Biography

of
Sean O’ Faolain
1900 - 1991
When in Cork, County Cork, Ireland….

Denis Whelan Bridget Murphy Whelan

Father Mother

John Francis Whelan a.k.a

Sean O’ Faolain
February 22,1900

Elleen Gould
Spouse

Julia O’Faolain (1932) Stephen O’Faolain (1938)

Daughter Son
Sean O’ Faolin was an Irish writer best known for his short
stories about Ireland’s lower and middle classes.

He often examined the decline of the nationalist struggle of

the falling of irish Roman Catholicism.

His works reflects the reawakening of interest in Irish culture

stimulated by the Irish literary renaissance of the early 20 th
century.
In 1918….
At the age of 18 he unofficially changed his name from
the Anglicized John Whelan to the Gaelic Sean O’Faolain
In 1920….
He started to write his first stories
In 1918-1921…
Became involved in anti-British activities during the
Irish insurrection
In 1923…..
His collected stories were published
1921….
Sean O’Faolain attended university collage at cork
national university of Ireland

He received m.a degrees from the National University of

Ireland in Dublin and Harvard University, in Cambridge
Massachusetts.

From 1926 to 1928….

He was a Commonwealth fellow

In June 1928
He married Elleen Gould, a children’s writer
From 1928 to 1929….
He was a Harvard fellow

From 1926 to 1933 O’Faolain taught Gaelic, Anglo-Irish

literature,English in universities and high schools in Great
Britain and the United States.

1929 to 1933….
His first two books were written
1956 to 1959….
Served as the director of the Arts Council of Ireland

In 1970…
Two of O’Faolain’s short stories, “Mother Matilda’s Book”
and “The Who Invented Sin,” were adapted into plays and
broadcast by Granada Telivision

1940 to 1990….
Founder member an editor of The Bell
In Bancroft Library, University of California…
O’Faolain letters and manuscripts are collected

On April 20,1991
Died following a short illeness in Dublin,Ireland

“O’Faolain’s place in world letters is guaranteed by his short-story

production, which which will stand in quality besides the masters of
the form from Edgar Allan Poe to Ernest Hemingway. In purely
Irisah terms he occupies a place of honor not just as a writer but
as a literary groundbreaker, a social force, and a kind of national
patriarch.”
-Richard J. Thompson
 Thank You
for
Listening!
Prepared by:
Samantha Grace A. Balingao
Alysza Xyke Bautista