Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin

Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin (1932 – 1985) was an Irish language writer whose chosen theme was contemporary urban life. He is acknowledged as an important Irish language modernist.[1][2] He was also active in the Irish republican movement and a member of Sinn Féin.

Personal life

Ó Súilleabháin was born at the Beara Peninsula in County Cork. His mother was a primary school teacher and his father a small farmer.[1] He married Úna Ní Chléirigh in 1954, and they had two sons and three daughters.[1] He died on 5 June 1985.[1]

Career

He settled in Gorey and worked there as a primary teacher for the Christian Brothers school.[2]

He is best known now for his literary work. He wrote ten novels, two of them for teenagers.[1] Maeldún was a pioneering Irish novel that explored sexuality.[3] He wrote seven unpublished plays.[1] Three plays that he wrote include Bior, Ontos, and Macalla and he wrote a collection of short stories, Muintir.[2]

Like Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, he "challenged the critical orthodoxy by openly proclaiming that their standards could not be those of the Gaeltacht and by demanding a creative freedom that would acknowledge hybridity and reject the strictures of the linguistic purists."[4] He and Máirtín Ó Cadhain were considered the two most innovative Irish language authors to emerge in the 1960s.[2][3] He often wrote in a stream of consciousness, and his style influenced younger writers. His writing "explores the problem of recovering idealism and cultural wholeness in an increasingly shallow and materialistic Irish society."[3] Ó Súilleabháin was elected as a member of the Irish Academy of Letters and won more literary prizes than any other living Irish author.[1][2]

He wrote a collection of poetry, Cosa Gréine, which was published and launched in Dublin in 2013, 28 years after his death.[2]

Irish republicanism

Ó Súilleabháin was an active Irish republican, particularly in publicizing the republican struggle, and was a member of Sinn Féin's ruling body beginning in 1971.[1][2] He spent short periods in prison because of activities related to his political beliefs.[1]

Works

• Súil le Muir, Cló Mórainn, 1959 (for teenagers)
• Trá agus tuileadh, Sáirséal agus Dill, 1967 (for teenagers)
• Caoin tú féin, Sáirseál agus Dill, 1967
• An Uain Bheo, Sáirséal agus Dill, 1968
• Muintir, Sáirséal agus Dill, 1970 (short stories)
• Maeldún, Sáirséal agus Dill, 1972
• Dianmhuilte Dé, Sáirseál agus Dill, 1964
• Ciontach, Coiscéim 1983
• Aistear, Coiscéim, 1983
• Bealach Bó Finne, Coiscéim, 1988
• Lá Breá Gréine Buí and Oighear Geimhridh, Coiscéim 1994

References

1. "Ó Súilleabháin, Diarmaid (1932 – 1985)". An Bunachar Náisiúnta Beathaisnéisní Gaeilge. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
2. "Poetry collection published 28 years after author died". Gorey Guardian. August 13, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2017 – via Independent, Ireland.
3. The Celts: History, Life, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. p. 476. ISBN 978-1-59884-964-6.
4. Field Day Review 4, 2008. Field Day Publications. 2005. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-946755-38-7.

Further reading

• Brian Ó Conchubhair; Philip O’Leary (January 6, 2015). "The Canon in Irish Language Fiction". Dublin Review of Books.