Exile

Padraic O'Conaire

Translated by Gerailt MacEoin

Exile ranks as one of the most colourful and audacious novels in the Irish language, the earliest example of modernist fiction in Irish. Its instantly memorable protagonist, Micil O'Maolain, has been hit by a car shortly after arriving in London from Galway to look for work. Emerging from hospital, he has lost an arm and a leg, and his face iscasta millte scolta: 'twisted, warped and ruined'. He becomes a sideshow freak to support himself, traveling around England and even back to Galway, but returning eventually to London, where he dies, down and out , in one of the city's parks.

Written in 1910, this short but still powerful work was to foreshadow O'Conaire's own tragic end in a pauper's world in Dublin but beautifully evokes the bittersweet experience of the Irish diaspora in the early 20th century, long before the 'London Irish' felt at home. Out of print for many years, this acclaimed translation of O'Conaire's only novel allowws a long-neglected corner of Irish literature to reverberate once more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PADRAIC O'CONAIRE (1882-1928) is one of Ireland's greatest writers in Irish. Born in Galway city, he became an orphan at the age of twelve and moved to stay with relatives in the Gaeltacht, becoming immersed in ancient songs and literature. Like many young Irishmen of the time, he flitted between Ireland and Londonand while his restless spirit lent his celebrated short stories a whiff of magicit was to have tragic consequences personally. Exile was the only novel he was able to complete and with interest in Irish literature waning, he died penniless in 1928, his clothes, a pipe, tobacco, a knife and an apple being his only possessions.