O'Flaherty, Liam (1896–1984)

Irish author. He is best known for his short stories published in volumes such as Spring Sowing (1924), The Tent (1926), and Two Lovely Beasts (1948). His novels, set in Dublin, are less poetic and more violent than his stories; they include Thy Neighbour's Wife (1923), The Informer (1925), winner of the Tait Black Memorial Prize, Skerrett (1932), and Famine (1937). The Short Stories (new edition) was published in 1986. O'Flaherty's writings have a strength acquired from his sense of primeval humanity beneath the layers of civilization.

He was born on the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway, and was educated at the National University, Dublin. During World War I he enlisted in the Irish Guards and fought in Belgium, but was invalided out in 1917. For the next few years he roamed all over the world. In the Irish Civil War of 1922–23 he fought for the Irish Republicans.

Among his other short-story collections are The Fairy Goose (1927), The Mountain Tavern (1929), and The Wild Swan (1932). Other novels are Mr Gilhooley (1926), The Assassin (1928), The House of Gold (1929), The Puritan (1931), The Martyr (1933), Land (1946), and Insurrection (1950). Darkness (1926) is a tragedy and Two Years (1930), I Went to Russia (1931), and Shame the Devil (1934) are autobiographical.