Seán Ó Faoláin

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Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin (the Irish name of John Francis Whelan; February 22, 1900 - April 20, 1991) was an Irish short story writer. He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1986.

Born February 22, 1900, in Cork, Ireland, Sean Ó Faoláin wrote his first stories in the 1920s. Through 90 stories, written over a period of 60 years, Ó Faoláin charts the development of modern Ireland. His Collected Stories were published in 1983, eight years before his death on April 20, 1991, in Dublin.

Ó Faoláin was educated at the Presentation Brothers Secondary School in Cork. He fought in the War of Independence. He received M.A. degrees from the National University of Ireland and from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., was a Commonwealth Fellow from 1926 to 1928 and a Harvard Fellow from 1928 to 1929. He served as director of the Arts Council of Ireland from 1957 to 1959, and from 1940 to 1946 he was a founder member and editor of the Irish literary periodical The Bell. The list of contributors to The Bell included many of Ireland's foremost writers, among them Patrick Kavanagh, Flann O'Brien, Frank O'Connor and Brendan Behan.