Adjunct positions - John McGahern

John McGahern at NUI, Galway

The late John McGahern, had a long and productive relationship with NUI, Galway stretching back to the inaugural Summer School in Irish Studies in 1984. While his reputation flourished, both nationally and internationally, in the intervening years, he continued to contribute to the Summer School until his untimely death in March 2006. In 1994, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Literature by the University and, in January 2001, he was appointed Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies in recognition of a lifetime of creative achievement at the highest level. In October 2003 Professor McGahern bestowed his literary archive on the University. This material, which will provide an invaluable resource for generations of future scholars, consists of forty years of writings, personal papers, correspondence and the manuscript of an unpublished novel. It includes the manuscripts of The Dark, The Barracks, Amongst Women, That they may face the rising sun, and Memoir. The collection provides a unique insight into the working methods and technical development of one of the most meticulous and scrupulous Irish writers of our time.

McGahern’s Ireland

The progress of John McGahern’s career gives some indication of the uneasy relationship that properly exists between the writer and the State. Dismissed from his position as a schoolteacher following the publication of his second novel, The Dark, in 1965, McGahern moved to London where he worked as a part-time teacher and builder’s labourer. He subsequently spent time as professor of literature and writer in residence at universities in the United States and in England before returning to Ireland to live. During his enforced absence, McGahern produced some of the most important and influential works in modern Irish fiction, including The Leavetaking, The Pornographer, Nightlines and Getting Through.  

While The Dark dealt in an uncompromising way with the difficulties of adolescence in a repressive society, Amongst Women is equally candid in its appraisal of the emotional tyranny of the central character, Moran, a man capable of heroic action in a time of revolution but incapable of meeting the demands of domestic and personal intimacy in his fraught and sometimes violent relationships with the women in his life and with his own children. The extent and integrity of McGahern’s achievement gained him enormous public recognition in Ireland, with his election to Aosdána and a succession of literary awards including the Irish Times Fiction Award and a nomination for the Booker Prize. 

His last novel, That they may face the rising sun, celebrates the lives of a rural Irish community whose social interactions are intimately connected to the rhythms of the natural world which sustains them. It was hailed as a modern masterpiece with one commentator being moved to declare himself envious of anyone who had yet to read it for the first time.

John Mc Gahern pictured with members of staff at the Opening of the Centre for Irish Studies in September 2005.  Pictured from left are Seán Crosson, Nessa Cronin, Felix Varona, John McGahern, John Eastlake, Michelle Comber and Angela Roche.

The generosity and good humour which characterized Professor McGahern’s relationship with staff and students was evident again when he formally opened the refurbished premises of the Centre for Irish Studies at Martha Fox House in October 2005.

It is equally evident in this recording made during his annual visit to the Summer School in Irish Studies in July 2003.

Click to view video clip of John McGahern lecturing to the Irish Studies Summer School in 2003.

Introducing John McGahern 

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