The Story Collector

The Story Collector’s historical narrative unfolds against the political backdrop of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period of rising tension in British-ruled Ireland in which Irish Nationalists petitioned to be granted home rule, a form of self-governance proposed by the Irish lawyer Isaac Butt in 1870. Butt argued for “the creation of an autonomous parliament for Ireland within the United Kingdom that would pass laws on local matters” (Mohr, Thomas. “Irish Home Rule and Constitutional Reform in the British Empire, 1885-1914.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019). Butt’s proposal granted the Irish a degree of political autonomy “without making concessions which would involve revolutionary changes or endanger the stability of the Empire” (Mohr). The ruling class of English Protestant landowners strongly opposed these diplomatic attempts to establish home rule, as they feared that granting a largely Catholic populace greater political agency would threaten their own dominance and pave the way for revolution and the creation of an independent Irish nation.

British opposition to Irish home rule eventually ignited greater support for Irish nationalist activists, such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood referenced by Woods in The Story Collector, who advocated for total separation from the United Kingdom and the establishment of an independent democratic government in Ireland. The 1916 Easter Rising became the first armed conflict in “a bitter paramilitary war [that] took hold in Ireland” (Mohr). This political context undergirds the social dynamics of Thornwood village in Woods’s novel. The Hawleys, an English family who are the “largest landowners in the area” (40), represent the Protestant ascendancy, a class of English landlords with a disproportionate amount of economic and political power in Ireland under British rule. Lord Hawley's dismissal of local folklore as mere “superstition” reflects the cultural divide between the English ruling class and the working-class Irish population.

Woods humanizes this conflict through Anna’s brother, Paddy, who follows the progress of the “Home Rule Bill” and aids a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (114). His political engagement depicts the revolutionary spirit taking hold among the Irish population during this period, which also saw the Gaelic Revival, a movement to preserve the Irish language and culture against anglicization. Great efforts were made to restore the importance and use of the Gaelic (Irish) language, which had gradually been replaced by English over the centuries. The Gaelic League, an organization that promoted the preservation of the Gaelic language, was originally “intended as an apolitical organisation, [but] quickly became a meeting place for nationalists […] Members of the League argued that the enforced use of English in schools and universities was a form of cultural imperialism, indoctrinating British identity in Ireland’s youth” (“Easter Rising, Dublin, 1916: Gaelic Literary Revival.” State Library Victoria, 2016). The novel directly references this historic emphasis on cultural identity through the character of Dr. Douglas Hyde, co-founder of the Gaelic League, whose work inspires Harold’s attempt to record local fairy folklore, framing it as a vital act of cultural preservation.