Life
1906-1970; b. nr. Spiddal, Cois Fharraige, Connemara, Co. Galway [Connemara
Gaeltacht], ed. National School, and St. Patrick’s Training College,
Drumcondra; native Irish speaker and schoolteacher, dismissed for membership
of IRA, in which he served as recruiting officer in the 1930s; enlisting
Brendan Behan; trans. Kickham’s novel Sally Cavanagh,
1932; issued Idir Shúgragh agus Dáiríre [Between Jest and Earnest] (1939); arrested 1939, and interned at the Curragh, 1940-44, where he taught
Irish to fellow prisoners; joined Translation
Dept. of Oireachtas, 1948; issued An Braon Broghach [The Dirty Drop] (1948); lectured to Folklore society [An Cumann le
Béaloideas Éireann], 1950; protested that it was not Irish ‘peasants’
but a qualified poetic class who had preserved Irish oral literature;
appt. Modern Irish lecturer, TCD, 1956, though continuing to speak of
‘the war for the repossession of Ireland’; Professor of Modern
Irish, TCD, 1969; Fellow of TCD 1970; Guest Lect. QUB; contrib. German
Encyclopaedia of World Literature; Bás nó Beatha?,
trans from the Welsh of Saunders Lewis; a novel, Cré na Cille
(1949), containing a sections known as ‘Stoc na Cille’, chosen
by UNESCO for translation into several languages; An tSráith
ar Lár (1667), won Butler Family Prize; other works include
Idir Shúgradh agus Dáirire (1953), short stories;
An Aisling (1967); Mr Hill, Mr Tara (1964); and An tSráith
Dá Togáil (1970); among elegies by Irish poets is a
noble example provided by Seán Ó Díreáin (‘Bile
a Thit: Ómós do Mháirtín Ó Cadhain’).
DIW DIB DIH FDA OCIL
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Works
Idir Shúgragh agus Dáiríre (1939), stories;
Cré na Cille (Sáirséal agus Dill 1949; rep.
Sáirséal Ó Marcaigh 1996), 321pp.; Cois Caoláire,
stories (1953); An Aisling (Baile Atha Cliath: Coiste Cuimhneacháin
Náisiúnta 1967), rep. (Dublin: United Irishman [1970]);
An tSraith ar Lár, stories and novella (1970); An Braon
Borghach (1948; rep. 1968); As an nGéibheann, Internment letters
to Tomás Bairéad (1973); Selected Poems (Kildare
1984); Páipéir Bhána agus Páipéir
Bhreaca (An Clóchamhar Tta. 1969), criticism; Athnuachan
(Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar 1969; rep. Coscéim
1996), unpublished autobiographical novel; also ‘Irish Prose in the
the Twentieth Century’, in J. E. Caerwyn Williams, ed., Literature
in Gaelic Countries (Cardiff 1971), pp.[137]139-151; ‘Tuige nac
bhfuil litríocht na Gaeilge ag fás?’, in Feasta
11, 8 (1949), pp.8-12, 20-22; ‘Conrad na Gaeilge agus an litríocht’,
in Seán Ó Tuama, ed., The Gaelic League Idea, (Mercier
1972), pp.52-62; Saothar an Scríbheora’, in Scríobh
3 (1978), pp.73-82. ALSO, Caiscín: Altanna san Irish Times
1953-56 (BAC: Coiscéim 1999), 459pp. Reprint & trans.,
Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, ed., The Road to Brightcity: Short Stories;
trans. by various hands] (Dublin: Poolbeg Press 1981) [stories from Idir
Shúgradh agus Dáirire, 1939, and An Braon Broghach, 1948];
Barbed Wire (Dublin: Coiscéim 2002), 531pp.
See also Ríonach Uí Ógáin, ed., Faoi Rathaí na Gréine: Amhrain a Phobail Tiomsaithe ag Máirtín Ó Cadhain (Coiscéim q.d.); An Ghaeilge Bheo - Destined to Pass (Baile atha Cliath: Coiscéim), 312pp.; Liam de Paor, Faoin mBlaoisc Bheag Sin (1992) [bibliography]. Qry, Tone Inné agus Inniu (Coiscéim q.d.);
The Road to Brightcity: Short Stories, ed., Eoghan Ó Tuairisc [from Idir Shúgradh agus Dáirire, 1939, and An Braon Broghach, 1948] (Dublin: Poolbeg 1981), 111pp.; CONTENTS: Introduction, pp.7-12; Stories: The Withering Branch; The Year 1912; Tabu; Son of the Tax-King; The Road to Brightcity; The Gnarled And Stony Clods; Of Townland’s Tip; The Hare-lip; Floodtide; Going On.
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Criticism
David Greene, ‘Talk of the Dead’, review of Cré na
Cille (Irish Times, 27 Bealtaine 1950).
Tomás Ó Dalaigh, ‘Cré na Cille’, in Irisleabhar Muighe Nuadhat (1966), pp.33.-36.
Oliver Snoddy, ‘Notes on Literature in Irish Dealing with the Fight for Freedom’, in Éire-Ireland, 3, 2 (Summer 1968), pp. 138-48.
Gearóid Denvir, Cadhain Aonair, Saothair Eiteartha Mháirtín Uí Chadhain (An Clóchomhar 1975).
Alan Titley, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Clár Saothair (An Clóchomhar 1975).
Breandán Ó hEithir, ‘Cré na Cille’, in John Jordan, ed., The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature (Cork 1977), pp.72-88.
Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidin, ‘Cré na Cille mar Úrscéal Grinn’, in Comhar (Iúil 1978), pp.21-22.
‘Máirtín Ó Cadhain 1906-1970’, Comhar, Special Issue (Deireadh Fómhair 1980).
Seosamh Ó Murchú, ‘An Chill agus a Cré, in Irisleabher Mhá Nuad (1982), pp.5-20.
Gearóid Denvir, ‘An Duine Daona – Léamh ar Fuíoll Fuine Mháirtín Ó Cadháin’, in Macalla (1982), pp.120-23.
Declan Kiberd, ‘Cré na Cille, Ó Cadhain agus Beckett’, in Nua-Aois (1984), pp.9-24.
Breandán Ó Doibhlin, ‘’Oblomov na Gaeilge, an Ea?’, review of Mo Dhá Mhicí, in Comhar (Samhain 1986) [B], pp.31-33.
An tSr Bosco Costigan, Seán O’Curraoin, De Ghlaschloich an Oileáin, Beatha agus Saothair Mháirtín Uí Chadhain (Gaillimh: Cló Iar-Chonnacht 1987).
Ailbhe Ó Corráin, ‘Grave Comedy: A Study of Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain’, in Birgit Bramsbäck & Martin Croghan, eds., Anglo-Irish and Irish Literature: Aspects of Language and Culture [Proceedings of 9th IASAIL Conference, 1986; Studistica Anglistica Upsaliensia No. 65] (Uppsala 1988), pp.142-48.
Declan Kiberd, ‘Caint na nDaoine mar Bhonn Liteartha’, in Léachtaí Uí Chadhain I, 1980-1988 (Dublin 1989), pp.92-115.
Robert Welch, ‘Máirtín Ó Cadhain: "Repossessing Ireland’, Changing States: Transformations in Modern Irish Writing (London: Routledge 1993), pp.187-203.
Declan Kiberd, ‘All the Dead voices: Cré Na Cille’, in Irish Classics (London: Granta 2000), pp.574-89.
Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh, Ag Samhlú Troda Máirtín Ó Cadhain 1905-1970 (Coiscéim 2003), 332pp.
Máirín Nic Eoin, An Litríocht Réigiúnach (An Clóchomhar Tta 1982) and Brendán Ó Doibhlín, Aistí Critice agus Cultúir II (Belfast: Lagan Press 1998).
Seán Ó Riordáin, “Útamáil Ui Chadhain” [Obituary], The Irish Times, 10 Oct. 1971; cited in Géaroid Denvir, ‘Decolonizing the Mind: Language and Literature in Ireland’, in New Hibernia Review, 1, 1 (Spring 1997), pp.44-68, p.64.
Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, The Road to Brightcity: Short Stories of Máirtín Ó Cadhain ((Poolbeg 1981), Introduction, pp.7-12.
Seán O’Tuama, ‘The Other Tradition: Some Highlights of Modern Fiction in Ireland’, in Patrick Rafroidi and Maurice Harmon, eds., The Irish Novel in Our Time (Publ. de l’Université de Lille 1975-76), pp.31-45.
Alan Titley, in The Irish Times (1 Feb. 1992).
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Notes
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of
Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day Co. 1991), Vol. 3: selects An Braon
Broghach, poems; and Cré na Cille [pp.857-60]; BIOG & COMM, 933; REMS, pp.815-16: the five volumes of stories by Mairtín
Ó Cadhain (1906-70) give substance to the tradition of the short
story in Irish. ‘An Bhearna Mhíl’ (‘The Harelip’)
is exemplary of much of his fiction, in that it combines the telling of
a simple story of young love blighted by ineluctable social convention
with his passionate concern to explore and exploit the resources of the
Irish language. Liam Ó Flaithearta had advised him to prune his
writing mercilessly, but Ó Cadhain’s purpose to remould the
language and the natural convolutions of is imagination determined his
distinctive style.’ [Eoghan Ó hAnluain, ed.].
A translation of Cré na Cille by Joan
Trodden Keefe was originally undertaken as for a post-graduate degree
award in the University of California, viz., Joan Trodden, Churchyard
Clay (1984). Note, Michael Cronin calls for an English translation
of Cré na Cille, Irish Times, 7 April 2001).
Éamon Ó Cíosáin, Buried Alive: A Reply to The Death of the Irish Language [by Reg Hindley] (Dáil Uí Chadhain 1991), pamph., cites Ó Cadhain’s writing of acute class differences in Gaelteacht areas in ‘Irish Above Politics’, and ‘Gluaiseacht ar Strae’. (p.9).
Stan Gébler Davies, James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist (London: Davis-Poynter 1975), thanks ‘Mairtín O’Cadhain [sic] for (probably) pulling my leg about the derivation of the name Barnacle’ (Acknowledgements; p.319). In commenting on the sentence ’God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain’ in the “Proteus” chapter of Ulysses, Davies speaks of it as a strange way to introduce the name of one’s wife adding that Joyce, always curious about words, had gone to the trouble of finding out the curious derivation of the name, viz., Barnacle as a name rare even in Galway and retales a ‘strategy worthy of that sometimes cunning race [the Catholic Irish]’ according to which the barnacle goose was categorised as ‘a mature form of the sea-creature known as a barnacle’ and therefore considered edible in Lent. Davies’s footnote reads: ‘At least I presume he had done so. I got the explanation from the late Mairtín Ó Cadhain, Gaelic scholar, whose name derived from the Irish for barnacle goose, as do O’Kane and Kane.’
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)