Description

These eight stories, written for An Claideamh Soluis and published in book form in 1914 are among the most remarkable of the whole Gaelic Revival. They deal with Ó'Conaires recurring themes of tragic love, jealousy, betrayal and displacement but their settings are far from the author's native Connacht. Four stories give imaginative interpretations of incidents from the New Testament. 

The title story, An Chéad Chloch (The first stone) gives the imaginative background to the New Testament story of the woman taken in adultery and how her executioners were forced to leave when Jesus wrote on the ground: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

To find out more about Pádraic Ó'Conaire, click here.

ISBN 9781856352833
 

About the Author

Pádraic Ó Conaire was born in Galway City in 1882 and reared in Rosmuc in the Connemara Gaeltacht. After leaving school he went to work as a civil servant in the Ministry of Education in London. There he met Irish-language activists (he was a friend of Robert Lynd, Michael Collins and the historian PS O'Hegarty) and became a teacher of Irish for the Gaelic League. His works include the short-story collections Nora Mharcuis Bhig agus Scalte Eile (1909) and An Chéad Chloch (1914), and the novel Deoracht (1916). He returned to Ireland in 1914 and lived there until his death in 1928. MAsal Beag Dubh, one of the books for which he is best known, was published in 1944.