Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia/Ciarán Dunphy

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Ciarán Henry Dunphy (Irish: Ciarán Anraí Ó Donnchaidh; 12 September 1888 – 19 December 1963) was an Irish writer, translator. and political activist. A prominent member of Sinn Féin during the Irish War of Independence, Dunphy's distinctive voice made him a significant public political figure, as well as one of the chief chroniclers of Irish nationalism in literature.

Life

Early life

Dunphy was born in Ballsbridge, Dublin to a middle-class family. His father was the surgeon and former Irish Parliamentary Party candidate Pádraig Dunphy and his mother was Catherine Dubont, the daughter of French diplomats. After attending private school, Dunphy went on to study English literature at University College Dublin, where he excelled academically and was extremely popular with fellow students. Dunphy progressed to postgraduate study, which he abandoned to take a teaching job in Paris.

Early career

While teaching English in Paris, Dunphy began writing the novel Curran Awaits, a synthesis of the realism of George Moore with the modernist writing pioneered by James Joyce. Dunphy claims to have considered incinerating the draft of the novel before a chance encounter with Joyce, in which the author spoke words of encouragement. The two were to remain lifelong friends and colleagues, with Joyce helping the novel to be published in London by Lee and Carter. Dunphy became an early translator of Proust but abandoned the project of translating Swann's Way after months of slow progress. In 1915, the spread of World War One forced Dunphy to return to Ireland.

Back in Dublin, Dunphy began teaching at his alma mater to supplement his income while he began to write The Island, an overtly political novel using the allegory of a newly discovered island in the Pacific to stand for Ireland's "brutal and unholy soiling" at the hands of English rule. After a drunken incident in which he was assaulted and verbally abused by an English soldier, Dunphy became more politically aware. The incident was eventually incorporated into James Joyce's Ulysses as an altercation between Stephen Dedalus and Private Carr, also featuring in Dunphy's short story Westerly Winds. Around this time, Dunphy became a member of Sinn Féin, meeting Arthur Griffith and writing several articles in favour of the Easter Rising. While visiting an aunt in Wales, Dunphy was arrested for attempting to gain access to the Frongoch internment camp, where many leaders of the rebellion were being held. He was arrested and placed in Pentonville Prison, until David Lloyd George had him released as a 'political prisoner'. Although only detained for six months, Dunphy was heavily traumatised by his experiences in prison and began to define himself as explicitly 'anti-British'. During this period, he took up some writing in the Irish language as a conscious effort to circumvent the hegemony of the English language.

Having lost his lecturing job as a result of being imprisoned, Dunphy again turned his hand to translation. He translated several classical Émile Zola novels into English, allowing the entire Rougon-Macquart cycle to be read in the language for the first time. He also undertook the first Irish language translation of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, provoking the wrath of a number of Catholic leaders in the process. Dunphy continued to inflame tensions with the church with the publication of Helen of Troy, which was banned on the grounds of blasphemy. A manuscript was smuggled out of Ireland by Nora Joyce, whose husband James encouraged Sylvia Beach to publish the work in Paris. In 1919, Dunphy attempted to sue the Irish Independent for publishing an article in which it was insinuated that he was a homosexual; the case collapsed but the presiding judge was accused by Sinn Féin of being a "west-British yes-man".

Politics and later career

During the Irish Civil War, Dunphy was a staunch supporter of the IRA, although he did not take up arms. As a prominent supporter of the anti-treaty cause, he was enlisted as a propagandist. Dunphy wrote polemics, which were distributed in clandestine pamphlets and were often circulated in the international media. He became well-known among French readers as the author of several essays about the conflict, which were published in Le Monde. After the war, Dunphy's role in public life diminished, possibly due to his bitterness at the outcome of the conflict. In 1926, he returned to Paris to live with his cousin Mathieu Dubont, often dining with James and Nora Joyce at Dubont's home. However, Dunphy sound found that Paris had changed and he became disenchanted with the "mindlessly sanguine" avant-garde movements of the period. His literary output significantly declined in this period, with only a handful of short pieces being printed in small magazines during the late 1920s. One of these, 'The Tall Grass' has been marked by several scholars as a low point in Dunphy's career from which he never recovered.

After several unhappy years in Paris, Dunphy again returned to Dublin in 1931, where he lived with his companion Martin McMurray. Speculation grew about the relationship between the two, but the increasingly ill-tempered Dunphy frequently threatened to take legal action against anyone who discussed his sexuality. In 1936, Dunphy married the dairy heiress Margaret Donohoe, a woman fourteen years his junior. Dunphy's biographer suggests Donohoe was a lesbian and their relationship was a lavender marriage. After marrying Donohoe, Dunphy became more productive again, publishing the novel Men of Many Colours in 1937 and completing translations of works by Honoré de Balzac and Guy de Maupassant the same year. However, his critical stock declined, with the young Samuel Beckett writing a scathing review of Dunphy's 1940 novel Homelands. His reception remained warmer in nationalist circles, especially as his work moved towards the political arena once more. He advocated Irish neutrality during the Second World War, but he was frustrated by the "lack of concern" at Nazism, which Dunphy staunchly opposed. He pointed out that his mother was half-Jewish and he lobbied for Ireland to give moral and material support to displaced Jews after the war.

In 1951, Dunphy was nominated as a member of the Seanad Éireann by Éamon de Valera, taking his seat as an independent but effectively sitting with Fianna Fáil members in the chamber. Upon acceding to the house, Dunphy announced his retirement from literary fiction to concentrate on politics. His political career focused on international concerns; Dunphy was suggested as a possible Ambassador to France in 1955 but declined owing to "old age". Increasingly addicted to painkillers, Dunphy's activities in the Seanad were reduced after about 1957 and he last attended a session in February 1961. Dunphy's final years were lived in poor health and were largely spent being cared for by his wife Margaret on their farm in Offaly. He died on 19 December 1963 of myocardial infarction.

Notes

{{Persondata | NAME = Ciarán Dunphy | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = Irish writer and translator | DATE OF BIRTH = 12 September 1888 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = 19 December 1963 | PLACE OF DEATH = }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciaran Dunphy}} [[Category:1888 births]] [[Category:1963 deaths]] [[Category:Irish writers]] [[Category:Irish translators]] [[Category:Irish people of French descent]] [[Category:Irish people of Jewish descent]] [[Category:Fianna Fáil politicians]] [[Category:Independent politicians in Ireland]] [[Category:Members of the 7th Seanad]]