Description “Does for Galway what the writings of Frank O’Connor did for Cork.” Irish Post
These stories, rich with the passion and drama which characterise all of Walter Macken’s writing, were conceived by the author in the 1940s as a thematic collection, but they were not published until 1997. They document a time and place, yet they also have a timeless appeal in their portrayal of the people of the city whom Macken knew and loved so well.
“These short stories wonderfully evoke the Galway of the 1940s, and yet they also have a timeless appeal, in the way all good stories do.” Galway Advertiser
“Full of insight and humour, they celebrate the qualities of ordinary people in their struggles with poverty in and around Galway in the 1940s.” Woman’s Way
“A vivid evocation of Galway and ‘the plain people’ of that city in the forties, full of insight and humour but free of romanticism, as they fight against the sea, poverty and political conservatism.” Irish Post
Author Walter Macken, novelist, short story writer, playwright and actor, was born in Galway in 1915. While a theatre manager in the 1940s he began to write both in Irish and English. By 1946 his first play in English, Mungo’s Mansion, had been successfully staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and his first novel, Quench the Moon, had been accepted for publication in England and the United States.
In 1948 he joined the Abbey, and his second novel, I Am Alone, was published. His third novel, Rain on the Wind (1950), brought him international recognition. In all, he produced ten novels, seven plays, three books of short stories and two children’s books.
The passions, humour and pathos of life are richly represented in this memorable work of fiction, evoking a world dominated by the incessant demands of working the land and the sea.
"It is a raw, savage story full of passion and drama set amongst the Galway fishing community . . . it is the story of romantic passion, a constant struggle with the sea, with poverty and with the political conservatism of post-independence Ireland." Irish Independent
Careless of the hurt he inflicts along the way, Bart O'Breen walks his own road, as proud as the devil and as lonely as hell. Out of print since the seventies, it is now completely reset and redesigned.
One of Macken's most popular novels, now reissued with a striking new cover featuring a painting by Liam O'Neill.
"Macken captures the isolation and poverty of the village — its closed attitudes, its frozen social mores . . . and its deeply unforgiving nature." Irish Independent
This collection of stories poignantly and humourously brings to life a richly varied cast of characters, from a poteen maker to a poet, from a tinker to a handicapped child.
