Ó Cadhain, Máirtín (1906-1970)

Irish Gaelic short-story writer and novelist. Ó Cadhain was born in Spiddal, Connemara, the Gaeltacht (Gaelic-speaking area) of Galway. His work reflects his staunch support of revolutionary republicanism, and is also stylistically highly inventive. His collection of short stories An Braon Broghach/The Hare Lip (1948) established him as a stern critic of accepted social conventions. His novel Cré Na Cille/The Clay of the Churchyard (1949), a bitter commentary by the dead of the Irish Civil War (1922-23) on the treachery of politicians, is now regarded as a major work of modern Irish literature. He exerted a strong influence on subsequent generations of writers

Ó Cadhain worked for a time as a schoolteacher, but was interned during World War II for his active involvement in the IRA. In 1969 he was appointed professor of Irish at Trinity College, Dublin. His collection The Hare Lip was reprinted in Seamus Deane's The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (1991).