ИСТИНА

The paper compares non-fictional and fictional representations of wartime Ireland by Elizabeth Bowen. It also attempts to tackle the ethically ambivalent notions of espionage and neutrality. In the years following the Irish Revolution the relationship between Britain and the newly emerging Republic was that of a rather dubious nature. This was worsened by Ireland’s neutrality in World War II, which was seen by many in Britain as cooperation with the Nazis. During the war Elizabeth Bowen, by then a mature and well-known Anglo-Irish writer, worked for the British Ministry of Information, travelling between England and Ireland reporting on the state of mind in the latter. The writer always saw herself as a mediator between the two countries, the task imposed on her by her origin. We are lucky to have in print Bowen’s espionage reports to Winston Churchill as well as a collection of her essays devoted to Ireland. As for her fiction, the action of some of her short stories and a part of her only wartime novel take place in Éire. These writings provide us with a unique view on both Ireland during the war and its relationship with Britain. The reports and fiction complement each other in the way that we would not understand some scenes in the latter without reading the former and similarly we would miss some important points in the reports if we ignored the fictional material. Also, the matter that interests us enormously is whether Bowen’s self-imposed role of a mediator and peace-maker which is clearly reflected in the reports is preserved in her fiction.