WE meet in the kind of dive which has become a rarity in London these days. A subterranean Spanish taverna set back in an alley off the beaten track from the bright lights of Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road.
I’m here to talk to Gav Clarke about his new publishing venture, Eile. Following a brief foray into the business a few years ago, Eile rose from the ashes of what Gav describes as a ‘silly legal dispute’. It seems that he and his partner John O’Donoghue found themselves on the wrong end of a cease and desist order over their original choice of name.
Now, Eile – which translates to ‘other’ in Irish – seeks to give a voice to Irish literature centred around the diasporic experience in Britain. It was born, Gav says, out of his and John’s time organising and running events for the Irish Literary Society; a kind of meet-and-greet venue for like-minded Irish intellectuals started by W.B. Yeats in 1892.
‘My background is as an archivist,’ Gav says. ‘John is a writer. Together we thought that we could put something together which was a kind of corrective to the lack of real interest in the very particular experience of first and second generation Irish people living in Britain.’
I ask him whether that attitude accounts for the statement on Eile’s masthead, that they want to publish material related to the Irish diaspora in the face of ‘a hostile environment’. Gav nods.
‘I’ve been in England for about twenty one years now,’ he says. ‘And I’ve personally never received any trouble or negative impact because of my Irish identity. But during discussions, both John and I were keenly aware that a real voice for the Irish diaspora had to have an inbuilt awareness of postcolonial struggle. How literature became a kind of refuge for people who couldn’t be fully themselves at home [in Ireland], or in their adopted home in Britain.’
He gives me an example. ‘We’re hoping to publish some of Colm Ó Clúbhán dramatic work in the near-future. As a young gay man in 1970s Ireland, Ó Clúbhán had no choice but to come to England where it was more acceptable to pursue his identity… Though he enjoyed some minor success in the 80s, he’s since been neglected. If we have the opportunity to give his work its long-overdue revival, then we're delighted.’
In fact, Eile is such a recent venture that it has only just published its first title; a book of translations of the 17th Century Irish poet Aogán Ó Rathaille by gaeilgeoir and former journalist Brian O’Connor. Appropriately, its title ‘Wave’ suggests the swelling of a coming tide. Eile have even managed to procure a glowing introduction for the book from world-famous Irish critic and intellectual, Declan Kiberd.
‘Ó Rathaille has been translated by everyone from Hewitt to Heaney,’ Gav says. ‘But there’s never been a version quite like what Brian has done. Where Hewitt and Heaney were all about preserving the musicality and metrical feet of the original Irish, Brian has gone for a much simpler plain-English approach. His fidelity is to meaning and despite not coming from a poetic background, the results are astonishing. I think he’s very humble not to call himself a poet.’
‘Wave’ is available to buy in paperback for £10.00 from Eile’s website.
See More: Aogán Ó Rathaille, Eile, Poetry, Publishing
