Breandán Ó hEithir

Breandán Ó hEithir (18 January 1930 – 26 October 1990) was an Irish writer and broadcaster.

Biography

He was born on the island of Inishmore in County Galway. His parents were national school teachers, Pádraic ÓhEithir and Delia NíFhlaithearta. He attended their school in Kilronan. He received his secondary school education at Coláiste Éinde (St Enda's College) in Galway. He attended University College Galway for three years but left without obtaining a degree. ÓhEithir wrote in both Irish and English, and was highly regarded for the originality and liveliness of his journalism, especially his work in Irish.

After university, he spent a number of years working as an itinerant bookseller for . He served as an editor at , the Irish language publishing house, and as Irish language editor for The Irish Press newspaper from 1957 to 1963; he also wrote a column for The Sunday Press. He was a regular columnist with the journal and also contributed a weekly column to The Irish Times. He also served as a staff journalist with RTÉ Television, working on the current affairs programmes and .

He married Catherine vonHildebrand in 1957 and they had five children; Ruairí, Máirín, Brian, Aindriú, and Rónán. VonHildebrand was born in Paris, the daughter of Deirdre Mulcahy from Sligo and Franz vonHildebrand from Munich, son of the noted philosopher and theologian Dietrich vonHildebrand. He was a nephew of Aran Islands authors Liam O'Flaherty and Tom Maidhc O'Flaherty, the brothers of his mother, Delia. A biography of ÓhEithir has been written by Liam Mac Con Iomaire.

Works ("Lead us into Temptation") (Sáirseál Ó Marcaigh, 1976) Willie the Plain Pint agus an Pápa (Cló Mercier, 1977) Over the Bar A Personal Relationship with the GAA (Ward River Press, 1984) (Coiscéim, 1985) The Begrudger's Guide to Irish Politics (Poolbeg Press, 1986) This is Ireland (O'Brien Press, 1987) Impressions of Galway (Appletree Press Ltd., 1987) (Sáirseál Ó Marcaigh, 1988) A Pocket History of Ireland (O'Brien Press, 1989) (Poolbeg Press, 1989) An Aran Reader (The Lilliput Press, 1991)