Word: aran
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Born & Dies. O'Flaherty's chosen people are the Aran islanders, who live "in primitive simplicity, as their ancestors had lived for thousands of years." Turf and cow dung are the fuel, kelp dragged from the sea is the fertilizer; potatoes or fish are the food. A rasher of bacon represents luxury, and a dry cow may make the difference between starvation in winter and life for another year...
...story-The Parting-is characteristic of the rest. It tells of Michael Joyce leaving his remote Aran hamlet for the mainland, where at 13 he will be committed to the life of a priest. On the same boat, the family slings , a bullock they have sold away to Galway. The loading is botched and so, in emotional terms, is the boy's farewell; the family is torn by an anguish it can only express in hysteria and anger. The boy himself believes that he is being sent to the priesthood to eke out the family income, and his fate...
...Bloody Woe." O'Flaherty's Aran islanders move with a Biblical grace and solemnity. Like Bible stories-also told of a religious, race-proud people of dirtpoor shepherds and fishermen-O'Flaherty's tales deal with sin and the seasons and, as in the Bible, the enemies of simple folk are the money-changers of the towns and the soldiers of a foreign king...
...these 42 stories are worth a hundred novels in which the heart of the matter is cased in a padding of sociological fat. Life, Aran Islander O'Flaherty seems to say, can only be understood in terms of death. Like many another Irishman, he sees the skull beneath the skin, just as his starveling heroes see the sharp rocks gnaw through the thin soil. ("I wish you a happy death," cries one after another of his characters, as if the wish were the greatest thing life had to offer.) To underline his point that man's nature...
However, these are great stories. The language, like that of the peasants and fishermen of Aran, is rich and clear as poteen, and like that deceptively pale drink, should be taken in short shots, with a thoughtful pause between...