Liam Ó Flaithearta was one of the leading socialist writers of the 20th century. Born on Inis Mór, he was an Irish speaker. He became a socialist while fighting in the First World War. His work was the first to be censored by the Irish Free State, who he criticised for ... 1/6

replacing the English ascendancy with a native elite. He co-founded the Communist Party of Ireland, and took over the Rotunda Concert Hall with unemployed Dubliners two days after the Free State came into being, flying a red flag. He fought for the IRA in the Battle of Dublin.

O’Flaherty was one of Ireland’s most prolific and important authors in modern times. His work has been re-published in the last few years after decades of censorship. John Ford made a film adaptation of his novel, and Russia was the first country to translate his work, after ...

he visited in 1930. His ‘Hollywood Cemetery’ exposed the culture of the film industry. He is one of the few Expressionist writers in the Irish language. Ó Flaithearta was influenced by his nationalist father, Maidhc, and his primary school teacher, Daithí Ó Ceallagcháin.

“It was all very well for posh fellows in Dublin, he felt, to mock at these ignorant poor people; but all the same the poor people’s instincts were always right in the long run.” - quote from ‘The Martyr’, Ó Flaithearta’s novel on the Civil War.

5/6

“Hollywood is a cemetery where the remains of present-day bourgeois intellectuals are buried, after being fattened like the sacrificial victims in ancient Mexico on enormous salaries, only to have their hearts plucked out and eaten by the Moguls of modern Mammon.”

6/6