Galway author presents President with definitive biography of Loughrea novelist
The culmination of a lifetime’s interest and forensic research into the life of one of Galway’s most important but forgotten novelists now sits on the shelves of Áras an Uachtaráin.
That’s after the author John F Ryan paid a courtesy call on President Michael D Higgins recently to present him and Mrs Higgins with editions of his biography of Gerald O’Donovan, entitled “Gerald O’Donovan A Life 1871 - 1942”.
It is the life story of the Loughrea priest-turned-novelist, a leading figure in the Irish Renaissance during the last decade of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th century, who, according to its publishers, Liverpool University Press, has remained a strangely neglected figure for over a hundred years.
John F Ryan has been fascinated with the life and work or O’Donovan for decades, meticulously researching this major tone while worked as a for CIÉ in Galway in addition to his post-grad work at University of Galway.
And as well as producing this substantial work in print, his work also led to a Doc on One on O’Donovan’s life and work.
Gerald O’Donovan was a Catholic priest and social and cultural activist who, having abandoned the priesthood, became a writer and publisher.
As a priest in Loughrea, he was a very public figure in Irish life in several different areas.
He was friendly with W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and George Moore and actively promoted the ‘Celtic Revival’.
He was also a friend of Douglas Hyde and Sir Horace Plunkett and, for a number of years, he was a national figure in their respective organizations, the Gaelic League and the Co-operative Movement.
After his marriage to Beryl Verschoyle, he moved to England and subsequently published six novels, the best-known and most controversial of which was Father Ralph (1913), a portrait of the artist as a priest.
He also spent time working in the British Department of Propaganda under Lord Northcliffe, where H.G. Wells was one of his colleagues.
This biography of an important but neglected figure offers new insights into a whole range of interesting cultural moments in twentieth-century Irish life, including the beginnings of literary modernism, the flourishing of the Irish literary revival and the emergence of a dissident strand within the Catholic clergy.
Pictured: Author John F Ryan presents copies of his book, Gerald O’Donovan A Life 1871 – 1942, to President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin.