Life
1889-1975 [Earnán de Blaghd; de Blagh: BML]; b. Magheragall, nr.
Lisburn, Co. Antrim, son of Protestant farmer; joined Gaelic League, taught
by Sinéad Flanagan [who taught and married Eamon de Valera]; recruited
to Irish Volunteers by Sean O’Casey; IRB organiser; junior reporter
on North Down Herald, Bangor, then Newtownards; worked as farm labourer
in Kerry Gaeltacht, 1913, spending two years there learning Irish; clerk
in the Department of Agriculture in Dublin; Irish Volunteers organiser,
1914; imprisonment and hunger-strikes; in prison during 1916 Rising; Sinn
Fein executive, 25 Oct. 1917; N. Monaghan TD, 1918; Minister of Trade
and Commerce to 1921; unsympathetic to John Chartres in his conflicts
with Charles Bewley, the Irish representative in Berlin; Minister of Finance,
1921-23; Minister of P&T, 1922-32; Vice-Pres. of Executive Council
of Free State, July 1927-Mar 1932; reduced old age pension from 10 to
9 shillings [but see Lee, infra]; defeated gen. election 1933; senator
till 1936, and retired; encouraged Mac Liammoir-Edwards theatre Taibhdhearc
(Galway); fnd. An Gúm; granted £1,000 to Abbey making it the first
state-subsidised theatre in the world; Abbey Mg-Dir., 1941-67 [var. Director,
1939], awarding first govt. grant during his Finance ministry;
encouraged MacLiammóir-Edwards’ An Taibhdhearc, Irish-language
theatre, Galway; launched Irish-drama policy with four productions in
1943; founded An Gúm; published poems, Fraoch agus Fothannáin
(1938); The State and the Language (1949); also Briseadh na
Teorann [The Smashing of the Border] (1955), a study of partition,
urging reconciliation; issued A New Departure in Northern Policy (1949);
also 2 vols. autobiography as Trasna na Bóinne (1957), dealing
with his development, as an Ulster Protestant, towards radical nationalism,
also Slán le hUltaibh (1969); object of actors' strike led
by Vincent Dowling and others, resulting in the co-option of Walter Macken
to the Board, 1966; succeeded by Tómas Mac Anna at the Abbey with
the opening of the new theatre, 1967; d. 23 Feb., Dublin. DIW DIH DIB
OCIL
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Works
Poetry, Fraoch agus Fothannain [verse] (Oifig an tSoláthair
1938), vi, 55pp. Prose, Briseadh na Teorann (Dublin: Sáirséal
agus Dill 1955), plates, 195pp.; A New Departure in Northern Policy,
appeal to the leaders of National Opinion (Dublin: Basil Clancy [1957]);
Trasna na Bóinne (Baile Átha Cliath: Sáirséal agus Dill
1957) ; Slán le hUltaibh ([Dublin: Sáirséal
agus Dill] 1969) [var. 1970].
Miscellaneous, ‘Birth Pangs of a Nation’, The Irish Times (Nov. 19 & 20 1968), pp.1, 7; [Earnan P. Blythe,] ‘The Welsh Chapel in Dublin’ [July 1957], in Dublin Historical Record, 14, 3 (Dec. 1995), pp.74-79.
Criticism
Oliver Snoddy, ‘Notes on Literature in Irish Dealing with the Fight for
Freedom’, Éire-Ireland, 3, 2 (Summer 1968), pp. 138-48;
Nollaig Ó Gadhra, ‘Earnán de Blaghd 1880-1975’ [appreciation],
Éire-Ireland, 21, 3 (Autumn 1986), pp.93-105. See also Peadar
Ó hAnnracháin, Fé bhrat an Chonnartha (Baile Átha Cliath: Oifig
an tSolathair 1944) and comments in Lennox Robinson, Ireland’s
Abbey Theatre: A History 1899-1951 (London: Sidgwick & Jackson
1951), pp.125-26.
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Notes
Phyllis Hartnoll, ed., Oxford Companion to Theatre (1988
ed.), ‘Blythe [...] saw it as the function of the Abbey "to
preserve and strengthen Ireland’s national individuality". The
cultivation of Gaelic Drama became a priority and actors were required
to be bilingual, and new plays were allowed to run on.’
British Library holds Earnán de Blagh, Briseadh na Teorann (Sáirséal agus Dill 1955), plates, 195pp.; Fraoch agus Fothannain [verse] (Oifig an tSoláthair 1938), vi, 55pp. [Unlisted, Trásna na Boinne ([Dublin: Sáirséal agus Dill] 1957); Slán le hUltaibh ([Dublin: Sáirséal agus Dill] 1969).
Books in Print (1994), A New Departure in Northern Policy, appeal to the leaders ofNational opinion (Dublin: Basil Clancy [1957]) [n.pp.]
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Seán Mac Mathuna, author of Gadaí Géar
na Geamh-Oíche/The Winter Thief (Peacock 1992),
owns that much of the inspiration for the play came from Ernest Blythe’s Slán le hUltaibh, which recounts his experience as an IRB
organiser. (Irish Times, Weekend, during March/April 1992.)
PQ: ‘Peasant Quality’, often associated with Blythe’s administration at the Abbey was actually coined by Hugh Hunt, as related in Frank O’Connor, My Father’s Son (1964): ‘[...] he had invented something called “Peasant Quality” – which the actors had turned into PQ and used the slogan “Mind your PQ”.’ (p.202).
Women’s issues: For account of Blythe’s refusal of plays dealing with women’s issues, and his denial that prostitution and adultery existed in Ireland, see Attic Guide to Irish Women Writers (1993) under Lilian Roberts Finlay (p.123).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)