Máirtín Ó Direáin
Ó Direáin, Máirtín (1910–88), poet, was born 26 November 1910 in Inis Mór, Aran, Co. Galway, the eldest of the three sons and one daughter of Seán Ó Direáin, small farmer, and Mairéad Ní Dhireáin (widow of Labhrás Mac Confhaola), both of Inis Mór. His father died in 1917, aged forty-three, leaving his mother to rear a family of four on less than 20 acres of land. Educated at the local national school, he left Aran to join the post office in Galway in January 1928. He was involved with the Irish-language movement during the late 1920s and 1930s, during which time he was secretary of the Galway branch of the Gaelic League and wrote for and acted on the stage of the Taibhdhearc Theatre. In July 1937 he moved to Dublin to work as a clerical officer in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and later in the Department of Education. Inspired by a lecture given by the poet and Gaelic scholar Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (qv) (Torna), he began writing poetry in Irish in the winter of 1938. (Both of his brothers, Seán and Tomás, also published some poems in Irish.) Unlike Torna, however, who advocated and practised a poetry based on traditional Gaelic metres, Ó Direáin favoured a rhythmically measured form of free verse. He published his first collection, Coinnle geala, in 1942, quickly followed by Dánta aniar (1943), both at his own expense. In 1949 a volume of selected poems, Rogha dánta, was one of the first books published by the newly founded Irish-language publisher Sáirséal agus Dill.
My favourite of his poems was An tEarrach Thiar
An tEarrach Thiar
Fear ag glanadh cré
De ghimseán spáide
Sa gciúnas shéimh
I mbrothall lae:
Binn am fhuaim
San Earrach thiar.
Fear ag caith eamh
Cliabh dhá dhroim,
Is an fheamainn dhearg
Ag lonrú
I dtaitneamh gréine
Ar dhuirling bháin.
Niamhrach an radharc
San Earrach thiar.
Mná i locháin
In íochtar diaidh-thrá,
A gcótaí craptha,
Scáilí thíos fúthu:
Támh-radharc síothach
San Earrach thiar.
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