Seosamh Mac Grianna: an Mhéin Rúin

Seosamh Mac Grianna: An Mhéin Rúin was the first scholarly study in Irish of the work of the most important Ulster Irish writer of the twentieth century. The study, based on the author’s PhD thesis, was published as a volume in An Clóchomhar’s prestigious ‘imleabhair thaighde’ [research volumes] series. A central part of the book's thesis was to chart connections between Mac Grianna’s writing and other discourses previously not considered, in particular, the discussion of the influence of 19th century political and cultural discourses on Donegal Irish writers and the comparison of Seosamh Mac Grianna and Liam O’Flaherty’s autobiographical work with the work of contemporary French novelists and writers. A key contribution to the critical understanding of the ideology of the Irish revival was the inclusion of a substantial chapter on the influence of Thomas Carlyle in the work of Mac Grianna and his peers. Seosamh Mac Grianna: An Mhéin Rúin also represents one of the first critical studies of the An Gúm (State Irish language publisher) files which had only recently been made available to scholars.