Storytelling

Abstract Chapter One (‘Storytelling’) focuses on constitutional nationalists’ search in the mid-1980s for a way out of the deadlock of typical Northern Irish politics, with special attention given to Brian Friel’s play Making History (1988). This drama focuses on Hugh O’Neill, leader of an Irish rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. Friel emphasizes O’Neill’s English education, marriage to the daughter of an English colonist, and policy of co-operating with colonial authority, which alternated with armed resistance to England in his career. The chapter argues that this depiction of the nationalist icon complemented SDLP leader John Hume’s contemporaneous efforts to demonstrate to Protestants that they had nothing to fear from a united Ireland and to persuade republicans to engage politically rather than militarily. Historical events discussed include the New Ireland Forum (1983–4) and the Anglo–Irish Agreement (1985). The chapter contends that both influenced the development of the play, and it draws extensively on the National Library of Ireland’s Friel archive to illustrate the dynamic interplay between authorial intent and circumstance in the work of a politically engaged and motivated writer at a crucial juncture in Ireland’s history.