Conamara Chronicles

Seán Mac Giollarnáth (1880–1970) was a writer, judge, and folklore collector in his native County Galway. A key figure in the Irish cultural revival, he combined a long career as a district justice with the compilation of folktales and traditional lore from collaborators in Conamara and beyond.Liam Mac Con Iomaire (1937–2019) was a teacher, journalist, and writer from Casla, County Galway. Major publications include biographies of Breandán Ó hEithir, Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, and, in collaboration with Tim Robinson, Graveyard Clay, the translation of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's 1949 novel Cré na Cille. He was an acknowledged authority on Irish language usage and traditional singing in Irish.Tim Robinson (1935–2020) was born in Yorkshire, studied mathematics at Cambridge, and worked as a visual artist in Istanbul, Vienna, and London. He moved to the Aran Islands in 1972 and commenced a multidecade project of mapping and writing about Aran, the Burren, and Connemara. He was author of the two-volume Stones of Aran and the Connemara trilogy.

The greatest triumph of this book's many triumphs is its warm appreciation for family and community that emerge in the lovingly translated texts. These stories foreground the history of Ireland as experienced, remembered, and relived by oral intellectual leaders of a marginalized, and often forgotten, maritime community. . . . Indeed, if silence is the angel with which literature wrestles, these translations give voice to the memory, stories, and legacy of oral intellectuals who feature here and tell the story of history from below. Essential reading for any traveler to Connemara and the West of Ireland.- Brian Ó Conchubhair, University of Notre Dame Seán Mac Giollarnáth's landmark publication of 1941 demonstrates his work in collecting traditional material and transcribing vernacular culture. It is fitting to see the work in translation, and readers seeking to step into the wondrous world of Conamara tradition would do well to begin here."- Ríonach uí Ógáin, University College Dublin With the same profound and intimate sense of place and absolute command of their source's rich Conamara Irish they brought to their translation of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's Cré na Cille as Graveyard Clay, in Conamara Chronicles: Tales from Iorras Aithneach—their superb translation of traditional lore originally collected and published by Seán Mac Giollarnáth in 1941—Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson bring alive again the people, tales, and culture of another of Ireland's petites patries whose like is unlikely to ever be seen again.- Philip O'Leary, Boston College A vivid and absorbing collection of tales that bring to life whole worlds of imagination and experience. Tim Robinson and Liam Mac Con Iomaire in their remarkable translation capture the poetic vibrancy and profound sensitivity to nature and place of a community of Conamara storytellers who see the local as the portal to the universal.- Michael Cronin, Trinity College Dublin

• A Personal NoteAcknowledgmentsNomenclatureReading this VolumeSpace, Time & Connemara, by Tim RobinsonThe Brief Annals: An Introductory Note, by Liam Mac Con Iomaire1. The Holy Men and the Islands2. Troubled Times3. The Year of the French (1798)4. The Tories / Vigilantes5. Big Men6. Robbers and Treasures7. Smugglers8. Poor Scholars9. Priests10. People and Places11. Boatmen and Timber12. Food13. Wisps of Straw14. Custodians of Traditional Lore and StorytellersReading this Volume: Meet the Storytellers, by Liam Mac Con IomaireBibliographyMapsIndex