Patrick O'Flaherty

Who is Patrick O'Flaherty?

Patrick O'Flaherty CM is a Newfoundland and Labrador writer, historian, and academic.

He was born in Long Beach, Conception Bay. He received a B.A. and M.A. from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and obtained his Ph.D. from University College London in 1963. After teaching at the University of Manitoba, in 1965 he joined the English department at Memorial, where he was later Professor and Head. He retired in 1995 and now holds the position of Professor Emeritus. He is married to Marjorie Doyle, a writer and broadcaster, and has three sons from a previous marriage.

Patrick O'Flaherty is the author of two books of short stories, Summer of the Greater Yellowlegs and A Small Place in the Sun, and two novels, Benny's Island and Priest of God. In 1979 he published The Rock Observed, a survey of writing about Newfoundland and Labrador. His travel guide Come Near at your Peril, a sardonic but affectionate look at tourism in Newfoundland, is now in its third edition.

In collaboration with historian Peter Neary, he wrote Part of the Main: An Illustrated History of Newfoundland and Labrador and edited By Great Waters, an anthology of writing about Newfoundland and Labrador. In recent years O'Flaherty completed three volumes on Newfoundland political history, Old Newfoundland: A History to 1843, Lost Country: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland 1843-1933, and Leaving the Past Behind: Newfoundland History from 1934.