Cré na Cille

Cré na Cille (‘The Churchyard’s Soil’) is an Irish language novel by Máirtín Ó Cadhain. It was first published in 1949. It is considered one of the greatest novels written in the Irish language.

The novel is written almost entirely as conversation between the dead in a Connemara graveyard. The talk is full of gossip, backbiting, flirting, feuds, and scandal-mongering.

The novel is considered a masterpiece of 20th Century Irish literature has drawn comparisons to the work of Flann O’Brien, Samuel Beckett and James Joyce. In its serialised form Cré na Cille was read aloud and gained classic status among Irish speakers. Cian Ó hÉigeartaigh, co-author of Sáirséal agus Dill, 1947-1981 claims that it invigorated the revival of Irish language writing in the 20th Century.

Cré na Cille was serialised by the newspaper The Irish Press and then published by Sáirséal agus Dill in 1949. Unusually, Danish and Norwegian translations were published before the novel was translated into English.

The lack of an English translation for such a long period of time after the book’s first publication became part of its renown and was a matter of speculation. Three early attempts at translation by Sáirséal agus Dill were thwarted. The first attempt was thwarted when the young woman selected as the translator joined a convent, the second was thwarted by the refusal of the poet Thomas Kinsella and the third by an unsatisfactory effort by a former prison-mate of O’Cadhain’s. A fourth, unpublished translation was made by an American student.

Two English translations of the novel was published in 2016 by Yale University Press and Cló Iar-Chonnacht. The first translation, The Dirty Dust, is by Alan Titley, the second, Graveyard Clay, by Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson.

A dramatised version of the novel was broadcast on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta in 1973, and was revised and rebroadcast in 2006 as part of RTÉ’s Ó Cadhain centenary celebrations.