Fionntán de Brún (b. 1969) is an Irish writer and literary historian born in Belfast. De Brún is among those who sustain the tradition of Irish-language literature: he writes in Irish and has published research on Irish writers and literature in the Irish language. As the majority of Irish writers have used English, de Brún’s contribution has helped to keep in focus a number of important authors who wrote in Irish, such as Seosamh Mac Grianna. Last year, he published The Irish Language and Central Belfast, which explores the links between the Irish language and his home city. De Brún’s debut novel In the Belly of the Beast (Béal na Béiste) has attracted considerable attention, as it addresses one of the more complex conflicts of post-Second World War Europe – the Troubles – at its height in the 1980s. At the centre of the work is the relationship between a scholar who, in his youth, collaborated with the Nazis, and a young and attractive IRA freedom fighter. Through this relationship, the characters can overcome decades, but not the eternal questions of responsibility, loyalty, ideology and choice.
Fionntán de Brún
