Eoghan Ó Tuairisc

Eoghan Ó Tuairisc (1919-1982) was a writer, artist and teacher.

Born in Ballinasloe in County Galway in the year 1919, he qualified as a teacher in 1939. He joined the army that same year and held commission during the Emergency. He was awarded a masters by University College Dublin in 1947 and spent almost thirty years working as a teacher in Finglas in north Dublin.

Having retired from teaching in 1969, he began work as the editor of the Gaelic League journal, Feasta.

His extensive writings in both English and Irish included essays, poetry, plays and novels. Amongst his most famous works are the English thriller Murder in Three Moves (1960) and the Irish novel L’Attaque (1962). That latter book, which focuses on the Year of the French in Mayo, won Bonn an Chraoibhín as well as other prizes for literature.

He was an inaugural member of Aosdána.

Books by Eoghan Ó Tuairisc:
L'Attaque
Eoghan Ó Tuairisc

L’Attaque recounts the part played by a small group of United Irishmen from County Leitrim in the military revolt which was sparked by the landing of French General Humbert in Killala, County Mayo, in 1798.

Through the character of Máirtín, Ó Tuairisc’s novel brilliantly charts the effect of revolutionary fighting on peasant life, the conflicting ideals of the comrades-at-arms and the disorganisation that afflicts their army.