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AlthoughIrish has been used as aliterary language for more than 1,500 years (seeIrish literature), andmodern literature in Irish dates – as in most European languages – to the 16th century, modern Irish literature owes much of its popularity to the 19th centuryGaelic Revival, a cultural andlanguage revival movement,[1] and to the efforts of more recent poets and writers. In an act of literarydecolonization common to many other peoples seekingself-determination, writers in Irish have taken the advice ofPatrick Pearse and have combined influences from both their own literary history and the whole ofworld literature. Writers inModern Irish have accordingly produced some of the most interesting literature to come out of Ireland, while being both supplemented and influenced by poetry and prose composed in theIrish language outside Ireland.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Irish had been reversed from being the dominant language of Ireland to becoming a minority language, which reduced the literature being produced. The Gaelic Revival sought to reverse this decline. In the beginning, the revivalists preferred to write inClassical Irish, and were notably inspired byGeoffrey Keating's (Seathrún Céitinn)Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (History of Ireland), a much-read 17th-century work. Classical Irish, however, was soon ousted by the living dialects actually being spoken in theGaeltacht areas, especially as championed by a native speaker from the Coolea-Muskerry area, FatherPeadar Ua Laoghaire, who in the 1890s published, in a serialised form, a folkloristic novel strongly influenced by the storytelling tradition of theGaeltacht, calledSéadna. His other works include the autobiographyMo Scéal Féin and retellings of tales fromIrish mythology, as well as a recently reissued adaptation ofDon Quixote.
Pádraic Ó Conaire was a pioneer in the writing of realistic short stories in Irish; he was also to the forefront of Irish-language journalism. His most important book is his only novel,Deoraíocht (Exile), which combines realism with absurdist elements. He was to die in 1928, not yet fifty years old. Ó Conaire became something of a mythical figure in Irish literary folklore because of his highly individual talent and engaging personality.
From the end of the 19th century, researchers were visiting theGaeltacht to record the lives of native speakers in authentic dialect. This interest from outside stimulated several notable autobiographies, especially onGreat Blasket Island, located off theDingle Peninsula:Peig byPeig Sayers,An t-Oileánach ("The Islandman") byTomás Ó Criomhthain, andFiche Bliain ag Fás ("Twenty Years a-Growing") byMuiris Ó Súilleabháin.
Although he greatly admired these Gaeltacht memoirs and particularly that of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, novelistFlann O'Brien also chose tosatirize theircliches quite mercilessly in his modernist novelAn Béal Bocht ("The Poor Mouth"), which is set in the fictional, desperately poor, and constantly rainingGaeltacht of (Corca Dhorcha); a parody ofIrish:Corca Dhuibhne, the name inMunster Irish for theDingle Peninsula.
Micí Mac Gabhann was the author ofRotha Mór an tSaoil ("The Great Wheel of Life"), dictated in his nativeUlster Irish. The title refers to theKlondike gold rush,ruathar an óir, at the end of the 19th century, and the hardship Irish gold-seekers endured on their way totír an óir, the gold country.
Another important figure was the prolific writer of rural novels,Séamus Ó Grianna (pen name "Máire"). Séamus Ó Grianna's most important contribution to modern literature in the language might be the fact that he persuaded his brotherSeosamh (who called himselfSeosamh Mac Grianna in Irish) to write in Irish. Seosamh was a less prolific and less fortunate writer than his brother. He was stricken by a severe depressive psychosis in 1935 and spent the rest of his life – more than fifty years – at a psychiatric hospital. Before his psychosis, however, he wrote an impressive novel about the difficult transition to modernity in his ownGaeltacht, calledAn Druma Mór ("The Big Drum" or "The Fife and Drum Band"), as well as a powerful and introspective account of his travels calledMo Bhealach Féin ("My Own Way"). His last novel,Dá mBíodh Ruball ar an Éan ("If the Bird Had a Tail"), a study of the alienation of aGaeltacht man inDublin, was left unfinished, a fact suggested by the title.
Both brothers were acknowledged translators. In addition to translatingWalter Scott'sIvanhoe into Irish, Seosamh's work in this field includes the Irish versions ofJoseph Conrad'sAlmayer's Folly, in IrishDíth Céille Almayer, as well asPeadar O'Donnell'sAdrigoole, in IrishEadarbhaile.
Patrick Pearse, who was executed as one of the leaders of theEaster Rising, learntConnaught Irish inRosmuc, while continuing to write inMunster Irish. He also wrote idealised stories about the Irish-speaking countryside, as well as nationalistic poetry in a more classical, Keating-esque style.
According toLouis De Paor, Pearse's reading of the experimentalfree verse poetry ofWalt Whitman and of the FrenchSymbolists led him to introduceModernist poetry into theIrish language. As aliterary critic, Pearse also left behind a detailed blueprint for theDecolonization ofIrish literature, through drawing not only uponIrish mythology andfolklore, but also from the whole ofworld literature, both past and present. For these reasons, Liam De Paor has called Pearse's execution by aBritish Armyfiring squad after the defeat of the 1916Easter Rising a catastrophic loss for Irish literature which only began to be healed during the late 1940s by the modernist poetry ofSeán Ó Ríordáin,Máirtín Ó Direáin, andMáire Mhac an tSaoi.
Ó Direáin, a native Irish speaker and passionateautodidact fromInishmore in theAran Islands, spent his life as a careercivil servant inGalway City andDublin in the aftermath of theIrish Civil War. He began publishing his work in the early 1940s as a poet of homesickness and urban angst and ended, quite similarly to his literary heroT.S. Eliot, as a harsh cultural critic of escalatingSecularization,hedonism, and excessiveconsumerism.
Máire Mhac an tSaoi, who was also an accomplishedCelticist andliterary scholar, published several collections of lyric verse beginning in the 1950s. These display her mastery of both the strict metres (Dán Díreach), once taught and widely used before the 17th century closing of theIrish bardic poetry schools, and of the colloquial folk song metres (Amhrán) that replaced them until the early Gaelic revival. In 2013, she also published aliterary translation ofRainer Maria Rilke'sDuino Elegies fromAustrian German intoModern Irish.
Ó Ríordáin was born in theBallyvourneybreac-Gaeltacht: his poetry was experimental enough in metre to draw attacks from literary traditionalists, while also being intensely personal in content. He was also a notable prose writer, as evidenced by his published diaries.
Modernist literature was developed further byMáirtín Ó Cadhain, a schoolmaster fromConnemara, who was the Irish-languagelittérateur engagé par excellence. He was anactive service in theIRA, and spentThe Emergency years (i.e. the years ofIrish neutrality in theSecond World War) interned in theCurragh Camp,County Kildare, together with other IRA men and Allied and Axis military personnel. At the camp, he taught Irish language courses to fellow internees and began his modernist masterpiece, the novelCré na Cille ("Graveyard Clay"). Reminiscent of some Latin American novels (notablyRedoble por Rancas byManuel Scorza, orPedro Páramo byJuan Rulfo), this novel is a chain of voices of the dead speaking from the churchyard, where they go on forever continuing the now pointless social and political quarrels from when they were alive. Similarly to those ofFlann O'Brien, Ó Cadhain's novel lampoons the rose-coloured depiction of life in theGaeltachtaí favored by theromantic nationalist writers of the earlyGaelic revival.
In addition toCré na Cille, Máirtín Ó Cadhain wrote several collections of short stories (one 'short' story, "Fuíoll Fuine" in the collectionAn tSraith dhá Tógáil, can count as anovella). An important part of his writings is hisjournalism,essays, and pamphlets, found in such collections asÓ Cadhain i bhFeasta,Caiscín, andCaithfear Éisteacht.
Máirtín Ó Cadhain's prose is dense, powerful and (especially in his early work) difficult for the novice. His style changed and became simpler with time, in part reflecting the urban world in which he settled. Like the poetLiam Gógan, Ó Cadhain was a linguistic moderniser and wrote in an experimental form of the Irish language, even in contexts where a less obscure style would have been appropriate. He enriched his own Connemara Irish withneologisms andloanwords from other dialects, includingScottish Gaelic.
Modernism and renewal are also represented by several writers not of Gaeltacht background, such asEoghan Ó Tuairisc,Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin, andBreandán Ó Doibhlin (the last influenced by French literary theory). Ó Tuairisc, a stylistic innovator, wrote poetry and plays as well as two novels on historical themes:L'Attaque, andDé Luain. Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin sought to adapt Irish to the urban world:An Uain Bheo andCaoin Thú Féin offered a depiction of a middle-class environment and its problems. Ó Doibhlin'sNéal Maidine agus Tine Oíche is an example of introspective modernism.
Among modern Gaeltacht writers,Pádraig Breathnach,Micheál Ó Conghaile andPádraig Ó Cíobháin are three of the most important. They adhere in general to the realist tradition, as doesDara Ó Conaola. The work ofJoe Steve Ó Neachtain, from the Conamara Gaeltacht, has proved consistently popular.
Caitlín Maude (d. 1982), a native speaker from Conamara, wrote fluent and elegant verse with a distinctively modern sensibility. One of the best known poets isNuala Ní Dhomhnaill, who was raised in the Munster Gaeltacht and was part of the new wave of the sixties and seventies. She is particularly interested in the mythic element in reality.Biddy Jenkinson (a pseudonym) is representative of an urban tradition: she is a poet and a writer of witty detective stories.
Others of Ní Dhomhnaill's generation were the mordantMichael Hartnett (who wrote both in Irish and English) andMichael Davitt (d.2005), a lyric poet whose work is both whimsical and melancholy. Others of his generation areLiam Ó Muirthile andGabriel Rosenstock. Among those who followed areCathal Ó Searcaigh,Tomás Mac Síomóin,Diarmuid Johnson andLouis de Paor. Ó Searcaigh, a lyric poet, is also a traveller: this bore fruit in his engaging travelogue aboutNepal,Seal i Neipeal. A younger generation is represented by such poets asDoireann Ní Ghríofa (b.1981).
There is now more emphasis on popular writing in Irish, and among the writers who have had considerable success with lighter genres isÉilís Ní Dhuibhne, novelist, playwright and short story writer.Lorcán S. Ó Treasaigh has written a popular autobiography calledCéard é English? (What is English?) about growing up as a native Irish speaker in the predominantly English-speaking city ofDublin.Colm Ó Snodaigh's novella,Pat the Pipe - Píobaire, describes a busker's adventures in Dublin's streets in the nineties.
Theshort story remains a popular genre.Donncha Ó Céileachair andSíle Ní Chéileachair, brother and sister, published the influential collectionBullaí Mhártain in 1955, dealing with both urban and rural themes. In 1953Liam O'Flaherty (Liam Ó Flaithearta) published the collectionDúil. O'Flaherty was raised for the first twelve years of his life with Irish on theAran Islands, butDúil was his only work in Irish. One of the best known of contemporary practitioners isSeán Mac Mathúna (who also writes in English). His work is characterised by humour and a poetic realism and has been praised for its originality. A writer of a more recent generation isDaithí Ó Muirí. The drive, black humour and absurdist quality of his work distinguish it from the realism of much modern writing in Irish.
Countries other than Ireland have produced several contributors to literature in Irish, reflecting the existence globally of a group who have learned or who cultivate the language.[2] It is worthy of note that these writers and their readers do not always form part of the traditional diaspora. It has been argued that the use of the language by non-Irish writers has nothing to do with a specifically Irish identity. Instead, its importance lies in its use value as a language of work, personal relationships and creativity.[3] A number of such writers, both Irish and foreign-born, are to be found in North America,Australia and various European countries.
Dutch-bornAlex Hijmans (formerly resident in Ireland and now living inBrazil) has published three books in Irish: an account of his life in Brazil,Favela (2009); a novel,Aiséirí (2011); and a collection of short stories,Gonta (2012).
Panu Petteri Höglund, a linguist, writer and translator, belongs toFinland'sSwedish-speaking minority. He uses Irish as a creative medium, and has set himself the goal of producing entertaining and modern writing in an Irish up to Gaeltacht standards. For a long time he experimented with Ulster Irish on the Web, but he published his first book in standard Irish, albeit strongly influenced by native folklore and dialects. He has published several novels, none of them set in Ireland.
Torlach Mac Con Midhe was born in Dublin and now lives inSwitzerland. He has published journalism in Irish,German andRomansh. He has published three non-fiction books in Irish:Iarsmaí na Teanga: Na Teangacha Ceilteacha i Stair Smaointeachas na hEorpa (Coiscéim 2005),Muintir Sléibhe agus a Teanga (Coiscéim 2009),Aistí Eorpacha (Coiscéim 2015); and a novel,Crothla agus Cnámha (Coiscéim 2018).
Dublin-born writerTomás Mac Síomóin, who died in 2022, had been living inBarcelona since 1997. He published over a dozen works in Irish in this period, as well as translations from Spanish and Catalan.
Seán Ó Muirgheasa, an American resident inCalifornia, is the author ofAn Dola a Íoc, adetective novel set inNew York City and published by Coiscéim in 2017.[4]
Séamas Ó Neachtain is a fifth-generation Irish American who has published poetry, fiction and journalism in Irish. He is also the founding editor ofAn Gael, an international literary journal in the Irish language.
Muiris (Mossie) Ó Scanláin, a native speaker ofMunster Irish from theKerry Gaeltacht who lived inMelbourne for many years, is the author of an autobiography,An Mám ó Dheas,[5] published when he resided in Australia and describing his life in Ireland, England and Australia.
Derry-bornPádraig Ó Siadhail (b. 1968) has been living inHalifax, Nova Scotia, since 1987. In this period, he has published ten works in Irish, including a collection of short stories and two novels.
Bantry-bornDerry O'Sullivan (1944–2025) lived inParis since 1969, apart from an interlude inStockholm. He published four collections of poetry in Irish.
Colin Ryan is an Australian whose short stories, set mostly in Australia and Europe, have appeared in the journalsFeasta,Comhar andAn Gael. He has also published poetry.Cló Iar-Chonnacht has published two collections of short stories by him:Teachtaireacht (2015)[6] andCeo Bruithne (2019).[7] Two collections of his poetry have been published by Coiscéim:Corraí na Nathrach (2017)[8] andRogha (2022)[9]
Julie Breathnach-Banwait is an Australian citizen of Irish origin living inWestern Australia. She is the author of:Dánta Póca (2020)Ar Thóir gach Ní (2022) andCnámha Scoilte (2023). She has had many publications in various literary magazines and anthologies both in Ireland and Australia.
The oldest Irish-language literary magazines responsible for the encouragement of poetry and short fiction areComhar[10] (founded in 1942) andFeasta[11] (founded in 1948). The latter, presently edited by Cormac Ó hAodha, is the journal of theGaelic League, though it has an independent editorial policy. Both magazines publish short fiction and poetry: the manifesto ofFeasta also declares that one of its objects is to encourage students to write in Irish.Feasta has enjoyed more stability than Comhar, which suffered from a declining readership and has now been reconstituted. The withdrawal of support byForas na Gaeilge, a major source of subsidies, may affect their future. Both magazines have had as contributors some of the most notable figures in modern Irish-language literature, and continue to encourage new writing.
They have since been joined byAn Gael,[12] an international literary magazine established in North America but publishing prose and poetry in Irish by writers from a number of different countries, including Ireland, Australia and Finland.
Oghma was a literary journal in theIrish language[13] published from 1989 to 1998.[14]
There are presently over 2,500 works of various kinds in print in Irish, of which the largest proportion is literature (over 2,000, including novels, short stories and poetry), children's books and educational material.[15]
It has been remarked that the average print run for a book of poetry or prose is probably 500, though a popular work ofdetective fiction might have a print run of 2,000.[16]
Among the genres least cultivated in Irish isscience fiction (a fact possible related to the dearth of popular science writing in the language, despite a wealth of available terminology).[17] The American-based magazineAn Gael has, however, published serials with elements of fantasy and thesurreal.
A number of publishers specialise in Irish-language material. They include the following.
A number of English language publishers provide some Irish-language material too. They include the following.
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