Born in 1896, Liam O'Flaherty is regarded as one of the most gifted writers Ireland has ever produced. His name is as much associated with recklessness and bravado as with literary achievement: he was handsome and daring, and by the time he was thirty his reputation was enviable. O'Flaherty's buccaneering spirit made him decide to join the Irish Guards: after being invalided out of the British ...