Liam O'Flaherty

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Liam O'Flaherty (August 28, 1896 - September 7, 1984) was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish Renaissance.

Born on the remote Gort na gCapall, Inishmore (one of the Aran Islands), county Galway, and educated at University College Dublin, O'Flaherty fought n the First World War in the British Army. He suffered severe "shell-shock" in France in 1917 and spent the remainder of the war recuperating. O'Flaherty travelled the world until returning to Ireland in 1920. He participated in both the Anglo-Irish War and the Irish Civil War on the Irish republican side. He was also deeply involved in far-left wing politics, influenced by the Industrial Workers of the World and was also connected to the early Communist Party of Ireland. He subsequently moved to London, were he wrote much of his work. He was a leading Irish novelist of the early 20th century. His works are characterized by realism and powerful drama.

Although a native speaker of Irish, Liam O'Flaherty wrote mostly in English.

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Works

Among his books are Thy Neighbor's Wife (1924), The Informer (1925; adapted as The Informer (film), 1935), Mr. Gilhooley (1926), Short Stories (1937; revised 1956), Famine (1937), Land (1946), Two Lovely Beasts and Other Stories (1950), Insurrection (1951), and The Pedlar's Revenge and Other Stories (1976).

In addition to The Sniper, some notable short stories by O'Flaherty are Civil War, The Shilling, Going into Exile, and A Red Petticoat.

Towards the end of his life, he published a collection of short stories, Dúil, which ranks among the finest he wrote in any language, as well as the finest ever written in Irish.

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