Painting and Sketch of the Writer George Moore "Homesickness" by French Impressionist Painter Edward Manet

Art: James Brennan- Letter From America

In this painting, showing the interior of a West Cork cottage, the young girl reads a letter recieved from America to her parents, who presumably are illiterate. The girl, therefore, can be read as representing the spread of universal education in Ireland in the mid-ninetenth century, with the establishment of the Government National Schools system. Her parents are dependant on the daughters newly aquired skills. It is difficult to over-emphasise the importance of universal literacy in relation to political and social developments in Ireland in the nineteenth century.

James Brennan

Letter from America
1875, oil on canvas, 81.5cm x 91cm

The Concept of the "American Wake" in Irish Emigration to the US

http://rootsweb.com/~irlker/wake.html

Here is a link to a genealogy site in county Kerry Ireland that explains the concept of the "American Wake" in the culture of Irish emigration to the US. Michael and Mary Feeney experience this on the eve of their departure in Liam O' Flaherty's short story "Going into Exile"

A Discussion on RTE Radio about Brian Friel's Philadelphia Here I Come! , A promo for the Play, and A NYT 2005 Theater Review of the Play

Listen to the first half of this audio discussion to help you gain a sense of some of the themes surrounding the play including its time and place.

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2007/0102/theeleventhhour.html

Tonight's show is a repeat of our special programme from last October about the work of playwright Brian Friel and 'The Cambridge Companion to Brian Friel', the first ever Cambridge Companion to honour a living Irish author. The panel for the programme was: Playwright Thomas Kilroy; Anthony Roche of University College Dublin, Editor of 'The Cambridge Companion to Brian Friel'; Nicholas Grene, Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin; and Patrick Burke of Dublin City University.

A promo for a Irish Theater company's forthcoming production of Philadelphia Here I Come!. Featured is Marty Rea as Gar Private and Sean Stewart as Gar Public. The production will be directed by Alan Stanford.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xHmJzInP3Q

New York Times Review of an Irish Repertory Theater Production of Friel's Philadelphia in 2005
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/theater/reviews/22ishe.html

Super Ego and the Id (Gar Public and Private)

Here are the brief psychological definitions of what Friel is representing in the duality of dialogue in Gar O' Donnell

http://psychology.about.com/od/sindex/g/def_superego.htm
Brief description of the super-ego from about.com
http://psychology.about.com/od/iindex/g/def_id.htm
Brief description of the id from about.com

Samples of Emigrant Letters, A NPR Discussion about the History of the Irish Famine and a Visual Presentation on the Devestating Effects of the Famine

Samples of letter from Irish emigrant's to the US

http://www.irishclub.org/emigrant.htm
An IRISH Emigrant's Letter Home to Ireland
from the Pacific Northwest in 1883

http://www.emigrantletters.com/IE/output.asp?CategoryID=6585
Samples of Irish emigrant letters from America and information and bio's of those who wrote these letters back and forth across the Atlantic.

http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=578

These letters were written by Curtis family members residing in Philadelphia and Ireland during the years of the Famine. They were preserved by the historical society of PA.

http://www.hoganstand.com/general/identity/extras/roots/stories/kilkelly.htm

Historical information about the famous "Kilkelly" Ireland letters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjYYaVnWuAA
Here is a you tube link to the Kilkelly Ireland Song
The "Kilkelly Ireland Song" now a famous ballad, draws its inspiration from a series of ten surviving letters written on behalf of Byran and Elizabeth Hunt by the local school master to their emigrant son in America.
John Hunt emigrated to the States in 1855 and the letters written to him by his parents were re-discovered in an attic in Bethesda Maryland by his American descendants the Jones family. Some 120 years after they were written, Peter Jones a great, great grandson of John Hunt composed the ballad based on the contents of the letters.
It is a poignant song dealing with the effects of Famine, poverty and emigration in one Irish family. However its universal appeal comes from the fact that this could be the saga of countless thousands of other families in the latter part of the 19th century.

NPR AUDIO on St Patricks Day 1997 History of the Irish Potato Famine

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1011309

1997 was the 150th anniversary of "Black 47" the peak of the Irish Potato famine. In 1845, a fungus attacked Ireland''s potato crop, destroying it within a year. For millions potatoes were the only significant source of food. More than a million people died in the famine, another two million emigrated. On St. Patrick''s Day, join Melinda Penkava for a historical perspective on the Irish potato famine and how it impacts Irish society and life today. That''s next on Talk of the Nation, from NPR News.\n \r Guests: \n Tim Pat Coogan \n Historian, Author\n Editor of the Irish Times for 20 years\r Christine Kennelly \n Fellow, University of Liverpool, England\n Author\n This Great Calamity (Rinehardt, 1995),\n A Death Dealing Famine (Pluto Press, 1997)

A Short Visual Presentation on the Effects of the Irish Potato Famine 1847

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjtkRfsZUck&feature=related

A six and a half minute poignant visual presentation showing the devestating effects of the irish Famine upon its people.