“<i>The root of all evil</i>”: Frank McGuinness’ translations of Greek drama

Whether in political propaganda or in creative the myths of ancient Greece have long attracted scholars, writers and audiences from Ireland. Over the past forty years, a wealth of adaptations of plays by Sophocles and Euripides have been produced, which bring back to life ancient tales of heroes and heroines, in settings at times distinctively local and contemporary, at times deliberately universal. Field Day’s contributions represent a typical instance of the former approach to the classics, while other Irish playwrights have used Greek myths to reflect upon questions that are not exclusively Irish. Their plays may have an Irish echo, and some are even set in Ireland, but their main preoccupation lies beyond geographical borders. Frank McGuinness belongs to this second group of playwrights. To date, he has reworked and staged five Greek plays with great audience and critical acclaim. This paper locates his translations of Sophocles and Euripides within the tradition of classical tragedy use in Ireland at the crossroads between the local and the global and at the search of what he calls ‘the root of all evil’ with special attention to his Oedipus (2008) and Helen (2009)

Siding with Ismene: Pale Sister by Colm Tóibín (2019)

Pale Sister di Colm Tóibín (2019) è il titolo di una delle più recenti riletture di Antigone in chiave contemporanea da parte di uno scrittore irlandese. Incentrato sulla figura di Ismene, di cui Tóibín prende le difese, Pale Sister è un monologo teatrale in cui il buonsenso e la pacatezza di Ismene prevalgono sull’intransigenza di Antigone. Riflettendo su fatti di cronaca recenti e sul dilagare di una comunicazione sempre meno efficiente, questo primo esperimento teatrale di Tóibín propone un esempio di drammaturgia impegnata in cui evoluzione e movimento sono affidati alla pratica sapiente di un’articolata politica del silenzio. L’articolo approfondisce il rapporto tra silenzio, paura e memoria a partire dall’uso dei silenzi in Pale Sister selezionando tre brani, qui proposti in traduzione italiana.Pale Sister by Colm Tóibín (2019) is the title of one of Ireland’s most recent rewritings of Sophocles’ Antigone. Centred on Ismene, this dramatic monologue takes sides with Antigone’s sister and with her moderate and tolerant attitude. Tóibín responds to recent events and to the contemporary failure of communication, a worrying phenomenon characterising the times in which we live. This debut play is&nbsp;a fine example of a kind of theatre that is revolutionary, and whose expression relies on the use and 103 abuse of silence. This study focuses on the use of silence in Tóibín’s Pale Sister, of which three relevant sections are presented here in translation

“Full of unearthly energy.” Verso una traduzione di W.B. Yeats

Abstract –The promotion and dissemination of literature and of literary culture owes much to the practice of translation, whether intralinguistic, interlinguistic or intersemiotic. The potential of translation to open up to new knowledge rests on the interaction between text analysis and translation practices, that is to say it relies on the interaction between different codes, texts and contexts and the extent to which these can be articulated. The translator acts between the source text and the target text, which are doubly bound in a way that once the process of translation is complete, the TT illuminates back on the ST and a deeper understanding ensues. From the perspective of the literary scholar the ST thus becomes a TT itself. Based on this premise, what follows reflects on the contribution of textual analysis and translation practices to literary knowledge, with specific reference to the translation into Italian of At Stratford-on-Avon by W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)

“On the brink of the absolutely forbidden”: In Conversation with Mary Morrissy

Mary Morrissy (Dublin, 1957) belongs to the generation of womenwriters excluded from the Field Day Anthology in the 1990s, only tobe included in a dedicated volume in 2003. By then she had becomea distinguished literary voice in Ireland (having published a collectionof short stories, and two novels). After The Rising of Bella Casey (2013),Morrissy returned to the short story in the form of an adaptation ofJoyce’s “An Encounter” (2014), and a collection of short stories entitledProsperity Drive (2016). Situated where history, biography andfiction intersect, her works deal with Ireland’s recent cultural developmentsand situations of marginality risking social exclusion, genderinequality, an indelible past and the dominance of religion. Standing“on the brink of the absolutely forbidden”, her protagonists, like herwriting, yearn to break taboos an

The Duty and Pleasure of Memory: Constance Markievicz

The year 2018 marks a hundred years since the proclamation of the Representation of the People Act and of the Qualification of Women Act by the UK Parliament. It also marks a hundred years since a woman – Constance Markievicz – was first elected in Westminster. A protagonist in the Irish fight for independence, serving almost five years in prisons in England and Ireland, Markievicz devoted her life to political and civil reforms. She became a member of the first Irish Parliament, and in 1919 was nominated Secretary for Labour, thus making also the first female Cabinet Minister in Europe. Women like her contributed to make history and were often the victors, but somehow became marginalised in official chronicles or went lost in the folds of time. Long trapped in the selective mechanisms of collective memory, these women are finally being acknowledged their fundamental role in the shaping of modern nations. Where Markievicz is concerned, the duty and pleasure of memory prompts the work of people engaged in reassessing and promoting her legacy. Two such examples are Olivia Crichton-Stuart, a great-great child of Markievicz’s, and Constance Cassidy-Walsh, since 2003 co-owner of Lissadell House, the Gore-Booths historical property, to which she and her family have since committed. What follows is an informal conversation with both

A machine-learning based bio-psycho-social model for the prediction of non-obstructive and obstructive coronary artery disease

Background: Mechanisms of myocardial ischemia in obstructive and non-obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), and the interplay between clinical, functional, biological and psycho-social features, are still far to be fully elucidated. Objectives: To develop a machine-learning (ML) model for the supervised prediction of obstructive versus non-obstructive CAD. Methods: From the EVA study, we analysed adults hospitalized for IHD undergoing conventional coronary angiography (CCA). Non-obstructive CAD was defined by a stenosis &lt; 50% in one or more vessels. Baseline clinical and psycho-socio-cultural characteristics were used for computing a Rockwood and Mitnitski frailty index, and a gender score according to GENESIS-PRAXY methodology. Serum concentration of inflammatory cytokines was measured with a multiplex flow cytometry assay. Through an XGBoost classifier combined with an explainable artificial intelligence tool (SHAP), we identified the most influential features in discriminating obstructive versus non-obstructive CAD. Results: Among the overall EVA cohort (n = 509), 311 individuals (mean age 67 ± 11&nbsp;years, 38% females; 67% obstructive CAD) with complete data were analysed. The ML-based model (83% accuracy and 87% precision) showed that while obstructive CAD was associated with higher frailty index, older age and a cytokine signature characterized by IL-1β, IL-12p70 and IL-33, non-obstructive CAD was associated with a higher gender score (i.e., social characteristics traditionally ascribed to women) and with a cytokine signature characterized by IL-18, IL-8, IL-23. Conclusions: Integrating clinical, biological, and psycho-social features, we have optimized a sex- and gender-unbiased model that discriminates obstructive and non-obstructive CAD. Further mechanistic studies will shed light on the biological plausibility of these associations. Clinical trial registration: NCT02737982

The Sex-Specific Detrimental Effect of Diabetes and Gender-Related Factors on Pre-admission Medication Adherence Among Patients Hospitalized for Ischemic Heart Disease: Insights From EVA Study

Background: Sex and gender-related factors have been under-investigated as relevant determinants of health outcomes across non-communicable chronic diseases. Poor medication adherence results in adverse clinical outcomes and sex differences have been reported among patients at high cardiovascular risk, such as diabetics. The effect of diabetes and gender-related factors on medication adherence among women and men at high risk for ischemic heart disease (IHD) has not yet been fully investigated.Aim: To explore the role of sex, gender-related factors, and diabetes in pre-admission medication adherence among patients hospitalized for IHD.Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from the Endocrine Vascular disease Approach (EVA) (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02737982), a prospective cohort of patients admitted for IHD. We selected patients with baseline information regarding the presence of diabetes, cardiovascular risk factors, and gender-related variables (i.e., gender identity, gender role, gender relations, institutionalized gender). Our primary outcome was the proportion of pre-admission medication adherence defined through a self-reported questionnaire. We performed a sex-stratified analysis of clinical and gender-related factors associated with pre-admission medication adherence.Results: Two-hundred eighty patients admitted for IHD (35% women, mean age 70), were included. Around one-fourth of the patients were low-adherent to therapy before hospitalization, regardless of sex. Low-adherent patients were more likely diabetic (40%) and employed (40%). Sex-stratified analysis showed that low-adherent men were more likely to be employed (58 vs. 33%) and not primary earners (73 vs. 54%), with more masculine traits of personality, as compared with medium-high adherent men. Interestingly, women reporting medication low-adherence were similar for clinical and gender-related factors to those with medium-high adherence, except for diabetes (42 vs. 20%, p = 0.004). In a multivariate adjusted model only employed status was associated with poor medication adherence (OR 0.55, 95%CI 0.31–0.97). However, in the sex-stratified analysis, diabetes was independently associated with medication adherence only in women (OR 0.36; 95%CI 0.13–0.96), whereas a higher masculine BSRI was the only factor associated with medication adherence in men (OR 0.59, 95%CI 0.35–0.99).Conclusion: Pre-admission medication adherence is common in patients hospitalized for IHD, regardless of sex. However, patient-related factors such as diabetes, employment, and personality traits are associated with adherence in a sex-specific manner

“The root of all evil”: Frank McGuinness’ Translations of Greek Drama

<p class="p1">Whether in political propaganda or in creative the myths of ancient Greece have long attracted scholars, writers and audiences from Ireland. Over the past forty years, a wealth of adaptations of plays by Sophocles and Euripides have been produced, which bring back to life ancient tales of heroes and heroines, in settings at times distinctively local and contemporary, at times deliberately universal. Field Day’s contributions represent a typical instance of the former approach to the classics, while other Irish playwrights have used Greek myths to reflect upon questions that are not exclusively Irish. Their plays may have an Irish echo, and some are even set in Ireland, but their main preoccupation lies beyond geographical borders. Frank McGuinness belongs to this second group of playwrights. To date, he has reworked and staged five Greek plays with great audience and critical acclaim. This paper locates his translations of Sophocles and Euripides within the tradition of classical tragedy use in Ireland at the crossroads between the local and the global and at the search of what he calls ‘the root of all evil’ with special attention to his <em>Oedipus</em> (2008) and <em>Helen</em> (2009).</p

Shakespeare’s Other Eden

Among Shakespeare’s History Plays, Richard II is arguably the less known and less produced. For a long time, the fall of the anointed king was shown to English audiences with the interesting omission of the abdication scene (Act IV), while in Ireland the play has long been taken to be a tragic reminder of the Island’s colonial past. It is arguably for this reason that there is a significant lack of professional productions of Richard II in Ireland, and equally there is a significant lack of critical attention to its fate on the Irish stage. However, in recent years, attempts have been made to re-appropriate a canonical text whose plot lends itself to reflections on history and the past, and to the place of man in relation to both. One such instance is a production of Shakespeare’s play presented by the Dublin-based Ouroboros Theatre Company. This study looks at the way in which Ouroboros relocates the story of King Richard II in Ireland, using the source play creatively to travel across a century of Irish history and reflect upon the making of the country that it is today