A Green Jackdaw: Adventures in Parody

If you haven’t heard of M. J. MacManus, you’re not entirely to blame. He was a working Dublin newspaperman and a quiet collector of old books. But back in 1925, he published a slim volume called A Green Jackdaw that managed to neatly, and fairly ruthlessly, take the air out of some of the biggest literary egos of the day.

It is a book of parodies. Not the mean-spirited, vitriolic kind, but the sort of accurate, knowing mockery that usually comes from someone sitting across from you in the pub. MacManus knew the giants of the Irish and English literary revivals personally, and he used that proximity to poke fun at their obsessions and stylistic crutches.

For a modern reader, A Green Jackdaw offers a bit of fresh air. We have a habit of putting writers like W. B. Yeats, G. K. Chesterton, and James Stephens on academic pedestals. MacManus reminds us that they were just men with very recognisable, and occasionally ridiculous, habits. You don’t need a degree in modernist poetry to get the joke; you just need to recognise the types.

A reviewer back in 1927 noted that MacManus caught the rhythms and humour of his targets so exactly that some of these poems could be slipped into their official collected works without anyone noticing. It is just a very fine example of that detached humour the Irish do quite well.

If you enjoy classic literature but occasionally find yourself rolling your eyes at how seriously it takes itself, this book is worth an evening of your time.

Inside, you will find:

• The Mystical Pragmatist: A pitch-perfect send-up of George Russell (Æ), caught between his visions of dewy grasses and his pressing need to finish an article on “The Management of Dairies”.
• The Hearty Englishman: G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc roaring about the glories of pre-war beer and roaring Sussex choruses.
• The Gloomy Local: A deadpan imitation of Brinsley MacNamara’s miserable rural towns, where even the local stout is “almost as black as the hearts of those who drink it”.
• The Windbag Philosopher: James Stephens offering incredibly long-winded, cosmological advice to a farmer who just wants his wife to stop shouting at him.