The Social World and Concerns in Marina Carr's

By The Bog of Cats

A Research Paper for THE 390, The Senior Project Seminar in Theatre

Ian Hutton

Fall, 2011

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Marina Carr’s By The Bog of Cats… is set in the Midlands of Ireland, in a bleak

landscape of ice and snow (Plays 1, 267). Carr’s use of the Bog and the mythical

characters of The Ghost Fancier, Catwoman, and Joseph Swane give this play an

other-worldly feel—which gives it a sense of timelessness. It is important in a

staging of this play, however, to establish the time period, especially given the fact

that almost all of the play’s critics believe that the work addresses various social

concerns of this period of Irish history.

By The Bog Of Cats… was first published in 1998 and performed later that

year. In the opening pages, Carr sets the time as being “The Present”. The reader

would assume, therefore, that “The Present” would be in the late 1990s, when the

play was written. Indeed, scholars agree that the play is set in the late 20th Century

(Keating, Murphy, Sayın).

One of the reasons that it becomes important to establish the time period of

this play is that Ireland was undergoing massive social change in the 1980s and

1990s. It was a time when many traditional Irish institutions such as land

ownership, livestock, community structure, the role of outsiders, the role of women,

marriage, family, religion, folklore and superstition all came under extreme pressure

from the dramatic economic success known as the “Celtic Tiger” era. This was

named in homage to the “East Asian Tigers” before it (Harrower, 50).

The “Celtic Tiger” is a term that refers to a period of incredible economic

growth in Ireland, mainly during the 1990s. Up until that time, Ireland was a poor,

agrarian country with high unemployment and a weak economy. It was transformed

into a wealthy country with the arrival of high-tech and “dot com” industries, who

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ventured to Ireland because of its highly competitive tax schemes. As a consequence,

during the “Celtic Tiger” period, Ireland lost much of its agrarian past. By the end of

the 20th century, 3000 farmers were leaving the land every year (Foster, 26) and

Ireland evolved into a first-tier world economic power, with the highest growth of

per capita income of any nation in the European Union.

In addition to the major economic changes, some of the institutions in Ireland

also changed. Politically, Ireland was more autonomous, and the peace process in

Northern Ireland allowed for power sharing between opposing groups. This, in turn,

allowed the government to become more successful. Religion also changed in the

Republic of Ireland, and Catholicism no longer had the strong hold that it once had.

“As late as 1990, it could be claimed that 85% of the Irish adult population attended church once weekly; but by 1997…this had fallen to 65%, and far lower than that among the urban young.” (Foster, 57)

“The Celtic Tiger is at once an economic and social revolution” (MacCionnaith, 7-8).

This era, the time of By the Bog of Cats, saw Ireland move away from its past identity

towards a new one. During this transition time, however, many Irish people were

struggling with the question of who they are in relation to the past (MacCionnaith,

8). What is the Irish national identity, and how do the old ways and traditions fit in

with the new Ireland?

Theatre is a way for the Irish people to express and deal with these changing

times.

“As Ireland addresses it’s Celtic Tiger transformation, theatre is a key player, as a catalyst as well as reflection of this change….If theatre is truly a reflection life, of course it would be a dynamic element in the formation of Ireland’s identity…Carr’s work can be placed within a long lineage of Irish dramatic literature writers who, like her, seem to

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explore, in various ways, an Irish national identity through the plays they write.” (MacCionnaith, 8).

By the Bog of Cats is a play about a changing world. The theme of tradition versus

modernity is a powerful one. Carr’s play highlights the tension between these two

ways of being.

In her article “Staging Histories in Marina Carr’s Plays”, Paula Murphy

suggests Carr’s Midland Plays (The Mai, Portia Coughlin, and By The Bog of Cats…)

are indeed a reflection of a playwright using her drama as a way to highlight these

changes. Murphy suggests that Hester (and the other protagonists of these plays)

represents “…the transformed Irish nation, adrift in modernity and desperately

grasping to the symbolic fragments of its former identity.” In other words, Murphy

argues that these plays need to be understood in the context of what was occurring

socially, economically, and culturally in Ireland at the time. She states:

“…the play creates a new perspective on contemporary Ireland by representing the cultural anxiety about moving from a relatively insular, economically unsuccessful island nation to a wider global community, politically, culturally, and technologically. In other words, this article argues that the plays should not be interpreted as completely realist drama instead, through historical literary references and the theme of history, they can be read as symptomatic of the unease about the rapid social changes that have occurred in the last two decades.”

In his article “At The Heart of Irish Atavism: A Fatal Excess” Bruce Stewart

agrees. He states that Hester is:

“…a proxy for the political violence upon which the Irish state was founded and which is now in the process of being jettisoned as we move from rurally based catholic-nationalism towards civic ways of feeling more appropriate to the cosmopolitan attainments of the Celtic Tiger.”

The struggle between the old Ireland and the new Ireland is an important

theme as played out in the social world of the characters in the Bog of Cats. The

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most important concerns of the Irish people—as identified in this play—are land

ownership, livestock, community structure, the role of outsiders, the role of women,

marriage, family, religion, folklore and superstition. Land is one of the most

important parts of the social world of the people of Midlands Ireland. In a more

general way, “land” is also landscape. In Carr’s three Midlands Plays, the landscape

is an important part of the story. Carr states this clearly in an interview referenced

by Hillary Campos when she says “I’ve always thought landscape was another

character in the work, and if you can get it right it will resonate and enrich the

overall piece” (Campos, 2). In an interview with Patricia Novillo-Corvalán, Marina

Carr was asked about her upbringing in County Offaly (in the Midlands) and how the

countryside influenced her work. Carr said:

“I grew up in a place called Gortnamona, which means “field of the bog”, for the first 11 years, and then moved a half mile down the road to a place called Pallas Lake. Our house was on the shore of the lake. There were swans, there were bulls, there were dragonflies, there were fishermen. My sister and I spent long summer evenings sitting on an old Oak tree looking out at the lake, laughing our heads off at anything, everything, nothing. The winters were cold, sometimes the lake froze…When the weather was fine, she [Marina’s mother] would let us play for hours outside…it was a good childhood, free and fairly wild.” (Novillo-Corvalán, 145)

In his book The Irish... Thomas O’Hanlon underscores the importance of land to the

Irish when he says: “Land has been to the Irish what hidden gold was to the hard-

rock miners of the Klondike—the mother lode” (O’Hanlon, 45).

In his book The Irish Countryman, Conrad Arensberg describes Irish farming

life in the 1930s. Arensberg’s research was based in County Clare in western

Ireland, which is a geographically different area from Carr’s Midlands. The

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descriptions that he provides of the Irish farmer, however, help us to understand

rural Irish life and the central importance of land. He says:

…the farm family spends its entire life upon [the land]: sleeping, eating, giving birth and dying there, and sallying forth every day for work. Whether or not there is a topographic identity between house and land, there is a social one. The countryside knows the farm as a unit. The farm shares the name of the family working it. It is inalienably associated with them. (Arensberg, 54)

Xavier speaks to this in Act Three: “[Carthage] loves the land and like me he’d

rather die than part with it wance he gets his greedy hands on it. With him Cassidy’s

farm’ll be safe…” (Plays 1, 328). His farmland bears his name and is almost an

extension of himself. Land is important because it symbolizes power and, in a rural

society, land is the foundation for everything else. It is essential, therefore, that

family continuity be maintained from one generation to the next.

Land is referred to in many different ways throughout the dialogue. Land

ownership is a symbol of power. The best example of this is an interchange between

Carthage and Xavier on page 332:

[CARTHAGE]: Keep your bloody farm, Cassidy. I have me own. I’m not your scrubber boy. There’s other things besides land.

[XAVIER]: There’s nothin’ besides land, boy, nothin’! And a real farmer would never think otherwise.

In fact, land is a large part of the struggle between Hester and Carthage. Much of Hester’s outrage at Carthage is due to the fact that she was the one who acquired the first bit of land that elevated Carthage above the level of un-landed peasant: “It was my money that bought him his first fine acres” (Plays 1, 284). Much of Carthage’s motivation in marrying Caroline is to acquire the Cassidy family land. At one point in the play, Hester actually accuses Carthage of putting land before family:

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[HESTER:] You’re sellin’ me and Josie down the river for a few lumpy auld acres and notions of respectability…ya’ll only be Xavier Cassidy’s workhorse. He won’t treat you right.

[CARTHAGE]: He’s treatin’ me fine, signin’ his farm over to me this evenin’. (289).

Regarding the conflict between Old Ireland and Celtic Tiger Ireland, land

seems to represent both aspects. In terms of old, traditional Ireland, nothing is more

important in the rural areas than land and the family preservation of land. The very

greedy approaches by Carthage and Xavier, however, seem to refer more to Celtic

Tiger Ireland, where the acquisition of money and property was so important.

The idea of cattle as property is closely associated with the idea of land as

property in the play. In his study of rural Ireland, Conrad Arensberg states: “Cattle,

as we know, are very important to the countryman” (Arensberg, 172). In fact, cattle

are so important to Carthage that he goes to check on them on his wedding day

(Plays 1, 282). Upon his return, Josie asks him in a way that shows that even she

understands the importance:

[JOSIE]: Did ya count the cattle, daddy?

[CARTHAGE]: I did.

[JOSIE]: Were they all there?

[CARTHAGE]: Yes they were, Josie. (286-7)

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Given the importance of cattle to the Irish countryman, it isn’t a surprise that

Hester seeks revenge on Carthage by burning his forty calves alive: “…Ya smell that

smell?” Hester asks on page 317. “That’s your forty calves roastin’. I tied them all in

and flung diesel on them.” In shock, Carthage later responds: “The cattle! The calves!

Ya burnt them all, they’re roarin’ in the flames!” (331). It is significant that Hester

referred to the number of calves that Carthage had. Arensberg states in The Irish

Countryman:

“When a small farmer tells you he ‘has the place of four cows’ he sums up…the farm, judging it by its ability to support himself and his family in the country manner and to give pasture to four milch cows. In [this] phrase, he epitomizes rural economy” (Arensberg, 55).

In other words, the number of cows that a farmer owns is a description of his worth

in rural Ireland.

The social world of the characters in the Bog of Cats has to be understood in

terms of their community structure, and that community structure is based on rural

farm life in the Bog. This community is described at the end of Act Two as covering

only nine square miles, though to the residents it is their world. The town (which is

most likely part of the Parish that is referred to in the play) is seen as a faraway

place.

[CARTHAGE]: There’s a house bought and furnished for ya in town as ya agreed to —

[HESTER]: I’ve never lived in a town. I won’t know anywan there —

[MONICA]: Ah, let her stay in the house, the Bog of Cats is all she knows. (Plays 1, 314)

This small farming community does not tolerate outsiders. Hester is very

much an outsider because of her Tinker roots. It makes her a member of one of the

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most despised classes in Irish society. The disgust and dislike that the members of

this community have for Hester and her Tinker blood is prevalent throughout the

play. In Act Three, Xavier says that Hester is “…beyond reasonin’ with. If she was

mine, I’d cut that tinker tongue from her mouth, I’d brand those tinker lips” (322).

Mrs. Kilbride says to Hester in Act Two: “I’ve had the measure of you this long time,

the lazy shiftless blood in ya, that savage tinker eye you turn on people to frighten

them” (312).

Hester and her Tinker blood represent a threat to the community and also

represent old Ireland and the past rural social structure. According to Lawrence

Millman:

“Hatred of the Tinker, I think, is hatred of the past. The more violent it is, the greater the need to blot out past images, to lie about origins, to sever the connections between history and one’s own person…For Tinkers are like survivors from past generations of rural Ireland…” (Millman, 88)

In the following dialogue, Mrs. Kilbride shows her detest of Hester. However,

Monica then tells the truth that Mrs. Kilbride also has Tinker blood in her:

[MRS. KILBRIDE]: A waste of time givin’ chances to a tinker. All tinkers understands is the open road and where the next bottle of whiskey is comin’ from.

[MONICA]: Well, you should know and your own grandfather wan!

[MRS. KILBRIDE]: My grandfather was a wanderin’ tinsmith —

[MONICA]: And what’s that but a tinker with notions! (Plays 1, 314-5)

This dialogue captures Arensberg’s statement “To insult a man, it is enough to

suggest he has Tinker blood” (Arensberg, 85).

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In Staging Histories in Marina Carr’s Midland Plays, Paula Murphy feels that

Carr chose to have her heroine—Hester Swane—be a Tinker because they were a

traditionally marginalized group in Irish society. This “belies Carr’s intention to hold

a mirror up to her audience. She forces them to acknowledge their history of ethnic

prejudice against travellers; a history that the Irish are reminded of daily in their

new multicultural society.” This quote is another reminder that Carr, and the Irish

audience that sees her plays, brings their own worldview to an understanding of the

play.

Hester is a very complicated character in By the Bog of Cats, as shown by the

fact that some critics see her as a modern feminist while others view her desire for a

traditional life with Carthage and Josie as anti-feminist (Sayın, 80). Critics generally

agree, however, that as a woman, she represents old, rural, traditional Ireland:

…Carr’s play is about isolated, rural, Pagan Ireland, as represented by Hester, and its struggle to maintain its traditions against the new conventions of universal modernity, as represented by her community. As the majority of the characters try to separate themselves from this older conception of the space in which they live, Hester embodies all the outmoded traditions that they are working against. By the Bog of Cats… therefore illustrates the struggle between the traditions of Ireland and the recent national movement towards the European normalcy. (Kader, 167-8)

If Hester represents old, rural, and traditional Ireland, then Caroline

represents at least an aspect, perhaps the worst aspect, of modern Ireland. She

seems to have no interest in the farm or the land. She is not interested in anything

with substance, and seems to be portrayed as a silly and frivolous character. She

talks about the disappointment of her wedding and her hopes for how it was

supposed to be: “…and the weddin’ was goin’ to be in this big ballroom, with a

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fountain of mermaids in the middle…” (Plays 1, 336). Carthage does not seem to

respect her and certainly does not love her. Her own father says of her: “…I don’t

care for the whiny little rip that much…” (330).

The tension between old, traditional women’s roles and the new, modern

women also exists in the institutions of the family and marriage. Three families are

portrayed in the play, the Swanes, the Kilbrides, and the Cassidys—and all three are

highly dysfunctional. The Kilbrides and Cassidys are both trying to be important

pillars of their small community. “In it’s outward appearance, Caroline’s family is the

picture of modern conventionality. For one, they are up and coming land owners

and are very concerned…with showy materialism” (Kader, 170). Xavier Cassidy is

important because of his money and land ownership. Hester says: “It’s only your

land and money and people’s fear of ya that has ya walkin’ free” (Plays 1, 293).

Carthage Kilbride is also trying to become more important in the eyes of the

community by marrying Caroline Cassidy, a woman who he does not appear to love.

“The first conversation between the bride and groom reveals that their new

marriage is a loveless one…” (Kader, 173). Hester says to Carthage: “You’re sellin’

me and Josie down the river for a few lumpy auld acres and notions of

respectability…” (Plays 1, 289).

In reality, while these families seem to be the respectable families—and

important in their community—they are dysfunctional. Xavier murdered his son,

and says of his wife that she “…had no fight in her, wailed like a ewe in a storm…”

following her son’s death (305). He calls his daughter a “…whiny little rip…” (330).

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Mrs. Kilbride is cruel to her own granddaughter Josie, having stolen her Communion

money and now refusing to give it back.

In a strange way, Hester is really the one who—at least in her desires—

wants a normal, traditional family. This institution is so important that researchers

have said: “Irish rural life [is] a social system centering so strongly [a]round the

institution of the family” (Arensberg and Kimball, 221). Hester begs Carthage to

come back to her and live with her and Josie as a normal family. She has a strong

attachment to her daughter Josie, and she longs for her mother as well. She is able to

show a love that none of the other families really show. “What is perhaps most

frustrating to these members of the community [in the Bog of Cats] is that Hester

tends towards and longs for a familial normalcy that none of them is able to achieve”

(Kader, 175). Of course, in the end, this wish of a family is denied with tragic and

violent consequences.

There is perhaps no institution of more historical importance to rural Ireland

than religion, and more specifically the Catholic Church. Ireland is a “…land of the

devout, where word and deed breathe a religious fervour which most of us have

forgotten. This is the land of Holy wells and pilgrimages and roadside shrines”

(Arensberg, 32). Later, Arensberg says that an Irish countryman’s “…life is ordered

in its adherence to his religion…He is a devout and practicing Catholic” (166).

It is the Catholic religion, however, that Carr attacks. The wedding in Act Two

is portrayed in an almost comical manner. The marriage between Caroline and

Carthage almost seems like a joke. “…the wedding scene is a direct attack on all

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traditional institutions of the Symbolic Order: church, state, family, and marriage are

all parodied and presented by Carr as ‘false icons’” (Sayın, 84).

Carr also attacks religion by attacking the clergy. Here, she portrays “…the

declining role of the clergy and the new materialism of Celtic Tiger Ireland, where

religious rituals like communions and weddings have become more significant as

performances of social status” (Keating). Indeed, Father Willow, instead of being

portrayed as a wise and respected priest in the traditional sense, is instead

portrayed as a laughable clown. He uses snuff; he can’t remember the Grace for the

wedding feast; he appears to be infatuated with Catwoman; and is “…an old fool,

dribblin’ into the chalice” (Plays 1, 307). Monica describes his appearance at the

wedding ceremony: “The state of him, with his hat on all during the mass and the

vestments inside out and his pyjamas peepin’ out from under his trousers” (305).

Not only does Marina Carr use Carthage and Caroline’s wedding as a way to

ridicule Catholicism, she also uses First Communion in a similar way. In By the Bog

of Cats, Carr has terrible things happen to both Hester and Josie when they are

seven, the age of First Communion, and both are dressed in their communion

dresses. Hester is abandoned by her mother, and Josie is killed by hers. Conrad

Arensberg states that in rural Irish life the Holy Communion occurs at the age of

seven and it is the beginning of a “change in emotional wellbeing; [it] bestows a real,

if mysterious and holy, strength” (Arensberg, 182). This change did not come upon

either Hester or Josie when they were seven.

While the rural Irish family was traditionally devoutly Catholic, it was also

often superstitious. “…the Irish countryman is…devout in another direction too…

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there is room in his mind and heart for fairy belief [superstition]” (Arensberg, 166).

Arensberg states that the countryman is influenced by the supernatural world. He

states:

…in one aspect, the [supernatural] occup[ies], like nearly all folklore, the borderline between the natural, profane, mundane world and that of the supernatural, the sacred, and the religious. It is along this borderline that we must trace the countryman. (167)

Catwoman is the character in By the Bog of Cats who represents this

superstition. In many ways, she could be seen as more of an outsider than Hester.

Hester is only a Tinker, while Catwoman is an unbelievable and mythic character.

For this reason, the community is scared to not include Catwoman in their social

world. At Caroline and Carthage’s wedding, Xavier says: “…ya know as well as me its

bad luck not to invite the Catwoman” (Plays 1, 307). Later, Carthage says: “Come on

now, Catwoman, and give Caroline and me wan of your blessin’s” (308). Therefore,

not only is religion important in the social world of the characters in this play,

superstition and folk traditions are also important. These superstitions and folk

traditions represent the old Ireland.

Catwoman herself declares that the community should listen to her as

someone who understands old traditions and old ways. She says:

Gave auld Xavier herbs to cure his wife. What did he do? Pegged them down the tillet and took Olive Cassidy to see some swanky medicine man in a private hospital. They cured her alright, cured her so well she came back cured as a side of ham in an Oak coffin with golden handles. (Plays 1, 276)

This makes the point clear to the characters in the play that if they do not listen to

what Catwoman says, bad things will come of it.

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The characters in this play struggle with the old and the new. It is important

to remember that the first audience to see this play at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin

in 1998 was experiencing incredible change in Ireland because of the Celtic Tiger

Era. They would most likely identify with the young Waiter in Act Two who wishes

to leave the Bog to become an astronaut:

[CATWOMAN]: And what’re ya goin’ to be when ya grow up, young Long Dunne?

[WAITER]: I want to be an astronaut but me father wants me to work on the bog like him and like me grandfather. The Dunnes has always worked on the bog.

[CATWOMAN]: Oh go for the astronaut, young man.” (Plays 1, 298)

Although not an integral part of the play, these lines sum up one of the main

conflicts in the play—the conflict between old, traditional Ireland and the new,

modern Ireland—and the stress that this puts on the social world of the play’s

characters. As seen from the above research, the social world of rural Ireland is in

the process of being destroyed. In fact, R. F. Foster says in his book Luck & The Irish:

“…the Ireland of 1949 might have existed on another planet when compared to the country at the turn of the millennium…it is the rate of change in the last thirty years of the twentieth century that is most bewildering. Partly because of the archaic nature of life in Ireland up to then, the shock of the new could only be all the more radical.” (Foster, 3)

The Irish audience that originally saw By the Bog of Cats… understood and felt this

shock. While an American audience does not have this perspective, it is important

that our production conveys this tension between old and new Ireland. The social

world of the characters in By The Bog of Cats… can best be understood with this

knowledge.

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Works Cited

Arensberg, Conrad, and Solon T. Kimball. Family and Community in Ireland.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1940.

Arensberg, Conrad. The Irish Countryman: An Anthropological Study. Garden City,

New York: The Natural History Press, 1968.

Campos, Hillary Jarvis. MARINA CARR’S HAUNTINGS: LIMINALITY AND THE

ADDICTIVE SOCIETY ON AND OFF THE STAGE. Masters of Arts in English

Brigham Young University, 2008.

Foster, R. F. Luck of the Irish: A Brief History of Change from 1970. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2008.

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Harrower, Natalie Dawn. The Performance of Critical History in Contemporary Irish

Theatre and Film. PhD University of Toronto, 2009 Graduate Centre for Study of

Drama, University of Toronto.

Kader, Emily L. "The Anti-Exile in Marina Carr's by the Bog of Cats...." Nordic Irish

Studies 4 (2005): 167-87.

Keating, Sara. "New Meanings found in Translation." The Irish Times November

10th, 2010 2010.

Kirby, Peadar. The Celtic Tiger in Distress: Growth with Inequality in Ireland.

Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England: PALGRAVE, 2002.

MACCIONNAITH, ERIC-MICHAEL. RESURRECTIONS: THE USE OF FOLKLORE

THEMES AND MOTIFS IN MARINA CARR'S WORKS. PhD in Theatre University

of Oregon, 2008.

Millman, Lawrence. Our Like Will Not be there again: Notes from the West of

Ireland. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1977.

Murphy, Paula. "Staging Histories in Marina Carr's Midlands Plays." Irish University

Review: A Journal of Irish Studies Autumn/Winter (2006).

Novillo-Corvalán, Patricia. "The Theatre of Marina Carr: A Latin American Reading,

Interview, and Translation." Irish Migration Studies in Latin America 2009: 145.

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O'Hanlon, Thomas J. The Irish: Sinners, Saints, Gamblers, Gentry, Priests, Maoists,

Rebels, Tories, Orangemen, Dippers, Heroes, Villains, and Other Proud Natives

of the Fabled Isle. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

Sayın, Gülşen. "Quest for the Lost M/Other: Medea Re-Constructed in Marina Carr's

by the Bog of Cats..." Journal of Arts and Sciences (2008).

Shira, Melissa. "Stitching the Words: Marina Carr's by the Bog of Cats." Irish Theatre

Forum 3.1 (1999).

Stewart, Bruce. "At the Heart of Irish Atavism: "A Fatal Excess"." Newsletter of The

International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures 1999. 10/22/2011

<http://www.iasil.org/newsletter/archive/newsletter1999/covers.html>.

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