Special Offer price of €4.99 plus p&p

Ernie O'Malley, revolutionary Republican, writer and one of the leading figures in the Irish Independence and Civil War, visited the Aran Islands in 1941, 1955 and 1956. His diaries recount daily conversations and interactions with islanders and other visitors, including Elizabeth Rivers (with whom he stayed in 1941), Charles Lamb and Sean Keating. Devoid of sentiment, they reveal his views on art, literature, history and contemporary Irish culture, as well as reflections on the economic, religious and daily life of the Aran islanders.

This passionate intellectual's unvarnished, often caustic observations provide provocative insight into a post - Independence Ireland, bringing an anthropologist's eye to bear on his people in this remote outpost of Europe.