About Máirtín Ó Cadhain
Máirtín Ó Cadhain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈmˠaːɾˠtʲiːnʲ oː ˈkəinʲ]; 4 January 1906 – 18 October 1970) was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century. Perhaps best known for his 1949 novel Cré na Cille, Ó Cadhain played a key role in reintroducing literary modernism into modern literature in Irish, where it had been dormant since the 1916 execution of Patrick Pearse. Politically, Ó Cadhain was an Irish republican and anti-clerical Marxist, who promoted Athghabháil na hÉireann (the "Re-Conquest of Ireland"), (meaning both decolonization and re-Gaelicisation). Ó Cadhain was also a member of the post-Civil War Irish Republican Army and was interned by the Irish Army in the Curragh Camp with Brendan Behan and many other IRA members during the Emergency. == Literary career == Born in Connemara, he became a schoolteacher but was dismissed due to his Irish Republican Army (IRA) membership. In the 1930s, he served as an IRA recruiting officer, enlisting fellow writer Brendan Behan. During this period, he also participated in the land campaign of native speakers, which led to the establishment of the Ráth Cairn neo-Gaeltacht in County Meath. Subsequently, he was arrested and interned during the Emergency (the second world war period in Ireland) on the Curragh Camp in County Kildare, due to his continued involvement in the IRA. Ó Cadhain's politics were Irish republicanism mixed with Marxism and radical politics, and then tempered with a rhetorical anti-clericalism. In his writings, however, concerning the revival of the Irish language, Ó Cadhain was very practical about the Catholic Church in Ireland but demanded commitment to the language revival from Roman Catholic priests. It was his view that, as the Church was there anyway, it would be better if the clergy were more willing to address their faithful in the Irish language.
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