International seminar to examine the short stories of Máirtín Ó Cadhain 10 September 2020 – Posted in: News

A re-appraisal of the short stories of Máirtín Ó Cadhain will be the focus of an International Online Webinar, hosted in the Galway Gaeltacht, which will take place on Friday, 18th September 2020 between 1000-1600. This event will be held in the Irish language.
Seven critics from four different countries will speak at the event which will re-examine the short-form fiction of Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906-1970), who was originally from An Cnocán Glas, An Spidéal.
The webinar is being organised by publisher Cló Iar-Chonnacht in partnership with NUI Galway and the event will be conducted entirely on-line, with virtual attendance only, due to the current Covid-19 restrictions.
The webinar can accommodate 100 attendees and prompt reservation is advised.
Readers, in Ireland and abroad, are welcome to pre-register for the webinar at this link: https://tinyurl.com/GearrscealtaMhairtinUiChadhain
The masterpiece Cré na Cille (1949) has garnered significant international attention since Yale University Press published English language versions of the novel: The Dirty Dust (2015), translated by Alan Titley, and Graveyard Clay (2016), translated by Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson. Cré na Cille can now be read in the following languages: Norwegian, Danish, English, Dutch, German, Czech, Italian, Croatian, Hungarian, Turkish and Tamil.
The Dregs of the Day (Yale University Press, 2019) is also now available, an English language version of the novella Fuíoll Fuine, translated by writer and scholar Alan Titley which was first published in the short story collection An tSraith dhá Tógáil (Sáirséal agus Dill, 1970).
Professor Louis de Paor, NUI Galway says: ‘Ó Cadhain leaves an extensive literary legacy and his short story collections particularly deserve further critical investigation and analysis. The confusion associated with modernism – and its personal, systemic and ideological conflicts – is especially apparent in his short stories. Now more than ever, further research on Máirtín Ó Cadhain is required and it is important to situate new interpretations in an international context.’
Writer and publisher, Mícheál Ó Conghaile, Cló Iar-Chonnacht: ‘Most of Ó Cadhain’s output is available in Irish, his masterpiece Cré na Cille is available in English and other languages, and gradually his other fiction is in the process of translation. International readers are surprised at the acuity of perception and the examination of the human condition in texts which were inaccessible to them until now. This international interest compels us to return to the original texts and re-appraise the very best of his storytelling.
Máirtín Ó Cadhain: Rogha Scéalta (CIC, 2014), edited by Louis de Paor, is available to purchase on Cló Iar-Chonnacht’s website: https://www.cic.ie/books/published-books/mairtin-o-cadhain-rogha-scealta