SOURCE: Butler, Pierce. “The Demands of Memory.” In Seán O'Faoláin: A Study of the Short Fiction, pp. 84-92. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.

In the following essay, Butler discusses the increasing attention O'Faoláin gives to nostalgia and memory in his later short fiction.

With the publication of I Remember! I Remember! in 1962, O'Faolain was at the height of his powers as a writer. He had overcome the disillusionment he felt in the aftermath of the Civil War that threatened to limit his work. He had reconciled himself to the state of modern Ireland by looking at it in a historical perspective and by drawing his inspiration from the native tradition of storytelling. As an Irish writer living in Ireland, he had found a literary stance that enabled him to do justice to the complexity of his feelings about his native land. This is the moment he...