An Druma Mór

by Seosamh Mac Grianna

Is é is ábhar don úrscéal seo achrann a tharla faoi bhanna ceoil – an Druma Mór – i mbaile cladaigh i Rosa Thír Chonaill go luath sa chéad seo. Ba le pobal daoine, i gcomhar le chéile, na gléasraí ceoil, agus roghnaítí na seinnteoirí ar a gcumas gach Féile Pádraig le clú an bhaile a sheasamh sa mhórshiúl bhliantúil.
Thug eagraíocht pholaitiúil iarraidh seilbh a fháil ar an bhanna, mar chomhartha ar a gceannasaíocht féin, agus spreagadh fear uaillmhianach a fáisceadh as cruatan an tsaoil leis na Sons of St Patrick a bhunú leis an Druma Mór a chosaint orthu. Léiríonn Mac Grianna an choimhlint idir filiúntacht agus saoltacht an duine as cúrsaí cointinneacha an bhanna, agus éiríonn leis siombail an dúchais a dhéanamh den Druma Mór.

173 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Seosamh Mac Grianna (1900 – June 11, 1990) was an Irish writer, under the pen-name Iolann Fionn. He was born into a family of poets and storytellers, which included his brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seán Bán Mac Grianna, in Ranafast, County Donegal, at a time of linguistic and cultural change.

He was educated at St. Eunan's College, Letterkenny, and St Columb's College in Derry. He trained as a teacher in St Patrick's College, Dublin, from which he graduated in 1921. He became involved in the armed struggle and was interned as a republican for fifteen months. He began a teaching career but, with his poetic and independent character, soon discovered that his vocation did not lie there.

Mac Grianna started writing in the early 1920s, and his creative period lasted some fifteen years . He wrote essays, short stories, travel and historical works, a famous autobiography, Mo Bhealach Féin, and a novel, as well as translating many books. He was imbued with a strong, oral traditional culture from his childhood, and this permeated his writings, particularly in the early years.

Towards the end of his career, Mac Grianna grew increasingly analytical and critical as he examined the changing face of the Irish-speaking districts and the emergence of an Anglicised Ireland with no loyalty to, or sympathy with, a heroic and cultured past.

He was probably the greatest Gaeltacht writer of his time, whose work had developed considerably before he was stricken by a severe depressive psychosis in 1935. In 1959 his wife committed suicide and his son, Fionn, drowned in Dublin Bay. That same year he was placed in St.Conall's psychiatric hospital in Letterkenny, where he stayed for most of the next 31 years. He died in 1990.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a joy to read. How difficult it is to make the ordinary of interest but Mac Grianna was raised among storytellers and obviously learned a thing or two. Indeed the wider context of this book is rooted in the oral and literary traditions of NW rural Ireland; and central to this of course is the Irish language. The characters are real enough and battles over 'The Drum' entirely believable. Mac Grianna in his writing captures handfuls of local history that he holds aloft for all to see. Too raw for some it seems, because it was thirty years and more before this, his last real work, was published.

The reading fraternity should look more closely at these early works translated from the Irish language. For they open a window on Ireland previously closed to us.

[Louis Headley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best works of Irish fiction.