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Mairtin O'Direain ~
Aran Islands
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Máirtín O Díreáin (1910 -
1988) has been called "Ireland's unacknowledged poet
Laureate". His poems, most of which were inspired by life on
Aran were all written in Irish, but many have been
translated into English.
Born in Sruthán,
Inishmore,
Aran Island the son of a small-farmer Martin spoke Irish
only until his mid-teens. He joined the postal service in
Galway in January 1928. He acted in the Gaelic Theatre (Taibhdearc)
from1928 to 1937. He then transferred to Dublin in 1938 and
transferred to the Department of Education, Dublin in 1937.
He was appointed Register of National College of Art from
1948-55. |
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A chance attendance at a
lecture in 1938 inspired him to write poetry. He produced
Coinnle Geala (1942) and Dánta Aniar (1943), at his own
expense; both expressing nostalgia for Aran life. Rogha
Dánta, was issued in1949, adding fourteen poems to earlier
pamphlets, and regarded as a landmark in modern poetry in
Irish. He became increasingly concerned with the conflict of
rural and urban, traditional and modern. Ó Mórna agus Dánta
Eile (1957), the title poem being an apologia for an
oppressive native landlord and hereditary chieftain an
account of his cattle driven over a cliff by the islanders
during the Land War (as narrated in Feamainn Bhealtaine)
having inspired the poet to learn more of him. He won the
Ossian Prize for Poetry, Freiherr von Stein Foundation,
Hamburg (£5,000!) and represented Ireland at the Warsaw
Autumn Poetry Festival, 1977. A brother Tomás is also a
poet.
He left the island in 1928 to work in the Post Office in
Galway city, and there became involved in Irish-language
theatre through the Gaelic League. He transferred to the
Civil Service in Dublin in 1938 and began to write poems,
publishing two collections, Coinnle Geala (1942) and Dánta
Aniar (1943), at his own expense. Rogha Dánta (1949) is a
landmark in modern poetry in Irish, while Ó Morna agus Dánta
Eile (1957) established him as a poet with a powerful and
distinctive voice. Ó Direáin's work advances from nostalgic
recollections of life in Aran to a later exploration of an
urban environment, using bleak imagery based on the
uncompromising landscape of the island. The poem 'Stoite' in
Rogha Dánta engages with the theme of uprooted man adrift
from the moral sanctions of traditional rural life, a
subject that receives its most exhaustive treatment in Ar Ré
Dhearóil (1963), where he explores a moral crisis inherent
in 'an chathair fhallsa' (the false city). Attractively
simple in theme and language, his work shows a capacity for
acute observation. A striking feature is the repeated use of
a simple vocabulary in which words such as cloch, cré,
carraig, and trá (stone, clay, rock, and strand), serve to
evoke the values which the poet sees as being eroded by
modern urban society. Ó Direáin received awards from the
Irish-American Cultural Institute Award, and the Freiherr
Von Stein Foundation, Hamburg, as well as an honorary degree
from NUI. He remained in the Civil Service until his
retirement in 1975, and died in Dublin.
The son of a small-farmer, Máirtín Ó Díreáin spoke only
Irish until his mid-teens. He worked as a civil servant from
1928 until 1975. His main works include the poetry
collections Rogha Dánta (1949); Ó Mórna agus Dánta Eile
(1957); Ar Ré Dhearóil (1962); Cloch Choirnéil, (1967);
Crainn is Cairde (1970); Dánta 1939-79 (1980); Ceacht an Éin
(1984); Béasa an Túir (1984); Tacar Dánta/Selected Poems
(1984); Craobhóg: Dán (1986). His autobiographical essays
are collected as Feamainn Bhealtine (1961). His awards
include the An Chomhairle Ealaíon/The Arts Council Awards
(1964 and 1971); the Butler Prize, with Eoghan Ó Tuairisc
(1967); the Ossian Prize for Poetry, FVS Foundation, Hamburg
(1977). |
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