Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin (27 February 1900 – 20 April 1991) was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Irish culture. A short-story writer of international repute, he was also a leading commentator and critic.

Biography

Ó Faoláin was born as John Francis Whelan in Cork City, County Cork, Ireland. He was educated at the Presentation Brothers Secondary School in Cork. He came under the influence of Daniel Corkery, joining the Cork Dramatic Society, and increasing his knowledge of the Irish language, which he had begun in school. Shortly after entering

University College, Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

, he joined the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...

. He fought in the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

. During the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...

he served as Censor for the ''

Cork Examiner The ''Irish Examiner'', formerly ''The Cork Examiner'' and then ''The Examiner'', is an Irish national daily newspaper which primarily circulates in the Munster region surrounding its base in Cork, though it is available throughout the country. ...

'' and as publicity director for the IRA. After the Republican loss, he received M.A. degrees from the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) ( ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann) is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universit ...

and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

where he studied for 3 years. He was a Commonwealth Fellow from 1926 to 1928; and was a Harvard Fellow from 1928 to 1929. He wrote his first stories in the 1920s, eventually completing 90 stories over a period of 60 years. From 1929 to 1933 he lectured at the Catholic college, St Mary's College, at Strawberry Hill in

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, England, during which period he wrote his first two books. His first book, ''Midsummer Night Madness'', was published in 1932: it was a collection of stories partly based on his Civil War experiences. He afterwards returned to Ireland. He published novels; short stories; biographies; travel books; translations; literary criticism—including one of the rare full-length studies of the short story: ''The Short Story'' (1948). He also wrote a cultural history, ''The Irish'', in 1947. He served as director of the

Arts Council of Ireland The Arts Council (sometimes called the Arts Council of Ireland; legally ga, An Chomhairle Ealaíon) is the independent "Irish government agency for developing the arts." About It was established in 1951 by the Government of Ireland, to encour ...

from 1956 to 1959, and from 1940 to 1946 was a founder member and editor of the Irish literary periodical '' The Bell''. The list of contributors to ''The Bell'' included many of Ireland's foremost writers, among them

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...

Patrick Swift Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...

Flann O'Brien Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth c ...

Frank O'Connor Frank O'Connor (born Michael Francis O'Donovan; 17 September 1903 – 10 March 1966) was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry (original and translations from Irish), dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on a ...

and

Brendan Behan Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ga, Breandán Ó Beacháin; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican activist who wrote in both English and ...

. His ''Collected Stories'' were published in 1983. He died on 20 April 1991 in Dublin.

Publishing

Over the course of a long publishing career, Ó Faoláin wrote eight volumes of short stories, the first of which, ''Midsummer Night Madness'', appeared in 1932; his last volume, ''Foreign Affairs'', was published over forty years later, in 1976. O’Faoláin also wrote four novels, three travel books, six biographies, a play, a memoir, a history book, and a so-called "character study." He produced critical studies of the novel and the short-story form, introduced texts of historical and literary merit, and contributed scores of articles, reviews, and uncollected stories to periodicals in Ireland, Britain, and America. Most famously, he cofounded and edited the influential journal ''The Bell'' from 1940 to 1946. Under O’Faoláin’s editorship, ''The Bell'' participated in many key debates of the day; it also provided a crucial outlet for established and emerging writers during the lean war years. A recurring thread in Ó Faoláin’s work is the idea that national identities are historically produced and culturally hybrid; an additional thesis is that Irish history should be conceived in international terms, and that it should be read, in particular, in the context of social and intellectual developments across Europe. Ó Faoláin was a controversial figure in his own lifetime and two of his books were banned for "indecency" in Ireland—his debut collection of short stories and his second novel, ''Bird Alone'' (1936). His legacy has proved divisive. If some consider him a social liberal cosmopolitan who challenged "proscriptive" definitions of Irish culture, others see him as a chauvinistic snob who paradoxically restricted the development of Irish writing. Proto- revisionist or nascent postcolonial, O’Faoláin has been considered both, sometimes within the same critical survey. Either way, his work was central to the evolution of a post–Literary Revival aesthetic, and his voice was one of the most prominent, and eloquent, in the fight against censorship in Ireland.

Personal life

Ó Faoláin married Eileen Gould, a children's writer, in 1929. Eileen published several books of Irish folk tales. They had two children:

Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

(1932–2020), who became a Booker-nominated novelist and short-story writer; and Stephen (b. 1938).

Books

* ''Midsummer Night Madness and Other Stories'' (1932, short stories) * ''A Nest of Simple Folk'' (1933, novel) * ''The Average Revolutionary'' (1934, biography) * ''Constance Markievicz'' (1934, biography) * ''Bird Alone'' (1936, novel) * ''The Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone'' (1937, biography) * ''A Life of Daniel O'Connell'' (1938, biography) * ''A New Ireland'' (1938, magazine article) * ''An Irish Journey'' (1940) * ''Come Back to Erin'' (1940, novel) * ''The Great O'Neill'' (1942, biography, of Hugh O'Neill) * ''The Story of Ireland'' (1943, Collins series 'Britain in Pictures') * ''The Irish: A Character Study'' (1947) * ''The Man Who Invented Sin'' (1948, short stories) * ''The Short Story'' (1948, literary criticism) * ''A Summer In Italy'' (1949, travel) * ''The Story of the Irish People'' (1949) * ''Newman's Way: The Odyssey of John Henry Newman'' (1952) * ''An Autumn in Italy'' (1953, travel) * ''With the Gaels of Wexford'' (Enniscorthy, 1955,

gaelic games Gaelic games ( ga, Cluichí Gaelacha) are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling ...

) * The Vanishing Hero - Studies in Novelists of the Twenties (1956) * ''Vive moi!'' (1964, memoir) * ''the center of the earth'' (1966, short stories) * ''The Talking Trees'' (1971, short stories) * ''Foreign Affairs, and Other Stories'' (1976, short stories) * ''Selected Stories'' (1978, short stories) * ''And Again?'' (1979, novel) * ''Collected Stories of Sean O'Faolain I'' (1980, short stories) * ''The Trout'' *"De Valera" 1939, Penguin books

Reviews

* Ritchie, Harry (1981), ''Collected O'Faolain'', review of ''Collected Stories of Sean O'Faolain I'' in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 6, Autumn 1981, p. 40.

Resources