Conor McPherson’s The Veil: The Haunting Reflection of the Past in Early Twenty-First-Century Ireland

Abstract

As an early twenty-first-century Gothic play, McPherson’s The Veil reflects the socio-economic problems and traumas of Ireland after the collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy. As indicated by the title and the prevalent mirror image within the play, the playwright holds up a mirror to the past and through a correlation between nineteenth-century and early twenty-first-century Ireland, he points out the everlasting impacts of postcolonial traumas in the present. In the play, the economic predicament of the landholders and the tenants functions as a microcosm of contemporary Ireland as the post-Celtic Tiger period brought back the problems of the past such as unemployment, dispossession and emigration. Moreover, during the early twenty-first century, the collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy created a haunted landscape replete with ghost estates while also producing zombie banks cannibalising the Irish society. In this regard, the impoverished and harsh conditions of nineteenth-century Ireland transforming people into zombified figures and the effects of economic decline in the early twenty-first century such as ghost estates and zombie banks are closely intertwined. The zombie figure signifies not only economic hardships but also the enduring legacy of colonialism in the present. At the intersection of the past and the present, McPherson presents an uncanny and zombified portrayal of contemporary Ireland. Accordingly, this article explores the traumatic echoes of Ireland’s revenant past in the aftermath of the dramatic economic crisis.

Keywords

• Conor McPherson
• Irish Gothic
• The Veil
• the Celtic Tiger
• ghost estates
• zombie

CONOR MCPHERSON’IN THE VEIL ADLI OYUNUNDA YİRMİ BİRİNCİ YÜZYILIN BAŞLARINDAKİ İRLANDA’DA GEÇMİŞİN ÜRKÜTÜCÜ YANSIMASI

Abstract

Yirmi birinci yüzyıl başı Gotik örneği olan McPherson’ın The Veil adlı oyunu, Kelt Kaplanı ekonomisinin çöküşünden sonra İrlanda’nın sosyo-ekonomik sorunlarını ve travmalarını yansıtır. Oyun başlığı ve oyun içinde sıkça kullanılan ayna imgesinin de gösterdiği gibi, yazar geçmişe bir ayna tutar ve on dokuzuncu yüzyıl ile yirmi birinci yüzyıl başı İrlanda’sı arasında bir bağlantı kurarak, sömürge sonrası travmaların günümüzde halen devam etmekte olan etkilerine dikkat çeker. Kelt Kaplanı sonrası dönem, işsizlik, mülksüzleştirme ve göç gibi geçmişteki sorunları geri getirdiği için, oyunda, mülk sahibi ve kiracıların ekonomik çıkmazları, çağdaş İrlanda’nın bir mikrokozmosu olarak işlev görmektedir. Dahası, yirmi birinci yüzyılın başlarında, Kelt Kaplanı ekonomisinin çöküşü, hayalet mülklerle dolu ürkütücü bir manzara yaratırken, aynı zamanda İrlanda toplumunu tüketen zombi bankaları da ortaya çıkardı. Bu bağlamda, on dokuzuncu yüzyıl İrlanda’sının insanları zombileştiren yoksul ve zor koşulları ile hayalet mülkler ve zombi bankalar gibi yirmi birinci yüzyılın başlarındaki ekonomik düşüşün sonuçları birbiriyle yakından bağlantılıdır. Zombi figürü sadece ekonomik zorlukları değil, aynı zamanda günümüzde devam eden sömürge mirasını da ifade eder. Geçmişle günümüzün kesiştiği noktada, McPherson, çağdaş İrlanda’nın tekinsiz ve zombileşmiş bir tasvirini sunar. Dolayısıyla, bu makale, dramatik bir ekonomik krizin ardından çağdaş İrlanda’nın dirilen geçmişinin travmatik yankılarını inceler.

Keywords

• Conor McPherson
• İrlanda Gotiği
• The Veil
• Kelt Kaplanı
• hayalet mülkler
• zombi

References

1. Allfree, Claire (2011), “Conor McPherson Lifts the Veil on Irish Angst”, Metro, Accessed 15 Mar. 2024. https://metro.co.uk/2011/10/03/conor-mcpherson-lifts-the-veil-on-irish-angst-171632/ .
2. Bishop, Kyle William (2010), American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture, Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
3. Botting, Fred (2013), “Zombies”, In William Hughes, David Punter, and Andrew Smith (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of the Gothic (Vol. 2), West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 751-757.
4. Braun, Anne-Kathrin (2018), “From Page to Stage: Narrative Strategies in Lochhead’s Dracula”, Gothic Studies, 3 (2), 196-210. https://doi.org/10.7227/GS.3.2.7.
5. Carleton, Stephen (2017), “Contemporary Irish Gothic Drama: The Return of the Hibernian Repressed During the Rise and Fall of the Celtic Tiger”, Gothic Studies, 19 (1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.7227/GS.0016.
6. Conrich, Ian (2015), “An Infected Population: Zombie Culture and the Modern Monstrous”, In Laura Hubner, Marcus Leaning and Paul Manning (Eds.), The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 15-25.
7. Davison, Carol Margaret (2009), History of the Gothic: Gothic Literature 1764-1824 (1st ed.), Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
8. Donnelly, James S., Jr. (2012), “Big House Burnings in County Cork During the Irish Revolution, 1920–21”, Éire-Ireland, 47 (3-4), 141-197. https://doi.org/10.1353/eir.2012.0021 . Eagleton, Terry (1995), Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture, London: Verso.

9. Fitzpatrick, Lisa (2012), “Representing Sexual Violence in Early Plays of Conor McPherson”, In Lillian Chambers and Eamonn Jordan (Eds.), Theatre of Conor McPherson: Right Beside the Beyond, Dublin: Carysfort, 61-76.
10. Foster, R. F. (1988), Modern Ireland 1600-1972, London: Penguin.
11. Foster, Serena (2023), “Estranged by a Veil: The Gothic Other and the Uncanny Sublime”, Studies in Religion and the Enlightenment, 3 (1), 6‑20. https://doi.org/10.32655/srej.2023.3.1.1.
12. Gibbons, Luke (2013), “The Empire's New Clothes: Irish Studies, Postcolonialism and the Crisis,” The Irish Review, 46, 14-22.
13. Hansen, Jim (2009), Terror and Irish Modernism: The Gothic Tradition from Burke to Beckett, New York: Sunny Press. Hill, C. Austin (2016), “Of Angels and Demons: Staging the Demise of Ireland’s ‘Celtic Tiger’ through Supernatural Allegory”, In Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan (Eds), The Supernatural Revamped: From Timeworn Legends to Twenty-First-Century Chic, Lanham, MD: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 3-18.
14. Inglis, David (2011), “Putting the Undead to Work: Wade Davis, Haitian Voudou, and the Social Uses of the Zombie,” In Christopher M. Moreman and Cory James Rushton (Eds), Race, Oppression and the Zombie: Essays on Cross-Cultural Appropriations of the Caribbean Tradition, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 42-59.
15. Jordan, Eamonn (2019), The Theatre and Films of Conor McPherson Conspicuous Communities, London: Methuen Drama.
16. Kay, Sean (2011), Celtic Revival? The Rise, Fall, and Renewal of Global Ireland, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Press.
17. Keohane, Kieran and Carmen Kuhling (2014), “‘What Rough Beasts?’ Monsters of Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland”, In Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien (Eds.), From Prosperity to Austerity: A Socio-Cultural Critique of the Celtic Tiger and Its Aftermath, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 133–147.
18. Killeen, Jarlath (2006), “Irish Gothic: A Theoretical Introduction”, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, (1), 12-26. https://irishgothicjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jarlath-killeen1.pdf.
19. Killeen, Jarlath (2014), The Emergence of Irish Gothic Fiction: History, Origins, Theories, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
20. Killeen, Jarlath and Christina Morin (2023), “Introduction: Exorcising the Dead, Summoning the Living”, In Jarlath Killeen and Christina Morin (Eds.), Irish Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1-26.
21. Kirby, Peadar (2010), Celtic Tiger in Collapse: Explaining the Weaknesses of the Irish Model (2nd ed.), New York: Palgrave.
22. Kirby, Peadar (2011), “When Banks Cannibalize the State: Responses to Ireland’s Economic Collapse”, Socialist Register 2012: The Crisis and the Left, 48, 249–268. https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/15655/12779.
23. Kitchin, Rob, et al. (2010), “A Haunted Landscape: Housing and Ghost Estates in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland”, NIRSA Working Paper, (59), 1-66. https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/2236/1/WP59-A-Haunted-Landscape.pdf.
24. Kreilkamp, Vera (1998), The Anglo-Irish Novel and the Big House, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
25. Kristeva, Julia (1982), Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, Trans. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: Columbia University Press.
26. Kuhling, Carmen Leah (2015), “Zombie Banks, Zombie Politics and the ‘Walking Zombie Movement’: Liminality and the Post-Crisis Irish Imaginary”, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549415585556.
27. McPherson, Conor (2011a), “Conor McPherson Knows What Women Want”, Evening Standard, 15 Mar. 2024. https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/conor-mcpherson-knows-what-women-want-6442733.html.
28. McPherson, Conor (2011b), “Conor McPherson Lifts the Veil on Irish Angst”, Interview by Claire Allfree, Metro, Accessed 15 Mar. 2024. https://metro.co.uk/2011/10/03/conor-mcpherson-lifts-the-veil-on-irish-angst-171632/. McPherson, Conor (2011c), “Conor McPherson: Drawing on Supernatural Resources”, Interview by Maddy Costa, The Guardian, Accessed 24 Feb. 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/sep/28/conor-mcpherson-interview. McPherson, Conor (2011d), “The Veil at the National Theatre: A Journey into the Unknown”, Daily Telegraph, Accessed 20 Feb. 2024. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-features/8792604/The-Veil-at-the-National-Theatre-A-journey-into-the-unknown.html.
29. McPherson, Conor (2013a), “The Ghost Writer: Conor McPherson on the Supernatural and the Irish Psyche”, Interview by Sarah Hemming, Financial Times, Accessed 20 Feb. 2024. https://www.ft.com/content/4678ee8c-a6ae-11e2-885b-00144feabdc0.
30. McPherson, Conor (2013b), The Veil. Conor McPherson Plays: Three, London: Nick Hern Books, 211-305. Miles, Robert (1995), Ann Radcliffe: The Great Enchantress, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
31. O’Toole, Fintan (2019), “Bringing a Ghostly Past into Modern Theatre”, The Irish Times, Accessed 5 Jun. 2024. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/bringing-a-ghostly-past-into-modern-theatre-1.758651.
32. Oxford English Dictionary (n.d.), “Veil”, In Oxford English Dictionary, Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=veil.
33. Piatti-Farnell, Lorna (2017), “Gothic Reflections: Mirrors, Mysticism and Cultural Hauntings in Contemporary Horror Film”, Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 6 (2), 179-189. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.6.2.179_1.
34. Punter, David (2002b), “Scottish and Irish Gothic”, In Jerrold E. Hogle (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 105-124.
35. Reyes, Xavier Aldana (2019), “Contemporary Zombies”, In Maisha Wester and Xavier Aldana Reyes (Eds.), Twenty-First-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 89-101.
36. Rudd, Alison (2019), “Postcolonial Gothic in and as Theory”, In Jerrold E. Hogle and Robert Miles (Eds.), The Gothic and Theory: An Edinburgh Companion, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 71-88.
37. Smith, Andrew (2007), “Hauntings,” In Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Gothic, London: Routledge, 147-154.
38. Spooner, Catherine (2014), “Twenty-First-Century Gothic”, In Dale Townshend (Ed.), Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination, London: The British Library, 180-205.
39. Spooner, Catherine (2017), Post-Millennial Gothic: Comedy, Romance and the Rise of Happy Gothic, London: Bloomsbury.
40. Townsend, Dale (2014), “Introduction”, In Glennis Byron and Dale Townshend (Eds.), The Gothic World, London: Routledge, xxiv-xlvi.
41. Tracy, Robert (1999), “Undead, Unburied: Anglo-Ireland and the Predatory Past,” LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory, 10 (1) 13–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/10436929908580232.
42. Wisker, Gina (2012), “Postcolonial Gothic,” In William Hughes, David Punter, and Andrew Smith (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of the Gothic. Wiley Online Library, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118398500.wbeotgp008.
43. Wolfe, Graham (2018), “Really Existing Ghosts: A spectral reading of Conor McPherson’s The Veil”, Performance Research, 23 (3), 113-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2018.1495957.