A collection of essays on Pádraic Ó Conaire based on a series of lectures on the same subject broadcast by Raidió na Gaeltachta on his centenary in 1982. Amongst the writers are Sr Eibhlín Ní Chionnaith, Aisling Ní Dhonnchadha, Pádraigín Riggs. Geraróid Denvir, Declan Kiberd and Seán Ó Conghaile. Appended to the essays is an invaluable bibliography of Pádaric Ó Conaire's works compiled by Sr Eibhlín Ní Chionnaith.
My own doctor sent me to see him. "You have an illness," he said that day, "that doesn't have a name. Doctor Áthas is very skilled in this sort of thing," he said. "I'm going to send you to him. He's a psychoanalyst." That's how this story begins; if it is a story. The first novel by Liam Mac Cóil, and the first Irish language book to be shortlisted for The Irish Times Literary Awards.
Set in mid-17th century Ireland and Continental Europe, the narrative in An Cléireach is triggered by a single event that takes place during the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland, when a small band of the retreating Irishry gather on the side of a mountain and, despite the threat of massacre, for one night the rain lifts, the stars shine, and art and dreams take centre stage.
In this beautifully presented book, not only is Stanford's music and Gaelic music examined, but also Stanford's cultural background. Indeed, it is not often we get an Irish book which examines Englishness, as is done in this book which gets to grips with both the Irish and the English question, and what it means to be an anglophonic Englishman, and what it means go be a Gael.
