The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J. M. Synge's Riders To The Sea and Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire

The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J.
M. Synge's Riders to the Sea and Tom

Murphy's Bailegangaire
Fathia Saleh Al-Ghoreibi

King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J. M. Synge's Riders to the ...
8 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

Received: March,31, 2014Fathia Saleh Al-GhoreibiAccepted: June,17, 2014
The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J. M. Synge's

Riders to the Sea and Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire
The aim of this paper is to examine the mother figure in
Riders to the Sea (1902) by John Millington Synge and
Bailegangaire (1984) by Tom Murphy. The mother image will
be related to the traditional figure of Mother Ireland. The two
writers' motives in presenting such figures will be analyzed .
The paper will investigate the playwrights' use of the art of
story-telling as a technique effective in exploring the depth of
the mothers' traumas. The study will also shed light on the
innovative sort of language used by the two playwrights and
seen as one of their contributions to the theater. It is hoped that
the study will help offer a better ground to understanding
especially Murphys work due to the relatively
underdeveloped state of his criticism and interpretation.
Besides the treatment of Synge and Murphy of the
troubled mother in their plays, other Irish playwrights have
shown interest in this theme past and present. In their play
Cathleen Ni Houlihan, William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta
Gregory recount the story of an old woman, Cathleen, who
mourns a double loss; the usurpation of her land and the actual
and anticipated deaths of numerous men for her sake. Sean
O'Casey has also dealt with the image of the troubled
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 9

woman in his play Juno and the Paycock which depicts the
struggle of Juno Boyle to mend the affairs of her family with
her drunken husband who spends his last penny in the pub, a
crippled son persecuted for his betrayal and a daughter
deserted by the father of her child. Marina Carr portrays
troubled women in two of her plays; The Mai and By the Bog
of Cats. In both plays, the heroines are deserted wives and
mothers and the author records their struggle which reflects
Carr's comment on certain unfavorable aspects of the Irish
nation.
The relation between Synge and Murphy is ascertained
through the latter's confession that: " It took me 20 years to
discover geniuses like Synge and OCasey" (Renton 11). Due
to youthful prejudice against anything that is Irish, Murphy
tried at the onset of his literary career to evade the influence of
his Irish predecessor and it is only through the Spanish
dramatist, poet and pianist Garca Lorca that he discovered
Synge who "means an awful lot to me", as Murphy once
declared in an interview (Tibn). The Lives of the two authors
share certain common traits some of which could be
responsible for the congruence between the plays discussed in
this paper.1
Both Riders to the Sea and Bailegangaire center around
Irish female figures whose misfortune is the core of each play.
Maurya, in Riders, is grief-stricken due to the loss of seven
male members of her family to the sea including five sons, her
husband and her father-in-law. When the play opens, her sixth

son, Michael is missing and reported drowned while her only

remaining son, Bartley, intends to ride the sea on a trip to
Galway to attend a horse-fair. Maurya's attempt to dissuade
Bartley from journeying through a rough sea is to no avail and
he leaves without his mother's blessings. The heart-broken
Maurya is urged by her two daughters, Cathleen and Nora, to
go to the spring well to meet Bartley, bless him and give him
the bread he forgets. When the mother goes on her mission, the
daughters start to inspect a bundle of clothes brought by the
young priest and are dismayed to find out that it is Michael's.
The family's tragedy is complete when Bartley's drowned body
is carried into the cottage and the play ends with Maurya's
resignation to fate.
The central event in Bailegangaire is the telling of a story
by Mommo, an old bed-ridden crone looked after by Mary, her
granddaughter who has sacrificed her successful career as a
nurse for her grandmother's sake while her sister Dolly is
married, has many children and just drops in to chat and then
resumes her illegal sexual adventures. Mommo's narrative
revolves around a laughing competition in a town called
Bailegangaire. Night after night, Mommo leaves off her story
at the same point and is urged over and again by her
granddaughters to finish the story so as to set the family free of
the strains of the past and renew their hope for happiness.
Riders is set in a peasant cottage on the Aran Islands ,which
are located off the western coast of Ireland, in the late 19th
century. Such a location renders the natives insular and
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 11

untouched by the modernizing influences of British

colonialism, and consequently they are viewed as
representatives of pre-colonial Irish culture. In this remote and
isolated environment, the primitive inhabitants are denied "the
benefits of modern technology and tools of communication
whereby they could possibly learn about the happenings both
in their unfrequented piece of land and the big world beyond
it" (Kaya 156). The entire action of the play occurs in the
cottage kitchen which is primitively furnished with a turf-
burning oven used for cooking and as a source of heat, a
spinning wheel, a turf-loft and other items which all stress the
extreme poverty and isolation of the inhabitants of the place.
Despite Murphy's intent desire at the outset of his
dramatic career to avoid the-country-cottage kitchen which he
perceives as "conservative representationalism" (Grene,
"Children" 214), the setting of Bailegangaire is 1984, the
kitchen of a traditional three-roomed thatched house which
contains "some modern conveniences: a bottle-gas cooker, a
radio, electric light""2. Murphy's choice of the time and place
of the action is significant as is seen in the special reference to
the year 1984 in the play. With George Orwell's Nineteen
Eighty-Four (1949) in mind, Murphy intends to prove that
Orwell is at fault since he presents in his novel that 1984
would be a time "when everyone would live in fear under the
panopticon eye of Big Brother" (Grene, Politics 219).
Murphy's characters are marginalized people with lost lives
that no one is watching. Brian Lavery asserts that Murphy's

earlier rejection of the kitchen setting stems from his

repudiation of " the myth of a rural Irish utopia: a vision of
thatched cottages inhabited by happy peasants speaking
Gaelic, originally imagined by William Butler Yeats and the
Gaelic revival movement of the early 1900". To expose the
reality that lurks underneath that dream faade, Murphy
presents in Bailegangaire dissatisfied characters, like Mary
who considers emigration as the only possible solution to
problems suffered at home.
There is a sort of parallelism between the titles of the two
plays in that each is connected to the place of the action. In
Synge's play, the "Riders" of the title are poor peasant and
fisher folk of the Aran Islands. A sample of these inhabitants is
exemplified in the male members of Maurya's family who are
all riders to the sea. Out of necessity and need, the men folk of
the family go to the sea in almost the same manner of riding
horseback, and take cattle and horses which they hope to sell
in neighboring markets in order to provide for their family.
Having no other alternative route, those helpless riders wrestle
with the turbulent sea, the antagonist of the play, and they
meet their tragic death. The poor peasants, like the rest of the
islanders, are defeated and crushed not because of any flaw
inherent in them, but because they are struggling against a
fierce adversary, the sea, which devours them mercilessly. On
the other hand, Murphy entitles his play Bailegangaire which
literally means town without laughter, while the subtitle "The
story of Bailegangaire and how it came by its appellation" will
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 13

be displayed in Mommo's narrative. Hence, the title is linked,

as in Synge's play, with the place of the action and the
audience will come to know, through Mommo, how the town
previously called Bochtan has acquired its name. In the course
of Mommo's story, we hear of a laughing contest to which her
husband challenged a hefty Bochtan and the latter's eventual
death which led the natives to stop laughing forever and
change the town's name to that of the title.
The main character in Riders and Bailegangaire is an old
matriarch who has two daughters in the first play and two
granddaughters in the latter. Synge opens his play with the
grief-stricken mother who has been mourning and keening for
nine days for the loss of her son Michael. The play also
records the hardships she has gone through all her life when
she bitterly narrates how she "had a husband, and a husband's
father, and six sons in this house six fine men, and some of
them were found and some of them were not found, but they're
gone now the lot of them"3. Out of pity for Maurya's
condition, Cathleen and Nora do not tell her about the news of
the dead man's body that is washed up by the sea to the north,
and they hide the bundle that contains his clothes in the turf-
loft since "she'll be getting her death with crying and
lamenting" (15) as the young priest explains to them.
Maurya's worry and anxiety over her only remaining son,
Bartley, are consuming and turn her into a querulous mother
who repeats every now and then: " He won't go this day with
the wind rising from the south and west. He won't go this day,

for the young priest will stop him surely" (16). But after Nora
reassures her mother that the priest cannot stop Bartley, poor
Maurya tries other means to restrain her son from going.
Having turned deaf to her plea: " It's a hard thing they'll be
saying below if the body is washed up and there's no man in it
to make the coffin" (17), Maurya struggles hard to keep her
son from the sea and we witness, as Alan Price points out, "a
battle of wills, with the mother trying desperately to break her
son's resolve to carry on the ageless tradition of their kind, of
wresting a living from the sea; a battle more tense because it
cannot be fought openly and directly but is carried on by
nuance and suggestion" (182). Stubbornly ignoring his
mother's appeals, Bartley starts giving instructions to his
sisters on how certain tasks are to be carried out in his absence
and the mother utters her painful cry: "If it was a hundred
horses, or a thousand horses, you had itself, what is the price
of a thousand horses against a son where there is one son
only?" (17). But Bartley neither softens nor shows any regard
to his mother's agony that is given full vent at his departure:
"He is gone now, God spare us, and we'll not see him again.
He is gone now, and when the black night is falling I'll have no
son left me in the world" (18).
In Murphy's Bailegangaire, the senile grandmother,
Mommo, is lying in bed, eating and drinking out of a mug and
narrating a story to imaginary children sitting at the foot of the
bed. Mommo's rambling narrative provides us with penetrating
fragments of her life with the stranger who is eventually
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 15

identified as Seamus O'Toole, her husband. At a certain point

of her story, we realize that Mommo was not happy in her
marital life. She recounts in vivid details how she used to be
ill-treated by her husband:
They could have got home But what about the things had
been vexin' her for years? No, a woman isn't stick or stone. The
forty years or more in the one bed together an' he to rise in the
mornin', and not give her a glance. An' so long it had been he had
called her by first name, she'd near forgot it herself
Brigit Hah? An' so she thought he hated her An'
maybe he did. Like everything else An'. (Her head comes
up, eyes fierce) "Yis, yis-yis, he's challe'gin' ye, he is!' She
gave to the Bochtns. And her husband returning?- maybe he
would recant, but she'd renege matters no longer.- she hated
him too (51).
Obviously the husband and wife did not have a loving
and intimate relation and it is suggested in the above quotation
that she encouraged her husband to get involved in the
laughing competition which resulted in the death of the local
contestant and her husband being lynched by the natives.
Despite Mommo's responsibility for the affair that led to
her husband's death, she did not show grief over his loss.
Dolly, her granddaughter recalls this moment with resentment
towards Mommo's attitude:
But I remember now try to contradict this- the day we
buried granddad. Now I was his favourite so I'll never forget

it. And whereas No, Mary! whereas! She stood there over
that hole in the ground like a rock like a duck like a duck,
her chest stickin' out. Not a tear Not a tear. And And!
Tom buried in that same hole in the ground a couple of days
before. Not a tear, then or since. (53-54)
It might be argued that Mommo's hard feelings towards
her husband stem from her unhappy experience with men in
general including her father. The image of "the omnipotent,
omniscient father" (Lawley "Legacy") with a big stick in his
hand is recurrent in Mommo's mind and alludes to the old
man's strict discipline of his children with whipping and
lashing.
The bad treatment Mommo receives from her husband
affects her relation with her many children and it is reported in
the play that "Them (that) weren't drowned or died they said
she drove away" (15). Even her three grandchildren do not fare
well under her guardianship. Tom, the youngest, meets his
death as a result of neglect and carelessness, while Mary and
Dolly grow up to be wretched and lost souls. It is obvious that
Mommo harbors feelings of guilt and her protestations
"There's nothing wrong with me" and "I never done nothin'
wrong" (22) are futile and show how troubled she is with a
guilty conscience for being responsible for the disasters that
occurred in her family.
The tragic status of Maurya and Mommo is ascertained.
Maurya is traumatized by specific practices, economic in her
case, and the play reveals how the helpless mother and her
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 17
daughters see their men folk risk their lives to earn a living
away from home. Maurya's struggle with forces too great for
her to overcome is remarkable as is the peace of reconciliation
she displays at the end when she expresses her stoic
acceptance of the fate that has befallen her: "Michael has a
clean burial in the far north, by the grace of the Almighty God.
Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the white boards, and a
deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man
at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied" (24).
With such a declaration, Maurya proves herself, as Price
suggests, " the true tragic protagonist" who has attained "tragic
stature and insight" through the pain and suffering she has
experienced, and "reached that final illumination which sees
life as essentially tragic, and accepting this fact, gains thereby
'calm of mind all passion spent'" (181). Her agony, endurance
and reconciliation lift her beyond the borders of the Aran
Islands and she becomes, as Spehn notes, "not only a
fisherman's aged wife who has lost her sons to the sea but a
representative of motherhood everywhere; in her dignity and
resigned acceptance of fate she is akin to the characters of an
Aeschylean tragedy"(70).
Synge draws attention to Maurya's remarkable endurance
in the play. After Michael is reported found in the far north,
and Bartley's drowned body is brought in by the villagers,
Maurya starts keening and recounting the numerous times this
scene has repeated itself with the men folk of her family. She
expresses a sense of relief and a calm acceptance of her fate:

They 're all gone now, and there isn't anything more the
sea can do to me.
I'll have no call now to be up crying and praying when
the wind breaks from
The south, and you can hear the surf is in the sea. I'll
have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in
the dark nights after Samhain, and I won't care what way the
sea is when other women will be keening. It's a great rest
I'll have now, and great sleeping in the long nights after
Samhain, if it's only a bit of wet flour we do have to eat, and
maybe a fish that would be stinking (23).
Despite her tragic condition, Maurya is able to see beams
of hope in her dark situation, her anxiety is relieved and peace
prevails after she resignedly perceives the death of her men
folk as a blessing that will bring them all together. While
sprinkling Holy Water over Bartley's dead body and Michael's
clothes, she asks God to have mercy on herself, her family
living and deceased, and on everyone that is still living in the
world. Her tragedy has taught her the invaluable lesson of
resignation as she realizes that death is inevitable.
Maurya's reconciliation and peace of mind are echoed to
a certain degree by Mommo in Bailegangaire. Throughout the
long story of the stranger and his wife who turn out to be
Mommo and her husband, we get glimpses of the traumatic
life of the couple, and the suffering of the "decent woman" of
Mommo's narrative at the loss of her children which resembles
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 19

that of Maurya. None of her "Nine" or "Ten" children is

present now; they either drowned, died or deserted their
mother for good. By the end of the play, Mommo's narrative,
which often falters at the same point, is concluded and the
circumstances of Tom's death are revealed for the first time. In
fact, the memory of Tom, who was "only a ladeen was afeared
of the gander" (76) is the reason behind Mommo's frequent
interruptions of her narrative for she is reluctant to face the
assumption of being responsible for the boy's death. Left to the
care of his young sisters while the grandparents were away,
Tom "threw too much paraffin on the fire, was caught by the
flames and died of burns in hospital in Galway" (Grene,
Politics 225). By indirectly acknowledging her responsibility
for Tom's accidental death, Mommo reaches a state of
reconciliation as she utters her last words in the play:
Mommo: Be sayin' yere prayers now an' ye'll be goin' to
sleep. To thee do we send up our sighs. Yes? For yere Mammy
an' Daddy an' granddad is (who are) in heaven.
Mary: And Tom.
Mommo: Yes. An' tell them ye're all good. Mourning
and weeping in this valley of tears. And sure a tear isn't
such a bad thing, Mary, and haven't we everything we need
here, the two of us. (And she settles down to sleep) (75-76).
The traumatized family is now reconciled as Mommo's
story is concluded and Mary is finally recognized by her
grandmother.

The rise of the Irish national movement at the end of the

nineteenth century stimulated Irish playwrights "to draw upon
their native traditions and define their country's violent
political and social upheaval" (Watt). Rural Ireland and the
Irish peasant gained prominence in most of the works
presented in the Irish Literary Theater. The image of the
mother in Riders and Bailegangaire is related to the traditional
Mother Ireland figure presented in various Irish literary works
as "an old woman to be rejuvenated by the sacrifice of her
young male patriots" (Grene, "Children" 216). Synge
contributed to the narrative of Irish nationalism in his own
democratic way. Instead of indulging himself in the expression
of conventional political issues and getting involved with
revolutionary and semi-military movements, he focused his
attention, as Mathews observes, to writing plays, essays and
poetry that treat "the details of the material and cultural
impoverishment of life among the most marginalized of people
in remote rural Ireland" (10), people who live in contemporary
times, yet the life they lead is archaic, old-fashioned and free
of any struggle with colonialism. Frawley suggests that the
particular delineation of Maurya's character enables Synge to
criticize contemporary Irish culture and shed light on "the
strain that results from insisting that women remain merely
symbolic for a nationalist and chauvinist society" (26).
Feminine traits such as dependence, submissiveness, passivity
and self-denial exemplified by the females in Riders,
especially Maurya, are sometimes ascribed to the Irish as a
result of their colonialisation experience. The female figures
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 21
meet the requirements of the true Irish woman propagated by

Irish writers4. All the women in Riders stay at home and do
traditional house work like kneading, cooking and spinning
while the men are in charge of providing for the family
through riding the dangerous sea to sell and buy in remote
markets. By presenting them under this light, Synge
burlesques the nationalists' ideals for motherhood through
questioning "the efficacy of maternity itself as a means of
regenerating, restoring and reproducing Ireland" (Harris 110)
since it only leads to a catastrophe as shown in the play. In
addition, Synge stresses the idea that maternal feeling is a
source of torment to the women of the peasant society depicted
in his play. After going through the hard experience of bearing
and raising up their sons, these mothers watch with agony how
their sons are lost to the sea while attempting to earn a living.
The traditional Mother Ireland figure of Cathleen ni
Houlihan has become a bed-ridden crone in Murphy's
Bailegangaire for whom many family members have died
because of her stubbornness. However, their sacrifice will not
rejuvenate the senile old woman who is obsessed with her past
and cannot conclude her story and this brings to mind Ireland's
buried children and history. Though Murphy's image
challenges the idealizing myth of the Cathleen ni Houlihan
tradition, it is not wholly grim as the audience sympathizes
with Mommo's losses and understands the reasons of her
tragedy. The characters of Mary and Dolly, who "stand for the
Ireland of the 1980s" (Grene, "Children" 214) are used to

create a sort of discourse between past and present. The

contribution of the new generation is needed to make Ireland
come to terms with its history and offers it, as Russell points
out, " a hopeful trajectory that looks to a limitless future even
as it remembers and rejects cyclical, restricting past" (89).
Therefore, the joint narration of the story by the old and young
as well as the mutual confession of sins stress the sense of joy
symbolized by Mary's laughter of relief that closes the play
and the possibility of a fresh beginning.
Both Maurya and Mommo are not content in their
relation with their female offspring. Being the older of the two
sisters, Cathleen, in Riders, is the one who takes the lead in
running the household affairs. She prepares the food, spins at
the wheel and does most of the arrangements inside the house.
Her practical down-to-earth attitude to life puts her in direct
contrast with her mother when she impatiently complains:
"There's no sense left on any person in a house where an old
woman will be talking for ever" (18). Her sympathy and
understanding of Bartley's motive to ride the sea make her
urge the grieved mother to follow the son with the forgotten
bread and formerly withheld blessing. Grene argues that
Maurya displays a rough behavior towards Cathleen due to her
"normal old mother's jealousy of the daughter who has
succeeded her as domestic manager" (Politics 228). That is
why Maurya tries to underestimate Cathleen's ability to
manage the tasks to be done during Bartley's absence: "How
would the like of her get a good price for a pig?" (17). Tension
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 23

between mother and daughter is also sensed when Maurya

addresses a great deal of her speech to Nora, her youngest
daughter and tries to ignore the presence of her eldest with
whom she adopts a querulous and contentious attitude that
reflects resentment of Cathleen's usurpation of her position.
Mary in Bailegangaire is the counterpart of Cathleen in
Riders for she is in charge of all the domestic affairs of
cleaning the house, washing clothes and feeding her
grandmother. Having given up her successful career as a nurse
and become a dutiful caregiver of Mommo, Mary's service,
like that of Cathleen, is unappreciated. Mary's situation is a
step worse as Mommo takes her for an interfering servant and
never acknowledges her kinship till the end of the play.
Mommo harbors suspicious thoughts about Mary: "You! Miss!
Take this. Did you manage to poison me?" (12), and she even
warns Dolly to "Be careful of that one Yes, watch her" (26).
If Cathleen and Nora in Riders " manage not to hear or else to
mishear the complaints of an old woman with one thing and
she saying it over" (Kiberd 87), Mary and Dolly are distressed
by Mommo's never ending story. Both sisters want to shake off
their responsibility towards their grandmother. In the past, it
was Mary who migrated to England to pursue her career, and
in the present, it is Dolly who mistakenly thinks that her
marriage to Stephen would rescue her from " a place like this"
(26) and threatens that the County Home will be Mommo's
final place if Mary decides to leave.

Through focusing their attention on the image of the

troubled mother, both Synge and Murphy are able to handle
themes and issues that have interested them. The experience of
colonial rule had a profound effect on the Irish nation. Since
the founding of the Abbey Theater and the Irish Literary
Revival, dramatists sought to resist the colonizing power
through the composition of plays that highlight the Irish
identity. The works of the first generation writers of the Abbey
Theater depicted how Ireland was searching for a national
identity; for once this identity is asserted, the Irish would
secure a position in the world, and would stop believing that
they were merely a conquered nation that has no identity. It is
essential, however, that before establishing a national identity,
the Irish should be urged to find their own individual identities
and understand who they are. In fact, this was the very same
reason that made Synge sojourn Europe and finally land in the
Aran Islands where he mingled with the peasants there.
Having spent a great deal of his life looking for "a group of
people he could belong to," Synge realized that the Arans were
those people through whom he "found a way to express his
own identity and, moreover, an identity of the Irish people"
(Rackwitz).
The question of identity has occupied Murphy's mind and
we see it reflected in Bailegangaire in the delineation of
Mary's character who feels uprooted and suffers a strong sense
of alienation from her family. Her migration to England has
proved fruitless and she returns to the family home of her
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 25

childhood hoping to find, as McHugh suggests, "what she was

missing during her years in exile; a sense of rootedness,
belonging and self-identity through the family and the home".
However, her homecoming is equally disappointing as
Mommo fails to recognize her due to her long absence:
"Mommo: Miss? Do I know you?" (60). Mary's attempt to
help Mommo finish her narrative is beneficial for both of
them. Through achieving recognition and acknowledgement,
there would be a possibility of a positive change.
In the process of identity search, the individual undergoes
traumas and experiences grief. Both Synge and Murphy handle
this issue in their plays. Bereaved Maurya, in Riders, mourns the
loss of her men folk and becomes the martyr mother who
stoically accepts her fate. The message Synge wants to convey to
his audience is assumed from Maurya's final resignation and
acceptance that "No man at all can be living for ever, and we
must be satisfied"(24). The characters in Murphy's play do not
accept this passive attitude and aspire to free themselves of all
sorts of oppression and make an active, empowering change. To
achieve this stage of maturity and adulthood, grief becomes a
very important experience which is often initiated by the loss of
a dear relative. The young generation in Bailegangaire, Mary and
Dolly suffer the loss of their parents, their little brother Tom and
eventually their grandfather and they lead lives devoid of
achievement and fulfillment. Mary's emigration to England
proves fruitless, while Dolly, who has acquired most of her
material needs; a well-furnished house, lots of

money and a car, suffers from her husband's serious

maltreatment and neglect. However, the two sisters are intent
to move on with their lives by returning to the home of the
family where all the problems of the past are to be solved.
The question of faith has always stimulated Irish writers
past and present and their treatment of this issue fluctuated
between "criticism of blind faith in the Catholic religion or an
investigation of Catholicism as part of the Irish identity"
(Farrelly 32). Both Synge and Murphy are classified under the
first category. Despite the idea that the characters in Riders
quite often invoke God for help and protection and the play
concludes with Maurya's prayer for mercy, the authority of the
village priest is questioned and his testimony that "the
Almighty God won't leave her destitute with no son living" is
doubted by Maurya who is firm in her conviction that "It's
little the like of him knows of the sea" (21). Therefore, if
Synge is considered one of the Irish playwrights who
encourage "the Irish people to look in the mirror and
understand that God [would] not save them" (34), as Farrelly
contends, then it seems that, by ending his play with the
heroine's resignation, he "wanted the Irish to shout at Maurya,
"We must not be satisfied we must not be resigned to live a
life of suffering" (35). In fact what Synge is really criticizing is
the Irish desperate acceptance of the suffering of Mother
Ireland and their ineffective invocation to God to save the
people of Ireland. Banning religion would not solve the
nation's suffering. Instead, the Irish should be encouraged to
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 27

probe into the causes of their problem and find effective

solutions.
Murphy, on the other hand, believes "that religion has not
at all fulfilled a need that is within us all" (Murphy,
"Conversation" 111). Despite being bitter and disillusioned
with institutional Christianity, Murphy tries through his work,
to teach the Irish to liberate themselves of all kinds of
oppression and to live free of desperation and resignation as
exemplified by the characters in Bailegangaire. Mommo and
her granddaughters work for their redemption, as Richard
Russell notes, "by admitting their sins and offering them up for
forgiveness in a dark kitchen, whose confined area recalls that
of the confessional" (91). Their confession and confrontation
of past sins will enable them to be free and to have hope of a
better life.
In contemporary Irish theater, the act of narration is
considered one of the most interesting formal tendencies
encouraged by the pioneers of the Abbey Theater who sought,
through their plays, "to turn the theater into a place in which
the revival of an oral presentation of literature could be
started" (Wehemann 246). The two mothers are preoccupied
with narrating the family's past history. Maurya, in Riders,
gives different accounts of the family's life suffering and
conflict with the sea. The memory of the poor old mother is
busy not only with past events but also with present and future
happenings. When Cathleen and Nora send their mother after

Bartley to give him her blessings and the forgotten piece of

cake, Maurya returns terrified after seeing Michael's ghost:
I went down to the spring, and I stood there saying a
prayer to myself. Then Bartley came along, and he riding on
the red mare with the grey pony behind him. [she put up her
hands as if to hide something from her eyes.] I seen
Michael himself I'm after seeing him this day, and he riding
and galloping.
Bartley came first on the red mare, and I tried to say 'God
speed you,' but something choked the words in my throat. He
went quickly; and "The blessing of God on you," says he, and
I could say nothing. I looked up then, and I crying, at the grey
pony, and there was Michael upon it with fine clothes on
him, and new shoes on his feet (21).
Maurya compares the fearful vision she has seen to that
of Bride Dara who has "seen the dead man with the child in his
arms" (21). Both Maurya and Bride Dara experience the vision
of loved ones who are dead; when the legendary goddess sees
a dead man carrying a child in his arms, she loses her son in
the battle, just like the deceased Michael who significantly
comes from the dead to lead his brother to the other world. It is
not only Bartley's death that Maurya perceives, but her own
end as well: "Bartley will be lost now, and let you call in
Eamon and make me a good coffin out of the white boards, for
I won't live after them" (21).
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 29

Mommo is the Irish figure of seancha, or storyteller who

was renowned and respected and used to have: " Lots of
stories, nice stories" that made people "come miles to hear you
tell stories"(30), as Mary has once told her. As the play opens,
Mommo's senile dementia takes the form of repeating the story
of a mortal laughing competition started by a decent stranger
and fueled by his decent wife. However, as the play unfolds,
we realize that Mommo is involved in her own story, and as
Paul Lawley observes, "what is presented as folktale is hardly
impersonal" ("Orality" 3). The "decent wife" is Mommo
herself and her family story is tightly interwoven with that of
the Bochtans. The juxtaposition of the folkloric narrative about
the pre-modern world of the Bochtans in 1950 and Mommo's
family history extending for three generations becomes
obvious. What unites that folkloric narrative with the family
history is the subject matter; the theme of "Misfortunes" (65)
with which the stranger's wife prompts the contestants to
laughter. We see how the stories of the "unbaptised an'
stillborn shoeboxes planted" and "of the field, haunted by
infants" (71) mingle with Mommo's personal accounts of her
departed sons and the tragic deaths of her husband and
grandson. Mommo's never acknowledged responsibility for the
sin and guilt is central in the story and her redemption, as well
as the redemption of her
granddaughters, occurs at the end when Mommo
acknowledges her part in the narrative which is always told in
the third person and then changed to the first person towards
the end when the three women confess their guilt and accept

one another. This change is observed in the following extract

where Mommo uses the first person "we" which stresses the
shared responsibility and acknowledgement among the three
women and highlights Mommo's involvement in her own
narrative: "To thee do we cry. Yes? Poor banished children of
Eve" (75) (italics mine). The child they will have soon after
will be called Tom and will replace the sisters' brother who
died in the past. This child becomes a symbol of hope and a
bright future for those marginalized and unnoticed women.
Dolly's "brand new baby" would "give that fambly of
strangers another chance, to gladden their home" (76).
Therefore, through Mommo's story, Murphy is giving an
answer to a question that used to trouble him a great deal and
Bailegangaire becomes Murphy's offered solution for the
national problem. The play presents Ireland as a nation "in
which past and present are radically disjunctive" (Falkentein
71) and proposes the solution of bringing the two into
dialogue. If the three characters in the play can be engaged in a
meaningful interaction, then the gap that separates them will
be bridged and the problem will come to an end. Ireland, in
turn, would be able to come to terms with the troublesome
questions of identity that used to irk its past. The national
crisis would be solved only when the nation is ready to learn
its lesson from its colonial past and find answers to the
problems of the disturbed present.
Synge's contribution to Irish literature is seen in his bold
experimentation with language; his innovative use of a dialect
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 31

which fuses English "with idioms, rhythms and syntax of

Irish" (Mathews 9). The created English of his plays retains
Gaelic speech pattern and at the same time enjoys the spirit
and richness of the Irish language. This Hiberno-English, as it
is sometimes called, is effective for achieving Synge's
dramatic and poetic purposes. The colloquial speech of the
rural people in Riders is free of cultural sophistication,
naturally poetic and artistically beautiful. A major influence on
the artistic beauty found in Synge's dialect could be attributed
to "his thorough musical training and a sound knowledge
of musical theory" (Spehn 106) obtained at Trinity College.
Besides Synge's musical talent, the common speech of the
Aran Islands has certain characteristics that enhance its poetic
nature. There is a tendency in the local dialect to repeat the
present participle as seen in the following quotation: " He went
down to see would there be another boat sailing in the week,
and I'm thinking it won't be long till he's here now, for the tide
is turning at the green head, and the hooker's tacking from the
east" (16) (italics mine). This tendency bestows a cadence to
the fabric of the utterances rendering them very close to
poetry. The rhythmic pattern of the Arans' dialect is further
enhanced by the use of "disjointed sentences" and "after
construction" (Ardhendu De) which are constantly employed
in the play. Maurya's utterance: "I'm after seeing him this day,
and he riding and galloping" (21) exhibits the three features of
the Aran idiom used by the characters in the course of the play.
Synge's skill at handling his dramatic language could be one of
the reasons that encouraged critics like Alan Price to

consider him a writer of "good poetic drama within the severe

limits of naturalism" and that he "can today compete
successfully with the conventional prose play" (220). Besides,
Synge's blend of realistic incidents with " a richly musical,
often poetic dialogue" results in "a unified, distinctive whole"
(Spehn 95). This new literary approach to language enabled
Synge to render vividly rural customs and landscapes in such a
manner that enlists "him to the cultural programme of
independent Ireland", as Mathews suggests (7), and made his
limited literary production reflect the conviction that words
could be effective means of liberation.
Likewise Murphy is talented in the use of language to the
extent that made the catholic church seek his help in finding a
new vernacular language for the mass and the sacraments.
When asked about the particular rhythm inherent in his plays,
he asserts that: "All art aspires towards music, so I try, as far as
I can, to make a symphony out of the language" (Tibn). His
effort, Lavery points out, is quite often manifested in a "
dialogue [that] can grace the most fallen and forlorn types with
an eloquent, individualized speech". Mommo's story exhibits
aspects of Murphy's talent and the audience see how even the
old woman's "giggles, grunts and shouts become the play's
musical vocabulary" that enables her to express "herself with a
subtlety that would be unattainable in mere words or even
body language" (Lavery). Murphy's skill at language is
obvious first in the choice of a Gaelic title that conveys the
sense of misery and suffering which befall all the people
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 33

concerned in the tale. This sense is further stressed by another

Gaelic word, "Bochtan" which means poor place.
The use of the classic Irish form of story-telling can be
seen as a reversion to the past and to the early Irish culture and
nationalism. Besides, it has enabled Murphy to connect the
disjointed threads of his characters' lives that would remain
otherwise. Mommo who was a respected storyteller narrates a
never ending story about her life to her two granddaughters
who in turn have unhappy stories about their own lives. Within
the course of the play, the connection between Mommo's tale
and that of Mary and Dolly starts to materialize. While
Mommo's narrative revolves around the sad past reflecting on
the personal misery of her marital life as well as the hardships
and misfortunes experienced by the peasant folk, Mary and
Dolly focus on the present hoping to find solutions to its
problems. Mommo's monologues may sometimes overlap with
the dialogues of Mary and Dolly in a way that requires focus.
An instance of this overlap occurs at the opening of Act Two:
Mommo An' John was in suspense.
Dolly Happy birthday! (Mary sniffs back her tears and
nods! Smiles her thanks) Mommo An' then of a suddenness
didn't the frown go disappearing up the Stranger's cap.
Mary I'm sorry for (crying).
Mommo He had it at last.
Dolly Ar Phhh not at all.

Mommo 'Well," says he oh lookin" the merchant

between the two eyes _ 'Well,' says he, 'I'm a better laughter
than your Costello'. (45)
In the above quote, we see how Mommo's speech differs
from that of Dolly and Mary. While Mommo is recounting the
contest event between Costello and the stranger which took
place in John Mahony's pub in the past, Dolly is congratulating
Mary on her birthday which is an occurrence of the present.
This juxtaposition of past and present recurs regularly
throughout the play and it is, as Lawley notes, "accomplished
in and through language" ("Orality" 1). In fact, Murphy uses
language in this way to stress the transition between the old
way of life and the new. We also notice that the use of Irish or
Gaelic words often appears in Mommo's speech, as the one
below, when Mommo gives an account of the peasants' crops
and markets in the past: "So you can be sure the people were
putting their store in the poultry and the bonavs (bonhams) and
the creamy produce for the great maragadh mr (big market)
that is held every year on the last Saturday before Christmas in
Bailethuama in the other county" (12) (italics mine).
Presumably, Murphy's use of Gaelic or Irish words could be
interpreted, as I mentioned regarding storytelling, as an
attempt to return to the past when the language reflected the
Irish tradition and the nation was enjoying a unique identity of
its own.
It is true, as Lawley contends, that Murphy has designed
"a hybridized oral narrative style" which employs "weighty
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 35

Latinate ('educated' or 'literary') words to inflate the account

and brings them into juxtaposition with localized concrete
particulars" ("Orality" 4). Thus while relating how the
laughing competition would start in the local pub in the
presence of the peasant folk, Mommo says:
'He is, he is, challe'gin' yeh, he is!' Putting confusion in
the head of Costello again. But the stranger a cute man
headin' for the door, gives (the) nod an' wink to Costello so
he'd comprehend the better excitation (that) is produced by the
aberration of a notion. Then in fullness of magistrature,
"Attention!" roaring he to declare his verdict was dismissal, an'
he decreed that 'twas all over. (50)
In the above quote, the use of elevated words (aberration,
magistrature, verdict and decreed) would seem rather odd
against an environment of primitive illiterate peasants and they
are employed to bestow more importance on the simple event
of the competition.
Obviously Mommo's narrative is problematic and
difficult to follow due to her use of Irish slang and Gaelic
expressions and her tendency to break off the story at illogical
points. Besides, her repetition of the story and her
unwillingness to end it has a psychological dimension. It could
be seen as a strategy of postponement and evasion. Since she
realizes how tragic the end is, Mommo is reluctant to confront
it and thus absorbs herself in an act of repetition that frustrates
her granddaughters and the audience alike. In her speech

addressed to Mommo, Mary contemplates on their

predicament:
No, you don't know me. But I was here once, and I ran
away to try and blot out here. I didn't have it easy. Then I tried
bad things, for a time, with someone. So I came back, thinking
I'd find something here, or, if I didn't, I'd put everything
right. Mommo? And tonight I thought I'd make a last try. Live
out the story finish it, move on to a place where, perhaps,
we could make some kind of new start. I want to help you
(61).
Mary is certain that the healing of the present has its roots
in the past and the freedom she is looking for could be
obtained only when Mommo is encouraged to conclude her
narrative so the: "Poor brandished children of Eve" (75) could
have another chance at happiness. What is important here is
that Mary, not Mommo, is the one who finishes the story and
this is a clear hint, as Fintan O'Toole illustrates, that "the
power of rebirth [is] lying not with the old world of the past,
but with the present and the future which Mary is free to face"
(247-48). Mary's ending of Mommo's narrative does unite past
and present, tradition and modernity and this is an effective
procedure for a fresh beginning.
To achieve a better insight into the nature of Mommo's
relation with her granddaughters, one would follow Elyse
Sommer's advice not to try " to understand every word of
Mommo's endlessly repeated story" which may seem boring,
but with little patience the audience would be able to visualize
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 37

the image the play is trying to draw. In fact Murphy's

declaration that: "I'm a difficult playwright to interpret for
audiences and actors" (Clarity) rings true especially in
Bailegangaire which continually poses a challenge and
requires close attention.
In conclusion, one is apt to say that the image of mother
presented by Synge and Murphy in their plays could be
considered as the playwrights' contributions to the nation's
crisis. Through providing a picture of simple marginalized folk
struggling earnestly for survival, and are at grips with their
lives' problems, Synge and Murphy reflect on certain aspects
of Ireland's hard history. On the one hand, Maurya struggles
and is overcome by forces greater than herself. The lesson she
learns from her traumatic experience is that life is essentially
tragic and one has to accept fate in order to achieve the peace
of mind and be able to see beams of hope even in the darkest
situations. Mommo, on the other hand, has lived a life of
suffering and hardships and is able with the help of her young
people to attain reconciliation and come to terms with her
turbulent past. Both Synge and Murphy use their plays as a
means of asserting the Irish national identity. Establishing this
"Irishness" is of vital importance to counteract the negative
effects of colonial rule under which the Irish have suffered dire
consequences.

Notes
1. Both Synge and Murphy are connected to the Abbey
Theater, the former is considered one of its influential
playwrights whose contribution to Irish literature is
appreciated by critics now and then, while the latter took a
long time before gaining recognition due to his difficult
style of writing. Both writers showed musical talents;
Synge received thorough training and became a master of
the flute, the piano and the violin, while Murphy is gifted
with a very beautiful singing voice. If Synge, at a certain
point of his life, had influenced Lorca, Tom Murphy had
been affected by the same Spanish artist, and the three
share a common trait seen in their theatrical language that
is very close to music with rhythm, tone and cadence. (See
James F. Clarity, "Praise Doesn't Equal Fame, but
Playwright Persists" and Colm Tibn. "Tom Murphy").
2. Thomas Murphy. Bailegangaire. Dublin: The Gallery Press,
1986, p 9. All page references are to this edition and will be
incorporated parenthetically in the text of the paper.
3. J M. Synge. Riders to the Sea. Twenty-four One-act Plays.
Ed. John Hampden. London: Everyman's Library, 1997.
13-24, p 21. All page references are to this edition and will
be incorporated parenthetically in the text of the paper.
4. In some of his poems such as "No Second Coming", "A
Woman Homer Sung", "Her Praise", "A Bronze Head",
"The Two Trees" and "A Prayer for my Daughter", Yeats
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 39
reflects the general tendency about women prevalent in the

Irish society of his time. A woman was expected to devote
herself to her home and children. Yeats, in the above poems
criticizes the woman who consumes her energy for the
participation in the Irish struggle for freedom. In his belief,
a woman should focus her attention on the beauty of her
body and household affairs and leave nationalist activities
for men only.

Works Cited
Carr, Marina. Marina Carr: Plays 1: Low in the Dark. The
Mai. Portia Coughlan. By the Bog of Cats . London:
Faber and Faber, 1999.
Clarity, James F. "Arts Abroad; Praise Doesn't Equal Fame
But Playwright Persists." The New York Times. 29 July
1999. 8 Feb. 2014. (No Pagination)
o <http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/29/theater/arts-abroad-
praise-doesn-t-equal-fame-but-playwright-persists.html>.
De, Ardhendu. "The Poetic Quality of the Colloquial
Speech in J M Synge's Riders to the Sea" Monday, May 23,
2011. 8 Jan. 2014. (No Pagination)
o http://ardhendude.blogspot.com/2011/05/poetic-quality-of-
colloquial-speech-in.html.
Falkenstein, Leonard Robert. "Renovating the Kitchen:
Irishness, Nationalism, and Form in the Theatre of John B.
Keane, Tom Murphy, Hugh Leonard, Brian Friel, and
Thomas Kilroy." Diss. University of Alberta, 1997. 7 Jan.
2014.
o <https://era.library.ualberta.ca/public/datastream/.../DS1>.
Farrelly, Ann Dillon. "It Depends on the Fella and the Cat:
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o Through the Myth of Irish Identity in the Plays of Martin
McDonagh". Diss.
o The Ohio State University, 2004. 7 Jan. 2014.
Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 41

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu10861
04442& disposition=inline.
Frawley, Oona. "The Shadow of the Glen and Riders to the
Sea." Mathews 15-27.
Grene, Nicholas. The Politics of Irish Drama: Plays in
Context from Boucicault
o to Friel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 8
Jan. 2014. www.questia.com.
---, ed. Talking About Tom Murphy. Dublin: Carysfort
Press, 2002.
---. "Tom Murphy and the Children of Loss." The
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Twentieth Century Irish Drama. Ed. Shaun Richards.
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University Press, 2004. 204-17.
Harris, Susan Cannon. "Synge and Gender." Mathews 104-
116.
Kaya, ebnem. "John Millington Synge's Riders to the Sea
in Terms of Epistemology." Hacettepe Universitesi
Edebiyat Fakltesi Dergisi 155-168, 22, 1.2005.6 Jan. 2014.
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mKaya.pdf.
Kiberd, Declan. "Response." Grene, Talking About Tom
Murphy 83-7.

Lavery, Brian. "Arts Abroad; The Best-kept Secret of Irish

Theater: Tom Murphy." The New York Times. Nov. 7.
2001. 8 Jan. 2014. (No Pagination)
o http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/07/theater/arts-abroad-the-best-
kept-secret-of-irish-theater-tom-murphy.html.
Lawley, Paul. "Murphys Beckett: Legacy and Agon."
Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui 23: 215-29. 2011. 10
Feb. 2014. (No Pagination)
https://www.academia.edu/1434284/Murphys_Beckett_Leg
acy_and_Agon.
---. "Orality and Avoidance: Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire."
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Plymouth, 5-6 September, 2008.
o 1-11. 4 Jan. 2014.
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_Tom_Murphys
Mathews, P. J. "Re-thinking Synge." Mathews 3-14.
---, ed. The Cambridge Companion to J. M. Synge.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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and Home in Bailegangaire by Tom Murphy and Dancing at
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Competition. 2011. 6 Jan. 2014. (No Pagination)
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woman...>.
Murphy, Tom. "Tom Murphy: In Conversation with
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Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 43

Talking About Tom Murphy. 91-112.

O'Casey, Sean. Three Plays. London: Macmillan, 1975.
O'Toole, Fintan. Tom Murphy: The Politics of Magic.
Dublin: New Island Books, 1994.
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Methuen, 1961. 8 Jan. 2014.
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Forgotten People: J.M. Synge's the Aran Islands in the
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Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 45

The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J. M. Synge's Riders To The Sea and Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire

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The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J.

M. Synge's Riders to the Sea and Tom

Fathia Saleh Al-Ghoreibi

8 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J. M. Synge's

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 9

10 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

son, Michael is missing and reported drowned while her only

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 11

untouched by the modernizing influences of British

12 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

earlier rejection of the kitchen setting stems from his

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 13

be displayed in Mommo's narrative. Hence, the title is linked,

14 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 15

identified as Seamus O'Toole, her husband. At a certain point

16 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

18 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 19

that of Maurya. None of her "Nine" or "Ten" children is

20 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

The rise of the Irish national movement at the end of the

meet the requirements of the true Irish woman propagated by

22 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

create a sort of discourse between past and present. The

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 23

between mother and daughter is also sensed when Maurya

24 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

Through focusing their attention on the image of the

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 25

childhood hoping to find, as McHugh suggests, "what she was

26 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

money and a car, suffers from her husband's serious

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 27

probe into the causes of their problem and find effective

28 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

Bartley to give him her blessings and the forgotten piece of

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 29

Mommo is the Irish figure of seancha, or storyteller who

30 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

one another. This change is observed in the following extract

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 31

which fuses English "with idioms, rhythms and syntax of

32 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

consider him a writer of "good poetic drama within the severe

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 33

concerned in the tale. This sense is further stressed by another

34 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

Mommo 'Well," says he oh lookin" the merchant

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 35

Latinate ('educated' or 'literary') words to inflate the account

36 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

addressed to Mommo, Mary contemplates on their

Volume No 15 (1436 Ah / 2015) 37

the image the play is trying to draw. In fact Murphy's

38 Umm Al-Qurma University Journal of Languages and Literatures

reflects the general tendency about women prevalent in the