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This Road Of Mine
First published in Irish by An Gúm in 1965, Seosamh Mac Grianna’s magnificent autobiographical novel Mo Bhealach Féin is translated here for the first time into English by Míchéal Ó hAodha. With notes of Dead as Doornails and The Ginger Man in its absurd comedy, Seosamh Mac Grianna pens his reaction to an anglicised, urbanised, post-revolution Ireland, demonstrating his talents at their peak.
This Road of Mine relates a humorous, picaresque journey through Wales en route for Scotland, an Irish counterpart to Three Men in a Boat with a twist of Down and Out in Paris and London. The protagonist follows his impulses, getting into various absurd situations: being caught on the Irish Sea in a stolen rowboat in a storm; feeling guilt and terror in the misplaced certainty that he had killed the likeable son of his landlady with a punch while fleeing the rent; sleeping outdoors in the rain and rejecting all aid on his journey. What lies behind his misanthropy is a reverence for beauty and art and a disgust that the world doesn’t share his view, concerning itself instead with greed and pettiness.
The prose is full of personality, and Ó hAodha has proved himself adept at capturing the life and spark of the writer’s style. His full-spirited translation has given the English-reading world access to this charming and relentlessly entertaining bohemian poet, full of irrepressible energy for bringing trouble on himself. As well as the undoubted importance of this text culturally, Mac Grianna is able to make rank misanthropy enjoyable – making music out of misery. The voice is wonderful: hyperbolic but sincere.
This Road of Mine relates a humorous, picaresque journey through Wales en route for Scotland, an Irish counterpart to Three Men in a Boat with a twist of Down and Out in Paris and London. The protagonist follows his impulses, getting into various absurd situations: being caught on the Irish Sea in a stolen rowboat in a storm; feeling guilt and terror in the misplaced certainty that he had killed the likeable son of his landlady with a punch while fleeing the rent; sleeping outdoors in the rain and rejecting all aid on his journey. What lies behind his misanthropy is a reverence for beauty and art and a disgust that the world doesn’t share his view, concerning itself instead with greed and pettiness.
The prose is full of personality, and Ó hAodha has proved himself adept at capturing the life and spark of the writer’s style. His full-spirited translation has given the English-reading world access to this charming and relentlessly entertaining bohemian poet, full of irrepressible energy for bringing trouble on himself. As well as the undoubted importance of this text culturally, Mac Grianna is able to make rank misanthropy enjoyable – making music out of misery. The voice is wonderful: hyperbolic but sincere.
- GenresLiterature
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
7 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Seosamh Mac Grianna
13 books2 followersSeosamh 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 1, 2023
This is one of those books you wish would give you more. But I doubt that is Mac Grianna's way. Scholar, dreamer, and rogue. A man who lived on the margins. Often hand to mouth. Immersed in his own culture and language. Praiseworthy of small nations who value theirs. His Welsh odyssey an inspiration to other walkers. Unwittingly I have followed in Mac Grianna's footsteps. This road of my own now hugely enriched.
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March 21, 2021
November 25, 2024
Neuvěřitelně zábavná cesta po Walesu i poutníkově duši. Skvělý překlad, poznámkový aparát i doslov Radvana Markuse. Recenze incoming.
December 10, 2024
Výborný doslov představující kontext díla i autora.
September 5, 2025
You know those people that you sometimes meet who love the sound of their own voice but are still highly entertaining? That's what this book is like.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews