Irish Short Story Month
March 1 to March 31
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Mairtin O Cadhain (1906 to 1970, County Galway)
Martin O. Cadhain was one of the most important Irish language fiction writers of the 20th century. In the Philippines writing a short story in a language other than English will lessen your market and block international interest in your work. I suspect the same thing is true for those who write in Irish
Cadhain was a school teacher but lost his job because he was involved with the IRA. He was a sort of Marxist and anti-cleric. He was a very strong advocate of the use of the Irish language in public discourse. Some did feel he put to much emphasis on the dialect of the Connemara region, where he was from. He was a very prolific writer of short stories.
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| "When will my Daddy, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu be getting another post?"- Carmilla |
"The Hare-Lip" could easily be a story from the 1850s. It is set in rural Ireland and a man has just arranged a good marriage for one of his daughters. The only problem is the man has a deformity commonly called a hare-lip. The story does a very good job letting us see how the girl feels about this. There are a lot of very good images of the Irish countryside. We are along when the girl moves into her husbands house and we see her slowly adjust to married life. This was an interesting story and I am glad I read it.
I read this story in The Oxford Book of Irish Short edited by William Trevor.
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| "Carmila, let me entertain you" |
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