Máirtín O Cadhain

Brian Maye An Irish Man’s Diary

A revolutionary novelist – Irish Times An Irishman’s Diary on Máirtín Ó Cadhain

Brian Maye : Monday, October 12

Teacher, writer, academic, republican and Irish-language activist Máirtín Ó Cadhain, who died 50 years ago on October 18th, would probably be seen as one of the foremost writers to promote modernism in Irish-language writing, especially as a result of his extraordinary 1949 novel, Cré na Cille, which has been translated into several other languages. He was born near Spiddal, Co Galway, in January 1906, the eldest to survive of 13 children of small-farming parents. Having attended primary school in Spiddle from 1911 to 1924, the final six years as a monitor (a student appointed to assist a teacher), he won a scholarship to St Patrick’s College, Dublin, where he trained as a primary teacher. From 1926 to 1936, he taught in schools…