Search results for ""author mícheál Ó haodha""

Eugene Downing (1913–2003) was not your usual Irish brigader: a communist from his teenage years, an urbanised skilled worker, and an Irish language enthusiast. Downing had no immediate Republican record, joining the communist Workers Groups in Dublin just out of his apprenticeship as an electrician. Despite this backdrop, Downing spent nine months in the International Brigades Spain before being invalided home (amputated lower left leg) in December 1938. His memoirs are presented here in English for the first time. One Foot in a Spanish Grave: Eugene Downing’s Memoir of the International Brigades in Spain – published in the Irish language as La Nina Bonita agus An Róisín Dubh: Cuimhní Cinn ar Chogadh Cathartha na Spáinne – has been long worthy of a translation into English. The structure of the original Irish text has been altered slightly, with some appendices omitted. Translated by Micheál Ó hAodha, edited and introduced by Barry McLoughlin, One Foot in a Spanish Grave begins with Brendan Byrne, Eugene’s nephew, sharing his memories of a highly non-conformist uncle. Downing’s portrayal of life in the International Brigades is often humourous, greatly generous when judging others, but ultimately critical of political zealotry. He proves himself to be a wry observer of his fellow volunteers and of his own youthful militancy in the virulently anti-communist Dublin of the 1930s. This text is a translation of Eoghan Ó Duinnín’s (Eugene Downing’s) book La Nina Bonita agus An Róisín Dubh: Cuimhní Cinn ar Chogadh Cathartha na Spáinne (An Clóchomhar, Baile Átha Cliath, 1986). The Irish-language rights for this book lie with Cló Iar-Chonnacht, Indreabhán, Co. na Gaillimhe.

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It has the privacy and immediacy of a diary but holds the interest like a novel. It follows the adventures, trials and tribulations of Nuibin Amhlaigh who keeps getting into trouble in his good soldier’s progress through army life. A lost treasure of Irish writing translated for the first time into English.

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Two Irish migrants on the cusp of new lives in post-war Britain. Two young people who dare to dream of a better life, and dance the music of survival in their adopted homeland. Afraid that his wife and children will arrive over any day, Trevor is in a hurry to settle old scores with his rivals and to prove himself the top fighting man within his London-Irish community of drinkers and navvies while Nano seeks to escape the stifling conformity and petty jealousies of her peers and forget her failed love-match at home. Will Trevor finally prove himself "the man" and secure the respect that he feels is his by virtue of blood and tribe? Does Nano have it in her to break free of the suffocating bonds of home and community and find love with Lithuanian beau Julius? Written at a time when the Irish were "building England up and tearing it down again," and teeming with the raucous energy of post-war Kilburn, Cricklewood and Camden Town this novel is one of the very few authentic portrayals of working-class life in modern Irish literature. Up to one in four UK citizens claims Irish heritage. For each decade of the 1950s alone - a time of British postwar boom and Irish economic decline - over half of Ireland's population, those coming of age in that decade, emigrated: the majority to England. And while Irish-owned companies today account for one tenth of the almost GBP100bn British construction industry, those navvies who built our homes, roads and hotels comprise a forgotten generation, alongside the nurses that made the crossing alone to power our nascent Welfare State. Donall Mac Amhlaigh was among them, working on construction sites throughout London and the Midlands, including the M1 and M6 motorways. In this autobiographical novel are the people who later calcified into stereotypes of Irish immigrants and their haunts: the navvy, the drinker, the fighter, the nurse. As with the Polish builder, Romanian gangster or Spanish nurse of today, such caricatures have their source in real lives adapting to economic reality. 'A wonderful addition to Irish literature.' - Colum McCann, National Book Award winner 'I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of bringing this work to a wider readership.' -Tony Murray - Director, Irish Studies Centre, London Metropolitan University, London. 'Donall Mac Amhlaigh is the most perceptive and informed writer on the Irish in 20th century Britain.' - Professor Enda Delaney, author of The Irish in Post-War Britain

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First published in Irish by An Gum in 1965, Seosamh Mac Grianna's magnificent autobiographical novel Mo Bhealach Fein is translated here for the first time into English by Micheal O hAodha. With notes of Dead as Doornails and The Ginger Man in its absurd comedy, Mac Grianna pens his reaction to an anglicised, urbanised, post-revolution Ireland, demonstrating his talents at their peak. This Road of Mine relates a humorous, picaresque journey through Wales en route for Scotland, an Irish counterpart to Three Men in a Boat with a twist of Down and Out in Paris and London. The protagonist follows his impulses, getting into various absurd situations: being caught on the Irish Sea in a stolen rowboat in a storm; feeling guilt and terror in the misplaced certainty that he had killed the likeable son of his landlady with a punch while fleeing the rent; sleeping outdoors in the rain and rejecting all aid on his journey. What lies behind his misanthropy is a reverence for beauty and art and a disgust that the world doesn't share his view, concerning itself instead with greed and pettiness. The prose is full of personality, and O hAodha has proved himself adept at capturing the life and spark of the writer's style. His full-spirited translation has given the English-reading world access to this charming and relentlessly entertaining bohemian poet, full of irrepressible energy for bringing trouble on himself. As well as the undoubted importance of this text culturally, Mac Grianna is able to make rank misanthropy enjoyable - making music out of misery. The voice is wonderful: hyperbolic but sincere.

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This vivid memoir chronicles life in a small Gaeltacht area in Munster that has remained largely immune to outside influences because of its isolated location. Ó Maolchathaigh is an astute observer of people and place. His recollections of a ""lost world"" are unique and searing in their honesty.

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