Liam O'Flaherty

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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).

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).

(ō-flă'hər-tē) , Liam 1896-1984.

Irish writer known especially for his short stories, collected in Two Lovely Beasts (1948) and The Pedlar's Revenge (1976).