Pádraic Ó Conaire (1882-1928) was a writer of Irish whose work continues to be read long after his death. His fiction and journalism draw the attention of the casual reader and the serious academic. His writing endures because it is imaginative and original and because Ó Conaire – “writer, journalist, teacher and wandering raconteur” as he is described in this book’s introduction – inspires devotion. Diarmuid de Faoite, better known as an actor on TG4, has “worn” Ó Conaire’s mantle on stage and has undertaken the difficult task of translating Ó Conaire into English. The seven short stories in this collection chart the aftermath of the Easter Rising on the hearts and minds of those who witnessed those momentous events in 1916. The original stories appear in Irish first with the translations into English following as separate pieces, the first time all the stories have been translated and published in English together. Suffice to say that the pages are “full of poems to rouse the heart with their pristine beauty”.
