Pádraic Breathnach
Genres: Translator, Folklorist, Short story writer, Novelist
I Maigh Cuilinn, Co. na Gaillimhe, a rugadh Pádraic Breathnach sa bhliain 1942. Gearrscéalaí, úrscéalaí agus bailitheoir béaloidis é a bhfuil scór leabhar foilsithe aige, móide na céadta alt. É ina cholúnaí ar an ráitheachán Moycullen Matters ó bunaíodh é 1992.
É ag cumadh ó bhí sé aon bhliain déag d’aois. An-chuid duaiseanna agus gradam bronnta ar a cheapadóireacht. 1992 bhronn an Foras Cultúir Gael-Mheiriceánach Gradam Liteartha an Bhuitléaraigh air.
Cáil ar a chur síos ar ghasúir, ar an dúlra agus ar aonaránachas. Uaigneas na himirce i seascaidí an chéid seo caite atá mar théama san úrscéal Ar na Cúlacha (1998); úrscéal campais é Deargadaoil i mBád fó Thoinn (2012); léiriú ar mhídhílseacht phósta atá in Dialann mo Mháthar (2018) a ghnóthaigh an phríomhdhuais Oireachtais 2016.
Tá saothar leis aistrithe do Bhéarla agus do theangacha eile.
I gcéilíocht leis an scríbhneoireacht is iad na mórspéiseanna eile atá aige ná an eacmharcaíocht, cuil-iascaireacht, siúlóid sléibhe agus taisteal aistreánach. Ar na háiteanna a dtug sé cuairt orthu tá an Tibéid, Neipeal, an tSín, an Íoslainn, an Ghraonlainn, na hOileáin Faró, Alaska, Svalbard. Is iad an tSealtainn, na hAircibh agus Inse Ghall a rogha réigiún.
Cuireadh oideachas air i Maigh Cuilinn agus i gcathair na Gaillimhe. Bhain sé amach céim BA (Gaeilge is Stair); móide MA (Nua-Ghaeilge); móide an tArd-Dioplóma san Oideachas. Mhúin sé ar feadh scaithimh i gColáiste Muire, Gaillimh; Coláiste Charraig an Tobair, Caiseal; Coláiste Belvedere, Baile Átha Cliath; 1969-2007, é ina léachtóir le Gaeilge i gColáiste Mhuire Gan Smál, Luimneach.
Pádraic Breathnach was born in Moycullen, Co. Galway, in 1942. He attended the local national school; St Mary’s College, Galway, and UCG. He taught at St. Mary’s; Rockwell College, Cashel, and Belvedere College, Dublin. 1969-2007 he was a lecturer in Irish at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
He is a short story writer and a novelist. Has received many literary prizes and awards, including The Butler Literary Award, 1992, from the Irish-American Cultural Institute.
“Breathnach is representative of a generation of writers in Irish bridging two worlds, sometimes wrestling between two cultures... He is, perhaps, most convincing when writing earthily about his own people, a people... destined, many of them, for emigration, bachelorhood, spinsterhood, celibacy, a people inhabiting a harsh physical landscape... He is good on vitriol, loneliness, blind hate, social awkwardness, guilt, self-doubt, the dreams of youth, rites of passage; he is glorious and unmatched in his depiction of decay, the decay of social, cultural and moral fabrics, of landscape and mind gone to seed.” (The March Hare, Introduction, 2-3, Gabriel Rosenstock)
His novel As na Cúlacha (1998) deals with emigration in the sixties; Deargadaoil i mBád fó Thoinn (2012) is a campus novel; Dialann mo Mháthar (2018), winner of the main Oireachtas na Gaeilge prize 2016, has infidelity in marriage as its theme.
Bróga Páipéir agus Stocaí Bainne Ramhair (2007) is a compilation of legends he collected from the storyteller Michael Phatch, Gleann 'ac Muirinn, Connemara. Luaithreach Angela (2011) is his translation of the acclaimed autobiography, Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt.