A New Ernie O’Malley Site…..

Thanks to BM for this tip.

Ernie O’Malley’s son, Cormac has just unveiled a website dedicated to his father’s life and work. It can be found here.

Any student of Ireland’s history during the struggle for independence who ignores O’Malley’s writings – particularly ‘On Another Man’s Wound’ and ‘The Singing Flame’ – denies themselves a proper understanding of the period.

Ernie O’Malley

Not only is O’Malley’s personal account of the Anglo-Irish war and the civil war that followed essential reading, the two books are beautifully written, works of art.

The Northern conflict has yet to produce an Ernie O’Malley. So far we just have Danny Morrison, whose output to date includes the utterly indecipherable ‘West Belfast’.

When it first appeared on the streets, a very senior comrade of Danny’s confided to me that he had yet to meet anyone who had managed to read beyond Page One. This may be a tendentious claim but I can’t help thinking that there is a metaphor for the Provos somewhere in that.