Ó CADHAIN, Máirtín. Cré na Cille. Líníocht le Charles Lamb.

Baile Átha Cliath: Sáirséal & Dill, 1949. Octavo. An chéad chló. pp. 364. Black pebbled cloth, title and design in silver on spine. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with minor repair. Exceedingly rare in this condition with the dust jacket.
Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906-1970) was probably the most outstanding Irish writer of the twentieth century. Nobody, as yet, fully understands ‘Cré na Cille’ (The Clay of the Graveyard) in which the author chooses death, in the form of a cemetery, as the vehicle for his account of the living. The substance of the novel revolves around Caitríona Pháidín, a recently deceased Irish matriarch whose history is revealed through conversations with various others lying in the graveyard. It emerges that her life was consumed with the besting of her sister Nell. Depicted is the unpleasant side of Irish rural life, the petty jealousies and feuds concerning land, religion, and politics; of people’s inflated opinions of themselves, etc.

[Cat 148 Porch]