Islanders by Peadar O'Donnell (HQ785)

Published 1974: Softcover / Very Good Condition

Original pictorial stiff card covers. 124 + very clean and bright pages, faint previous owners details on the title page. Covers slightly rubbed with time consistent with age. Scarce! (HQ785)

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A convincing and haunting story of epic simplicity in which a whole family comes to life.

In Islanders Peadar O'Donnell reveals life among the fishing folk in the little islands off the west coast of Ireland. It is a convincing and haunting story of haunting story of epic simplicity in which a whole family comes to life. Under the author's spell we are taken into their world of poverty, hunger, laughter, and, above all, hope.

Peadar O’Donnell trained as a school teacher in Dublin. He went on full time active service with the I.R.A. in the Winter of 1920. As a brigade O/C he opposed the Treaty, and was one of the members of the I.R.A. executive in the period of the armed defence of the Republic against the Treaty forces. He was taken prisoner in the fall of The Four Courts and spent almost two years in jail. 'I spent a good few months in continuous solitary confinement in 1923. I found it stimulating. I did encourage my mind, however, to steal out the window, to boats, islands, scenes I like'. He later assembled his prison vision in Islanders.

Peadar O'Donnell was born in Meenamore, Donegal in 1893 and trained as a teacher. He joined the IRA during the War of Independence and quickly rose through the ranks. He published his first novel, Storm, in 1925, followed by Islanders in 1928. In 1964 he became editor of The Bell and remained as its editor until 1954. He died in 1986.

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