The 10th anniversary of the death of Breandan O hEithir was marked by the production of a documentary, Faoilean Arainn, by TG4, and the publication by Clo Iar-Chonnachta of Liam Mac Con Iomaire's comprehensive, almost encyclopaedic biography Breandan O hEithir - Iomramh Aonair.
The title captures the individuality of O hEithir's approach to life and conjures up a picture of him as a solitary oarsman. A more sporting metaphor - O hEithir was a dedicated sports enthusiast - might have depicted him on a solo run in which he dodged past insignificant opponents such as editors and literary critics until finally brought down at 60 by a mercifully short illness.
His lack of respect for authority is likely to have stemmed from early experience on Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands. His schoolteacher mother was victimised by the local clergy for no reason other than that the literary works of her brother, Liam O'Flaherty, were frowned on by the church.
Later, when the editor of the Sunday Press insisted on being addressed by his military rank as "Colonel Feehan to you", he received the sharp response: "Lance Corporal O hEithir to you, Sir". This raised the Colonel's hackles, not because of O hEithir's insolence but because the rank of lance-corporal was of British army provenance.
In Irish Press House in those days, grave mistakes such as mentioning the words Navan or Newbridge instead of An Uaimh or Droichead Nua were punished severely. Old IRA men, in their obituaries, did not "take the Republican side in the Civil War". The style-book demanded that they "remained" on the Republican side. Republicanism in these manifestations, as well as the ban on "foreign games" by the GAA, was not only opposed by O hEithir but subjected to savage ridicule both in print and in conversation. His autobiographical Over the Bar, in which big matches in Croke Park and elsewhere served as points of reference in time, dealt mercilessly with these attitudes. O hEithir's novels met with mixed fortune. Lig Sinn i gCathu, was a critical success and also became the first Irish-language fiction to top the bestsellers list. Sionnach ar mo Dhuain fared less well in both respects. There was also current affairs journalism of extraordinarily high quality in RTE's Feach programme, sports journalism that set new standards by putting an end to the heroic and declamatory style of the time, and a series of impeccable film and documentary scripts.
All this made an O hEithir known to a great mass of people in Ireland and among the Irish in England. In turn, due to his travels in Ireland, Britain and the mainland of Europe, O hEithir became personally known to an astonishingly large group of people.
Mac Con Iomaire has painstakingly interviewed a great many of these. The result is a work which does not set out to be a literary biography but which puts O hEithir in the context of his time and place. Though written in Irish and commissioned by Foras na Gaeilge, it contains large islands of English; enough to allow those with no Irish to appreciate O hEithir's work and character.
Seamus Martin is International Editor of The Irish Times
