Cover

Patrick Hennessy's Exiles may seem an unusual choice for the cover of an issue on twentieth-century Irish America. The apocalyptic overtones of the scene--the wasted, desert-like terrain; the overcast sky; the stark, isolated, aimless, and poorly dressed figures; and the lifeless crags jutting from the sea--suggest bleak desperation and hopelessness. Such themes were certainly characteristic of the twentieth century, never more so than during the convulsive period between 1914 and 1945 when Hennessy was at work.

Yet this century was also one of steady, at times spectacular, progress for the Irish in Ireland and the United States. On closer examination, Hennessy's work can be seen to capture both sides of the Irish twentieth century. The stone emanations, which seem to bar the coastline, perhaps emphasizing an island's isolation, diminish in size and menace as they recede. And the lone figure's gaze toward the distance--perhaps a brighter future--suggests a mix of determination and optimism characteristic of the Irish on both sides of the Atlantic today. Far from being simply an image of desolation and despair, then, Exiles also suggests the potential movement from poverty to plenty, from despair to hope, and from turbulence to peace.

KATHLEEN COSTELLO-SULLIVAN is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Boston College, with a specialty in Irish Studies. She has published articles on Michel Foucault, Jonathan Swift, and Anglo-Irish women's literature and has articles forthcoming on Rudyard Kipling and Maria Edgeworth. She is currently working on her dissertation, "Communities of Isolation: Ireland, Modernity, and the Haunted English Imperial Imagination."

COPYRIGHT 2002 Irish American Cultural Institute
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group