![]() The chair of the meeting responded by asking: “The John McGahern case? What case is that? I never heard of it.” Feeley, naively, told the story of the fate which had recently befallen McGahern, before the chair “spread out his hands with the palms upwards and, with his eyes on the ceiling, said, ‘It’s all news to me.’”Ī new tranche of correspondence and other materials has recently been added to the McGahern Archive at the James Hardiman Library in the University of Galway. When “any other business” was called for at the crowded meeting, Feeley stood up and asked: “What does the INTO propose to do in the John McGahern case?” Total silence followed. Feeley recounted his memories of the meeting, which was held in the weeks that followed the banning of McGahern’s second novel, The Dark, and the subsequent loss of his job as a teacher in Dublin. ![]() “Dear John,” it opened, “I have been meaning to write you this letter and tell you the following story for some time.” The letter’s author, Pat Feeley, a fellow teacher, had attended an Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) meeting in Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick in 1965. A letter posted to John McGahern in October 1987 was more than an average fan letter. ![]()
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