Michael McLaverty (5 July 1904 – 22 March 1992) was an
Irish writer of novels and short stories.
[Michael McLaverty: Life Works Criticism Commentary Quotations References Notes]
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Background
Michael McLaverty was born in
Carrickmacross
Carrickmacross () is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The town and environs had a population of 5,032 according to the 2016 census, making it the second-largest town in the county. Carrickmacross is a market town which developed around a c ...
,
County Monaghan
County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County C ...
, to Michael McLaverty (a waiter) and Kathleen Brady. A few years later the family moved to
the Beechmount area of Belfast. He went to St Gall's, and later attended
St Malachy's College and
Queen's University Belfast
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(QUB), earning his BSc in 1927 and his MSc in 1933 for a thesis, "Earlier Work on the Passage of Electricity through Gases".
For a short period McLaverty lived on
Rathlin Island
Rathlin Island ( ga, Reachlainn, ; Local Irish dialect: ''Reachraidh'', ; Scots: ''Racherie'') is an island and civil parish off the coast of County Antrim (of which it is part) in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's northernmost point. ...
, off the
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population ...
coast, where he gained much of the inspiration for his short stories. Upon marrying, he moved to Deramore Drive,
Malone, Belfast. In 1928, he had got a Diploma in Education at St Mary's Teacher Training College in London.
[ He worked as a teacher of maths and physics in Belfast for 35 years, firstly at St John's Primary School (1929-57) and then (as headmaster) at St Thomas Secondary School (1957-64).
]Joe Graham
Anthony Joseph "Joe" Graham (30 January 1944 - 9 December 2021), was a Belfast-based Irish writer and historian. He founded ''Rushlight: The Belfast Magazine'' in 1972.
Joseph Graham was born in Belfast, the eighth of twelve children born to Ji ...
in his book, ''Belfast Born Bred And Buttered'' speaks fondly of having been taught by McLaverty both at St John's and St Thomas's schools. During McLaverty's tenure at the latter, poet Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. was one of his staff. Heaney recalled McLaverty's enthusiasm for teaching but also for literature, and McLaverty introduced him to the work of Patrick Kavanagh.
Writing
McLaverty was one of Ireland's distinguished short story writers, painting with spare intensity the northern landscape of his homeland, the hill farms, rough island terrain and the backstreets of Belfast. He focuses on moments of passion, wonder or bitter disenchantment in lives of struggle. His collected works are illustrated with woodcuts by Barbara Childs, and including an introduction by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. and a foreword by Sophia Hillan,
Heaney summarised McLaverty's contribution: "His voice was modestly pitched, he never sought the limelight, yet for all that, his place in our literature is secure." In the introduction to McLaverty's ''Collected Works'', Heaney describes the writing: "His tact and pacing, in the individual sentence and the overall story, are beautiful: in his best work, the elegiac is bodied forth in perfectly pondered images and rhythms".[McLaverty, Michael (2002) ''Collected short stories'' Blackstaff Press Ltd pxiii ] Heaney's poem ''Fosterage'', in the sequence ''Singing School'' from ''North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
'' (1975) is dedicated to him.
Collected works
* ''Call My Brother Back'' (1932)
* ''Lost Fields'' (1941)
* ''In This Thy Day'' (1945)
* ''Collected Short Stories'' (1978)
* ''The Circle (Business Bastard) '' (2015)
See also
* Irish fiction
* Irish literature
* List of Irish novelists
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaverty, Michael
1904 births
1992 deaths
People from County Monaghan
People educated at St Malachy's College
20th-century Irish writers
20th-century Irish novelists
20th-century male writers
Irish male novelists