2. Introduction to the author

Liam O'Flaherty was born on \(8\) August \(1896\), Inishmore, Ireland. He is a famous novelist and short story writer from Ireland. He wrote during the \(20th\) century when literature represented the class struggle that existed in the society. So he wrote about the common folk and the struggle of people who belonged to the lower strata of the society. He wrote about the simple things in life and never exaggerated or over idealised any concept. He wrote most of his books in English and only a few short stories in Irish. He was able to represent every situation from the perspective of a human being, which helped the readers to empathise with his writings.

 

O'Flaherty served as a soldier in the Western Front in the Irish Guards from \(1916\) under the name of William Ganly' and was injured in the war, but after it got over, he founded the Communist Party of Ireland, which was a Marxist -Leninist part, in \(1930\), which spoke for the equal rights of the common people. He spoke English even though he belonged to the  Gaeltacht, where the districts recognised Irish as the vernacular language.

 

He was \(16\) when he first started writing and he went on to receive an award for it from the Philadelphia organisation. More than a novelist, Flaherty is acclaimed as a short story writer. Some of his works went unpublished initially, but he is known for the publication of his collection Dúil. It was a short story collection with around 18 stories that were also translated from Irish to England. Since it had a poor reception at the time of publication, he was discouraged from writing in Irish and focussed on writing in English.

 

His famous works include: