The first Irish-language book to top the bestseller list

Despite the conservative nature of the teacher training college experience in the late 1980s and a less-than-adequate disposable income, I still managed to enjoy a satisfactory social life in the public houses around Drumcondra.

Recent coverage of damage caused to a house in Limerick that was linked to a student party caused me to consider what a relatively benign existence my own college days had been.

Not that we didn’t have any parties, and some wild ones at that, but mercifully things never escalated to the level of criminal damage. Among my close circle of friends at the time were two nephews of the well-known journalist Breandán Ó hEithir and we spent many afternoons in conspiratorial conversation over pints of porter in Fagan’s pub on the banks of the river Tolka.

Far from house demolition, my college life seems to have had more in common with Máirtín Ó Méalóid, the main protagonist of Ó hEithir’s novel Lig Sinn I gCathú (Lead Us Into Temptation), which was published 50 years ago this year in 1976.

The novel is set in Easter week 1949 at the time when Ireland exited the Commonwealth and the Irish Republic came into being. Ó Méalóid is a university student in Baile an Chaisil, a fictional representation of Galway, and finds himself in the midst of something of an existential crisis. His father is dying and his mother is pressurising him to return home to look after the family business.

Meanwhile his academic studies are suffering because of his failure to attend lectures, and his lack of attendance is in turn causing the payment of his scholarship to be withheld. The main cause of him missing lectures is a busy social life, including a fondness for alcohol and the pursuit of the fairer sex.

His girlfriend is also on his case, not just for the aforementioned vices, but also for the lowly company he keeps and his poor attitude to religion.

Breandán Ó hEithir, one of Ireland’s foremost writers, journalists and broadcasters, was born in Inis Mór in the Aran Islands in 1930 into a family with a rich literary tradition. Two of his mother’s brothers were the writers Tomás and Liam O’Flaherty.

Liam, who was a political activist and one of Ireland’s most famous writers, led an extraordinary life, including time spent fighting on the western front in the first World War and as a Hollywood screenwriter working with the director John Ford.

[ The bestselling Irish-language author who captivated young readersOpens in new window ]

He wrote many novels, several of which were banned by the Irish Censorship Board. Ó hEithir, who was an avid reader from a young age, was undoubtedly familiar with his uncle’s books, which were kept locked away at the family home in Inis Mór.

Those banned novels and O’Flaherty’s disdain for the Catholic church brought the Ó hEithir family into conflict with the local clergy. In the Dictionary of Irish Biography, Ó hEithir’s biographer, Liam Mac Con Iomaire, describes the efforts of successive parish priests on the island to get Ó hEithir’s parents to leave Inis Mór to take up teaching posts on the mainland in Galway.

The reason for this was the belief that if Ó hEithir’s mother left, her brother Liam would stop visiting the island. This appeared to have the opposite effect on Ó hEithir, however, and if anything, it reinforced his conviction to follow in his uncles’ footsteps as a writer.

Ó hEithir considered himself to belong to two places – the boy who belonged to the island and the young man who belonged to the mainland. So, leaving Inis Mór, he finished his second-level education in Coláiste Éinde in Galway and went on to study English, history and philosophy in University College Galway, where he finished the course but left without completing his final exams.

Ó hEithir, who died on October 26th, 1990, loosely based Lig Sinn I gCathú on his own college experiences. The receipt of a grant of £2,000 from the Irish-American Cultural Institute in 1975 allowed him to devote more time to his writing.

Early extracts from the book won Ó hEithir the Gradam an Oireachtas for Irish publications in 1975 and the book was published by Sáirséal and Dill in March 1976. It was a ground-breaking publication and went on to be the first Irish-language book to top Ireland’s hardback bestseller list. Ó hEithir translated the novel into English himself in 1978.

[ The best Irish-language books of 2025Opens in new window ]

Ó hEithir had previously worked as the Irish-language editor for the Irish Press and later wrote a regular Irish-language column, among other contributions, for this newspaper. Other journalistic work included a stint working for RTÉ on the Irish-language current affairs programme Féach. With his wife Catherine he lived at various times in Germany and later Paris but he retained a love for the island. For the documentary series My Own Place, Ó hEithir returned to Inis Mór where he reminisced about his childhood and time spent fishing with his uncle Liam on the island.