The Greatest Irish Writer You’ve Probably Never Heard Of: Introducing Máirtín Ó Cadhain

Literature Matters Public Lecture Series

The Greatest Irish Writer You’ve Probably Never Heard Of: Introducing Máirtín Ó Cadhain

by Jerry White

Wednesday, January 15

7:30 p.m.

Grace-Westminster United Church
505-10th Street East

Everyone welcome.

This talk will offer an introduction to Máirtín Ó Cadhain, one of the most intriguing and neglected figures of modern Irish literature. When he died in 1970 he had just been appointed Professor of Irish at Trinity College Dublin. That prestigious although short-lived post capped a life that included being interned in the south of Ireland during WWII because of his membership in the IRA, agitating for the creation of a new Irish-speaking community in the rural townland of Ráth Cairn, working as a government translator, and writing the greatest novel the Irish language has ever known.

We'll offer radio snippets, clips from a TV special, and generous helpings from Ó Cadhain's short stories (the form where he really built his career) by way presenting to a hibernophile audience this great voice of the Emerald Isle.