Winner of Pen Translates Award

Dónall Mac Amhlaigh’s A Soldier’s Song demonstrates why Irish is one of the oldest written vernaculars in the world.  In a language vibrant to its very core, MacAmhlaigh gives a picture of a country and a people that have been central to the European imagination for centuries.  He captures precisely the psychoses, the sadnesses, the joys and the prejudices of a people forced into the music of survival.   This novel is as much about the change from rural to urban in Irish life as it is about a young man’s hopes and dreams in a post-war Europe just coming-of-age. Written just before he left Ireland for a new life in Britain, Mac Amhlaigh’s novel is a paean to the city of his birth – Galway – its people, pubs and streets. Like Joyce, Mac Amhlaigh sought to record every pub and dancehall, every sunset, stone wall and rainbow in his mind, to pack the city in his suitcase so that she remained with him forever, so he could all at once hear her lost voice everywhere.  Colum McCann, U.S. National Book Award Winner

“A Soldier’s Song does not include great wars, but just the fun and competition and camaraderie and happenstances of young men who end up in uniform. It is funny and sad and wistful, and a portrait of a time and experience which has never been captured quite like this. Mícheál Ó hAodha’s translation brings us right into his world, giving the original Irish a new life with style and with verve.” Alan Titley

“A Soldier’s Song is a work that exudes authenticity and immediacy.”

– Liam Harte

“Mícheál Ó hAodha has done the literary world a huge service by translating Dónall Mac Amhlaigh's work into English.” 

Gillian Mawson

Review copies and profile of the author in several leading Irish newspapers