HELEN KELLER’S TOUR OF IRELAND IN 1930
CIAN Manning shares interesting details of Helen’s thoughts on the
Emerald Isle of almost 100 years ago
In 1930, Nobel Prize nominee Helen Keller and her companions, Polly
Thompson & Anne Sullivan, toured Ireland. CIAN Manning shares
interesting details of Helen’s thoughts on the Emerald Isle of almost
100 years ago
Alabama-native Helen Keller, a disability rights advocate and her
‘miracle worker’ teacher and companion Anne Sullivan (whose parents
hailed from Limerick) with Polly Thompson decided to travel to Britain
and Ireland in 1930.
Reasons for such a trip encompassed Sullivan’s deteriorating health, a
last attempt to discover the story of her parents and ancestors from the
Treaty County while Keller, who lost her sight and hearing from the
tender age of 19 months, stated she was “eager to see the world before I
am gone from it”.
After some unwillingness to travel to the Old World from the United
States, Sullivan eventually relented to Helen’s request, setting sail
that April on a six-month trip visiting the islands in Keller’s first
trip to Europe.
Sullivan even commented that she herself had inherited the Irish
melancholy and mysticism with “their waywardness, their fitful temper
and erratic desires” in a trip that could lead to more questions and
sorrow than closure. It was Keller’s maiden venture that would lead to
her visiting 39 countries in her lifetime.
Having kept their plans quiet, Keller, Sullivan & Thompson came to
England and fell in love with Cornwall staying at a bungalow in the
coastal town of Looe. As they had to vacate the cottage on 13th June and
having to wait for Trout Hall in Essex till 1st July, the group made the
decision to visit the Emerald Isle.
they travelled from Plymouth aboard the Bally Cotton which would dock at
Waterford in the early morning the same day.
As they waited for their car, the party waited on board and listened to,
as Keller had written in her letter to Nella Braddy Henney, “great
derricks (a lifting device consisting of a guyed mast) as they lifted
barrels of Devonshire cider on to the pier and replaced them with
barrels of Guinness’s stout and Irish bacon. O how good they both smelt!”
From the Bally Cotton anchored in the River Suir, they viewed the
Waterford Quayside populated by “principally jaunting-cars and little
donkey-carts” as Keller recorded the 9th century town as “the only place
in all Ireland which successfully resisted Oliver Cromwell’s victorious
forces, and for that reason the Cavaliers called it ‘Urbs Intacta’.”
Though the motto of the oldest city in Ireland dates much earlier than
Cromwell which the tourist Keller has recorded, these notes still
demonstrate the interest she took in the history of Ireland which is a
common theme in her writings. From the city on the Suir, they made their
way for Killarney in the south-west.
‘for the most part depressing’: JOURNEY TO KILLARNEY,
As Keller and her companions travelled to Kerry by car they were struck
by the poverty and gloom that appeared to drown the Irish countryside.
'even in glorious sunshine, Keller said of the journey that it was in
the most part depressing' as they wittnessed emaciated donkeys, poor and
dilapidated cottages locates in 'drab and silent' towns which were
plunged in to furthey despair by women in black shawls which she
believed 'made the scene even more gloomy'.
This was broken by the colour and impressive architecture of the
estate of the Duke of Devonshire in Lismore Co. Waterford.
Stopping their car to get a better view, Keller describes the castle
there as beautifully situated above the black water which rushes and
tumbles in flashing leaps and bounds.
When they reached Co. Kerry and entered the town of Killarney, Keller
believed never in her life had so many adjectives of colour, grandeur
and of romance poured in to my hand in an effort to gibbe me some idea
of the indescribable beauty that is Killarney.
Such was her admiration for the area she spoke of, Brickeen bridge,
Muckross Abbey, Ross castle and the beauty of the Gap of Dungloe.
Keller in her letters suggests that they have lunch at the ruins of a
stone house where the great Liberator of Ireland Daniel O'Connell was born.
Picnicking with those romantic ruins covered in ivy and a cow laying at
their feet, Helen took in the scene as she sat on a big rock where
little daniel O'Connell used to study his lessons.
Thought for all the beauty of Killarney Keller was struck by the
bleakness of the Co. Kerry landscape which she deemed was due to Queen
Elizabeth 1 orders to fell Irish forestswhich was so thoroughly done,
not a single tree or bush survived but this harshness was perforated by
Helen and Polly witnessing dancing at the cross roads with Keller
describing the performers light feet that seem to strike lighting from
the ground... as if in a nightmare...
Looking for lore in Limerick
The ggroup stayed in Limerick for two days as they tried to find more
information for Anne Sullivan about her ancestory.
She had discovered only several years previously that her father, Thomas
Sullivan had abandoned her and her brother to the poor house as he made
his way to Chicago to make his fortune as a ditch digger.
Anne remembered her father laughting, singing and telling stories of
Ireland but sadly he never did make that fortune and committed suicide
int he windy city.
After many enquiries they made no further headway in gathering more
informationor documentation on her ancestors though Keller went to visit
the Island that gave her the greatest influence of her life in the form
of her teacher Anne, Sullivan commented that Ireland made her as if she
'was held fast in a nightmare'.
From Limerick they crossed the border to Co. Clare where Keller and
Thompson climbed to the very top of Cratloemoyle Castle to take in the
fine views of the river Shannon, Limerick and it's hinterlands.
If anything this moment appeared to illustrate the uniqueness of Ireland
as Keller wrote 'one of the poignant fascinating things about Ireland is
the weird antiquity that hangs about all it's beauty.
From the rural west they made their way for the metropolis of Dublin.
Midstream?
Reflections of Dublin and bray
Bar a walk in Stephen's Green and driving through the Phoenix Park,
Keller stated of her time in Dublin that 'I have as clear an idea of the
city as a mole has of the dimensions of the earth he burrows in'.
Thought she had time to visit the largest book store in Dublin to
enquire about whether her latest book Midstream was for sale only to be
met by the response that they had never heard of itt.
She further condemned the bookstore for not having The Life of either
Charles Stuart Parnell or Daniel O'Connell nor the biography of the
former Mrs O'Shea for sale.
After leaving Dublin, they stayed a week in the seaside town of Bray and
fell in love wwith the beauty and landscape of Co. Wicklow.
Admiring the peak of Wicklow mountains, which she described as they
catch the first ray of sunrise and continue to reflefct the golden beams
of sunset long affter twilight has fallen onn the emerald isle glens.
She pilgrimmed to the Meeting of the Waters made famous by Thomas Moore
and noted that Sullivan and Polly Thompson 'fingers spelled every minute
- of the trip' yet they declared they simply couldn't impart to me the
tender grace of wood and watter in the settings of emerald hills.
While in Bray Keller marked her fiftieth birthday, on the 27th June
which was solemnised in Ireland in Ireland by drinking a bottle of
liquid sunshine while they took a long walk on Bray head.
Keller and Thompson loved to climb the cliffs and catch glimpses of the
sea and the golden beach on one side and emerald pastures landwood
leading her to proclaim, 'o gem of the western ocean, love thee'.
Keller concluded that Ireland was a baffling country - loveable,
detastabble and interestingly tragic.
Every minute of visit to that land was brim-full of interest, but they
were there only two weeks, and naturally we couldn't see a lot of what
we wanted to see.
Those words are made even more remarkable when you consider that Helen
Keller lost her sight and hearing when just nineteen months but that
didn't stop her celebrating her fiftieth birthday in Ireland.
They embarked for Britain on the 1st of July staying at Exeter.
It's a heartening story of triumph over adversity and the power that
binds us to face the greatest of challenges which show that love can
conquer all.
https://www.irelandsown.ie/helen-kellers-tour-of-ireland-in-1930/
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