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| Liam Ó Flaithearta |
Liam Ó Flaithearta (1896-1984) was an Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance. He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Ireland. His brother Tom Maidhc O'Flaherty, also a writer, was also involved in radical politics and their father, Maidhc Ó Flaithearta, before them. A native Irish-speaker from the Gaeltacht, Ó Flaithearta wrote in both English and Irish.
Ó Flaithearta was born in the remote village of Gort na gCapall, on Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands, County Galway. His family, descendants of the Ó Flaithbertaigh family of Connemara, were not well off. The Irish language was widely spoken in the area, and in the Ó Flaithearta household both English and Irish were used.
Many of his works have the common theme of nature and Ireland. He was a distinguished short story writer, and some of his best work in that genre was in Irish. The collection Dúil, published towards the end of his life, contained Irish language versions of a number of stories published elsewhere in English. It is likely, for example, that the story The Pedlar's Revenge was first written in Irish under the title Díoltas. This collection, now widely admired, had a poor reception at the time, and this seems to have discouraged him from proceeding with an Irish language novel he had in hand.
O'Flaherty died on 7 September 1984, in Dublin, and many of his works were subsequently republished. He is remembered today as a powerful writer and a strong voice in Irish culture. Before his death he left the Communist Party and returned to the Roman Catholic faith.
More information: Aran Islands
It's impossible for a creative artist to be either a Puritan or a Fascist,
because both are a negation of the creative urge.
The only things a creative artist can be opposed to
are ugliness and injustice.
Liam Ó Flaithearta
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