A Farewell To English
In 1974 decided to leave Dublin to return to his rural roots and his relationship with the Irish language. He went to live in Templeglantine, just five miles from Newcastle West and worked for a time as a lecturer in creative writing at Thomond College of Education, Limerick.
In his 1975 book A Farewell to English he declared his intention to write only in Irish in the future, describing English as 'the perfect language to sell pigs in'. A number of volumes in Irish followed: Adharca Broic (1978), An Phurgóid (1983) and Do Nuala: Foighne Chrainn (1984).
Read more about this topic: Michael Hartnett
Famous quotes containing the words farewell and/or english:
“The poplars are felled, farewell to the shade
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade,”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives.”
—17th-century English proverb, pt. 1, quoted in Isaac d’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature (1834)