Tomás Bairéad (English: Thomas Barrett) (1893 – 1973), was an Irish author and nationalist.
Biography
Bairéad was born near Moycullen, County Galway to a small farmer. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and soon after became an IRA member. His first recorded writings were with The Galway Express in 1918. In 1922 he would join the Irish Independent, writing on politics, and would later become the newspaper's editor in 1945. While working for the Independent he was presented the Irish Academy of Letters Award (1938). Bairéad also invented his own Irish shorthand. His close friend, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, urged him to leave the IRA in order to focus on his writings. [1]
