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Liam O'Flaherty
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Liam O'Flaherty |
| Irish Literature Companion: Liam O'Flaherty |
O'Flaherty, Liam (1896-1984), novelist; born in Gort na gCapall on Inishmore in the Aran Islands, the ninth of ten children. He was educated at Oatquarter National School, Inishmore, and then at Rockwell College, Co. Tipperary. In 1915 he joined the Irish Guards Regiment as Bill Ganly, using his mother's maiden name. He was wounded in a bombardment at Lange-marck, September 1917, and discharged after a year's medical treatment for acute melancholia. He engaged in radical politics and ran up the red flag over the Rotunda in Dublin. He began writing with Thy Neighbour's Wife (1923), published on the recommendation of Edward Garnett, who helped him to write his next novel, The Black Soul (1924) and introduced him to the Russian masters Dostoevsky and Gogol. In consequence his ensuing novels, The Informer (1925), Mr Gilhooley (1926), and The Assassin (1928), were permeated by a St Petersburg gloom, while two collections of short stories, Spring Sowing (1924) and The Tent (1926), established him as a writer with profound insights into peasant life. The Return of the Brute (1930), The Martyr (1935), and Hollywood Cemetery (1935) reveal the author's obsessions. The House of Gold (1929) and Skerrett (1932) present a vision of society through a range of characters independent of his own psychic dilemmas. Two Years (1930) and Shame the Devil (1934) are volumes of autobiography. His last novels, Famine (1937), Land (1946), and Insurrection (1950), form a historical trilogy tracing the rise of modern Irish nationalism. The publication of his short stories in Irish under the title Dúil (Desire) (1953), gained O'Flaherty a new audience. In his later years he became a recluse.
Bibliography
Patrick Sheeran, The Novels of Liam O'Flaherty (1976).
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Liam O'Flaherty |
O'Flaherty, Liam (lē'əm ōflă'hərtē), 1897-1984, Irish novelist, b. Aran Islands, Co. Galway. Many of his realistic novels have a compassionate interest in troubled people caught in the turbulence of his homeland, such as The Informer (1925), successfully filmed in 1935; The Black Soul (1924); Mr. Gilhooley (1926); and The Assassin (1928). Famine (1937), Land (1946), and Insurrection (1951) are novels of 19th-century Ireland. He also wrote notable short stories, as well as autobiographical works, Two Years (1930) and Shame the Devil (1934).
Bibliography
See studies by J. Zneimer (1970) and J. H. O'Brien (1973).
Dictionary:
O'Fla·her·ty (ō-flă'hər-tē)  , Liam
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Irish writer known especially for his short stories, collected in Two Lovely Beasts (1948) and The Pedlar's Revenge (1976).
| Wikipedia: Liam O'Flaherty |
| Liam O'Flaherty | |
|---|---|
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| Born | August 28, 1896 Inishmore, Ireland |
| Died | September 7, 1984 (aged 88) Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Literary movement | Irish Renaissance |
| Relative(s) | John Ford, his cousin |
Liam O'Flaherty (August 28, 1896 – September 7, 1984) was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish Renaissance.
Liam was born in the remote village of Gort na gCapall, on Inishmore (one of the Aran Islands), county Galway. Like many people in Ireland at that time, Liam was also born into poverty. Growing up, Liam spoke the Irish language. However, he was not encouraged to do so by members of his family.
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Early years
In 1908 at the age of twelve, he attended one of three different colleges. The first, Rockwell was followed by enrollments to Holy Cross and University College, Dublin. According to The Sunday Times, it was said he also attended Belvedere College and Blackrock College. He never attended any of the earlier two schools for long. Among his studies, he took up the study of religion and had intended on joining the priesthood. In 1917, he left school and joined the Irish Guards regiment of the British Army. During this time, he fought in World War I and was injured. He also suffered from a barrage of attacks by the enemy which led to a battle with shell shock. In 1933 he suffered from mental illness which most believe to be a result of the shock suffered in World War I.
Two days after the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 O'Flaherty and a group of supporters seized a building in Dublin for four days, flying a red flag from it.[1]
Work
O'Flaherty made changes after the war. One of these changes was that he left Ireland and moved to the United States, where he lived in Hollywood for a short period of time. A cousin was the famous director John Ford, who later turned Flaherty's novel, The Informer, into a movie.
In 1923, Liam O'Flaherty published his first novel, Thy Neighbour's Wife. This piece of work is thought to be one of his best. Many of his works have the common theme of nature and Ireland. In fact, some of his work was written in his native language, Irish, the very language his father did not want him to utter. In later years, in a letter to The Sunday Times, he confessed that writing in his native tongue of Irish never truly amounted to much. In fact, in the letter he spoke of other Irish writers who received little accolades for their writing in Irish. This led to some attacks on his character.
In 1935, his novel The Informer (for which he had been awarded the 1925 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction) was turned into a movie again, but this time by his cousin, John Ford. Over the next couple of years, he published other novels as well as short stories. In 1933, at this time in his life, he suffered from the first of two mental breakdowns.
Between 1923 and 1950, he published many works. He also travelled the United States as well as Europe. Posthumously, many letters he wrote while on these trips were published. It is documented that he had a love of French and Russian culture. This is one of the possible reasons why he may have turned to communism. Before his death he left the Communist Party and returned to the Roman Catholic faith.
Death
On September 7, 1984, in Dublin, Liam O'Flaherty died. After his death, many of his works were re-released as well as some of his letters. Today, Liam O'Flaherty is remembered as a profound writer of the twentieth century by those who have been exposed to him and his work. Liam O'Flaherty is also remembered as a strong voice in Irish culture.
Works
Among his books are The Black Soul (1924), Thy Neighbour's Wife (1924), Funny The Way It Is (1925), The Informer (1925); adapted as a film (The Informer, 1935), Mr. Gilhooley (1926), If You Think About It (1926), The Wilderness (serialised 1927, gathered in book form and republished 1986), Return of the Brute (1929), A Tourist's Guide To Ireland (satirical, 1929), The Ecstasy Of Angus (1931), Skerrett (1932), his autobiography Shame The Devil (1934), Short Stories (1937; revised 1956), Famine (1937), Land (1946), Two Lovely Beasts and Other Stories (1950), Insurrection (1951), The Pedlar's Revenge and Other Stories (1976), and The Letters Of Liam O'Flaherty (published posthumously, 1996).
In addition to "The Sniper", some notable short stories by O'Flaherty are "Civil War", "The Shilling", "Going into Exile", and "A Red Petticoat".
In the 1970s he recorded a spoken word version of The Ecstasy Of Angus. This was released as a double-album record in 1978 by Claddagh Records, Dublin, catalogue no. CCT 15 & 16.
Towards the end of his life, he published a collection of short stories in the Irish language, Dúil.
Notes
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Liam O'Flaherty |
Stories by O'Flaherty online
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 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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