Séamus Ó Grianna

Séamus Ó Grianna [ ˈʃeːməs ə ˈɟɾʲiən̪ə ] (born November 17, 1891 in Rann na Feirste , County Donegal , † November 27, 1969 in Dublin ) was an Irish writer who published under the pseudonym Máire .

Life

Séamus Ó Grianna was born into a family of poets and storytellers in a village in the Gaeltacht na Rosa , an Irish-speaking area in County Donegal. His parents were Feidhlimidh Mac Grianna and Máire Eibhlín Néillín Ní Dhomhnaill. Séamus' brother Seosamh Mac Grianna also became a writer. Regarding the spelling of the Irish form of her surname (Anglicised Greene ) they differed, Mac Grianna is correct .

1912–1914 Ó Grianna was trained as a teacher at St. Patrick's College in Dublin and worked in Donegal, Tyrone and Dublin. In 1919 he became an employee of the first Dáil Éireann and worked as an organizer for the Irish Ministry of Education. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 he sided with the Republican opponents and was imprisoned for two years. In 1932, after the first Fianna Fáil government took office, he was returned to the civil service.

His writing career began with the novels Mo Dhá Róisín ("My Two Roses", 1921) and Caisleán Óir ("Goldburg", 1924). He then mainly wrote short stories that were more successful. The first collection of stories, Cith is Dealán ("Rain and Sunshine") appeared in 1926 and was received positively by the critics, and he published other volumes that dealt primarily with life in his home region. His autobiography Saol Corrach ("an unsteady life") was published in 1945. He was one of the most influential and widely read Gaeltacht writers of the 20th century.

Séamus Ó Grianna's novel Caisleáin Óir was the basis of a musical by Leslie Long, Kathleen Ruddy and Phil Dalton and was premiered in 2000 at the Amharclann Theater at Ghrianáin in Letterkenny .

In addition to her own works, Ó Grianna mainly worked as a translator of English and French works into Irish.

Works

Novels

• Caisleáin Óir ("Goldburg"), Mercier Press, Dublin, 1994
• To Sean-Teach (“the old house”), Oifig an tSoláthair, Dublin, 1968
• Tairngreacht Mhiseoige (“A Girl's Prophecy”), An Gúm, Dublin, 1995

Autobiographies

• Nuair a Bhí Mé Óg (“When I was Young”), Mercier Press, Dublin and Cork, 1986

Short stories

• Cith is Dealán ("Rain and Sunshine"), Mercier Press, Dublin and Cork, 1994
• Cora Cinniúna 1-2 (“ Turns of Fate”, two volumes), An Gúm, Dublin, 1993
• Cúl le Muir agus scéalta eile ("Back to the sea and other stories"), Oifig an tSoláthair, Dublin, 1961 (short stories)

Collections of journalistic and literary works

• Castar na Daoine ar a Chéile. Scríbhinní Mháire 1 ("People meet each other. Writings of Máires 1"), ed. by Nollaig Mac Congáil, Coiscéim, Dublin, 2002
• Na Blianta Corracha. Scríbhinní Mháire 2 ("the unsteady years. Writings of Máires 2"), ed. by Nollaig Mac Congáil, Coiscéim, Dublin, 2003

Web links

• Literature by and about Séamus Ó Grianna in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to other information, 1889