins was very unhappy in Ireland. His poetry is inaccessible for most people.
But the person I am most doubtful about commemorating with a summer school is C.D. Greaves. He was a leftwing ideologist who wrote books on James Connolly, James Larkin, Liam Mellows and the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. I had occasion to read these while researching my Griffith biography.
False impression
Anyone reading them who knows little or nothing about Griffith would get a completely false impression of him. A fascist, a racist, an imperialist, an anti-Semite, an implacable enemy of the workers - this is the picture painted of Griffith. This sort of history is greatly distorted.
Sometimes, Greaves gave opinions about Griffith without citing any evidence at all. At other times, when there was evidence that contradicted his views, he ignored it. There are a lot of summer schools, and I am reluctant to recommend another, but if there is anyone in Irish history who deserves a summer school in his honour, it is Arthur Griffith. And he loved walking beside the river, near the woods and in the shadow of the mountains!