J.M. Synge

After travelling throughout Europe and playing violin for peasants in the Black Forest of Italy, J.M. Synge gave up music and settled down to become a writer in Paris. It was there, on one fateful day in Paris, that W.B. Yeats stopped along his travels throughout the Continent and was promptly advised to visit the 'poor Irish writer staying at the top of the house'. Thus the two great writers met. Synge was struggling at the time and in need of artistic inspiration. Yeats told him to, "Go to the Aran Islands, and find a life that has never been expressed in literature". Synge took the advice, and found the inspiration that made him one of the greatest playwrights of his generation.

Synge first came to the Aran Islands in 1898; it was not long before the passion to write about the islands was awakened in him. The islands provided him with the material for his best and most beloved one act play, Riders to the Sea. In Riders an island woman, Maurya, who has lost her husband and five sons to the sea, is forced to face the loss of her last son, who impetuously strikes off for the mainland on a foul night, never to return. Synge’s masterpiece, Playboy of the Western World, was also based on experiences he had while on the islands. The play, which tells the tale of Christy Mahon and his adventures, instigated riots and shouts of 'kill the author!' at its first performance at the Abbey Theatre in 1907. Nonetheless, the play's biting wit and stubborn realism were destined to win the praise of theatregoers; it soon became the cornerstone of Abbey Theatre's repertoire and a classic in its own right.

The time that Synge spent on the Aran Islands is remembered well, and travellers to the islands can still see the house where he lived, and the places he would habit. Synge's own thoughts on the Aran Islands can be found in his series of essays entitled The Aran Islands.

It is clear that J.M. Synge was a pivotal member in the Irish Theatre, and his work is sometimes thought of as utterly extraordinary in its ability to transcribe the Irish spirit into the English language. One can only imagine what he could have accomplished if he had lived past the early age of 38. Nevertheless, in his short life he delivered us some of the seminal works of the Irish Renaissance, an accomplishment few can lay claim to.

Jeremy M. Usher
November 2000