Publication: The far-reaching legacy of John Hume

The death this summer of John Hume provides the context in which reflections on the themes of reconciliation, hope and the importance of place comprise many of the essays in the Winter 2020 issue of Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. Testament is paid to Hume's immense impact on the political focus and discourse in Northern Ireland over a period of forty years; the scale of his achievements and the global reach of his inspiration also provide a framework for surveying the synergetic relationship between Britain and Ireland through a literary lens.

Reconciliation is central to the Gospel message and work in its cause defined Hume's political life, says Michael Lillis in his essay on John Hume's legacy. Complementing this account is Sir Jonathan Phillips's review of a recently-published book of personal accounts by distinguished public servants of the search for peace in the decades leading to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Phillips observes that 'John Hume's creative presence…ripples throughout' the book.

A series of essays on moments in Irish literary tradition over the past 250 years demonstrate the impact that historic relations between Britain and Ireland can bring to a creative perspective. Dr David Clare, Dr Eamon Maher, Dylan Thursfield and Professor Thomas O'Grady variously consider the importance of place and 'the geography of the imagination' in writers from different cultural backgrounds in their respective contributions on Sheridan, George Moore & John McGahern, Yeats and Behan. The section concludes with two essays on Hume's immediate contemporary and fellow Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney. Professor Jeffrey Meyers recalls Heaney's friendship with the American poet Robert Lowell and Paul Corcoran's essay examines the theme of hope in Heaney's The Cure at Troy, hope being the bedrock of Hume's vision for reconciliation between peoples.

Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review Winter 2020, Irish Writing: Moments in the Tradition plus John Hume's Legacy is published by Messenger Publications. Priced at €10.

For more information see: www.studiesirishreview.ie/product-category/default-category/current-issue/