Séamus Ó Grianna

Born in Ranafast, in the Donegal Gaeltacht, Séamus Ó Grianna was educated locally and qualified as a teacher at St Patrick's College. He absorbed the rich oral traditions and folklore of the region in his Irish-language works, some of which he wrote under the pseudonym Máire. His career as a wrier spans five decades and among his best known works are the novels Caisleáin Óir (1924) and Mo Dhá Róisín (1921), and the short stories Cith is Dealán (1927). Ó Grianna was interned between 1922 and 1924, having taken the Republican side in the Civil War. In 1932, he became a civil servant and worked as a translator for An Gúm. He was critical, however, of the government's Irish language policy, and in 1966 joined the Language Freedom Movement which opposed the forceful revival of Irish in schools.