Padraic O Conaire, probably the best-known Irish-language writer of the 20th century, is to be honoured by the prestigious London-based Irish Texts Society. Next year, in its main series, it will publish a critical edition of his work.
According to Dr Padraigin Riggs, a senior lecturer at the department of modern Irish at UCC, this represents a fitting tribute. She says his genius was not always appreciated at home although he is known to generations of Irish students for M'Asal Beag Dubh, written as a "harmless potboiler" to keep him going during hard times.
Dr Riggs has been chosen to edit the volume. In making O Conaire the first modern author to be included in its catalogue, the Irish Texts Society has elevated his status to that of one of the "classic" Irish writers, and not before time, she believes.
One of the society's most famous publications was the O Duinnin dictionary published in 1904. Padraig O Duinnin was one of its editors as were Douglas Hyde and Eoin Mac Neill. While these were eminent scholars, the society was not aloof nor did it set out to be.
Since its inaugural meeting in April 1898, it has been administered by a council of volunteers. Now chaired by Prof Padraig O Riain of UCC, it grew out of the Irish Literary Society, founded in London in 1892. It has published 59 volumes in the main series and a further six as part of its subsidiary series.
Each volume which appeared was accompanied by an English text and the O Conaire one will be no exception. The aim of the society is "to advance public education by promoting the study of Irish literature, and as an ancillary thereto to publish texts in the Irish language accompanied by English translations, glossaries and notes as may be deemed desirable". Dr Riggs's volume, part of the main series, will include a selection of O Conaire's short stories, including Nora Mhar cais Bhig, the novella Deoraiocht, as well as literary essays. If M'Asal Beag Dubh was a potboiler, Dr Riggs says, it was written because O Conaire had to support himself in a hostile climate. In 1917 Father Peadar Ua Laoghaire had persuaded the Board of Studies of the National University of Ireland to remove two of the writer's books from the matriculation programme, citing them as coarse, indecent and unsuitable reading for young Catholic students.
Whatever else the legions of Irish students who pored over M'Asal Beag Dubh may have to say about it, they could hardly claim it offended their morals. For his part, O Conaire described the episode as the emasculation of Irish literature by the "tyranny of the young".
Later, some of O Conaire's short stories were on the Leaving Certificate course for a number of years, "a status that did little to ensure a new generation of students would read the author's work with either pleasure or understanding", Dr Riggs says.
O Conaire returned from London in 1915, eking out a living here as best he could. He was 46 when he died in 1928, having spent the last 13 years of life haunted by what she describes as the four Ds - disappointment, disillusionment, discouragement and an increasing dependence on drink.
How the disappointments accrued is explained in Padraig O Conaire, Deorai, a literary biography of O Conaire by Dr Riggs, published by An Clochomhar in 1994 as part of Bord Na Gaeilge's Beathaisneis series. O Conaire published 400 short stories, the novella, five short plays and more than 200 articles. Some years ago, O Conaire's statue in Eyre Square, Galway, was beheaded by pranksters and the writer's name flashed across the public consciousness once again. The head has been restored and the hope is that his rightful place in the canon of Irish literature will be restored as well by the publication of the new ITS volume.
The Irish Texts Society marked its centenary in 1999 with an inaugural seminar in conjunction with the combined departments of Irish at UCC. This year, the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Kinsale, the seminar's theme will be Bea tha Aodha Ruaidh Ui Dhomhnaill (the Life of Red Hugh O'Donnell), which will be held at UCC on November 10th.