Happy days for writer Micheál

Lifestyle  – In the 36 years since Micheál Ó Conghaile set up the publishing house Cló Iar-Chonnacht, it has given a platform to people writing in the Irish language, especially Gaeltacht writers, as well as championing Irish music and song. As the awardwinning author passes on the baton, he tells  BERNIE NÍ FHLATHARTA about his own work and plans.

A Conamara writer who is not only prolific in his personal creative output but who has also translated English plays into Irish, is currently putting the finishing touches to his translation of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days.

The play, which was first staged in 1961, will be performed on Inis Oírr  as Laethanta Sona during this year’s Galway International Arts Festival in August/September.

The translator of Laethanta Sona, Micheál Ó Conghaile, admits it wasn’t an easy task but thanks to a read-through with actors, Bríd Ní Neachtain and Raymond Keane, and director, Sarah Jane Scaife, the musical style of Beckett’s prose came to life.

Micheál, a native Irish speaker who remembers as a child not understanding his English-speaking cousins when they visited his home on the now depopulated island of Inis Treabhair, always strives to be true to the original work.

When he was translating Martin McDonagh’s plays, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Cripple of Inishmaan, he regularly communicated with the playwright to ensure McDonagh was happy with the Irish interpretations — and, thankfully, he was most of the time.

The Beauty Queen had already been translated into 33 languages and Micheál, who was a fan, believed that McDonagh’s Hiberno-English style would translate easily into Conamara Irish. He was right and the Irish-language productions of the plays been well received by audiences and critics alike.

It’s obvious from listening to Micheál that he really enjoyed the McDonagh translation process and was more than happy with the results.

“I hadn’t even written a play at that stage myself,” he laughs, although he has since written three dramas, all of which have been produced.

His productivity is phenomenal, although he doesn’t really have a routine and admits to being easily distracted during the writing process, often needing to sequester himself somewhere away from home, usually abroad and preferably in the sun.

As well as his own creations – which include novels, plays and poetry – he translates other writers into Irish, and since 1985, he has been a director of Cló Iar-Chonnacht (CIC). It was in that year he set up the Irish-language publishing company which, to date has published 800 books.

However, this summer he sold Cló Iar-Chonnacht to Deirdre Ní Thuatháil, who has been a manager there for years. Micheál is confident she will be “a good pair of hands to bring it even further

“Deirdre has worked there for 20 years and I knew this was a good time for me to step back and concentrate on my own writing”, he explains.

“I’m working on a memoir about my island Christmas childhood experiences. We moved onto the mainland [from Inis Treabhair] when I was 15 and, of course, after that it would have been very hard to return to island life, though we loved it when we were there because we didn’t know any better. I remember reading books by candlelight. The family was self-sufficient, up to a point and we learned how to row a boat from an early age.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.