Séamas Mac Annaidh was
born in Dublin in 1961, the eldest of four children. His mother
Dr. Ita Briscoe was from Dublin and his father was a bank
manager. This gave rise to a rather peripatetic upbringing:
Monaghan from 1961 to 1964; Dundalk from 1964 to 1966; Enniskillen
from 1966-1993, and Derry from 1993. He now lives with his
wife Joy Beatty, a classical musician from Larne along with
their daughter Raphaelle, who was born in 2001. Mac Annaidh
gained a degree in Irish and English from the University of
Ulster, Coleraine in 1982. He spent four years working as
a library assistant in Enniskillen from 1984 to 1988 and spent
periods after this as a writer -in-residence in the University
of Ulster and in Queen's University, Belfast. He has issued
a number of musical recordings with the group Lonta Fhear
Manach ('The Fermanagh Blackbirds' - a reference to the title
of his first novel, discussed below) and has made a film Misteach
Bhaile Átha Cliath (1995) for RTÉ and BBC Ulster.
Since 1991 he has worked as
a freelance writer and broadcaster, most notably in recent
years as literary editor of the Irish language newspaper LÁ
until 2003. In the late nineties and early in the first decade
of the present century he published fragments of creative
writing in various journals, translated a novel from the Italian
of Andrea Camilleri Colún deataigh (BÁC:
Coiscéim, 1999) and produced a number of works of local
history, it was only with the appearance of a fragment entitled
'Tús úrscéil' (literally 'The beginning
of a novel') in the annual literary journal Bliainiris in
2001, that there appeared a real prospect of another original
novel from Mac Annaidh.
His considerable fame rests
on the trilogy of novels:Cuaifeach mo lon dubh buí,
Mo dhá Mhicí and Rubble na Mickies
(BÁC: Coiscéim, 1983, 1986 and 1990 respectively)
but he has also published a collection of short stories Féirín,
scéalta agus eile (BAC: Coiscéim, 1992)
and a novel in diary form An deireadh (BÁC:
Coiscéim, 1996).
The first book of his trilogy
was highly praised and critics and the public alike wondered
if indeed further books were planned as Cuaifeach mo lon
dubh buí is full of invention, bluff, humour and
reflexive contemplation. It is difficult to try to summarise
the plot of Cuaifeach mo lon dubh buí, and the
syle and atmosphere are more important than plot in any event.
The main characters are in their teens or early twenties and
are delineated with great clarity, honesty and affection.
The identity of the individual is one of the main themes of
this highly original work. The large amount of English used
in the book and the number of bilingual puns surprised many,
but language is used effectively to register a number of sociolinguistic
truths theretofore unacknowledged in contemporary literature.
In one sense Cuaifeach mo lon dubh buí is a classic
bildungsroman and in another an exposition of the individual
imagination after the manner of Sterne's Tristam Shandy. Despite
the invention and high standard of both Mo dhá Mhicí
and Rubble na Mickies it is Cuaifeach mo lon dubh buí
in particular that has made a unique place for itself in modern
Irish literature. The work has generated something of a critical
industry, but of particular note in the raft of literary criticism
is Séamas Mac Annaidh agus macallaí sa scáthán
(BÁC: Cois Life, 2001) by Maolmhaodhog Ó Ruairc.
In Janurary 2007 Mac Annaidh
was appointed as writer in residence in the National University
of Ireland Galway.
Mr. Lisa agus Scealta Eile, Coisceim, 2005 [short stories] Dioscó Dé, Coiscéim 2006 [novel]
English books include Irish History Micropedia (Parragon);
Fermanagh Books Writers and Newspapers of the Nineteenth
Century (Marmara Denizi 1999) Travel Books: Les Noisettes
de Lannion (Institiud Culturel de Bretagne (1997) traduit
par Fulub Jakez (available in French only)
