Cormac O'Malley Knihy

Focusing on Ernie O'Malley's experiences, this narrative explores his life as a revolutionary republican and writer during the Irish independence and civil wars. After enduring wounds, imprisonment, and hunger strikes, he traveled to the USA in 1928 to support de Valera's fundraising efforts. "Broken Landscapes" details his journeys, highlighting the challenges he faced and the impact of his revolutionary activities on his life and the broader context of Irish history.

It is a little-known fact that Ernie O' Malley, renowned for his role in Ireland's revolutionary struggle, was also a passionate collector of Irish folklore. Centered on O' Malley's native Clew Bay and its environs and transcribed by his son Cormac, The Enchanted Bay is a rich tapestry of tales that showcases the enduring power of the oral tradition in Ireland. From the entertaining exploits of the Gobá n Saor, mythical master builder, to the Clare Island man who married a selkie, this collection offers a glimpse into the heart of Irish storytelling. A testament to O' Malley's multifaceted legacy, several of the stories in this compilation were gathered while he travelled Ireland as an IRA organiser. The insights he gained through folklore collecting would later inform his ambitious project of recording testimonies from former comrades, solidifying his place as a pivotal figure in the preservation of Irish history and culture. The tales in these pages maintain the unique voices of local communities, conjuring an arcane, fascinating world that is slipping further from memory.

This is the extraordinary life story of Ernie O’Malley (1897-1957), one of Ireland’s most complex and influential Republican figures, and later a hugely successful writer. Born in Castlebar in 1897, Ernie O’Malley went on to serve as a General in the IRA at the young age of 23 and commanded 7,000 volunteers in the brutal War of Independence. Following the Truce and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922, he took an aggressive anti-treaty position and commanded the Anti-Treaty forces during the subsequent Civil War, after his leadership role in the occupation of the Four Courts in June 1923. What distinguishes O’Malley’s story as remarkable is the stark difference between his dramatic life as a soldier and his subsequent bohemian world as a writer and renaissance man. After the establishment of the new State, O’Malley left Ireland and travelled extensively throughout Europe, America, and Mexico, mixing with the likes of Jack B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and John Ford, and embarked upon a tumultuous marriage to American heiress-sculptor Helen Hooker. Enriched with valuable unpublished material from his diaries, letters, and military dispatches, and the unique perspective of his son Cormac, Ernie O’ A Life is the fascinating biography of an extraordinary Irishman.