Diarmuid Breathnach, is well-renowned for his writing, his work with Cumann Merriman, his broadcasting work with RTÉ and, above all, for his work in bringing to fruition nine volumes of Beathaisnéis (Biography), over 1,700 accounts on the lives of the major Irish language personalities from 1560 onwards. This time with Titim agus Éirí, Diarmuid focuses on his own story.

We are invited to read about his life, from his birth and his youth growing up in Wicklow, to his school years in Bray and in later years Dublin, always on the breadline, especially after the death of his father, an event that had a huge negative impact on him for quite a while. We also get an account of his life-long craft as a librarian.

Irish was always a very important part of his life and we get a very interesting account of the language as it was in the Pale from the 1940s onwards. Now in his eighties it’s time for the biographer to tell his own story.