FINN, Mary Agnes.

— NORA’S MISSION. Pp. 268. (Washbourne). 2s. 6d. (N.Y.: Benziger). 1.75. [1911]. Second edition. 1914.

The mission was to bring back her uncle, who had settled in Australia, both to his Church and to his country, and she successfully carried it out: his wife and daughters, too, “adapted themselves speedily to Irish manners and customs.” And her visit to Australia unravelled some mysteries which we shall not reveal. Scene laid in I. and most of characters Irish. The “brogue” is avoided, but the conversation is somewhat stilted and unnatural. The book is nicely printed and prettily bound.—(C.B.N.).

FINNEY, Violet G.

— THE REVOLT OF THE YOUNG MACCORMACKS. Pp. 227. (Ward & Downey). Illustr. by Edith Scannell. (N.Y.: Pratt). 1.50. 1896.

A story written for children and much appreciated by them. The four young MacCormacks are very live and real children. Their delightfully novel pranks are told in a breezy, natural style. Many a “grown-up” will find interest in the book. Scene: partly in Dublin, partly in West of Ireland.

— A DAUGHTER OF ERIN. Pp. 224. (Blackie). 2s. 6d. Well illustr. by G. Demain Hammond.

A bright little story, free from “problems,” “morals,” morbidness, and prejudice. It tells how Norah’s hostility and dislike to her cousin, John Herrick, gradually changes to love in spite of herself. Her old lover accepts the inevitable like a brave man, and loses his life in trying to do a service, for her sake, to the favoured suitor. The Irish characters are capitally sketched—Mrs. Ryan and Judy, the Rector’s housekeeper. Bertie, the spoilt little invalid, is drawn to the life. So, too, is the somewhat sententious old Rector.

FITZGERALD, John Godwin.

— RUTH WERDRESS, FATHER O’HARALAN, AND SOME NEW CHRISTIANS. Pp. 340. (Blackwood). 6s.

An argument in narrative form against the celibacy of the Catholic priesthood. Ruth W., flying from a home made unhappy by evangelicalism, takes refuge with Fr. O’H., P.P. of Blossomvale, who receives her into the Catholic Church. Fr. O’H. falls madly in love with her, and there are a series of situations, compromising and equivocal in appearance. Under extraordinary circumstances the two are forced into a merely formal marriage. We need not reveal the sequel. There is a great deal about Catholic usages, priests, nuns, &c., with which the Author shows considerable superficial acquaintance. The Author is cautiously fair in detail, but the general impression produced is sometimes distinctly unfavourable to Catholicism. The New Christians are a sect of latter-day evangelicals whom the Author satirises severely. One scene we consider particularly offensive to Catholic feeling and highly improbable into the bargain.

[FITZGERALD, M. J.].

— THE MAKING OF JIM O’NEILL. Pp. 140. 16mo. (C.T.S.I.: Iona Series). 1910.

The story of the course of a young man’s vocation to the priesthood, of his life at a typical Irish provincial seminary, and of his vacations at home. The doings of the seminarians are described frankly, not being at all idealised. The tale is pleasantly and plainly told, without much analysis of motive or of emotion. It is a vivid glimpse of the making of a priest.

FITZGERALD, Rev. T. A., O.F.M. Born Callan, Co. Kilkenny, 1862. Brought up in Thurles; ed. at Christian Bros. Schools and St. Patrick’s College. Became a Franciscan in 1879. Spent five years in Rome, and twenty in Australia. Since his return to Ireland has learned the Irish language, and has taken part in the revival movement. Witness his Stepping Stones to Gaeldom.

— HOMESPUN YARNS: WHILE THE KETTLE AND THE CRICKET SING. Pp. 222. (Gill). 3s. 6d. Illustr. 1914.

Eighteen tales and sketches of Irish life—at home and in exile. For the most part humorous, with genuine and spontaneous humour. But pathos is often not far off, and edification is to be got, though it is not thrust upon the reader. The sketches of life in the slums and back streets of Dublin show the Author at his best, for his errands of mercy have made him know them thoroughly.

— FITS AND STARTS. (Gill). 1915.

Another series of sketches similar to the previous, but here, besides making the acquaintance of Cook Street, Great Britain Street, and Chancery Lane, we have glimpses of Dalkey, Kingstown, Rathmines, and even Lower Leeson Street. “The Adventures of Black Pudden” is an exceptionally comic story.

FITZPATRICK, Kathleen.

— THE WEANS AT ROWALLAN, Pp. 234. (Methuen). 6s. Illustr. Second edition. 1905.

“We think it is one of the best books about children published since the days of Mrs. Ewing.”—(Speaker). “Amusing and pleasant. Some of the fun is tinged with the unconscious pathos of child-life, and the mixed mirth and melancholy of the Irish peasantry.”—(Athenæum).

FITZPATRICK, Mary; Mrs. W. C. Sullivan. Born in Barony of Farney, Co. Monaghan, but belongs to the Fitzpatricks of Ossory. Educated in Dublin and Paris. In 1894 married Dr. W. C. Sullivan, son of the late Dr. W. K. Sullivan, President of the Queen’s College, Cork. Has contributed a good deal to periodicals in Ireland and in America. Her writings are marked by love for Ireland, and faith in Her future.

— THE ONE OUTSIDE. Pp. 245. (Maunsel). 3s. 6d. 1914.

Eight stories, six of which are Irish in subject. Seven of the stories are tragedies. “The Doctor’s Joke” is the only comedy. The title story tells how the father, after sixteen years of absence, bread-winning in England, comes home to find that the wife and children of the reality are far other than what his dreams had pictured, and his wife has a similar disillusionment. He is an outsider, and he realises it bitterly. Painful tragedy is the outcome. The 2nd is a tragedy of blighted hopes. The 3rd a lighter story laid in Fenian times. 4. W. of Ireland. Love’s young dream destroyed by the plotting of an ambitious and masterful old woman. Atmosphere of loneliness and terror given to the whole. 5. A London slum tragedy, with Irish characters. 6. A study in character, and a peasant love-tale. All are told in beautiful and refined language, often charged with pathos. The situations are dramatic. The whole manner, the atmosphere, and the sentiment are Irish.

FITZPATRICK, T., LL.D. Born, 1845, in Co. Down. Became a teacher in early life. He was attached successively to Blackrock Coll., Dublin; St. Malachy’s, Belfast; Athenry, Galway, and Birr schools. Of the last he was headmaster in 1876. Was author of a serious historical work—The Bloody Bridge and other Studies of 1641. Died 1912 in Dublin.

— JABEZ MURDOCK, by “Banna Borka.” Two Vols. Pp. 300 + 335. (Duffy). 1s. 6d. (Two vols. in one). [1887]. 1888 still in print.

Scene: South Co. Down. The central figure is a rascally Scotch settler who dabbles in poetry, and attains to wealth as “ajint” by unscrupulous means. Between the episodes of his life are interlarded scenes illustrating nearly every aspect of peasant life at the time, all minutely and vividly described, and conversations in which the problems of the times are discussed. A good deal of humorous incident and character. The Author evidently writes from first-hand knowledge. He is on the Catholic and popular side. Period: first quarter of nineteenth century.

— THE KING OF CLADDAGH. Pp. 249. (Sands). Frontisp. ancient map of Galway in 1651. 1899.

Galway City and County during Cromwellian period. Atrocities of the eight years’ rule of the Roundheads. Forcible and vivid. Point of view: National and Catholic.

FITZSIMON, Miss E. A.

— THE JOINT VENTURE: A Tale in Two Lands. Pp. 327. (N.Y.: Sheehy). 1878.

Scene: opens in a valley of the Knockmealdowns, passes to U.S.A. in ch. 7 (p. 109). Was a first novel, and so somewhat immature. High moral and Catholic tone (perhaps somewhat aggressive at times). Attacks Protestant divorce laws. One of the best incidents, perhaps, is Mrs. Ned O’Leary’s conversion to Catholicism.—(Press Notices). This was republ. in 1881 under title Gerald Barry; or, The Joint Venture.

“FLOREDICE, W. H.”

— MEMORIES OF A MONTH AMONG THE “MERE IRISH.” Pp. xxix. + 321. (Keegan, Paul). [1881]. Second edition, 1886.

A record of conversations held and things seen, but especially of legends, stories, and anecdotes heard from the peasantry during a stay made by the Author when a youth at Doe Castle, near the head of Sheephaven, Co. Donegal. Owen Gregallah (Gallagher?), an old water-bailiff, with whom the Author used to go fishing, tells many of these latter, in the local dialect, which is faithfully reproduced. The stories are interesting in themselves, and very well told. Dr. Mahaffy referred in the Academy to one of them as the funniest Irish story in print. There is no condescension in the Author’s tone. He likes and respects, as well as enjoys, his peasant companions. He seems to be an American. The Preface to the second ed. gives a humorous account of the difficulties of travel in Donegal in those days. N.B.—The title on the cover is “‘Mere Irish’ Stories.”

— DERRYREEL. Pp. vi. + 184. (London: Hamilton, Adams). 1886.

“A collection of stories from N.W. Donegal.” This writer published also a volume entitled Floredice Stories.

FLYNN, T. M. Was living at Carrick-on-Shannon at the time of writing these sketches.

— A CELTIC FIRESIDE: Tales of Irish Rural Life. (Sealy Bryers). 1s. 1907.

Nine little tales—tragedies and comedies—of Irish life in country and city. Many little touches show how well the Author knows Irish life. He has a power, too, of making the truth of his pictures go home to our hearts.—(N.I.R.).

FOREMAN, Stephen.

— THE OVERFLOWING SCOURGE, Pp. 335. (Alston Rivers). 6s. 1911.

Career of an unprincipled lawyer, who gains judgeship by a series of crimes and keeps it by crimes even more heinous. A greatly overdrawn picture of a dark and unpleasant side of life. Such incidents as a packed jury condemning unjustly the presiding judge’s son (with the judge’s own approbation) to penal servitude seem wholly improbable. The parson and his wife afford a gleam of humour. Although some of the worst of the characters are Protestants, there are several apparent sneers at things Catholic. “It is not written virginibus puerisque.”—(I.B.L.). The career of Blanco Hamilton seems to be founded on that of Judge Keogh, and the incidental references are to the latter’s times. Other novels of this writer, a Corkman, living in Cork, are The Errors of the Comedy, The Fen Dogs, The Terrible Choice.

FORSTER, C. F. Blake-, see BLAKE-FORSTER.

FRANCILLON, Robert E.

— UNDER SLIEVE BÁN: a Yarn in Seven Knots. Pp. 275. (N.Y.: Holt). 1881. It originally appeared as a Christmas Annual with Coloured Illustrations. Pp. 128. (Grant). 1s.

A story of faithful love laid (at least its opening and closing scenes) in Wexford (“Dunmoyle”). Period about 1798. Michael and Phil both love Kate Callan. Kate loves P. best, and M. goes away. Returning after three years, he finds Kate mourning P., said to be lost at sea. M. and Kate are married, but on the evening of the marriage M. meets P. M. “disappears,” but in foreign parts meets P.’s French wife. The two couples are united again. Kate is shot in the rebellion, but survives to discover that M. was the best man after all. Dialect natural but refined.

“FRANCIS, M. E.”; Mrs. Blundell. Born at Killiney Park, near Dublin. Is the daughter of Mr. Sweetman, of Lamberton Park, Queen’s County; and was educated there and in Belgium. In 1879 she married the late Francis Blundell, of Liverpool. This home of her married life is the background of many of her stories—(Ir. Lit.). Among her books are: Whither (1892), In a North Country Village, A Daughter of the Soil, Among Untrodden Ways, Maimie o’ the Corner, Pastorals of Dorset, The Manor Farm, The Tender Passion (1910), and several others, besides those noticed in this book—about thirty in all. All Mrs. Blundell’s writings are noted for their delicacy of sentiment, deftness of touch, pleasantness of atmosphere. They are saved from excessive idealism by close observation of character and manners. Her Irish stories show sympathy and even admiration for the peasantry.

— THE STORY OF DAN, (London: Osgood, M’Ilvaine). (Boston: Houghton). 0.50. 1894.

“A brief tale, told with directness and tragic simplicity of a magnanimous peasant, who adores with infatuation a worthless girl, and sacrifices himself uselessly and blindly. Friendly portraits of Irish country people are among the minor characters.”—(Baker).

— FRIEZE AND FUSTIAN. (Osgood). 3s. 6d. 1896.

The book is in two parts—the first a reflection or picture of the mind and soul of the Irish peasant, the second of that of the English peasant. The comparison or contrast is not elaborated nor insisted upon. The pictures are there, the reader judges. A series of short stories or studies form the traits of the pictures, bringing out such points as the kindness of the poor to one another, a mother’s love, a mother’s pride in her son become priest, a servant’s fidelity, and various stories of love. All told with delicate feeling and insight. The Author has lived among both peoples. There is a good deal of dialect.

— MISS ERIN. Pp. 357. (Methuen). 6s. [1898]. Included in Benziger’s (N.Y.) series of Standard Catholic Novels at 2s.; also $1.00.

The story of a girl who, brought up as a peasant, afterwards becomes a landowner. She tries to do her best for her tenants, and her difficulties in the task are well depicted, the Author fully sympathizing with Irish grievances. There are some sensational scenes—among them an eviction. The love interest is well sustained, and the character-drawing very clever.

— NORTH, SOUTH, AND OVER THE SEA. Pp. 347. (Country Life, and Newnes). Charming Illustr. by H. M. Brock. 1902.

Somewhat on the plan of Frieze and Fustian by the same Author, q.v. Three parts, each containing five stories or sketches. The first part deals with North of England life, the second with South of England, the third with Ireland. Humble life depicted in all. In last part the subject of the first sketch (an amusing one) is a rustic courtship of a curious kind; 2, an old woman dying in the workhouse; 4 and 5, a rural love-story. Studies rather of the minds and hearts of poor Irish folk than of their outward ways. The author has reproduced almost perfectly that brogue which is not merely English mispronounced, but practically a different idiom expressing a wholly different type of mind.

— THE STORY OF MARY DUNNE. Pp. 312. (Murray). 6s. 1913.

The love story of Mat, “the priest’s boy,” for Mary, beginning as a sweet and tender idyll in the home in Glenmalure, ending in the tragedy of a law-court scene, where the hero is on trial for murder and Mary faces worse than death in telling the story of her wrongs—she has been an innocent victim of the white slave traffic. Full of exquisite scenes, with touches of humour as well as pathos. But in the main the book is a tragedy. Its purpose seems clearly to be a warning and an appeal. The poignant consequences of Mary’s undoing are not suitable for every class of reader, but there is nothing approaching to prurient description.

— DARK ROSALEEN. Pp. 392. (Cassell). 6s. 1915.

The story of a “mixed marriage” between Norah, a Connemara peasant girl, and Hector, a young engineer of Belfast origin. They go to live at Derry. Bitterness and misunderstanding come to blight their love, and the end is tragedy. The two points of view, Protestant and Catholic, are put with impartiality.—(T. Lit. Suppl.).

FREDERIC, Harold.

— THE RETURN OF THE O’MAHONEY: a Romantic Fantasy. Pp. 279. (Heinemann). 3s. 6d. Three Illustr. 1893.

Scene: South-west Cork in Fenian times. The O’M., who comes to Muirisc is not the real O’M. at all, but a Mr. Tisdale, who has managed to secure the papers of the real O’M., who is not aware of his own origin and real name. T. becomes a model landlord, and is beloved of all. Tries his hand at Fenianism, but soon abandons it and goes abroad to foreign wars. O’Daly, left as manager, thrusts himself into his master’s place. But a young American engineer (the real O’M. of course) turns up and spoils his plans, but does not reveal his own identity till after Tisdale’s death. Besides this there are numerous exciting incidents and several mysteries. The characters are well drawn. The Author is distinctly favourable to Ireland, and seems to have a good knowledge of the country.

FREMDLING, A.

— FATHER CLANCY. Pp. 358. (Duckworth). 1904.

Father Clancy is an unselfish devoted country parish priest, beloved of his people, unworldly and simple to a fault. His virtue serves to throw into deeper shadow the character of his curate, Father O’Keeffe, who is an abandoned and vicious ruffian. The purpose of the book is not at all clear to the average reader.

FROST, W. H.

— FAIRIES AND FOLK OF IRELAND. Pp. xvi. + 290. (N.Y.: Scribner’s). Ill. by Sidney Richmond Burleigh. 1900.

FROUDE, James Anthony. 1818-1894. This celebrated writer had already published his History of England when, in 1869, he came to live (for the summer) at Derreen, Kenmare, Co. Kerry, where he began his The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (first vol. appeared 1872). Like most of F.’s books, it provoked numerous answers, among others that of Father Thomas Burke, O.P., Froude on Ireland. The novel mentioned below embodies his chief ideas on Ireland.

— THE TWO CHIEFS OF DUNBOY, Pp. 456. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. [1889]. Several editions since.

Scene: the O’Sullivan’s country in south-west Cork. Period: 1750-98. The ideas expressed in the Author’s The English in Ireland put into the form of fiction. Thesis: if the English had from the first striven to replace the hopeless Celt by Anglo-Saxon and Protestant colonists she would have avoided her subsequent troubles in Ireland, and all would have been well. The English character (Colonel Goring) is throughout contrasted with the Irish (Morty Sullivan), the whole forming a powerful indictment of Ireland and the Irish as seen by Froude.

FULLER, J. Franklin; “Ignotus.” Born 1835. Is a native of Derryquin, near Sneem, Co. Kerry. In his young days he was a close friend of the priest (Fr. Walsh) who was the original of A. P. Graves’s “Father O’Flynn.” As architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and to the Church Representative Body he has travelled extensively through Ireland and has lived in various parts of it—North, South, East, and West—always on friendly terms with his Catholic neighbours. He resides in Dublin.

— CULMSHIRE FOLK. Pp. 384. (Cassell). [1873]. Third edition, n.d.

The plot is concerned with Sidney Bateman, heir of a family that has come down in the world, his struggles against misfortune, and his eventual attainment of fortune and happiness. But the chief interest is the kindly, thoughtful study of character and motive, of human nature in fact, also in the picture of the ways of the little society (largely clerical, e.g., the egregious Mr. M’Gosh) of Culmshire. Lady Culmshire, woman of the world, but with a warm and true heart within, is the central figure and is a very pleasant, happily drawn portrait. The Irish interest is (1) the excellent description of the homecoming of Sidney Bateman to the ancestral castle of Rathvarney, in the wilds of Kerry, which are well described; (2) the doings of Tim Conroy, a sort of Mickey Free, and the Leveresque stories told of him by Capt. Howley; (3) the portrait of the old P.P. of Rathvarney, Fr. Walsh (the original of Graves’s “Father O’Flynn”).

— JOHN ORLEBAR, CLERK. Pp. 293. (Cassell). [1878]. Second edition, n.d.

The plot of a villainous attorney, Joe Twinch, and his clerk, an absconding Fenian, to cheat the rightful heiress out of the Arderne estates. Dr. Packenham, a personal friend of Orlebar, who had married the heiress, suspects foul play and comes to Kerry, where the first Lady Arderne had for some time resided, to make enquiries. He puts up at Rathvarney (see Culmshire Folk), meets Tim and Fr. Walsh (who helps to unravel the mystery), and sees something of Ireland in the sixties (pp. 240-274). This something, it must be confessed, is chiefly squalor, described, however, in a humorous and not unsympathetic way.

FURLONG, Alice.

— TALES OF FAIRY FOLKS, QUEENS, AND HEROES. Pp. 212. (Browne & Nolan). 2s. Four or five Illustr. by F. Rigney. Pretty cover. 1909.

Stories from ancient Gaelic Literature simply and pleasantly told. Contents:—“Illan Bwee and the Mouse;” “Country under Wave;” “The Step Mother;” “The Fortunes of the Shepherd’s Son;” “The Golden Necklet;” “The Harp of the Dagda Mor;” “The Child that went into the Earth;” and several others.

GALLAHER, Miss Fannie; “Sydney Starr.” Daughter of Frederick Gallaher, one time Ed. of Freeman’s Journal.

— KATTY THE FLASH. (Gill). 1880.

Very low life in Dublin, with no attempt to idealise the rags and filth and squalor; but clever and realistic.—(I.M.).

— THY NAME IS TRUTH. Three Vols. (Maxwell). 1884.

Incidentally describes the Hospice for the Dying, Harold’s Cross, and the inner working of a daily newspaper office. Cleverly written. The conversations are natural, and the human interest strong. The politics of the time (1881) are discussed, but they are not the main interest.

GAMBLE, Dr. John. I take the following account of this writer from a note on him contributed by Mr. A. A. Campbell, of Belfast, to the Irish Book Lover (September, 1909): Dr. Gamble was born in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, in the early ’seventies of the eighteenth century. He was educated in Edinburgh. He devoted most of his life to a study of the people and characteristics of Ulster. He used to make frequent journeys on foot, or by coach, through the country, chatting with everyone he met, picking up story and legend and jest, and noting incidents. All his writings were imbued with a deep sympathy for his fellow-countrymen. As a vivid picture of the Ulster of his day his books are invaluable. They did much to produce in England a kindly feeling for his countrymen. He died in 1831.

— SARSFIELD. Three Vols. 12mo. (London). 1814.

The hero is a young Irishman who, under the name of Glisson, is a French prisoner of war at Strabane. Aided by the daughter of the postmaster he escapes, and wanders all over Ulster, where the wildest excitement about the threatened French invasion prevailed. Thence he goes to Scotland, England, and abroad. He fights with Thurot at the Siege of Carrickfergus, and eventually returns to Strabane, where he meets with a tragic ending. The Author embodies in the story many local traditions and much of his own observation and experience. Well worthy of republication.

— HOWARD. Two Vols. 12mo. (London). 1815.

“The subject of the following tale was born in a remote part of Ireland ... my principal character is not altogether an imaginary one.” The hero of this autobiography is Irish. The scene is London. The central incident is his seduction of a young lady who after attempting suicide dies of remorse and chagrin.

— NORTHERN IRISH TALES. Two Vols. 8vo. (London). 1818.

“Stanley,” the first tale tells the adventures of a young profligate, son of a Derry Alderman, chiefly in Dublin. After life of debauch he gets married, but goes bankrupt. His wife dies, he attempts suicide, is rescued, and plunges once more into vice. The rest of the story tells of his determined pursuit of a young lady, ending in a murder for which he is tried and hanged. It is founded on a romantic episode well known in Ulster, the courtship and murder of Miss Knox, of Prehen, near Derry, by Macnaughton, and his subsequent execution for the crime. “Nelson” is a story of the American Revolutionary War. Vol. II. contains only one tale, “Lesley.” The hero is a North of Ireland man, whose travels and love adventures on the Continent and at home are described. The Author indulges in a good deal of moralizing.

— CHARLTON; or, Scenes in the North of Ireland. Three Vols. 12mo. (London). [1823]. New edition, 1827.

Depicts, with sympathy for the views of the United Irishmen, the state of Ireland during the years that immediately preceded the rebellion. The hero is a young surgeon in a N. of Ireland town who is tricked into becoming a United Irishman, and leads the rebels at Ballynahinch. Under the name of Dimond the Rev. James Porter is introduced, and many quotations are made from his satire “Billy Bluff.” Northern dialect very well done.

GAUGHAN, Jessie. Born in Shropshire; one parent Irish, the other Scotch. Educated in Paisley and in Ursuline Convent, Sligo. Besides the book here mentioned she has publ. serially in I.M. The Brooch of Lindisfarne, and has in preparation a story dealing with Ireton’s days in Limerick.

— THE PLUCKING OF THE LILY. Pp. 220. (Washbourne). 1912.

Reprinted from I.M. 1911-2. A charming little story of Elizabethan times in Ireland (c. 1589-94), telling the love-story of Eileen daughter of Earl Clancarthy and Florence M’Carthy. Their love is crossed by the policy of Elizabeth, who, for State purposes, wants an English husband for Eileen, and not till the end are the two lovers united again. The historical setting and colouring are accurate, but never interfere with the story. The tone is Catholic, but not obtrusively so. Good portrait of Elizabeth. Burleigh (in a favourable light), Sir Warham St. Leger, and other historical personages appear.

GAY, Mrs. Florence, née Smith. Born in Molong, N.S.W., Australia. Is an ardent imperialist, but proud of the strain of Celtic blood in her family, and sympathetic towards Ireland. Resides in Surrey.

— DRUIDESS, THE. Pp. 195. (Ouseley). 2s. 6d. 1908.

Cormac, a youth of Pictish royal blood, has a mission from his dying father to rescue from the Saxons the mother of his intended bride. His adventures in carrying out this mission bring him from Damnonia (between the Yeo and the Axe) to Ireland (Glendalough, Tailltenn, Donegal). He is present at the half-pagan festival of Beltaine, and at the Convention of Drumceat. At the latter he meets St. Columba, who is sympathetically described. The story deals largely with the lingerings of Paganism in Ireland. Several battles between Saxons and Britons are described. The savage manners of the time are pictured with realistic vividness. The wild scenes of adventure follow one another without a pause. Intended for “boys and others.”

[GETTY, Edmund].

— THE LAST KING OF ULSTER. Three Vols. (London: Madden). 1841.

Ostensibly a tale, in reality a kind of historical miscellany of Elizabethan times, containing memoirs, anecdotes, family history, &c., of the O’Neills, O’Donnells, and other Irish chiefs. The Author was one of the best of our Northern antiquaries.

GIBBON, Charles.

— IN CUPID’S WARS. Three Vols. (F. V. White). 1884.

The scene is laid in Kilkenny in 1798 or thereabouts, but both the topographical and historical settings are of the vaguest—there is very little local colour, and practically no depiction of historical events, though there is much about rebellion and secret societies. The story is thoroughly melodramatic: it has no serious purpose, but the tone is wholesome. The characters of the story are all represented as Catholics. This Author wrote upwards of thirty other novels.

[GIBSON, Rev. Charles Bernard]. (1808-1885). Was chaplain at Spike Island, and sometime minister of the Independent congregation at Mallow, Co. Cork, but afterwards joined the Church of England. He was made M.R.I.A. in 1854. He wrote a History of Cork City and County (1861), and five or six other works, including Historical Portraits of Irish Chieftains and Anglo-Norman Knights, 1871.

— THE LAST EARL OF DESMOND. Two Vols. (Hodges & Smith). 1854.

Extensive pref., introd. (summarising history of Earls of Desmond), and notes. Scene: Mallow, various parts of Munster, and the Tower of London. All the great personages of the time, English and Irish, figure in the story, but several fictitious characters are introduced, and many fictitious episodes are throughout the story mingled with the facts of history. The main plot turns on the Sugán Earl’s love for, and marriage with, Ellen Spenser (an imaginary daughter of the poet). The bias is strongly anti-Catholic. Fr. Archer, S.J., is the villain of the piece, stopping at no crime to gain his ends. It is also, though not to the same extent, anti-Irish. He relies for his facts entirely on Pacata Hibernia (point of view wholly English). The Irish chiefs are made to speak in vulgar modern-Irish dialect (“iligant,” “crattur,” “yr sowls to blazes,” &c., &c.). The humour is distinctly vulgar, as in the case of the Author’s other novel. Raleigh is one of the personages.

— DEARFORGIL, THE PRINCESS OF BREFFNY. Pp. 287. (London: Hope). [1857]. Second edition (Longmans). 1884. Pp. xxiv. + 284.

Story of Diarmuid MacMurrough’s abduction of the wife of O’Ruairc of Breffni, and subsequent events, including an account of the Norman Invasion. The tone throughout is anti-National and most offensive to Catholic feeling. The frequent humorous passages are nearly always vulgar, and in some instances coarse. There are many absurdities in the course of the narrative.

GIBSON, Jennie Browne.

— AILEEN ALANNAH. Pp. 86. (Stockwell). 1s. net. One good illustr. 1911.

Desmond Fitzgerald and Aileen have been sweethearts from childhood, D. has to go to America. Percy Gerrard intercepts their letters, and tries to marry Aileen. She is broken-hearted, and goes as nurse to a London hospital. Percy at the point of death confesses his wickedness, and No. 27 in one of the wards turns out to be—. Scene: at first Donegal. A very pleasant story, full of kindly Irish people, entirely free from bigotry, and with an excellent though unobtruded moral purpose.

“GILBERT, George;” Miss Arthur. Has written also In the Shadow of the Purple (1902), and The Bâton Sinister (1903).

— THE ISLAND OF SORROW. Pp. 384. (Long). 6s. 1903.

Deals, in considerable detail, with political and social life in the Ireland of the time. The circles of Lord Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald (centering in Leinster House), of the Emmet family (at the Casino, Milltown), and of the Curran family (at the Priory, Rathfarnham) are fully portrayed and neatly interlinked in private life. The whole romance of Emmet and Sarah Curran is related. There are many portraits—Charles James Fox, Curran (depicted as a domestic monster), many men of the Government party, above all, Emmet. This portrait is not lacking in sympathy, though the theatrical and inconsiderate character of his aims is insisted on. The whole work shows considerable power of dramatizing history, and is made distinctly interesting. “The author,” says Mr. Baker, “tries to be impartial, but cannot divest himself of an Englishman’s lack of sympathy with Ireland.” The book is preceded by a valuable list of authorities and sources.

GILL, E. A. Wharton.

— AN IRISHMAN’S LUCK. (Hodder & Stoughton). 6s. 1914.

“A domestic tale of young folk in a British settlement in Manitoba, and of the Canadian contingent in the Boer War.”—(T. Lit. Suppl.).

GODFREY, Hal, see CHARLOTTE O’C. ECCLES.

GOODRICH, Samuel Griswold; “Peter Parley.” Born 1793 in Connecticut. Author of 170 volumes, the list of them, with notes, occupying 7½ columns of Allibone, of which 116 appeared under pseud. “Peter Parley.” Seven millions had, according to the Author, been sold at date of Allibone.

— TALES ABOUT IRELAND AND THE IRISH. 16mo. Pp. 300. (London: Berger). [1834]. 1836, 1852, 1856. n.d. c. 1865.

In Ch. I. there is a short account of the physical features, climate, etc., of I. Pages 20-140 give a popular account of Irish history from the English point of view, but on the whole not unfair to Ireland. At p. 150 commences a pleasant little description of a tour round I., with some little account of antiquities seen on the way; also occasional legends and stories connected with places. Illustrated by a number of small nondescript woodcuts of no value. The above work seems to be a portion of the Author’s Tales about Great Britain. First publ. Baltimore, 1834.

GRANT, John O’Brien; “Denis Ignatius Moriarty.” The former of these two names is signed to a dedication in The Wife Hunter, one of the “Tales by the Moriarty Family.” I am not sure that it is not as fictitious as the second.

— THE HUSBAND HUNTER. Three Vols. 1839.

A society novel. Scene: Kerry, c. 1830. There is very little plot, and the matrimonial complications (a Russian prince and a German baron are involved) of the lady who gives to the story its title form by no means the central episode. The conversations are rather artificial and the humour a little insipid. Pleasant portrait of a priest of the old sporting type. Nothing objectionable.

— INNISFOYLE ABBEY. Three Vols. (London). 1840.

A story dealing with the religious question in Ireland, as seen from a Catholic standpoint. It is full of able controversy and shows keen observation. The hero Howard’s Protestant and anti-Irish prejudices are made to give way as the real situation of things is forced in on him. The restoration of Innisfoyle Abbey is one of the main incidents. Some of the incidents are taken from facts, e.g., the Rathcormac tithe massacre. These incidents are related with energy and pathos. But in general the story is of a lighter character, full of broad Irish humour, and placing the sayings and doings of our Orange fellow-countrymen in a point of view as ludicrous as it is horrible. “A rambling, spirited, and racy tale, eccentric and even absurd sometimes, but very original and entertaining.” “This writer is known as the author of several amusing and clever novels.”—(D. R.).

GRAVES, Alfred Perceval. Born in Dublin, 1846, but his family resided in Kerry. Son of late Dr. Graves, Bp. of Limerick. Educated at Windermere Coll. and T.C.D. Was Inspector of Schools from 1875-1910. For eight years Hon. Sec. of Irish Literary Society. Publ. upwards of seventeen books, nearly all on Irish subjects—poems, songs (including the famous “Father O’Flynn”), translations from the Irish, essays. Resides in Wimbledon.

— THE IRISH FAIRY BOOK. (Fisher Unwin). Illustr. by George Denham. 1909. A new ed. at 3s. 6d., with fresh introd., is forthcoming.

A collection of fairy, folk, and hero-tales, nearly all selected from books already published, together with poems by Mangan, Tennyson, Nora Hopper, &c. Also tales from Standish H. O’Grady, Brian O’Looney, Thomas Boyd, Mrs. M’Clintock, Mrs. Ewing, Douglas Hyde, O’Kearney, &c. All are inspired by Gaelic originals. “The book is one to delight children for its simple, direct narratives of wonder and mystery,” while the fairy mythology will interest the student of the early life of man. The illustrations are as fanciful and elusive as the beings whose doings are told in the tales. Mr. Graves’s Preface is a popular review of the origin and character of fairy lore.—(Press Notice).

GREER, James.

— THREE WEE ULSTER LASSIES; or, News from our Irish Cousins. (Cassell), 1s. 6d. Illustr. by old blocks. 1883.

The three lassies are Bessie Strong, the Ulster-Saxon, a landlord’s daughter; Jennie Scott, the Ulster-Scot, a farmer’s daughter; and Nelly Nolan, the Ulster-Kelt, a peasant girl. The Author insists throughout on the vast superiority of the English and Scotch elements of the population—“the grave, grim, hardy, sturdy race.” Interlarded with texts and hymns. In the end Nelly, after an encounter with the priest and stormy interviews with the neighbours, is converted and goes to America. The Author died in Derry in 1913 at an advanced age. He edited a Guide to Londonderry and the Highlands of Donegal, 1885, which went through several editions.

GREER, Tom. Was born at Anahilt, Co. Down, a member of a well known Ulster family. Ed. at Queen’s College, Belfast. M.A. and M.D., Queen’s University, and practised in Cambridge. Unsuccessfully contested North Derry as a Liberal Home Ruler, 1892, and died a few years afterwards. The central idea of this tale was suggested by the old Co. Derry folk tale of Hudy McGuiggen. See HARKIN, Hugh.

— A MODERN DÆDALUS. Pp. 261. (London: Griffith, Farran, &c.). 1885.

The introd. is signed John O’Halloran, Dublin, 30th Feb., 1887! A curious story, told in first person, of a Donegal lad who learned the secret of aerial flight by watching the sea-birds. He flies over to London. Is in the House of Commons for a debate. Parnell is well described. The way Parliament and the Government and the Press dealt with the new invention is cleverly and amusingly told. Jack, the hero, is imprisoned but escapes, and on his return there is a successful rising in Ireland, who establishes her independence by her air fleet. The book is full of politics (Nationalist point of view). An eviction scene in Donegal—“The Battle of Killynure”—is described. Shrewd strokes of satire are aimed at the Tories throughout.

GREGORY, Lady. Daughter of Dudley Persse, D.L., of Roxborough, Co. Galway. She has identified herself with the modern Irish literary movement. Besides the books here noted she has written a great many plays for the Abbey Theatre. Her home is Coole Park, Gort, Co. Galway.

— CUCHULAIN OF MUIRTHEMNE. Pp. 360. (Murray). 6s. Pref. by W. B. Yeats. (N.Y.: Scribner). 2.00. 1902.

The Cuchulain legends woven into an ordered narrative. The translation for the most part is taken from texts already published. Lady Gregory has made her own translation from them, comparing it with translations already published. “I have fused different versions together and condensed many passages, and I have left out many.” The narrative is not told in dialect, but in the idiom of the peasant who speaks in English and thinks in Gaelic. “I have thought it more natural to tell the stories in the manner of thatched houses, where I have heard so many legends of Finn, &c. ... than in the manner of the slated houses where I have not heard them.” The matter also is often such as the peasant Seanchuidhe might choose; the clear epic flow being clogged with garbage of the Jack-the-Giant-killer type. Fiona MacLeod says very well of the style that it is “over cold in its strange sameness of emotion, a little chill with the chill of studious handicraft,” and speaks elsewhere of its “monotonous passionlessness” and its “lack of virility.” Yet to the book as a whole he gives high, if qualified, praise. W. B. Yeats, in his enthusiastic Preface, speaks of it as perhaps the best book that has ever come out of Ireland. All these remarks apply also to the following work.

— GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. Pp. 476. (Murray). 6s. Pref. by W. B. Yeats. (N.Y.: Scribner). 2.00. 1906.

Treats of: Part I. “The Gods” (Tuatha De Danaan, Lugh, The Coming of the Gael, Angus Og, the Dagda, Fate of Children of Lir, &c.); II. “The Fianna” (Finn, Oisin, Diarmuid, and Grania). The Finn Cycle is treated as being wholly legendary.

— A BOOK OF SAINTS AND WONDERS. (Murray). 5s. 1907.

A series of very short (half page or so) and disconnected stories of fragmentary anecdotes. Told in language which is a literal translation from the Irish, and in the manner of illiterate peasants. First, there are stories of the saints, all quite fanciful, of course, and usually devoid of definite meaning. Then there is the Voyage of Maeldune, a strange piece of fantastic imagination often degenerating into extravagance and silliness. The book is not suitable for certain readers owing to naturalistic expressions.

— THE KILTARTAN WONDER-BOOK. Pp. 103. 9 in. + 7. (Maunsel). 3s. 6d. net. Illustr. by Margaret Gregory. Linen cover. 1910.

Sixteen typical folk-tales collected in Kiltartan, a barony in Galway, on the borders of Clare, from the lips of old peasants. “I have not changed a word in these stories as they were told to me.”—(Note at end). But some transpositions of parts have been made. It does not appear whether the stories were told to Lady Gregory in Irish or in English. Nothing unsuited to children. All the tales are distinctly modern in tone if not in origin. The illustrations are quaint and original, with their crude figures vividly coloured in flat tints.

GRIERSON, Elizabeth.

— THE CHILDREN’S BOOK OF CELTIC STORIES. Pp. 324. (Black). 6s. Twelve very good illustrations in colour from drawings by Allan Stewart. 1908.

Sixteen fairy, folk, and hero-tales, partly Irish, partly Scotch, dealing, among other things, with wonderful talking animals that prove to be human beings transformed, adventures of king’s sons amid all kinds of wonders, &c. One is “The Fate of the Children of Lir,” and there are five or six about Fin. There is little or no comicality. The style is simple and refined, free from the usual defects of folk-lore. The book is beautifully and attractively produced.

— THE SCOTTISH FAIRY BOOK. Pp. 384. (Fisher Unwin). 6s. 100 Ill. by M. M. Williams. 1910.

Same series as Mr. A. P. Graves’s Irish Fairy Book, q.v. Illustr. in a similar way. Not all of these tales will be new to Irish children.

GRIERSON, Rev. Robert. Resides at 41 Ormond Road, Rathmines. His two books are long out of print. I have been unable to obtain information about them. They are not in the British Museum Library.

— THE INVASION OF CROMLEIGH: a Story of the Times.

— BALLYGOWNA. (Aberdeen: Moran). 1898.

GRIFFIN, Gerald. Is one of our foremost novelists of the old school. Born 1803, died 1840. Brought up on the banks of the Shannon, twenty-eight miles from Limerick, at twenty he went to London, where all his writing was done. Two years before his death he became a Christian Brother. “He was the first,” says Dr. Sigerson, “to present several of our folk customs, tales, and ancient legends in English prose.” P. J. Kenedy, of New York, publishes an edition of his works in seven volumes, and Messrs. Duffy have an edition in ten vols. at 2s. each.

— HOLLAND TIDE. Pp. 378. (Simpkin & Marshall). 1827.

First series of Tales of the Munster Festivals, q.v. Often published separately.

— THE COLLEGIANS; or, The Colleen Bawn. (Duffy). 2s. [1828]. Still reprinted. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.75. A new ed. forthcoming (Talbot Press). 2s. 6d.

Pronounced the best Irish novel by Aubrey de Vere, Gavan Duffy, and Justin M’Carthy. Its main interest lies in its being a tragedy of human passion. The character of Hardress Cregan, the chief actor, is powerfully and pitilessly analysed. Eily O’Connor is one of the most lovable characters in fiction. Danny Man, with his dog-like fidelity; Myles, the mountainy man, simple yet shrewd; Fighting Poll of the Reeks; Hardress Cregan’s mother, are characters that live in the mind, like the memories of real persons. There are pictures, too, of the life of the day, the drunken, duelling squireen, the respectable middle-class Dalys, the manners and ways of the peasantry, whose quaint, humorous, anecdotal talk is perfectly reproduced, but who are shown merely from without. The scene is laid partly in Limerick and partly in Killarney. Dion Boucicault’s drama “The Colleen Bawn” is founded on this story, which itself is founded on a real murder-trial in which O’Connell defended the prisoner and which Griffin reported for the press.

— CARD-DRAWING, &c. 1829.

Second series of Tales of the Munster Festivals, q.v.

— THE CHRISTIAN PHYSIOLOGIST. Tales illustrative of the Five Senses. Pp. xxvi. + 376. (Bull). 1830.

The tales are:—1. The Kelp Gatherers; 2. The Day of Trial; 3. The Voluptuary Cured; 4. The Self Consumed; and, 5. The Selfish Crotarie. All are clever little stories of ancient and modern Ireland, several of which have been reprinted separately.

— THE INVASION. Very long. (Duffy). 2s. [1832]. Still reprinted. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.75.

Scene: chiefly the territory of the O’Haedha sept on Bantry Bay. The story deals chiefly with the fortunes of the O’Haedhas, but there are many digressions. The innumerable ancient Irish names give the book a forbidding aspect to one unacquainted with the language. The narrative interest is almost wanting, the chief interest being the laborious and careful picture of the life and civilization of the time, the eve of the Danish Invasions. The archæology occasionally lacks accuracy and authority, but these qualities are partly supplied in the notes, which are by Eugene O’Curry. The invasion referred to is an early incursion on the coasts of West Munster by a Danish chief named Gurmund. Some of the characters are finely drawn, e.g., the hero, Elim, and his mother and Duach, the faithful kerne.

— THE RIVALS. 1832.

Third series of Tales of the Munster Festivals, q.v.

— TALES OF THE MUNSTER FESTIVALS. (N.Y.: Pratt). 0.50.

Scene: the wild cliffs and crags of Kerry and West Clare. Theme: the play of passions as wild and terrible as the scenes; yet there are glimpses of peasant home-life and hospitality, and many touches of humour. The tales appeared in three series, 1827, 1829, and 1832. The first (Holland Tide) contained the Aylmers of Ballyaylmer, a story about a family of small gentry on the Kerry coast, with many details of smuggling; The Hand and Word, The Barber of Bantry, with its picture of the Moynahans, a typical middle-class family, like the Dalys in The Collegians, and several shorter tales. The second series contains Card-drawing, The Half-Sir, and Suil Dhuv the Coiner, which deals with the “Palatines” of Limerick. The third series contains The Rivals and Tracy’s Ambition. These are sensational stories. The first has an interesting picture of a hedge-school, the second brings out the people’s sufferings at the hands of “loyalists” and government officials. They contain several instances of seduction and of elopement. Perhaps the best of these is Suil Dhuv the Coiner. The characters of the robbers who compose the coiner’s gang are admirably discriminated, and the passion of remorse in Suil Dhuv is pictured with a power almost equal to that of The Collegians.

— TALES OF MY NEIGHBOURHOOD. Three Vols. (Saunders & Otley). 1835.

Vol. 1 contains The Barber of Bantry. Vol. 2. Three sketches and the dramatic ballad The Nightwalker. Vol. 3. Eight short sketches and the poems Shanid Castle and Orange and Green.

— THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. Pp. 423. (Maxwell). 1842.

A clever historical novel, dealing with this unfortunate nobleman and the battle of Sedgmoor. Two Irish soldiers, Morty and Shemus Delany, supply the comic relief. The fine ballad, The Bridal of Malahide, first appears here, and the song, “A Soldier, A Soldier.”

— TALES OF A JURY ROOM. Pp. 463. (Duffy). 2s. [1842]. Still reprinted.

The scenes of three of these tales are in foreign lands—Poland, the East, France in the days of Bayard. The remaining ten are Irish. Among them are fairy tales, tales of humble life, an episode of Clontarf, a story of the days of Hugh O’Neill, and several, including the Swans of Lir, that deal with pre-Christian times. All are well worth reading, especially “Antrim Jack”—Macalister, who died to save Michael Dwyer.

GRIFFITH, George.

— THE KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE ROSE. Pp. 311. (J. F. Shaw). 3s. 6d. Several good illustr. by Hal Hurst. 1908.

The adventures of three young soldiers, an Englishman (the hero), an Irishman, and a Scotchman, in a Royalist crack regiment. Lively descriptions of fighting before Derry and at the Boyne. Good outline of the campaign but little historical detail or description. Told in pleasant style with plenty of go. For boys.

GRIMSHAW, Beatrice. An Irish Authoress, born in Cloona, Co. Antrim. Hitherto her novels do not deal directly with Ireland, but some of her chief characters are Irish. Thus Hugh Lynch, a Co. Clare man, is the hero of her When the Red Gods Call (Mills & Boon), 1910, and Geo. Scott, a typical Belfastman, plays a prominent part in Guinea Gold (Mills & Boon), 1912. These novels deal with New Guinea life.

GRINDON, Maurice.

— KATHLEEN O’LEOVAN: a Fantasy. Pp. 107. Two illustr. (Simpkin, Marshall). 1896.

Levan, grandson of an O’Leovan who had settled in England, visits the home of his ancestors, Castle Columba, Kilronan, and meets the heroine.

GUINAN, Rev. Joseph. Father Guinan is P.P. of Dromod, in Co. Longford. Before his appointment to an Irish parish he passed five years in Liverpool. This gave him “the fresh eye,” the power to see things which, had he remained in Ireland, he might never have observed. His books deal with two things—the life of the poorest classes in the Midlands and the life of the priests. Of both he has intimate personal knowledge, and for both unbounded admiration. He writes simply and earnestly. To the critic used only to English literature, his work may seem wanting in artistic restraint, for he gives free vein to emotion. But this is more than atoned for by its obvious sincerity.

— SCENES AND SKETCHES IN AN IRISH PARISH; or, Priests and People in Doon. (Gill). 2s. Fourth edition. 1906.

A faithful picture of typical things in Irish life: the Station, the Sunday Mass, the grinding of landlordism, the agrarian crime, the eviction, the emigration-wake. See especially the chapter “Sunday in Doon.” This is the Author’s first novel and is somewhat immature.

— THE SOGGARTH AROON. (Gill & Duffy). 2s. 6d. (N.Y.: Benziger). 1.00. Second edition, 1907. Third, 1908.

Pathetic experiences of a country curate in an out-of-the-way parish, where the people’s faith is strong and their lives supernaturally beautiful. The Soggarth shares the few joys and the many sorrows of their lives.

— THE MOORES OF GLYNN. Pp. 354. (Washbourne). 3s. 6d. (N.Y.: Pratt). 2.00. [1907]. Third edition. 1915.

The fortunes of a family of four children whose mother is a beautiful and lovable character. The book is full of pictures of many phases of Irish life, the relations between landlord and tenant, priests and people, evictions, emigration, a “spoiled priest.” A typical description is the realistic picture of the pig fair. Full of true pathos, with an occasional touch of kindly humour.

— THE ISLAND PARISH. Pp. 331. (Gill). 1908.

The work of an ideal young priest in Ballyvora, a kind of Sleepy Hollow where all is stagnation, poverty, and decay. The picture of these squalid conditions of life is one of photographic and unsparing exactness. Yet with loving insight the Author shows the peasant’s quiet happiness, beauty of soul, and downright holiness of life in the midst of all this. There is no plot, the book is a series of pictures loosely strung together. There is a chapter on Lisdoonvarna.

— DONAL KENNY. (Washbourne). 1910. (N.Y.: Benziger). 1.10.

Donal tells his own story—his mother’s early death, followed by his father’s rapid fall into habits of drink; his own early struggles; his love for Norah Kenny; his search for traces of her real identity; and the happy ending of it all. Displays all the Author’s knowledge of Irish life in sketches of priests and people. Especially good is the character study of the faithful old nurse, Nancy, with her quaint sayings.—(Press Notice).

— THE CURATE OF KILCLOON. Pp. 282. (Gill). 3s. 6d. 1913.

Labours, sorrows, and consolations of a young priest in a very out of the way country parish. He had been very distinguished at Maynooth and seemed thrown away on such a place as Kilcloon, but he finds that there is work there worth his doing—temperance to be promoted, the Gaelic League to be established, industries to be fostered. The story has the same qualities as the Author’s former books, and in fact differs little from them.

GWYNN, Stephen. Born in Donegal, 1864. Eldest son of Rev. John Gwynn of T.C.D. Is a grandson of William Smith O’Brien. Educated St. Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, and Oxford, where he read a very distinguished course. Since 1890 he has published a great deal—literary criticism, translations, Irish topography, journalism, novels, politics. Has been Nationalist M.P. for Galway City since 1906, and is one of the most active members of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

— THE OLD KNOWLEDGE. (Macmillan). 6s. 1901.

A book quite unique in conception. Into the romance are woven fishing episodes and cycling episodes and adventures among flowers. There are exquisite glimpses, too, of Irish home life, and the very spirit of the mists and loughs and mountains of Donegal is called up before the reader. But above all there is the mystic conception of Conroy, the Donegal schoolmaster, whose soul lives with visions, and communes with the spirits of eld, the nature gods of pagan Ireland.

— JOHN MAXWELL’S MARRIAGE. (Macmillan). 6s. 1903.

Scene: chiefly Donegal, c. 1761-1779. A strong and intense story. Interesting not only for its powerful plot, but for the admirably painted background of scenery and manners, and for its studies of character. It depicts in strong colours the tyranny of Protestant colonists and the hate which it produces in the outcast Catholics. One of the main motives of the story is a forced marriage of a peculiarly odious kind. In connexion with this marriage there is one scene in the book that is drawn with a realism which, we think, makes the book unsuitable for certain classes of readers. The hero fights on the American side in the war of Independence, and takes a share in Nationalist schemes at home.

— THE GLADE IN THE FOREST. Pp. 224. (Maunsel). 1s. Cloth. 1907.

Seven short stories, chiefly about Donegal, five of them dealing with peasant life, of which the Author writes with intimate and kindly knowledge. “The Grip of the Land” describes the struggles of a small farmer and the love of his bleak fields that found no counterpart in his eldest boy, who has his heart set on emigration. Compare Bazin’s La Terre qui Meurt. All the stories had previously appeared in such magazines as the Cornhill and Blackwood’s.

— ROBERT EMMET. (Macmillan). 6s. Map of Dublin in 1803. 1909.

An account of the Emmet rising related with scrupulous fidelity to fact and in minute detail. The Author introduces no reflections of his own, leaving the facts to speak. His narrative is graphic and vivid, the style of high literary value. The minor actors in the drama—Quigley, Russell, Hamilton, Dwyer—are carefully drawn. Though he gives a prominent place in the story to Emmet’s romantic love for Sarah Curran, Mr. Gwynn has sought rather to draw a vivid picture of the event by which the young patriot is known to history than to reconstruct his personality.

HALL, E.

— THE BARRYS OF BEIGH. Pp. 394. (M’Glashan & Gill). [1875.]

Scene: banks of Shannon twenty miles below Limerick. Story opens about 1775.

HALL, Mrs. S. C. Born in Dublin, 1800. Brought by her mother (who was of French Huguenot descent) to Wexford in 1806. Here she lived, mixing a good deal with the peasantry, until the age of fifteen, when she was taken away to London, and did not again return to Wexford. Wrote nine novels, and many short stories and sketches. Besides the works noticed here, she and her husband produced between them a very large number of volumes. See his Reminiscences of a Long Life. Two vols. London. 1883. A reviewer in Blackwood’s describes her work as “bright with an animated and warm nationality, apologetic and defensive.” She died in 1881.

— SKETCHES OF IRISH CHARACTER. Pp. 443. (Chatto & Windus). 7s. 6d. With Sixty-one Illustrations by Maclise, Gilbert, Harvey, George Cruikshank, &c. [1829]. 1854 (5th), 1892, &c., &c.

Mrs. Hall intends in these sketches to do for her village of Bannow, in Wexford, what Miss Mitford did for her English village. This district, she says, “possesses to a very remarkable extent all the moral, social, and natural advantages, which are to be found throughout the country.” The author proclaims (cf. Introduction) her intention “so to picture the Irish character as to make it more justly appreciated ... and more respected in England.” She applies to the peasantry the saying “their virtues are their own; but their vices have been forced upon them.” Again she says, “the characters here are all portraits.” Yet it must be confessed that the standpoint is, after all, alien, and something strangely like the traditional stage Irishman appears occasionally in these pages. There is, however, not a shadow of religious bias. The “Rambling Introduction” makes very pleasant reading.

— LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF IRISH LIFE. Three vols. (long). (Colburn). 1838.

In five parts:—1. “The Groves of Blarney” (whole of Vol. I.). 2. “Sketches on Irish Highways during the Autumn of 1834” (whole of Vol. II.). 3. “Illustrations of Irish Pride” (two stories). 4. “The Dispensation.” 5. “Old Granny.” No. 1 “derives its title from an occurrence ... in ... Blarney ... about the year 1812.”—(Pref.). It is a thoroughly good story, telling how Connor in order to win the fair widow Margaret, his early love, takes an oath against drinking, flirting, and faction-fighting for a year, and how a vengeful old tramp woman makes him break it on the very last day. Amusingly satirical portrait of the little Cockney, Peter Swan. Author’s sympathies thoroughly Irish. Contents of Vol. II.:—“The Jaunting Car,” “Beggars,” “Naturals,” “Servants,” “Ruins” [or stories told a propos of them], &c. The dialect is very well done, full of humour and flavour. Characters all drawn from peasant class.

— STORIES OF THE IRISH PEASANTRY. Pp. 302, (close print). (Chambers). [1840]. 1851, &c.

Aims to reconcile landlords and peasantry. To this end tries to show each to what their enmity is due and how they may remedy the evil. The stories are to show the peasantry that their present condition is due to defects in the national character and in the prevailing national habits—chiefly drink, early marriages, laziness, conservatism, superstition. The Authoress has a good grasp of the ways of the people, but her reasoning is peculiar. When a peasant, driven to desperation by a cruel eviction, swears vengeance, this is put down to innate lawlessness, sinfulness, and a murderous disposition. Twenty stories in all, some melodramatic, some pastoral.

— THE WHITEBOY. (Ward, Lock, Routledge). 2s., and 6d. [1845]. Several eds. since. (N.Y.: Pratt). 0.50.

In the height of the Whiteboy disturbances, which are luridly described, a young Englishman comes to Ireland with the intention of uplifting the peasantry and bettering their lot. After some terrible experiences he at length succeeds to a wonderful extent in his benevolent purposes. The book is of a didactic type.—(Krans).

— THE FIGHT OF FAITH: a Story of Ireland. Two Vols. (Chapman & Hall). [1862]. 1869.

Opens at Havre in 1680 with a Huguenot family about to fly from persecution. Their ship is wrecked off the Isle of Wight, where the little girl Pauline is rescued and adopted by an old sea-captain. The scene then changes to Carrickfergus, then held by Schomberg. Geo. Walker is introduced, and the story ends with the battle of the Boyne (the fight of faith). View-point strongly Protestant.

— NELLY NOWLAN, and Other Stories. Popular Tales of Irish Life and Character. Seventh edition, with numerous Illustr. Demy 8vo. (London). 1865.

Contains twenty-five delightful tales of Irish life, with numerous illustrations by Maclise, Franklin, Brooke, Herbert, Harvey, Nichol, and Weigall; “Sweet Lilly O’Brian,” “Mary Ryan’s Daughter,” “The Bannow Postman,” “Father Mike,” and twenty-one other tales. As a graphic delineator of Irish life and character, no other writer has dealt with the subject so delightfully and truly as Mrs. Hall. She wrote many volumes on the subject, of which this is the best.

— TALES OF IRISH LIFE AND CHARACTER. (T. N. Foulis). 5s. With Sixteen Illustr. in colour from the famous Irish paintings of Erskine Nichol, R.S.A. 1909.

HALPINE, Charles Graham; “Private Myles O’Reilly.” Born in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, 1829. Son of Rev. N. J. Halpin (sic). Ed. T.C.D. Took up journalism and went first to London, where he came to know some of the young Irelanders, and thence to America. Became a well-known journalist. Fought through the Civil War. His songs became very well-known throughout the Union. D. 1868. Publ. also a series of prose sketches, Baked Meats of the Funeral, and a vol. of reminiscences.

— MOUNTCASHEL’S BRIGADE; or, The Rescue of Cremona. Pp. 151 (close print). (Dublin: T. D. Sullivan). Fifth ed., 1882.

Episodes in the story of the Irish Brigade in the service of France. The narrative is enlivened with love affairs, duels, and exciting adventures very well told.

— THE PATRIOT BROTHERS; or, The Willows of the Golden Vale. (Dublin). Sixth ed. 1884. One ed., pp. 173 (small print), n.d., was publ. by A. M. Sullivan.

Sub-title: A page from Ireland’s Martyrology. A finely written romance dealing with the fate of the brothers Sheares, executed in 1798. Their story is followed with practically historical exactitude, a thread of romance being woven in. A good account of the politics of the time, especially of the elaborate spy-system then flourishing, is given, but not so as to interfere with the interest of the tale. There are fine descriptions of the scenery of Wicklow, in which the action chiefly takes place, and especially of the Golden Vale between Bray and Delgany.

HAMILTON, Catherine J. Born in Somerset of Irish parents, her father being from Strabane and her mother from Queen’s Co. Ed. chiefly by her father, a vicar of the Ch. of England. At his death, in 1859, removed to Ireland and lived there more than thirty years. Publ. at twenty-five her first story, Hedged with Thorns. Wrote verse for the Argosy and Irish stories for the Graphic; contributed regularly to Weekly Irish Times and Ireland’s Own, including several serials. At present resides in London. Author of Notable Irishwomen (1904), Women Writers, their Works and Ways (1892), &c.

— MARRIAGE BONDS; or, Christian Hazell’s Married Life. Pp. 439. (Ward, Lock). n.d. (1878).

First appeared in The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. An unhappy marriage of a sweet, loving, sensitive nature to a man of a hard, selfish character, who treats his wife with studied neglect and discourtesy. Christian comes from her native English manor house to live with Alick Hazell in an ugly, ill-managed Irish country house, among disagreeable neighbours somewhere on the S.E. coast of Ireland. He hates the people, and is a bad landlord. She has no friend until the arrival of his brother Eustace, whose mother was Irish and who loves Ireland. Almost unawares they fall in love, but E. is a man of honour, and C. is faithful to her husband to the very end. The author is on Ireland’s side, though somewhat apologetically and vaguely. Good picture of bitterly anti-Irish narrow-minded type of minor country gentry.

— THE FLYNNS OF FLYNNVILLE. Pp. 250. (Ward, Lock). 1879.

A story of the sensational kind, founded on the murder of a bank-manager by a constabulary officer called Montgomery, and the subsequent trial, which many years ago excited considerable interest. Scene: S. of Ireland.

— TRUE TO THE CORE: a Romance of ’98. Two Vols. (F. V. White). 1884.

The story of the love of a Kerry peasant girl for the ill-fated John Sheares. The interest is that of plot, history being quite of minor importance, and centres in the scheming of his various enemies to compass the destruction of John Sheares in spite of all the efforts of his guardian angel, Norah Nagle. There is not one really sympathetic character. Sheares is a mere dreamer; Norah is generous and faithful, but lies and “barges” on occasion; almost all the rest, except Norah’s peasant lover, are fools or villains of the blackest sort. Disagreeable picture of the Dublin of the day. The story is told with considerable verve and carries one along. The Author is not at all hostile, but seems unstirred to any feeling of enthusiasm for the cause of Ireland.