Nobody''s Business: The Aran Diaries of Ernie O''Malley

Nobodys Business: The Aran Diaries of Ernie OMalley presents new insights into the contradictions and complexities of the mind of Ernie OMalley, one of mid-twentieth century Irelands foremost cultural critics. In 1941, 1955 and 1956, the former revolutionary leader and author of the acclaimed memoir of the War of Independence, On Another Mans Wound, visited the Aran Islands. While on the islands, OMalley kept diaries recounting his daily conversations and interactions with other visitors and islanders including Elizabeth Rivers, with whom he stayed on one occasion, Charles Lamb and Seán Keating. The diaries, devoid of sentiment and often highly critical, reveal his views on art, literature, history and contemporary Irish life and international affairs as well as his thoughts on the economic, religious and daily life of the Aran islanders. His unvarnished observations on the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of life in post-Independence Ireland make his diaries absorbing and provocative. Edited with introductory essays by Cormac OMalley and Róisín Kennedy and an afterword by Luke Gibbons, Nobodys Business: The Aran Diaries of Ernie OMalley offers fascinating insights into the mind and opinions of a key figure in Irish cultural nationalism. See more