Analysis: what is striking is how a man in his twenties could write so convincingly about the plight of a middle-aged female character
In 1963, a young novelist burst on to the Irish literary scene with the publication of his first novel, The Barracks. The writer's name was John McGahern and he would go on to become one of the foremost Irish literary talents of the latter half of the 20th century. McGahern received the AE Memorial Award from the Arts Council for an abstract from the novel in 1962.
Following on the success of The Barracks, he was awarded a Macauley Fellowship in 1964, which allowed him to take a year’s leave of absence from his teaching duties. On his return the following year, he was dismissed unceremoniously as a result of the banning of his second novel, The Dark, and his marriage in a registry office to a Finnish divorcee – not a particularly good career move at the time.
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From RTÉ Archives, writer John McGahern talks to States of Mind presenter Mary Holland in 1979 about what it was like to be banned author
What is striking about The Barracks is how a man in his twenties could write so convincingly about the plight of his middle-aged female character, Elizabeth Reegan, who is dying of cancer. Undoubtedly, McGahern drew on the experience of witnessing his mother die from the same illness when he was just 10 years of age, an event that completely changed the trajectory of his life and resulted in the move of the family to the barracks in Cootehall, Co. Roscommon, where his father was a Gárda sergeant. This building, which has been transformed into a cultural centre and a significant visitor attraction, is unmistakably the setting of The Barracks.
The opening lines of the novel introduce us to Elizabeth, the second wife of Sergeant Reegan and surrogate mother to the three children from his first marriage, who is awaiting the return of her husband from patrol duty on a cold and wet February evening. Reegan, an IRA veteran of the War of Independence, arrives home drenched to the skin and in foul humour. Elizabeth knows better than to tell him at this moment that she has detected cysts on her breast, which as a former nurse she suspects may well be cancerous. He is too taken up with his own problems to have any time to think about what his wife may be going through.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Arena, Colm Tóibín on The Barracks and all things John McGahern 60 years on from the publication of his debut novel
One of the most notable features of McGahern’s first novel is the privileged access the reader is given to Elizabeth’s most intimate thoughts. She accepts with equanimity her position as unpaid housekeeper in the Reegan household, mainly because she is clearly still in love with her husband. Equally, she displays great fortitude in recovering from a mastectomy, only for the cancer to reappear after a short period of time.
On one cold morning after her first surgery, Elizabeth mutters 'Jesus Christ’ under her breath as she looks out on the river and the woods across the lake and really ‘sees’ the awesome beauty of this quotidian scene for the first time. ‘We grow into a love of the world, a love that is all the more precious and poignant because the great glory of which we are but a particle is lost almost as soon as it is gathered.’ McGahern wrote these words in Memoir at a time when he too was recovering from cancer. Both he and Elizabeth realise that people and the physical world are beautiful at times, but that just as we are beginning to understand them, we are called from this life.
Elizabeth does not even have the comfort of religion to help her to face the stark prospect of eternity. One day, as she is sitting in a church, she remarks: ‘There were no answers … she’d no business to be in the church except she loved it and it was quiet.’ On her death bed, she is administered Extreme Unction, the Sacrament of the Sick, by the parish priest who had been none too pleased years previously when she refused to join the local branch of the Legion of Mary.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Arena, University of Liverpool's Professor Frank Shovlin on what John McGahern's letters tell us about his life
She breathes her last while Reegan is busy saving turf in the bog, alone to the last in her suffering. Soon afterwards a trickle of people start appearing at the house to offer their condolences and reflect on the life that has just ended. In the cemetery a couple of days later, as the clay begins to thud on the coffin, two guards, Mullins and Casey, are greatly relieved at the thought that it’s Elizabeth that is being put into the ground and not them – the novel is full of these insightful observations.
His editor at Faber & Faber, Charles Monteith, was unequivocal in describing the great achievement of McGahern’s first novel: ‘The Barracks really has, I think, established you as somebody to be reckoned with", he wrote in a letter to the author in April 1963. "Almost without exception, reviewers took the book seriously – as it deserved to be taken – and were quite clearly impressed by the talent it showed.’
60 years on, the promise spotted by Monteith can still be savoured by anyone who wants to delve into this literary debut that has such depth and meaning. Like all good literature, it has stood the test of time.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
