The Valley of The Squinting Windows
After selling out all 4 performances in 2023 we are delighted to announce that we will be bringing ‘THE VALLEY OF THE SQUINTING WINDOWS’ back to Mullingar Arts Centre in October 2024 for 3 nights.
First published in 1918, Brinsley McNamara’s novel tells the story of life in a fictional rural village (Garradrimna) in Catholic Ireland, at the beginning of the 20th century and the power of gossip and public perception of an inward looking society, unwilling to look at the darker side of the developing national character. Ireland, struggling to emerge from “British Rule” was drowning itself instead, in the repressions of the Catholic Church and the hierarchy of small town politics.
At the beginning of the last century the Church and government in Ireland were obsessed with warding off the constant threat to Catholic purity from foreign, most especially English, influences. They saw the emerging state as a haven for saints and scholars ,and were unwilling to allow artists the freedom to put forward a contradictory view. There was a feeling that it was not appropriate for a writer to present a critical and unsavoury picture of IrishSociety, just prior to, and after Independence. McNamara in his depiction of a small Irish village, joins Synge and O’Casey who were despised for their depiction of West of Ireland people and the “Dublin working class”.
The last time this novel was officially read in public was the year of its publication in 1918 on the steps of Clonyn castle to the gathered villagers of Delvin. Understandably, the locals were excited that one of their own had written a published book. During the reading, the locals quickly realized that the fictional characters in the novel were representative of the people in and around the village of Delvin. Pride instantly turned to hostility and an ensuing national scandal in Ireland.