The Islander Complete and Unab. This item is unavailable.The Islander Complete and Unab

This superb account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry, written as the nineteenth century draws to its close and the dawn of a new era trespasses on the lives of its small community, is both a shocking and captivating read.

Here is the first complete translation of Tomás O’Crohan’s autobiography An tOileánach, first published in 1929. This edition is based on Professor Seán Ó Coileáin’s definitive 2002 Irish language edition. It contains many passages omitted from the previous English language translation by Robin Flower from the 1930s, some of which were thought too earthy for the times.

Tomás O’Crohan, a fisherman who, at around the age of forty, has taught himself to read and write in his own native tongue, depicts in unaffected, vivid language a very unforgiving landscape of human experience. The Islander reflects life as it was on the Blaskets, raw, real and extremely challenging.

Garry Bannister works as an Irish language teacher and has lectured at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. He developed a great love for Irish from his teacher, the late Harry Lush. He studied Irish and Russian at Trinity College Dublin, after which he went to Moscow State University where he received an MA in Russian language and literature. He has a large number of publications in modern Irish including The English–Irish Learner’s Dictionary and Teasáras na Gaeilge. Bannister’s main interest is early twentieth century modern Irish literature and he has collaborated over the past twenty years with Dr David Sowby on various translation projects.

David Sowby is a retired medical doctor whose passionate interest in the Irish language has been a lifetime study. He was born in the United Kingdom but educated in Dublin, and had the privilege of learning Irish from the inspirational Harry Lush. After living abroad for over forty years he returned to live in Dublin, where he resumed his study of Irish, translating Cúirt an Mheán Oíche and subsequently An tOileánach.