Sweeney’s Revival

The conception of the idea of focusing on the revival of Suibhne/Sweeney, the legendary Irish king, dates back nearly nine years, a few years after the death of Seamus Heaney. Tracing the ceaseless footsteps of the crazed king, I realized that it would be beyond my capacity to thoroughly examine and scrutinize all the related works that I encountered. My gratitude goes to all who have helped me not to give up the exploration. Sweeney’s uneasy sense of being in-between is probably familiar to many scholars attracted to literature originating from a country and language different from their own. As I traverse between Ireland and Japan, both physically and mentally, I have been fortunate to feel embraced by the world of Irish literature.

The concept of ‘reimagining Ireland’ prompted me to observe Sweeney’s role in forging connections between writers; Heaney reimagines Suibhne as his own shadow or ghostly self. Derek Mahon reimagines Flann O’Brien’s ‘Sweeny’ roaming between life and death. Brian Friel reimagines Heaney’s Sweeney and gives the king a female voice. Meehan and Ní Dhomhnaill reimagine Sweeney as imagined by male authors. I am thankful for the academic and creative works that inspired me to keep working during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a time of rereading, rediscovering, and reimagining, where one felt half-living in the virtual reality of literature. It came to my attention that Paul Muldoon had already stressed the significance of liminality in Irish literature as early as 2000 in his book To Ireland, I. He is somewhat of a King of Liminality, referring to Samuel Beckett as ‘the Lord of Liminality’.¹ Many scholars appear to have been involved in the act of reimagining in a confined state. The Irish Literature in Transition series (2020), which ‘reimagines the literary past and present’ ‘to provide insight into the future of Irish Studies’,² convinced me of the significance of ‘liminality’ as a highly viable period or state of transition. The spirit of Sweeney as a nature poet resonates with that of Bashō, a Japanese wandering poet, haunted by the desire for a journey to devote himself to haiku. It was encouraging to see the publication of Andrew Fitzsimons’s new English translation of Bashō’s haiku (2022), marking a culmination of a deep cultural exchange between the Irish author and Japan.

Since embarking on my search for Sweeney’s revival, I have encountered the shocking news of the passing of John Montague, Matthew Sweeney, Tom Mac Intyre, Ciaran Carson, Brendan Kennelly, Thomas Kinsella, Derek Mahon, and Eavan Boland. Their names are included in this book primarily due to their connection to Sweeney. I am deeply grateful for their legacy which has left a lasting impact on me.

I would like to express my profound appreciation to those who have enriched and stimulated my contemplation of Irish literature, especially Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, who has always welcomed me into her home, and Paula Meehan, who sent me a card expressing her deep concerns about the earthquake in January 2024. I would like to thank all who have supported me, including colleagues at Kyoto University, fellow scholars in academic societies such as IASIL, IASIL-Japan, International Yeats Society, Yeats Society of Japan, Yeats Society of Korea, Japan-Ireland Society, and The English Literary Society of Japan. I am more than grateful to the members of the Kyoto Society for the Research of the Irish Language and Literature. Once we attempted to read Buile Suibhne in Irish but found it beyond our abilities.