Micí Mac Gabhann
Micí Mac Gabhann (November 22, 1865 Cloughaneely, County Donegal, Ireland - November 29, 1948) was a seanchaí and memoirist from the County Donegal Gaeltacht. He is best known for his posthumously published emigration memoir Rotha Mór an tSaoil (1959). It was dictated to his folklorist son-in law Seán Ó hEochaidh and polished for publication by Proinsias O Conluainn. The account won wide praise and was translated into English by Valentin Iremonger as The Hard Road to Klondike (1962).
Life
Early life
Micí Mac Gabhann was born "in a little thatched cottage" near the Atlantic Ocean in Derryconnor Townland on 22nd November,1865. His parents names were Thomas Mac Gabhann and Bridget Cannon.
As a boy, he witnessed the pervasive making of poitin by local families, the resulting violence between local residents and law enforcement, and the imprisonment of his own father for poitin-making.
Despite spending some time attending the district school at Magheraroarty, Mac Gabhann lamented that he never knew enough English to understand the teacher. He later attributed his education to local resident Sean Johnny, who had attended a hedge school as a youth and who taught Mac Gabhann and other local boys according to the same method.
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