3 Review(s)

Padraig O Fathaigh ( 1879-1976) was a lifelong Gaelic Leaguer and teacher of Irish. Already a prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers before 1916, O Fathaigh was arrested on Easter Tuesday before he could join forces with Liam Mellows. He spent the next year undergoing penal servitude, the first of four terms of imprisonment between 1916 and 1920. When at liberty he acted as an intelligence officer in South Galway and Mid-Clare, taking part in some minor ambushes. His detailed and thoughtful handwritten recollections of life on the run and in prison portray the widening chasm between Irish nationalists and agents of authority such as the police. For men like O Fathaig, the Irish language was essential to nationality, providing access to a secret world which the oppressor could never enter. These personal recollections will interest all students of the Irish revolution and the Gaelic revival