Series 4 - The Wild Rover: The Autobiography of Tomás Ó Cinnéide

207pp

Citation: Ó Cinnéide, Tomás (1997). The Wild Rover: The Autobiography of Tomás Ó Cinnéide. Cork: Mercier Press.

Padraig Tyers' 1997 English translation of Tomás Ó Cinnéide's 1982 Irish-language autography Ar Seachrán. Ó Cinnéide (1914-1992), from the Dingle peninsula in Kerry, was a former Irish army lieutenant and postman who left for California, aged 38. Ó Cinnéide was present for the Haight Ashbury scene of San Francisco in the 1960s. Living a hard lifestyle in America and seeking to reecover from alcoholism, Ó Cinnéide ultimately returned to Kerry and became known as a seanchaí.. Per Tyers: 'Born in Graigue, at the very end of the Dingle peninsula, in 1914, he was in his time clerical student, army officer, teacher, postman, American emigrant, factory worker, library sweeper, down-and-out in Skid Row and seanchaí. He tells his story with gentle humour and a complete lack of self-pity. Too independent to suffer fools in authority and too sociable to keep the money he saved, he got more of life's kicks than ha'pence.'