The initial problem which arose when compiling this bibliography consisted in defining an excerption basis for a literature which of its nature needs to be viewed as bilingual. The present listing of Irish and Anglo-Irish literature has been intentionally modelled on the approach of The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature (ed. Robert Welch, Clarendon Press, 1996) which tries to encompass the widest possible territory. This is why it also includes authors who were merely born in Ireland, or were long-term residents, those who were of Irish parentage or whose work featured a link of one kind or another to Ireland and Irish culture. The listing then includes not only authors as Oscar Wilde or G.B. Shaw - whose place within the Irish canon is well established - but also those whose association with Ireland may seem surprising to many: Laurence Sterne, Lafcadio Hearn, Bram Stoker or George Berkeley. Such a range under the one heading is open to challenge; however, the intention was to give a preference to a broader rather than a too narrow definition of the area.

    In the same manner, the thematic range aims to be very wide, which means that areas of culture other than literature tend to be covered as well (especially history and politics). Nonetheless, this principle is followed with a varying degree of consistence, depending on the particular era. Regarding the 19th century, the objective was to document the level and nature of knowledge about Irish culture in the Czech society of the day. Most Czech reflections from that period tend to have a political and/or religious focus. The most interesting facet of the Czech projections of their own situation onto the situation of the Irish are the different aspects stressed by Catholics, Protestants and supporters of the National party. A constant stream of reflections on Anglo-Irish literature emerged only in the second half of the 19th century. It grew further around the turn of the century and continued until the outbreak of World War I; during the Great War, the attention of all periodicals naturally turned to other affairs. After the end of the war and the foundation of Czechoslovakia (1918), the interest in Anglo-Irish writing developed at a steady pace up till the end of the 1930s. What clearly emerges from the recorded publication activities is that the Czech society regularly received high-quality information on Irish culture through a number of journals and dailies. In fact, it was necessary to omit from the excerptions of the latter period some less valuable reviews, news items and anonymous articles of dubious standard (e.g. notices, summaries) due to the excess of available material.

    The years following 1939 (and increasingly so after 1941) were indelibly marked by Nazi persecution and censorship concerning particular topics. However, the treatment of Irish culture by the Nazi authorities was not entirely consistent, as Ireland was to a large extent viewed as separate from British affairs, i.e. rather as a potential tacit ally of Germany, a fact which tended to influence the coverage of things Irish by the Böhmen und Mähren Protectorate newspapers and periodicals. Cultural relations between Ireland and Czechoslovakia began to flourish after 1945 (e.g. the visit of Elizabeth Bowen), and were aided by the return of Czech exiles from Britain. Nevertheless, this promising trend was interrupted shortly after by the coup of February 1948. Devastating persecution of potential opponents of the Communist regime ensued, modelled on the Soviet approach. The targeted "enemies" of the state included intellectuals with a pro-Western orientation. The warped selection of authors in the 1950s focused mainly on authors with socialist or communist views (e.g. Shaw, O'Casey), and later also on some less "dangerous" writers of Irish origin considered part of the English literary canon (Oscar Wilde). The attitude of the establishment towards Ireland tended to be rather ambivalent: the country used to be viewed as a place plagued by "English imperialists" and had once served as a model for revolutionary unrest. On the other hand, it still seemed to be wholly devoted to the Catholic faith, and refused moreover to enter into diplomatic relations with the countries of the Eastern block. This situation pertained until the mid-1960s, when the repressive atmosphere began to thaw slightly. A strong interest in the work of Samuel Beckett ensued; Beckett's absurd dramas soon had a parallel in the work of Czech authors (e.g. Václav Havel, Ivan Vyskočil). Moreover, renewed interest in James Joyce emerged. The total cultural devastation which followed the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia meant another twilight for the reception of Irish culture. The level of presentation of Irish writing returned to that of the 1950s, perhaps with the exception of a few translations published in magazines and the publication of "reliable" and unproblematic authors. For that reason, the so-called normalisation period after 1968 has been covered in the entirety of its material in the bibliography, in order to demonstrate how profound the watchfulness of state publishers was in regard to anything coming from the West. The situation changed again in the second half of the 1980s when more daring attempts to present the recent developments in Western literatures started to appear. A complete - though gradual - restoration of the interest in Western and world literature followed after the 1989 revolution. Hence, by the end of the 1990s one may again speak of an unhampered reception of Irish culture in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

    As the subtitle of the bibliography indicates, the listing includes also a selection of Slovak translations, due to the existence of a common state of the Czechs and the Slovaks in the periods 1918-39 and 1945-92. Slovak translations are listed particularly in cases when a given text has not been translated into Czech so far. The section concerning periodicals features an excerption of the representative journals Slovenské Pohľady [Slovak Perspectives] and Revue svetovej literatúry [World Literature Review] up till the split of Czechoslovakia (1992). Apart from Slovak articles and translations, the bibliography also contains contributions of Czech scholars written in English and/or published in Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic (e.g. in the Litteraria Pragensia journal), translations and articles in German published in Czech-German journals and newspapers (e.g. Augsburger allgemeine Zeitung, Bohemia, Prager medicinische Wochenschrift, Prager Presse) or Latin texts from the 18th century (on St Patrick) published in Prague.

    The bibliography predominantly includes items published up till the year 2000. It records also articles and translations published after that date; nonetheless, some data for the years after 2000 may yet be missing. This was given by the focus of the original project. The bibliography will be continually updated in order to incorporate even the most current data.

    The bibliography consists basically of four large sections: 1. translations published in book form, 2. translations published in periodicals, compilations or anthologies, 3. authored reflections on Irish culture, 4. non-authored contributions, either published anonymously or signed by undeciphered initials. The following detailed description introduces the methodology of organising entries and outlines selected issues concerning categorisation and order of items.


1. Translations Published in Book Form
The section is based on an alphabetical list of authors. Individual works are listed alphabetically for each author. Each entry features the following information: author, title of book, name of translator, author of preface or afterword (where applicable), publisher, place and year of publication.

The section in addition includes several items concerning the first productions of stage and radio plays whose texts/scripts remain unpublished (e.g. Lord Dunsany, St. John Ervine, Louis MacNeice, Martin McDonagh). Included as well are translations of plays which are lodged in and available from the library of the Theatre Institute [Divadelní ústav] in Prague. Mimeographed publications of the Czechoslovak Theatre and Literary Agency [Československé divadelní a literární jednatelství, later called Dilia] and theatre programmes which include complete translations of plays have been treated - despite their lower technical quality and limited print run - as equivalent to book publications, as they are readily available in most bigger libraries.

The section is complemented by a list of book translations from Irish folklore (ordered chronologically according to the date of publication of the translation).


2. Translations Published in Periodicals, Compilations or Anthologies
The section is based on an alphabetical list of authors. However, individual works by each author are listed chronologically according to their date of publication: translators choose from a much larger range of texts, including individual poems or short stories, which would make searching for specific items difficult in an alphabetical list. Each entry features - apart from author and title (or first line or incipit) - an additional characteristic which indicates whether the text is a poem, short story, essay or article. The genre characteristic is followed by the name of the translator, often supplemented by information regarding his/her other role (e.g. editor, author of adaptation) or which penname or initials he/she used to sign the translation. Please note that any initials used are concluded by a full-stop, which leads to the occurrence of a double full-stop whenever a full-stop appears as part of the initials themselves (e.g. Podepsáno A.S.. [Signed A.S..]). Source information includes in most cases the following data (in the indicated order): volume, year, (volume, e.g. I., II.), issue, page, date. Information about periodicals which number their pages continually within each year may lack data concerning issue and date due to casual removal of a title page during the binding process. Wherever the title does not provide a clear idea about the text or in case the translation is supplemented by additional information of interest, a brief annotation is provided in brackets. Data on individual sections (within an issue) of serial publications is divided by semi-colon.

The bulk of the items included in this section comprises excerptions from important dailies, journals and compilations. It also features individual texts published in anthologies (which are given a joint entry in the section concerning book translations, e.g. Ni králi, ni císaři; Vzdálené tóny naděje; Moderní anglická poesie; Moderní básníci angličtí).

The section is complemented by a list of journal translations from Irish folklore (ordered chronologically according to the date of publication of the translation).


3. Authored Reflections on Irish Culture
The section comprises both original and translated books and articles concerned with Irish literature (e.g. by Daniela Furthnerová, Štěpán Kosík, Ondřej Pilný), theatre (Karel Mušek, Frank Tetauer), music (on William Balfe), philology (Josef Baudiš), visual arts (linocuts by Jack B. Yeats, photographs by Tony O'Shea), medicine (Ludvík Schmid, Karel Špot), history (Jan Pařez, Ludvík Schmid, František Josef Sláma, Francis Patricius Taaf[f]e), Old Irish tradition (Jana Chržová, Antonín Kalous, Štěpán Kosík, Daniel Samek) or nature (Jaroslav Skalický II).

Also recorded is the inspiration by and use of Irish motifs in the work of Czech poets (Karel Havlíček Borovský, Bohdan Kaminský, Karel Dostál Lutinov, Josef Václav Sládek), prose writers (Julius Zeyer, Miloslav Zich, František Mužík aka Zachar), playwrights (Milan Uhde), composers (Otakar Ostrčil inspired by Julius Zeyer), and furthermore, Czech visits to Ireland (Jiří Guth Jarkovský, Josef Kořenský, Count František Lützow, Karel Mušek, Václav Petrů), Irish visits to Bohemia (Lord Dunsany at the Czech premiere of The Laughter of the Gods or at a gathering of the patriotic gymnastic organisation Sokol, Edward Martyn and his mention of having visited Prague to Karel Mušek) or Czech reception of Irish reflections on Czech and Slovak culture and politics (e.g. Karel Mušek and his friendship with J.M. Synge, Mušek's conversation with W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory about Julius Zeyer, an Irish production of The Insect Play by the brothers Čapek, W.B. Yeats writing about Czech National Theatre in Samhain, R.J. Kelly writing in The Irish Leader about Czech revivalists and patriots, G.B. Shaw and his intervention in a conflict between the Czechs and the Hungarians or his condolences on the death of Karel Čapek, an interview with Breandán Ó hEithir who translated Hašek's Švejk into Irish, a note on the Countess of Cromartie by Václav Hladík).

The reception of the work of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde has been treated in a slightly different manner from the rest of the material due to the sheer abundance of material and the relative insignificance of some contributions; brief reviews have thus been omitted while only texts by important critics (e.g. Otokar Fischer, F.X. Šalda, Richard Weiner) or promoters of the authors' work (Karel Mušek, Frank Tetauer, J.Z. Novák) have been recorded. The bibliography also includes summaries, longer articles and news items concerned with the introduction of their work to neighbouring or Slavonic countries (e.g. Germany, Austria, Poland, Yugoslavia) and their reception there.

Please note that, in some instances, information may be included twice in the bibliography. This is particularly the case whenever an Irish author writes on Irish literature: such items have been included both into the section listing journal translations and in the section concerned with the reception of Irish culture (e.g. L.A.G. Strong on Joyce, Liam O'Laoghaire on Irish theatre, Frank Harris on Shaw and Wilde or W.B. Yeats on Wilde).

The formal arrangement is similar to section 2., i.e. authors listed alphabetically, their contributions chronologically. Almost all items are complemented by a brief annotation which indicates the content of the contribution and lists important names mentioned in it. Wherever a name does not appear in an annotation in the nominative, the nominative form has been included as well (e.g. Muška - Mušek, Čapka - Čapek).


4. Non-authored Contributions (Anonymous or Signed by Initials)
The section presents what is in effect a remaining part of section 3. It includes contributions whose authors remain unidentified. The formal arrangement is similar to section 3., while contributions follow a chronological order. Data for individual years is listed alphabetically on the basis of journal or newspaper titles. Both lists of contributions (i.e. Anonymous and Signed by Initials) moreover include a large number of items concerned with the Celts, Celtic cultures an similar matters (e.g. celtomania, the Celts and the Slavs) and several texts not directly concerned with culture but rather with politics only.

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SOURCES
Apart from direct excerption of important periodicals and compilations (e.g. Světová literatura [World Literature], Slovenské Pohľady [Slovak Perspectives], Revue svetovej literatúry [World Literature Review], Meditace [Meditation], Nova et Vetera, Archy [Folios], Studium) and the contribution of those listed in the Acknowledgments section below, the following sources have been utilised:


A. Catalogues
1. Časopisecká bibliografie retrospektivní (1770-1945) [A Retrospective Bibliography of Periodicals, 1770-1945]. A card catalogue of annotated records which includes ca. 1 500 000 items. Compiled continuously by the Bibliography Department of the Czech Literature Institute [Ústav pro českou literaturu] since the 1950s. It comprises the following sections: Authors (names and authors' initials), References (names of referenced persons and the RET subject database) and Iconography (authors of drawings and depicted persons).

2. Články v českých časopisech (1945-1952), katalog č. XXVI [Articles in Czech Periodicals, 1945-1952, cat. no. XXVI]. A card catalogue available in the Reference Centre of the National Library in Prague. Includes, among other things, bibliographical information on translations from foreign literatures and articles on Czech and world literature published in the period covered by the catalogue. Since 1953 published in printed form as Bibliografický katalog ČSR [ČSSR, ČSFR] - České časopisy [A Catalogue of Czechoslovak Bibliography - Czech Periodicals].

3. Bibliografická lístková kartotéka (1858-1990) [A Bibliographical Card Catalogue, 1858-1990]. Compiled by the Theatre Institute [Divadelní ústav] in Prague. Includes ca. 300 000 annotated records on Czech and world theatre. A list of referenced periodicals available at http://www.divadelni-ustav.cz/kpsys_biblio_listkzdroje.asp.

4. Lístkový katalog knihovny Divadelního ústavu v Praze [Card Catalogue of the Theatre Institute, Prague]. The library database available at http://www.divadelni-ustav.cz/kpsys_knihovna.asp.

5. Lístkový katalog Národní knihovny v Praze [Card Catalogue of the National Library, Prague]. A scanned version of the General Catalogue [Generální katalog (I, II a III)] available at http://katif.nkp.cz/.


B. Bibliographical Listings
1. Soupis československé literatury za léta 1901-1925 [A Listing of Czechoslovak Literature for the Period 1901-1925]. Compiled by: Czech section, Karel Nosovský, Slovak section, Ph. Dr. Vilém Pražák. Vol. I, Part 1 (A-L) and 2 (M-Ž). Praha: Svaz knihkupců a nakladatelů Československé republiky, 1931, 1933. Soupis československé literatury za léta 1901-1925. Vol. II (Systematický seznam [Systematic Index]). Praha: Svaz knihkupců a nakladatelů Československé republiky, 1938.

2. Seznam české belletrie původní i přeložené (básně, krásná prosa a literatura dramatická) [An Index of Czech Original and Translated Belles Lettres (poetry, fiction and drama)]. Spisy Hlavního města Prahy, No. 6. Praha: Obec pražská, 1929. První doplněk Seznamu české belletrie původní i přeložené [First Supplement to An Index of Czech Original and Translated Belles Lettres]. Praha: Obec pražská, 1932. Druhý doplněk Seznamu české belletrie původní i přeložené. [Second Supplement to An Index of Czech Original and Translated Belles Lettres] Praha: Obec pražská, 1935.

3. Knižní novinky 1935-1947. Seznam původních i přeložených českých knih Ústřední knihovny hl. m. Prahy [New Books, 1935-1947. An Index of Original and Translated Czech Books, the Central Library of the Capital City of Prague]. Vol. I (A-N) and II (O-Ž + indexes). Praha: Ústřední knihovna hl. m. Prahy, 1948.

4. Bibliografie české knižní tvorby 1945-1960 [A Bibliography of Czech Books, 1945-1960]. Compiled by the department of retrospective bibliography of the Czechoslovak State Library - National Library in Prague. Vol. I (A-G) and II (H-K). Praha: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1973. Vol. III (L-Ř), IV (S-Ž) and V (Index of Translations). Praha: Národní knihovna ČR v Praze, 1994, 1995 a 1996.

5. Bibliografický katalog ČSR [ČSSR, ČSFR]. České časopisy [Články v českých časopisech] [A Czechoslovak Bibliographical Catalogue. Czech Periodicals (later Articles in Czech Periodicals)]. I.-XXXVIII., 1953-1990. Published and distributed by the National Library, Prague. (Continued in the CD database of Česká národní bibliografie [Czech National Bibliography].)

6. Bibliografie československé moderní filologie [A Bibliography of Czechoslovak Modern Philology]. 1-9, 1957-1965. Published by Kabinet pro moderní filologii, from 1963 Ústav jazyků a literatur. Bibliografie literárněvědných occidentalik v českém tisku [A Bibliography of Western Studies in the Czech Press]. 1-4, 1970-1973. Published by Ústav pro českou a světovou literaturu ČSAV, Praha. Česká literární věda. Neslovanské literatury [Czech Literary Criticism. Non-Slavonic Literatures]. 5-13, 1974-1982. Published by Ústav pro českou a světovou literaturu ČSAV, Praha.

7. Lexikon české literatury. Osobnosti, díla, instituce [Lexicon of Czech Literature. Authors, Works, Institutions]. Vol. I (A-G). Praha: Academia, 1985. Vol. II, Part I (H-J) and Part II (K-L + Supplement to A-G). Praha: Academia, 1993. Vol. III, Part I (M-O), Part II (P-Ř). Praha: Academia, 2000. (Part IV (S-Z) forthcoming at the end of 2004. An electronic version available on CD.)

8. Rozhlasová bibliografie. 1945-1946-1947 [A Radio Bibliography, 1945-1946-1947]. Compiled and edited by Milada Červenková and Karel Marek. Supervised by Jaromír Jedlička. Vol. I-III. Praha: Czech Radio [Český rozhlas] - Research Department, 1967.

9. Arno Sáňka, České bibliofilské tisky [Czech Bibliophilia]. Vol. I. Brno: St. Kočí, 1923; Vol. II. Brno: A. Sáňka, 1927; Vol. III. Brno: A. Sáňka, 1931. Arno Sáňka, České bibliofilské tisky. Vol. IV (1929-1945). Edited by František Bubla. Praha: Státní knihovna ČSSR - Národní knihovna, 1967. František Bubla, Československé bibliofilské tisky. Vol. V (1945-1970 + Supplement to Vol. IV and Index to Vols. I-V). Praha: Státní knihovna ČSR - Národní knihovna, 1971.

10. Bibliografie české katolické literatury náboženské. Od roku 1828 až do konce roku 1913 [A Bibliography of Czech Catholic Devotional Writing. From 1828 to the end of 1913.]. Compiled by Dr. Josef Tumpach and Dr. Antonín Podlaha. Praha: Dědictví sv. Prokopa. Part I, 1912, Part II, 1913, Part III, 1914, Part IV, 1918, Part V, 1923, Part VI, n.d. (A torso of the card catalogue which was to provide the basis for further volumes of the bibliography - to cover the period 1914-1928 - deposited in Mr. Truhlář's inheritance.)

11. Slovník spisovatelů. Anglická literatura, […], irská literatura, […], waleská literatura [A Dictionary of Writers. English Literature ... Irish Literature ... Welsh Literature]. General eds. Martin Procházka and Zdeněk Stříbrný. Praha: Libri, 1996. (A revised second edition forthcoming.)

12. Preklady z iných literatúr do slovenčiny 1945-1968. Bibliografia knižných prekladov beletrie a umenovedy do slovenčiny [Translations from Other Literatures into Slovak, 1945-1968. A Bibliography of Book Translations of Belles Lettres and Aesthetics into Slovak]. Compiled by Dr Libor Knězek. Introduction by Dr Jozef Felix. 2 Vols. Bratislava: DILIZA, 1969.

13. Literatúra Holandska, Portugalska, Belgicka, Írska, Islandu, Grécka a latinská literatúra na Slovensku 1945-1976. Bibliografia prekladov [The Literatures of Holland, Portugal, Belgium, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, and Latin Literature in Slovakia, 1945-1976. A Bibliography of Translations]. Compiled by Júlia Linzbothová and Dr Ján Molnár. Bratislava: Univerzitná knižnica. Slovenské ústredie knižnej kultúry, 1989.


C. Databases
1. Česká národní bibliografie [Czech National Bibliography]. Includes periodically updated databases of Czech books published in the 20th century and articles in Czech periodicals since 1991. Published by Národní knihovna České republiky in CD form. The databases are also available at http://katif.nkp.cz/.

2. Databáze článkové bibliografie v českých časopisech a denících vytvářená Bibliografickým oddělením Divadelního ústavu [Database of articles in Czech periodicals created by the Bibliography Department of the Theatre Institute]. See http://www.divadelni-ustav.cz/kpsys_biblio.asp.

3. Literárněvědné databáze v Ústavu pro českou literaturu [Databases of criticism at the Czech Literature Institute]: RET (předmětová část lístkového katalogu 1770-1945 [Subject section of the card catalogue for 1770-1945]), b70 (1967-1980), b80 (1981-1989), b90 (1990-1996), b97 (since 1997). These are annotated records of critiques, articles, forewords and afterwords from books, compilations, journals and newspapers.

4. Bibliografická databáze a katalog Národní knihovny České republiky [The bibliographical database and catalogue of the Czech National Library]. Includes all new acquisitions since the year 1995, in all forms of publication. The Czech publication output since 1900 is documented almost in its entirety. See Catalogues and Databases of the Czech National Library at http://katif.nkp.cz/.

5. Databases created by the samizdat and exile literature library Libri Prohibiti. Library director: Jiří Gruntorád. Address: Senovážné náměstí 2, Praha 1, 110 00. See http://libpro.cts.cuni.cz/.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author of the bibliography would like to express his thanks to those without whose assistance it would not have been possible to include a number of important items or even whole thematic areas: Štěpán Kosík (hibernica), Václav Petrbok (first half of the 19th century, germanica, patriciana), Ondřej Pilný (contemporary Irish drama), Jiří Gruntorád (samizdat - pseudonyms), Michal Jareš (exile periodicals) and Vratislav Färber (translations of poetry and Irish motifs in poetry). Thanks are also due to translators who provided data from their personal archives and bibliographies.