*Photograph: Eamon Ward
Award-winning East Clare oral historian, Tomás Mac Conmara is to release his latest book this coming September.
Following seventeen years of research, ‘The Scariff Martyrs, War, Murder and Memory in East Clare’ has now gone to print and is set to be released in mid-September.
In 2016, the Tuamgraney was commended by President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, as one of seven recipients who have made outstanding contributions to culture over the last 100 years for a Comhaltas Forógra na Cásca Centenary Award.
He began documenting oral tradition and folklore in the townland of Ballymalone in east Clare as a teenager and is now recognised as one of the leading oral historians in the country. From 2008 to 2014, he led the foundation and development of Cuimhneamh an Chláir (Memories of Clare).
A twenty year collection of his work, ‘The Time of the Tans’ was published in 2019 and was based on over 400 personal recordings with older people, focused on the Irish War of Independence. Tomás had written four other books prior to this.
Interestingly, ex Argentinian rugby captain, Agustín Pichot has already voiced his praise for the upcoming book on The Scariff Martyrs. An inductee into the IRB Hall of Fame, Pichot reached out to Tomás after reading ‘The Time of the Tans’.
“Mac Conmara’s philosophy of history rests on a deep understanding, the results of years of dedication. He uses memory to shine a light on the human experience from the ground up and with a level of detail only knowable to someone who has all but entered that past to retrieve it. Such understanding makes his work truly global. As an Argentinian, I can see in his writing, the history of my own country. Mac Conmara’s work on The Scariff Martyrs is human, evocative and full of understanding. You can feel the tension, the wildness, the energy and the fear,” the most selected Argentine player for the Barbarians stated.
