It’s a place I know very well, a place of stone and bog, of heather covered mountains, big skies, and dangerous seas. A sparsely populated wilderness on the westernmost edge of Europe. Connemara has seen more than its share of suffering and its stories often speak of loss, penury, disappointment, exile, and death. Lost in Connemara is a collection of five such stories, printed in both English and Irish and selected by Brian Ó Conchubhair.

The first of the stories, Páidín Mháire, was written by Pádraic Ó Conaire (1882-1928), a relative of my mother and arguably one of the best Irish-language storytellers. His statue (below) used to sit in a prominent spot in Eyre Square in Galway before vandals knocked poor old Pádraic’s head off, forcing the local council to move him to the safety of a local museum. I remember as a child sitting on his stony lap while my mother proudly took pictures of me with our famous relative.

There are some gems in this short collection, notably The precious last days by Pádraic Breathnach. I’m very grateful to Micheál O’Chonghaile, the publisher at Cló Iar Chonnacht, for the gift of this book. It’s so impressive to see the literary traditions of these remote places being preserved and promoted.