Greek Tragedy and Irish Politics in the Decade of Commemorations

Abstract

The Decade of Commemorations has seen an unusually dense proliferation of adaptations of Greek tragedy in Ireland. Twenty-two works are discussed here, including translations and versions reimagined through stage, screen, and novels. Although Irish authors have a strong tradition of rewriting Greek tragedy, among them Marina Carr, Seamus Heaney, Brendan Kennelly, Derek Mahon, Frank McGuinness, and many others before them, including W. B. Yeats, the density of Irish versions of Greek tragedies performed in the past ten years has been striking.1 It is argued here that the political focus of the commemorations and the nation’s reflection on historical traumas go hand in glove with this surge in adaptations. This is explained by the fact that Greek tragedy is an inherently political art form, and that Irish versions of Greek tragedy are strongly tied to the emergence of the Irish Free State, the formation of which the formal commemorations recall. There is regrettably no space here to do justice to the depth and complexity of individual adaptations. Rather, the aim is to demonstrate how Greek tragic myth has been widely and consistently deployed in Ireland during the Decade of Commemorations (at the time of writing) in order to raise issues of political significance, both overtly and in a more oblique fashion. Two main mythological sagas addressing the Trojan War and the traumas at Thebes respectively emerge as the most frequently produced, while other mythologies concerned with female trauma also appear (Medea, Elektra, Myrrha). A remarkable