The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-11-11
Boston and Providence do not Take
Kindly to the Irish Players
Pagan Productions.
Even Curiosity Fails to Draw the
Crowds to the Much Adver-
tised Performances.
Continued Criticism Bids Fair to
Make the Tour of the Irish
Players a Failure.

Yeats and his band of Irish play
ers" seem doomed to an early dis
appearance from publicity unless they
happen on locality in which the
people are less Christian than those
who have already had an opportunity
to see the pagan plays by which they
are misrepresenting Ireland. In Bos-
ton the reception given the Irish plays
was anything but enthusiastic. In
Providence, according to so good all
authority as the Providence Visitor,
the plays were presented to pract1-
cally empty houses. Commenting on
the engagement of the Yeats company
the Providence Visitor says:
"The Irish Players, so-called, have
come and gone. Their welcome was
frigid and their departure caused no
regret. Eminent critics everywhere
have condemned the plays, not only
because they misrepresent in a manner
most atrocious the spirit and the char
acter Of the Irish people, but also be-
cause they are the merest drivel
viewed from the point of view Of art.
The people of Providence were un-
moved by the injudicious praise which
"a local newspaper saw fit to bestow
upon the misnamed aggregation from
the Abbey Theatre in Dublin"
The Sacred Heart Review Of Boston
disposes of the Irish players with an
equally strong condemnation of their
productions. 1t says:
Although some Of these plays are
well worth while and although the
players themselves perform their parts
most creditably, there is absolutely no
excuse for that swallowing Of the
whole outfit which has characterized
some persons Of Irish blood and Cath
olic faith in Boston. Any person at
all familiar with Irish affairs must
know that Yeats attempt to thrust
the plays Of Synge down the throats
of the people Of Dublin has been a
failure. These plays are bitter sa-
tires-and libels-on Irish life"
The great objection to these plays il
that they are pagan through and
through. And what an injustice it is
for Ireland, Catholic since the days Of
st. Patrick-for fifteen centuries and
lnore-to be represented in Amecice by
a group of players who are unblush-
ingly pagab IN their ideals! But in
spite Of eA this Misrepresentation
Yeats endeavors by means that lack
sufficient ingenuity to be deceptive, to
convince the public that he is doing
justice to the Irish people. Rev. M.
Kenny, s.. J., writing in America, gives
us an interesting criticism Of the
methods employed by Yeats. He
writes:
yeats. the son, is less ingenious.
He reproduced one of his pagan pro-
nouncements cited in America - that
he aims to make Ireland again a holy
land as it was before it gave It's heart
to Greece and Rome and Judea-and,
in pretending to modify it, more fully
reveals his paganizing purposes. He
is willing to deal with Christ as with
Achilles, but not with the Christ of
the Gospel. Because Lady
Gregory heard a story Of Christ ap-
pearing in a Connacht cottage in the
likeness Of traveller. Yeats at once
concludes, according to his policy OF
generalizing from selected incident
to the end he has in view, that 1t is
characteristic of the folk mind so to
conceive the historical Christ, and ia
the Irish country folk Christ did His
miracles on the neighboring road,
Just as Cuchullin and Oscar performed
their feats Of valor in the district.
Placing Christ and Achilles on the
same historical level, he goes on to
tnsinuate that the Irish peasant con-
ceives Cuchullin and Christ in the
same way, and concludes: IT, it Is
paganism to think it holy place trod-
den by holy feet, 1t is not we are
pagans. but the country men and wo-
men of Ireland
This Is fair sample Of the Yeats
stiffness and literary trickery. By
adroitly misapplying the word holy