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COMHRÁ:
SEÁN
Desire, that is what the picture is all about. Desire, intoxication.
I was thinking about the whole mixture of desire and the need for happiness
and for wholeness, which is indeed denied in today's world. It's sold
to us through the potential for finding a partner. There is the whole
industry of sex and selling and trying to find somebody.
The
couple are seen through a bottle. In a way, they are imprisoned in it.
But they are not. There is human freedom there always. I wouldn't put
drink down. I like intoxication. I'm fond of drink. But it's potentially
very destructive.
The
picture is about my own conflicts. I feel that need for dis-inhibition.
And at the same time it's terribly destructive. There are these 2 blue
flashing lights reflected in it, the two Xs on the bottle, which now
I've just realised are 2 big kisses. I love kissing.
And I love Brendan Behan. He was a terrible drinker. I am reminded,
looking at the blue lights, of a quote of his. He once said he couldn't
imagine a situation that couldn't be made worse by the arrival of the
police.
GABRIEL
One of the tragedies of the so-called Irish language revival is that
it has been de-sexualised. So that children can go through school, and
they will learn that blackboard is Clár Dubh, but their own bodies,
they can't name certain parts. They don't know Irish for a penis. They
don't know the Irish for a vagina. Now there are a many words in Irish
for penis: Bod, slat. There are many words in Irish for penis and there
are many words in Irish for vagina.
If
you asked a native Irish speaker today, a girl, 'you are making love,
and you want to encourage your partner, what would you say?'
An Irish speaker was asked this recently and she said, 'If I were making
love and I wanted to encourage my partner, I would say, Chúm
isteach.' That's beautiful.
SEÁN
Part of the imprisonment of the human spirit is to de-sexualise them.
Make them guilty. That's what we've had, racially. What the English
did consciously, and what the Roman church did in ignorance. I believe
in the Reichian thing that people need to be liberated sexually in order
to be full human beings. I think the way to mess people up is to confuse
them and make them feel bad. And make them struggle, and pay money for
the things that they deserve as human beings.
GABRIEL
Wilhelm Reich ended up in a lunatic asylum, of course.
Ireland
itself is feminine. Éire is feminine, an Ghaeilge is feminine,
an ghealach, the moon, is feminine. But also an ghrian is also feminine,
you might expect that to be masculine. I actually delight in speaking
a language that has genders. One of the impoverishments of English is
that one of the only times you might refer to 'she ' is maybe a ship
or something.
SEÁN
It's interesting that in English generally they only apply gender to
machines or objects of use.
RUÁN
So, you are suggesting that what is going on here is that the Kiss,
the moment of engagement, is something deeply rooted in the Irish language.
GABRIEL
When Pearse talked about Mise Éire, is sine mé ná
an Cailleach Beara. I am Ireland, Older than the old Hag of Bare. He
was talking about the incredible versatility of the goddess ideal in
the psyche, because she is mother. She is Virgin. She is Whore. And
she is Hag. You mentioned Joseph Campbell earlier: These are universal
myths of the feminine, and it seems that we need them constantly. There
is something terribly alive and erotic in the landscape itself. Just
as you have the Shiva Lingam and the Yeoni to represent the Phallus.
The Phallic and the Yeoni, the vagina, are parts of the Irish landscape
as well. Many a time they were rubbed. I've rubbed Shiva Lingam's in
India as well. Also, of course the Sheila na Gig.
RUÁN
It's the eternal beauty, isn't it? In that picture is that moment we
all lust for, that we all long for.
SEÁN
But in that picture unfortunately it's lost in the haze of drink.
GABRIEL
When we say, Mo Ghrá Thú, it very often happens when a
language goes into decline that one of the last things to die in that
language is terms of intimacy. Irish is very rich in terms of intimacy.
My mother who didn't speak Irish used always say, Ah Báinín.
Come here Báinín. She had this little Gaelic term of affection.
I remember
when I first went to the Gaeltacht, I said, look if I'm going to be
courting lassies give me a good Irish phrase so that I can make this
lassie swoon. So this man said to me, I don't know if he was having
me on or not, but he said, 'Say this to her, Thabarfainn fuil mo chroí
duit', - I'd give you the blood of my heart.
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