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 Máirtín O'Direáin (b. Nov. 29, 1910 - d. March 19, 1988)
Born in Sruthán, Inishmore, Aran Island the son of a small-farmer Martin spoke Irish only until his mid-teens. He joined the postal service in Galway in January 1928. He acted in the Gaelic Theatre (Taibhdearc) from1928 to 1937. He then transferred to Dublin in 1938 and transferred to the Department of Education, Dublin in 1937. He was appointed Register of National College of Art from 1948-55.
A chance attendance at a lecture in 1938 inspired him to write poetry. He produced Coinnle Geala (1942) and Dánta Aniar (1943), at his own expense; both expressing nostalgia for Aran life. Rogha Dánta, was issued in1949, adding fourteen poems to earlier pamphlets, and regarded as a landmark in modern poetry in Irish. He became increasingly concerned with the conflict of rural and urban, traditional and modern. Ó Mórna agus Dánta Eile (1957), the title poem being an apologia for an oppressive native landlord and hereditary chieftain an account of his cattle driven over a cliff by the islanders during the Land War (as narrated in Feamainn Bhealtaine) having inspired the poet to learn more of him. He won the Ossian Prize for Poetry, Freiherr von Stein Foundation, Hamburg (£5,000!) and represented Ireland at the Warsaw Autumn Poetry Festival, 1977. A brother Tomás is also a poet.
The Late Spring
by Máirtín Ó Direáin
A man cleaning the clay
From the tread of a spade
In the subtle quiet
of the sultry days
Melodious the sound
In the late Spring
A man bearing
A creel-basket on account of,
The red seaweed
Shining
In the sun’s brightness
On the stony beach
Lustrous vista
In the late Spring
Women in the lake
In the lowest tide
their coats drawn up
reflections down below them
peaceful restful vision
In the late Spring
weak, hollow beating
of the oars
currach full of fish
coming to the quay
over the golden sea
at the end of the day
in the late Spring,
For more Poetry Click the Poetry Index.
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Sun, Mar 4, 2018
Pádraic Pearse, who played a prominent part in the 1916 rebellion, declared Ireland a Republic from the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin. He was executed, along with the other leaders, for his part in the Rising. But he was a gentle warrior at heart. These five stories show us that Pearse was a man of deep understanding with immense human awareness of the way of life of the average person. He analyses the sorrows and joys of the Irish people of his time, and writes of the tragedies of life and death from which they could never escape.
Review from Mercier Press
Click for Stories of P. Pearse.
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Interested in Irish Poetry?Here's the easy way to collect them all (well, almost all, anyway).
Malachy McCourt says in his introduction, "With the republication of this book, the Irish recover under their roof of stars all the great poets and writers who have been falsely claimed by the saxon crown and its minions - even our reprobates."
Amazon states this is out of stock. They still have used copies for almost nothing (except shipping - chuckle). If you would like a new edition, it was available at Powell's. We can't promise it's still there. Click here for Powell's 1000 Years.
Click here for used at Amazon.
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