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English Literature II IES LV J. R. Fernndez

The Irish Problem in Bernard MacLavertys

Walking the dogPortfolio Entry 6

Graciela Rapaport

13/11/2012


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English Literature II

IES LV J.R. Fernndez

Graciela Rapaport

11/13/2012

2

Discuss the presence of the Irish question in Bernard MacLavertys story

Walking the Dog

1. The WriterBernard MacLaverty was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1942, and lived there until

1975, when he moved to Scotland. He has published five collections of short stories and four

novels. His fiction has been adapted for radio plays, television plays and screenplays.

Published in 1994, Walking the dog is one of his short stories. Here, MacLaverty narrates

John Shields ten minute odyssey when he is kidnapped by two men claiming to belong to the IRA.

The writer himself explains in his relationship with the state of affairs in his country an interview

for theBarcelona Review:

Interviewer: [] How much of the political problems in Northern Ireland figures in your work?

Bernard MacLaverty:It could be solved some day, but up till now it seems permanent. []You have

the sectarian problem, going right back to the British plantation of Ulster in the 1690's, and it's still

with us to this day.

[]But in the North of Ireland, it's a problem thathas now reached a point where it's make or break.

[]These are the problems I was reared with, as a boy throwing mud at Unionist politicians on

posters. It was all a bit of fun back then. I was reared in a time of peace. I was born in 1942, and the

troubles started in 1969. I was twenty seven. I was a fully developed, married man who'd had a couple

of children, and my world blew up.

Bloody Friday, the day that's mentioned in the first story, On the Roundabout', I was there. A pubabout three roads away from me was blown up. It was so close that I jerked and cricked my neck. I was

just coming out of a pub after lunch with my friend when another bomb went off, and then a third went

off in the distance. I said to my friend look here, don't be going back to y our work' which was in town.

At that time I was working in a medical biology centre which had eleven floors, and we took the lift to

the top and looked out across the city. You saw a puff of white or black smoke, nothing else, and then,

about two seconds later, you heard a big bomp. We just stood watching the bombs going off.[]

I: What was it like living in Northern Ireland prior to that?

B.ML:I remember it was gangs, fighting wars or battles. They'd built a power station round the corner

from us and the clay ground was like playdough. We'd actually arranged to fight this other gang from

down the road and everybody got mudballs and ran after each other. At that time it was a rivalry,equivalent to supporting a football team, like Celtic and Rangers, but then people started to get killed,

and then retaliations for people being killed.

In the same interview, MacLaverty states that the act of writing itself is a political act. In

fact, Walking the Dog is a good token of this statement, as he tackles not only the question of

violence from both sides, but he also deals with social identity by immersing the reader in the

everyday reality of the conflict as well.


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To better understand the presence of the Irish problems in the story, a brief sketch of the

main historical events will be outlined before moving into the analysis of the text.

2. The Irish QuestionFor centuries, Ireland has suffered deep and painful divisions; its most recent manifestation

is what has been colloquially named The Troubles. Although endemic violence has been the most

visible sign of this conflict, the problems in North Ireland comprise a conglomerate of questions

which range from political, cultural and religious differences to social and economical inequalities.

In Conflict in Northern Ireland: A Background Essay(1995), John Darby states that there

are four pivotal events which help understand the origins and developments of the Irish question, its

players, and the issues at stake. The first one goes back to 1170, when Henry II attempted to attach

Ireland to his kingdom. He succeeded at controlling only a small region around Dublin which

adopted the English administrative practices and the English language.

A second turning point took place with the plantation of Ulster. By 1609, the English had

gained control of most of the island of Ireland. The last bastion of independence was the northern

province of Ulster. When the English had finally subdued the region, the last Irish leaders fled to

Europe, and the colonists from Britain usurped their lands. The remaining native Irish were

banished to the margins, so that an alien community was transplanted, along with its language, its

culture, its economical system, and its religion: the newcomers were Protestant, while the Irish were

Catholics:

So the broad outlines of the current conflict in Northern Ireland had been sketched out within

fifty years of the plantation: the same territory was occupied by two hostile groups, one believing the

land had been usurped and the other believing that their tenure was constantly under threat of rebellion.

They often lived in separate quarters. They identified their differences as religious and cultural as well

as territorial.(op.cit)

Two centuries of struggle followed, the Irish fighting back the empire, and the British

suffocating rebellions and uprisings by means of penal laws against the Catholics. This period

witnessed the emergence of the groups that would shape the history of Ireland onwards: the

unionists and the republicans, or nationalists. During the 19th century, the nationalists organized

themselves around diverse movements: on the one hand, there were the Repeal and the Home Rule


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movements, which sought independence through parliament, and, on the other hand, the Fenians

and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), which resorted to physical violence.

The third key year is 1921. After the rising of Easter week, 1916, the leaders of the IRB

were executed, giving place to the rise of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and its political arm,

the Sinn Fin, which claims that force is necessary to remove the British from Ireland. The IRA

fought the War of Independence against Britain, and due to the Government of Ireland Act (1920),

the island was partitioned into Northern Ireland, with a majority in favour of the union with Britain,

and a subordinate government, and the Republic of Ireland, with an independent government.

There were those who considered the settlement a betrayal:

The objective of securing a united independent Ireland, by force if necessary, remained, and there

were IRA campaigns in the 1920s, 1940s and 1950s. For many unionists the new arrangements and the

union itself could only be maintained with constant vigilance. Emergency legislation was introduced

on a permanent basis; a police force and police reserve was established which was almost exclusively

Protestant; local government electoral boundaries were openly gerrymandered, a stratagem also used

by nationalists when they were able to do so; and a system of economic discrimination was introduced

against the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland.(op.cit)

The landmark event which signals the contemporary stage of the conflict is the movement

for the civil rights, fostered by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, created in 1967. This

movement claimed the removal of discrimination in the allocation of jobs and houses, permanent

emergency legislation and electoral abuses. To keep the growing civil protests in check, Britain

sent troops to enforce order. The new Provisional IRA reacted against the British intromission, and

started a campaign of violence against the army. The riots between Catholics and Protestants in

1969 and 1970 turned to confrontation between the Provisional IRA and the British army, supported

by loyalist paramilitary groups. In 1972, 468 people died due to the conflict, since then, the violence

started to decline. However, in 1990, the loyalists paramilitary groups turned to en even more

violent action than the IRAs, killing more victims than the republican organization.

There have been some important shifts in the Irish question which are interesting to point

out: the Irish-English problems around independence became a conflict between the Republic of

Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1921. Since 1969 the major focus of the conflict has been the

relationship between Catholics and Protestants within Northern Ireland.

3. Walking the Dog


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The Irish question is present in the story by means of direct political allusions, but also in an

indirect way, through literary devices.

The most obvious of these allusions is the reference to the IRA, and their methodologies,

which, as the reader realizes by the end of the story, are the same as those used by the loyalist

groups.

In Northern Ireland, a surname can denote religion, place of origin, and political inclination.

John has passed his first test, as his is one of those surnames which, as many Irish surnames, do not

necessarily represent a Protestant or Catholic identity.

"We're from the IRA," said the gunman. "Who are you?"

There was a silence. He was incapable of answering.

"What's your name?"

He cleared his throat and made a noise. Then said, "John."

"John who?"

"John Shields."

Segregated schools were another feature of the problem:

"What school did you go to?"

There was a long pause.

"It's none of your business." There was a sudden staggering pain in the back of his head and he

thought he'd been shot.

[]

Yeah - say your abc's for us," said the gunman.

"This is fuckin ridiculous," said John. He steeled himself for another blow.

"Say it - or I'll kill you." The gunman's voice was very matter-of-fact now. John knew the myth

that Protestants and Roman Catholics, because of separate schooling, pronounced the eighth letter of

the alphabet differently. But he couldn't remember who said which.

"Eh ...bee...cee, dee, ee...eff." He said it very slowly, hoping the right pronunciation would come

to him. He stopped.

"Keep going."

"Gee..." John dropped his voice, "...aitch, haitch...aye jay kay"

John is treading water, asserting himself would be extremely risky. Johns life depends on a

single word, pronouncing it could mean life or death. The question goes direct:

Are you a Protestant or a Roman Catholic?" There was a long pause. John pretended to

concentrate on the back of his neck.


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"That really fuckin hurt," he said.

"I'll ask you again. Are you a Protestant or a Roman Catholic?"

"I'm... I don't believe in any of that crap. I suppose I'm nothing."

[]

"What was your parents?"

The same. In our house nobody believed in anything."

Catholics also suffered inequality regarding employment, the best jobs positions were

reserved for Protestants:

Where do you work?" "The Gas Board."

"A meter man?" "No. I'm an E.O."

"Did you hear that?" said the gunman to the driver.

"Aye."

"There's not too many Fenians in the Gas Board."

"Naw," said the driver. "If there are any they're not E.O. class. I think this is a dud."

Other political and historical references can be found within the story, as the provosthe

Provisional IRA-- and the Fenians are mentioned.

The Irish problems are also present through metaphors: the dogs eyes turned swimming-

pool green, colour green is associated with nationalism, and also has been a traditional colour for

Ireland. The end of a red scarf and the blue upholstery inside the car stand for Great Britain, thelights that change to orange are associated with the Unionists and Loyalists.

At the beginning of the story, the snow that has beensnowing a bit, melting a bit, freezing a

bitover the walked over ice that crackles may represent the atmosphere of instability reigning in the

country, which makes daily life a slippery ground.

Bernard MacLaverty succeeds at depicting the tensions and fears created by the conflict in

Northern Ireland. Once the cultural references have been overcome, the story becomes universal

and it is possible to understand the deep wounds inflicted in Ireland by the conflict betweenProtestants and Catholics as well as the perplexity and the anguish that living in a permanent state

of war generate. Under this light, there are two instances in the story which gain a new significance:

John saw that there was a double shadow, one from each head-lightand he could hear the clinking

of the dogs identity disk.Perhaps, loss of identity has been one of the most serious consequences

left by centuries of struggle.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Darby, John. Conflict in Northern Ireland: A Background Essay. CAIN WebsiteService. 1995. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/facets.htm. (visited 11/09/2012)

MacLaverty, Bernard. Biography. http://www.bernardmaclaverty.com/. (visited11/12/2012)

MacLaverty, Bernard. Walking the Dog. Ulmusvej.dk. 1994.http://ulmusvej.dk/at72ab/Terror_eng6MacLaverty_Walki.doc. (visited

11/06/2012)

Mulhern, Dara. Symbols Used in Northern Ireland - Unionist and LoyalistSymbols. CAIN Website Service. 1996-2012.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/symbols/unionloyal.htm#oman. (visited 11/10/2012)

Ramos Fernandez, Dave. An Interview with Bernard MacLaverty. The BarcelonaReview.#56. November-December 2006.

http://www.barcelonareview.com/56/e_int.htm. (visited 11/10/2012)

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