Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (; 19 February 1904 – 25 June 1950), anglicised as Maurice O'Sullivan, was an Irish author famous for his Irish-language memoir of growing up on the

Great Blasket Island The Great Blasket () is the principal island of the Blaskets, County Kerry, Ireland. It was home to a small fishing community of Irish speakers until the island was abandoned in 1954 when living there became unsustainable. Geography The isl ...

and in Dingle,

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, off the western coast of Ireland.

Writings

''Fiche Blian ag Fás'' (''Twenty Years a-Growing'') was published in Irish and English in 1933. As one of the last areas of Ireland in which the old Irish language and culture had continued unchanged, the Great Blasket Island was a place of enormous interest to those seeking traditional Irish narratives. Ó Súilleabháin was persuaded to write his memoirs by

George Thomson George Thomson may refer to: Government and politics * George Thomson (MP for Southwark) (c. 1607–1691), English merchant and Parliamentarian soldier, official and politician * George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth (1921–2008), Scottish p ...

, a linguist and professor of Greek who had come to the island to hear and learn the Irish language. It was Thomson who encouraged him to join the Gardai rather than emigrate to America as most of the young people did. Thomson edited and assembled the memoir, and arranged for its translation into English with the help of

Moya Llewelyn Davies Moya Llewelyn Davies, born Mary Elizabeth O'Connor, (25 March 1881 – 28 September 1943) was an Irish Republican activist during the Irish War of Independence and a Gaelic scholar. Childhood Davies was one of five children of IRB Supreme Counci ...

. While ''Fiche Blian ag Fás'' was received with tremendous enthusiasm by critics, including E.M. Forster, their praise at times had a condescending tone. Forster described the book as a document of a surviving "Neolithic" culture. Such interest was tied up with romantic notions of the Irish primitive, and thus when Ó Súilleabháin tried to find a publisher for his second book, ''Fiche Bliain faoi Bhláth'' (in English, ''Twenty Years a-Flowering''), there was little interest, as this narrative necessarily departed from the romantic realm of turf fires and pipe-smoking wise-women.

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

commenced, but did not finish, a filmscript of ''Twenty Years a-Growing''.

Personal life

Following the death of his mother when he was six months old, Ó Súilleabháin was raised in an institution in Dingle, Co. Kerry. Aged eight, he returned to Great Blasket Island to live with his father, grandfather and the rest of his siblings, from whom he acquired an understanding of the Irish language. He joined the

Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace"), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Gover ...

in Dublin in 1927 and was stationed in the Gaeltacht area of Connemara, where he kept up contact with Thomson. In 1934, Ó Súilleabháin left the Guards and settled in Connemara. Ó Súilleabháin drowned on 25 June 1950, while swimming at Knocknacarra Irish Times 26 June 1950, which states that he was "a Civic Guard, stationed in Oughterard" off the Connemara coast.

Published works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OSullivan, Maurice 1904 births 1950 deaths Blasket Islands Irish-language writers Irish memoirists Irish police officers People from County Kerry 20th-century memoirists