The goal of the Thomas MacGreevy Hypertext
Chronology is to create an electronic archive about
the life, work and relationships of Thomas MacGreevy.
MacGreevy (1893-1967), poet, critic, translator,
art historian and Director of the National Gallery of
Ireland (1950-1963), is one of the pivotal figures of
Irish Modernism. His links with Irish, British,
American and European writers, artists, art
historians, and politicians was so extensive that an
examination of his life provides a unique window onto
cultural and artistic interconnections for the first
three quarters of this century.
Through a mixture of chance and circumstance, the
vast majority of documents relating to MacGreevy's
life and work have been preserved, comprising a body
of material of richness and complexity. This core
material, deposited by his literary executors at
Trinity College Dublin, is one of their most valuable
archival collections. But this core archive cannot be
fully appreciated until examined in the context of
material from other sources, including published
work, musical recordings, numerous private
collections, art work from national galleries, and
other archives.
MacGreevy's papers, would be most valuable as a
research tool organised in a way which minimises
editorial and interpretative interference while
maximising comprehensiveness and accessibility. This
is the purpose of a chronology. Once presented in
such a form, the sheer volume of the archive will no
doubt, in time, foster a number of reinterpretations
of twentieth-century Irish culture by providing a
unique source of material for scholars.
One of the goals of the Thomas MacGreevy Hypertext
Chronology is to link several verbal languages to the
languages of music and the visual arts. As it will
also link literature to history, politics and social
culture at a turning point in the emergence of modern
Ireland, it will provide a model for the assessment
and interpretation of material at the cross-roads of
interdisciplinary understanding.
© Copyright 1998
Susan Schreibman, Department of English, UCD
