Irish scholar recalls romantic 1960s
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Irish Ambassador Aingeal O’Donoghue, right, and Kevin O’Rourke, an Irish priest and scholar who has lived in Korea since 1964, pose for a photo with holding O’Rourke’s latest book, titled “My Korea; 40 Years Without a Horsehair Hat,” during a roundtable interview with The Korea Times at the embassy library, Thursday. The embassy named the library after O’Rourke to commemorate his role in building bridges between Korea and Ireland. / Korea Times
Embassy thanks
Kevin O’Rourke for
bridge-building role
By Kang Hyun-kyung
An Irish Catholic priest and scholar, who has translated more than 2,000 Korean literary works into English, observed that Koreans were happier in the 1960s than today, despite sweeping poverty back then.
Kevin O’Rourke, professor emeritus of Kyunghee University, recalled that Korea was full of fun and excitement 50 years ago and that this began to fade as society experienced massive industrialization from the late 1970s.
“In the 1960s, folks were much easier going even when they had less. And nobody got angry if you parked your car in the wrong place,” he said in a recent interview with The Korea Times at the Irish Embassy library which is named after him.
Irish Ambassador to Korea Aingeal O’Donoghue joined the interview on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of O’Rourke’s arrival in Korea in 1964, as well as the publication of his latest book, “My Korea: 40 Years Without a Horsehair Hat.”
“Korea in the 1960s was full of insim, human heart in Korean. Back then, we used to tell a policeman on a one-way street that ‘This is the only way I know to get home. Can you help me?” And he would stop the traffic and send you up,” O’Rourke said. “They would put you in jail if you tried that today.”
The Irish scholar said that people led simple lives and had caring hearts until the late 1970s and early 1980s when the middle-class emerged.
“When you look back at the 1960s, or 70s, it was such a romantic period here ... There was no bread, no butter. There was nothing that foreigners would normally eat. There was no decent restaurant in Seoul except maybe Hanilkwan in Myeong-dong, which was the best place to eat,” he said.
“At that time, there was only one way to go anywhere. In the city, when you went to Yonsei University there was only one way to go. Now there are approximately 300 ways to get there.”
The Irish scholar said a lot of excitement began to disappear in Korea from the late 1970s as the nation pushed for a sweeping drive to achieve economic growth.
His remarks indicated that material success in Korea over the past six decades after the 1950-53 Korean War came at the expense of people’s good hearts.
Since 1968, four years after he arrived in Korea, O’Rourke has translated Korean poems, novels and other literary works.
He obtained a Ph.D. in Korean literature from Yonsei University in 1982. O’Rourke was the first foreigner to receive a doctorate in this subject from a Korean University.
He taught at Kyunghee University from 1977 until he retired from the post several years ago. He won the Korean National Literature Prize in 1989 for his translations of Korean poetry.
The Irish scholar also won the presidential citation for services to Korean language and literature from President Lee Myung-bak.
To commemorate O’Rourke’s role, the Irish Embassy named a library at the embassy after him in 2010. Then Irish Minister of Education Batt O’Keeffe attended the ceremony held at the embassy in Seoul.
Kevin O’Rourke Library
The library has nearly 800 books, including a selection on Irish culture, history and politics. It is open to the public.
O’Rourke described the library as the best collection of Irish books here.
Ambassador O’Donoghue noted that the Irish scholar’s translation opened up elements of Korean literature to the wider world and that the embassy acknowledged his role with the library project.
“It was very much linked to the role that Kevin played in building bridges between Korea and not just Ireland but the English-speaking community,” said Ambassador O’Donoghue.
The Irish envoy hinted that O’Rourke’s newest book is a great guide for foreigners to have deeper understanding of Korean culture.
“To listen to Kevin and to read his book you understand that you can really get deeper into the country. Understanding literature and taking on the challenge of the language which I have to say it’s extraordinary to meet people such as Kevin who mastered Korean,” she said.
“Today there is temptation to only try to understand of another culture through shared elements,” she added.
Seoul Literary Society led by Swedish Ambassador Lars Danielsson, in collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland in Seoul, will commemorate the publication of O’Rourke’s book, “My Korea”, on Feb. 26 during the society’s 33rd meeting at the residence of the Irish ambassador in Seoul.
The book, which is a combination of essays, poems and stories, was published last year in England. O’Rourke said that the book is about his experiences of Korean culture over the last 40 years.
“It sets out to do illustrate what it is like living in a society governed by a long tradition of Buddhist influence and Confucian influence,” said the Irish scholar.