Eimar Ultan O'Duffy (29 September 1893 – 21 March 1935) was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and educated at

Belvedere College Belvedere College S.J. (sometimes St Francis Xavier's College) is a voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school has numerous alumni in the arts, politics, sports, science, and business. History Belvedere owes its origin ...

in Dublin,

Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College is a co-educational Catholic Church, Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition, on the Stonyhurst, Stonyhurst Estate, Lancashire, England. It occupies a Grade I listed building. Th ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

and at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

. He and

Bulmer Hobson John Bulmer Hobson (14 January 1883 – 8 August 1969) was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before the Easter Rising in 1916.D.J. Hickey & J. E. Doherty, ''A New Dictionary of Irish History fro ...

caused disaster to the plans for the 1916

Easter Rising The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the a ...

when they told

Eoin MacNeill Eoin MacNeill ( ga, Eoin Mac Néill; born John McNeill; 15 May 1867 – 15 October 1945) was an Irish scholar, Irish language enthusiast, Gaelic revivalist, nationalist and politician who served as Minister for Education from 1922 to 1925, Ce ...

that the Rising was planned for the next week; MacNeill, nominal head of 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 respons ...

, reacted by sending messengers around the country to call off the manoeuvres which were the cover for the Rising, and advertising in newspapers to cancel them. O'Duffy and Hobson went to the North.

Publications

O'Duffy was a prolific writer. His ''The Wasted Island'', published in 1919 by Martin Lester Publication in Dublin and republished in 1920 by Dodd, Mead and Company in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, is his best known book; it is a

Roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship ...

about the Easter Rising and the men who made it, with thinly-disguised and slanted portraits of the leaders. Its point-of-view protagonist, Bernard Lascelles, is based on O'Duffy, and its hero, the attractive and loveable Felim O'Dwyer, perhaps on

Thomas MacDonagh Thomas Stanislaus MacDonagh ( ga, Tomás Anéislis Mac Donnchadha; 1 February 1878 – 3 May 1916) was an Irish political activist, poet, playwright, educationalist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising o ...

(though since O'Dwyer towards the end of the novel is one of the group with Lascelles who tries to stymie the Rising, this may not be altogether so). ''King Goshawk and the Birds'' was reprinted by

Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...

in 2017, with a new introduction by Robert Hogan. ''The Spacious Adventures of the Man in the Street'' was also reprinted by

in 2018. O'Duffy married Cathleen Cruise O'Brien in 1920, and they had a son, Brian, and a daughter, Rosalind.

Works

*The Walls of Athens (1914) *The Phoenix on the Roof (1915) *The Wasted Island (1919) *The Lion and the Fox (1921) *Printer's Errors (1922) *Miss Rudd and Some Lovers (1923) *King Goshawk and the Birds (1926) - satire *The Spacious Adventures of the Man in the Street (1928) - satireArt Cosgrove -A New History of Ireland, Volume II 0191561657 2008 "His three satires— King Goshawk and the birds (1926), The spacious adventures of the man in the street (1928), and Asses in clover (1933)—are, however, less local in scope. Their main attack is directed against international monopolistic ..." *Life and Money: Being a Critical Examination of the Principles and Practice of Orthodox Economics *The Bird Cage (New York, 1932), *The Secret Enemy (New York, 1932) *Asses in Clover (London: Putnam's 1933) - satire *Consumer Credit: A Pamphlet. London: The Prosperity League, 1934 *Heart of a Girl: A Mystery Novel (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1935 New York, 1935)

References

External links

*
O'Duffy's Ricorso entry

New edition of ''King Goshawk and the Birds''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oduffy, Eimar Writers from Dublin (city) Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood 1893 births 1939 deaths Alumni of University College Dublin People educated at Stonyhurst College People educated at Belvedere College