John McGahern


John McGahern is regarded as one of the most important Irish writers of the latter half of the twentieth century.
Known for the detailed dissection of Irish life found in works such as The Barracks, The Dark and Amongst Women, The Observer hailed him as "the greatest living Irish novelist" before his death in 2006 and in its obituary the Guardian described him as 'arguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett'.

Biography

Born in Knockanroe about half a mile from Ballinamore, County Leitrim, John McGahern was the eldest child of seven. Raised alongside his six young siblings on a small farm in Knockanroe, McGahern's mother ran the farm whilst maintaining a job as a primary school teacher in the local school. His father, a Garda sergeant, lived in the Garda barracks at Cootehall in County Roscommon, somewhat sizeable distant away from his family at the time. McGahern's mother subsequently died of cancer in 1944, when the young John McGahern was ten years old resulting in the unrooting of the McGahern children to their new home with their father in the aforementioned Garda barracks, Cootehall.
In the years following on from his mother's death, McGahern completed his primary schooling in the local primary school, and ultimately won a scholarship to the Presentation Brothers secondary school in Carrick-on-Shannon. Having travelled daily to complete his second-level education, McGahern continued to accumulate academic accolades by winning the county scholarship in his Leaving Certificate enabling him to continue his education to third level.
Following on from his second level success, McGahern was offered a place at St Patrick's College of Education in Drumcondra where he trained to be a teacher. Upon graduation from third level education, McGahern began his career as a primary schoolteacher at Scoil Eoin Báiste primary school in Clontarf where, for a period, he taught the eminent academic Declan Kiberd, where he taught before returning to third level education in University College Dublin where he graduated in 1957. He was dismissed from Scoil Eoin Báiste on the order of the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. He was first published by the London literary and arts review, X magazine, which published in 1961 an extract from his first – abandoned – novel, The End or Beginning of Love.
McGahern married his first wife, Finnish-born Annikki Laaksi, in 1965 and in the same year published his second novel, The Dark which was banned by the Irish Censorship Board for its alleged pornographic content along with its implied sexual abuse by the protagonist's father. Due to the controversy which was stirred by the book's publication McGahern was dismissed from his teaching post and forced to move to England where he worked in a variety of jobs before returning to Ireland to live and work on a small farm near Fenagh in County Leitrim.
He died from cancer in the Mater Hospital in Dublin on 30 March 2006, aged 71. He is buried in St Patrick's Church Aughawillan alongside his mother.

Novels

McGahern's six novels draw inspiration from some personal life experience detail the trials of developing an individual sense of self in Ireland of the mid-twentieth century.

The early novels: ''The Barracks'' and ''The Dark''

His first published novel, The Barracks chronicles the life of the barrack's Garda sergeant's second wife, Elizabeth Reegan who is in the decline of health due to cancer. The Barracks was adapted for the stage in 1969 by Hugh Leonard.
His second book, The Dark tracks the progression of a young boy as he moves through the education system in rural Ireland. The main character, young Mahoney, while maintaining his academic prowess experiences a strained relationship with his father, old Mahoney – who beats him and the other children – as well as indecision about what to do with his life after secondary school. Young Mahoney's attitude towards his father evolves over the vast timespan covered within the novel from fear and hatred towards greater acceptance.
Note: "The Barracks" and "The Dark" came from McGahern's re-writing of his first, unpublished, novel, The End or Beginning of Love''.

Mid-career literature: ''The Leavetaking'' and ''The Pornographer''

The next novel, The Leavetaking introduces the reader to Patrick Moran, a young schoolteacher in Dublin. The novel is set during his last day in the school. He will be formally fired that night for having married a divorced non-Catholic woman during a leave of absence year. The novel is divided into two parts: both of which are essentially flashbacks. Part 1 covers the teacher's childhood up to the moment of his mother's death. Like McGahern himself, Patrick had promised his mother that he would become a priest and as he is unable or unwilling to do so instead becomes a schoolteacher. Part 2 flashes back to how he came to meet his wife, how exactly the church authorities fire him, and his ultimate dismissal by the church authorities, the formal authority within Irish schools at the time. The book is a close reflection on McGahern's own experiences of being dismissed from his teaching post in the early 1960s for much the same reasons as Patrick Moran as well as the scandal caused by his second book, The Dark, with many sexual references.
The Pornographer details the life of the novel's protagonist who writes pornography for a living is now living in Dublin. He begins a sexual relationship with a young woman called Josephine and when Josephine subsequently becomes pregnant, the "pornographer" voices his contempt towards the birth of the baby, and indeed his relationship with the child's mother. The novel again covers the subject of death by cancer – the writer's aunt in this case is dying in hospital – as well as visits to rural Ireland.

Back to the country: ''Amongst Women'' and ''That They May Face the Rising Sun (By The Lake)''

His fifth and perhaps McGahern's best known novel is Amongst Women which marks a return to the Roscommon/Leitrim setting after two Dublin/London books. It details the story of Michael Moran, an IRA veteran of the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War, who now dominates his family in the unforgiving farmlands of County Leitrim, near Mohill. The book shows a detailed and understanding portrayal of a hardened, and unapologetically idealistic protagonist in the figure of an ageing Moran. An ex-IRA commander, Moran detests the "small-minded gangsters" who now run the country for which he fought. Though Moran's presence surely dominates the novel, the positive attributes of his stern moralism and sense of self-worth are passed on to his children, who become successful adults in both Dublin and London alike. Once again, it seems to fit into a sequence, with the progressive male character most closely reflected by Luke, who left home, emigrated to London, and refuses to get close his father again. One may view McGahern's portrayal of the Moran household as the house he left behind with the remaining kids being brought up by his father, his father's remarriage, and his young brother's struggles with his father and school. In 2015 the Guardian listed Amongst Women as 97 in its list of the 100 best novels.
His final novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun which was published in 2001 is a portrait of a year in the life of a rural lakeside community. The novel, explores the meaning in prosaic lives and life in in rural Ireland. He claimed that "the ordinary fascinates me" and "the ordinary is the most precious thing in life". The main characters have – just like McGahern and his wife – returned from London to live on a farm. Most of the violence of the father-figure has disappeared now, and life in the country seems much more relaxed and prosperous than in The Dark, or Amongst Women as McGahern now writes in a twenty-first century Ireland.

Other writing

McGahern is also considered a master of the Irish tradition of the short story. Several collections were published as well as Love of the World, a collection of non-fiction essays. His autobiography, Memoir, was published in 2005 a year before his death outlining numerous influential moments in his life which critics often speculated were present within his earlier work. Andrew Motion wrote "In a tremendously distinguished career, he has never written more movingly, or with a sharper eye".

Influence

McGahern's work has been very influential in Ireland and elsewhere. A younger generation of Irish writers, such as Colm Tóibín, have been influenced by his writing.
His work has been translated into many languages, in particular French.

Awards and Honours

McGahern was a member of the Irish Arts honorary organisation Aosdána and won many other awards. He was visiting professor at many universities including Colgate University and the University of Notre Dame, University of Victoria, Durham University, UCD and NUI Galway. His other awards included:
He was also a farmer, although he liked to joke that it was the writing that kept the farm rather than the farming revenue allowing him to write.

Archives

;Novels
;Non-fiction
;Short story collections
;Drama
;Films
Amongst Women was filmed as a television mini-series in 1998, directed by Tom Cairns, and starring Tony Doyle as Moran.
One of McGahern's best-known short stories, Korea, was made into a feature film of the same name directed by Cathal Black and produced by Darryl Collins in 1995. In 1996 Korea won the Asta Nielsen Best Film Award at the Copenhagen Film Festival and was runner-up for the Audience Prize at the Seattle Film Festival.