Flann

About the Book

Flann was a young boy who grew up in rural Ireland. This was a beautiful landscape, but the beauty did not help to relieve his pain of hunger. His attire reflected that environment because like the hills Flann was rough and weathered. His identity was so entwined in his surroundings, and yet he was straining to escape. The story describes his sense of being fractured in this environment e.g. the indifference of the community to his plight of poverty in his young life. Even at sixteen when he gets the cattle boat from Derry to Scotland to work at his pre-destined job, digging drains, he still feels this brokenness, and he goes back to Donegal. In a way he is trying to conquer these hills, and these thoughts fill his mind when he his heading up the Foyle. The mountains are too overpowering for him, and we see him leaving again to America, and it his here that he discovers the tools to return, and live with his community. In America he learns to celebrate diversity, and the seed is sown to help him return. Flann obtains an education, which should free him somewhat, but the past still keeps haunting him. This feeling of anxiety is expressed throughout his years in teaching, and in reading the book it is clear that he is unable to escape his early childhood.

About the Author

Seosamh O’Hoctain the author of Flann, whose roots are in Inishtrahull Island, was influenced in many ways by that harsh environment. Born on the bleak Donegal hillside in the 1940’s, where I spent my first sixteen years before immigrating to Scotland. From an early age I was fed on a diet of i.e. “ there is nothing in Ireland, you have to go across the water to get jobs”. The mould was being cast at an early age, that is, when you come of age, pack your bags, and leave so I left with a great dislike of my land. Eventually I got to America, and gained an education. With the blinkers off through education I developed a great love of my land, the place I was conditioned to dislike. I spent twenty-eight years teaching, and became a professional counsellor in clinical, and pastoral counselling. I spent two years working with the victims of ‘Bloody Sunday’, and it was in that role working with bruised people that I experienced true forgiveness. My cousin Anna in America encouraged me towards education, and to her I will always remain grateful.