Life
1947- ; b. Cork; ed. Coláiste Críost Rí, Cork, and
St Patrick’s Coll., Drumcondra, and UCD; taught West Africa; head
of Irish Dept., St Patrick’s, Drumcondra; Irish-American Cultural
Institute Award, 1988; author of Alan Titley, An tÚrscéal
Gaeilge (1991), and a novel, An Fear Dána (1993); edits
Irish side of Books Ireland; Leabhar Nóra Ni Anluain (1998) celebrates the Gaelic of a grandmother. FDA OCIL
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Works
Méirscrí na Treibhe (Baile Átha Cliath: An
Clóchomhar 1978); Stiall Fhial Feola (An Cló. 1980);
Máirtin Ó Cadhain, Clár Soathair (Cló
1975); Eiriceachtaí agus Scéalta Eile (Cló.
1987). Also a play, Tagann Godot (Peacock); contrib. to Dermot
Bolger, ed., Letters from the New Island, 16 on 16: Irish Writers on
the Easter Rising (Raven Arts Press 1988), 47pp., pp.26-27; Chun
Doirne - Rogha Aistí [Selected Essays] (Belfast: Lagan
Press 1996); Leabhar Nóra Ni Anluain (Cló Iar-Chonnachta
1998), pb.; trans., Fourfront: Short Stories from the Irish (Cló
Iar-Chonnachta 1998), 146pp.
An tÚrscéal Gaeilge (Dublin: An Clóchomhar Tta. 1991), 631pp. with index; An Fear Dána (An Clóchomhar 1993), 142pp. [based on life of Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh.
Fear Dána (An Clóchomhar 1993), 144pp.; Leabhar Nóra Ní Anluain: céad scéal ó cheartlár na cruinne (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1999), 276pp.; A Pocket History of Gaelic Culture (O’Brien Press [2000]).
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Criticism
Seán Ó Tuama, ‘An Domhan a chruthaigh Titley’,
Comhar (Nollaig 1987); also, Bríona Nic Dhiarmada, review
of An Fear Dána (1993) in Fortnight (July-Aug 1994),
‘Summer Books’ sect.
See also Brian Ó Concubhair, ed., Why Irish? Irish Landugage and Literature in Academia (Arlen House 2008), which incls. sect. on novels of Alan Titley.
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Commentary
Máire Mhac an tSaoi, review of Méirscrí na Treibhe,
in Comhar (Meitheamh 1978); ‘Rug-headed Kerns, The Irish Gunman
in the Popular Novel’, Eire-Ireland (Geimhreadh 1980), pp.15-38.
Éamon Ó Cíosáin, Buried Alive: A Reply to The Death of the Irish Language [Hindley] (Dáil Uí Chadain 1991), pamphlet, observes that in a Books Ireland review Titley judges the assumptions about the oppression-free abandonment of Irish by its speakers to be a simplification, given the different social status of the two languages (p.12), but further cites Titley with Ó Drisceoil as claiming that Hindley’s methodology is impeccable. (p.14).
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1916: ‘Our own 1916 has given us a creation story as good as any we were ever likely to get and has shown us men and women more worthy of respect as revolutionaries, poets, social philosophers, and educationalists than all the other loony tools of the running bow-wows of boorjoie adhocracy of then and now. They have given us the Good of Knowledge of Ourselves, and what else is there? [...] Pearse and Connolly and the boys tell me it is better to light your own candle than curse the eternal darkness that another World War would bring.’ (Dermot Bolger, ed., Letters from the New Island, 16 on 16: Irish Writers on the Easter Rising, 1988, p.27)
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References
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, p.816, ‘An Síscéal de Réir Eoin’, from Eiriceachtaí agus Scéala Eile, translated by author as ‘The Gobspiel According to John’, in Translation, Journal of Literary Translation, Vol. XX (Fall 1989) [870-80]; BIOG, 933-4 [as supra].
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