Author: Seamus Ó' Grianna
Color: Multicolor
Number Of Pages: 126
Release Date: 31-12-1983
Details: IarscríbhinnIt could only happen to Máire that a footnote in English should welcome the first of the paper-back crop of his works; and perhaps I, alone, dare write it and hope to keep on neighbourly terms with his ghost. To be sure if Séamus Ó Grianna were still with us this book would not be published, nor yet his widow, for he put her under geasa not to allow any of his work to be tailored by devotees of new writing. I urged successfully as it turns out that he should leave his children free to face the breezes of their day. I know how much heart-searching they must have gone into before freeing the book for Niall Ó Dónaill to caress it into a new edition, and I can think of nobody who would do so with the same lively awareness of Séamus Ó Grianna at his elbow. Séamus and I often chided each other we were lifelong friends that we were putting tobacco over the same remnant of the Irish of history. He was blessed with the gift to write in the rich, poetical language of the Gaeltacht, and he did so while flailing the wooden-leg Irish which he saw threatening it. I found the material that excited my mind in the same area of Irish life, but my vision was of the drab conditions and the nobility of the people suffering them. I was freer than Séamus think of the waste of him translating trashy English novels and I had a wider public. We shared a vision of our own particular Ireland in decay. We saw townlands of white cottages rot. New houses might arise on the sites of the old, but the old neighbourliness did not rise. A way of life was gone forever. Its a great pity, I think, that Máire refused to allow publication of Cith is Dealán, for he denied himself the satisfaction of seeing the eager welcome awaiting it among young enthusiasts. He would have been startled and pleased to see how eager they are to get back to the language of those dead firesides which he and I lamented. For the rich, poetic language that was the lilt of the life we saw pass is rapidly coming back.Peadar ODonnell
EAN: 9780853424482
Languages: Irish
Binding: paperback
Item Note: A poor copy with many annotations, underlining and a repaired spine. Unfortunate, but still of use to readers/scholars.
Item Condition: UsedAcceptable