— THE O’DONNELLS OF GLEN COTTAGE. Pp. 498. (N.Y.: Kenedy). n.d. (1874). Still in print.
Scene: Tipperary during the Famine years. The fortunes of a family in the bad times. Famine and eviction and death wreck its peace, and things are only partially righted after many years. The author, whose view-point is nationalist and Catholic, vividly describes the evils of the time—the terrible sufferings of the Famine, eviction as carried out by a heartless agent, souperism in the person of Rev. Mr. Sly, judicial murder as exemplified by the execution of the M’Cormacks.
— THE O’MAHONY, CHIEF OF THE COMERAGHS. Pp. 268. (N.Y.: Sadlier). 1879.
A tale of Co. Waterford in 1798, written from a strongly Irish and Catholic standpoint. Depicts the tyranny of the Protestant gentry, the savagery of the yeomanry. Typical scenes are introduced, e.g., a flogging at the cart’s tail through the streets of Clonmel, seizures for tithes, the execution of Father Sheehy (an avowed anachronism), &c. Chief historical personages: Sir Judkin Fitzgerald, the “flogging” Sheriff, and Earl Kingston. A vivid picture, though obviously partisan, and marred by some inartistic melodrama.
— ROSE PARNELL, THE FLOWER OF AVONDALE. Pp. 429. (N.Y.: Sadlier). 1883.
A tale of the rebellion of ’98.
— PEGGY THE MILLIONAIRE. (C.T.S. of Ireland: Iona Series). 1s. 1910.
The story of an Irish girl living in “Loughros,” in the West of Ireland, some fifty years ago. She is the third and plain daughter of a disappointed “fine lady,” who has married a country doctor out of pique, and rues her fate for the rest of her life, as she cannot appreciate her husband’s good heart and he cannot give her luxuries and grandeur. To this home Peggy comes from school. And the book tells us, with plenty of good fun in the telling, how she made her fortune and how she scattered happiness and blessings around her.—(Press Notice).
— THE THREE WHISPERS, AND OTHER TALES. Pp. 256. (Dublin: Robertson). c. 1850.
In the title story we have two attempted suicides of parents distraught with grief, the return of a former convict, and an inheritance for the people who were dying with hunger. Dublin is the scene. The next story, “Grace Kennedy,” takes place in the Queen’s Co.: a mother murders her boy, the sister holds the corpse to the fire and “nestles beside him.” In “The Foundling” the mother drowns herself, but some charitable Protestants rescue her child and bring him up in their religion. “Ellen Seaton” tells how Ellen’s father goes off to be a priest and her mother to be a nun, and deals with the efforts made by priests and nuns to get hold of her. Finally she converts her nun jailer and both escape. In some of these stories the Author introduces very vulgar brogue, with coarse expressions.
— THE WEIRD OF “THE SILKEN THOMAS.” Pp. 230. (Aberdeen: Moran). 1900.
The story of how Lord Thomas Fitzgerald was drawn into revolt by the treachery of a private enemy. Purports to be a narrative written at the time by Martyn Baruch Fallon, “scrivener and cripple,” a loyal inhabitant of Maynooth, with some account of the latter’s private affairs. Written in quaint, antique language difficult to follow, especially at the outset of the book. It seems of little value from an historical point of view.
— LANTY RIORDAN’S RED LIGHT.
I am not certain whether this story appeared in book form. It is not in the B. Museum Library.
— BRUCE REYNALL, M.A. Pp. 271. (Elliot Stock). 3s. 6d. 1898.
Author of “Real Pictures of Clerical Life in Ireland,” and of several learned works. A story of an Oxford man who came to Ireland as locum tenens in the most disturbed time, and found life a good deal more exciting than at his English curacy. The Orangemen are very favourably represented. In the preface to the following work the Author says of this, “The Reign of Terror which prevailed in Ireland while the horrors of the Land League were brooding over the land, and a picture of which I have endeavoured to delineate in Bruce Reynall.”
— REAL PICTURES OF CLERICAL LIFE IN IRELAND. Pp. 351. (Elliot Stock). [1875]. 1900.
The first six chapters are autobiographical, the remaining sixty-five are a series of anecdotes and stories in which the Catholic clergy and the doctrines of the Church appear to great disadvantage. The lawlessness and brutality of the peasantry are also much insisted on, and the conversion of Ireland to Protestantism seems to obsess the writer. Some of the incidents related are improbable in the extreme, and it is not clear from the Preface to what extent the Author intended them as narratives of actual fact. At all events they are told in the form of fiction. There are also gruesome reminiscences of agrarian disturbances and of the Fenian outbreak, and a chapter against Home Rule. The Author was born in Dublin in the twenties, of Scottish parents. He went to T.C.D. in 1847. He was long Vicar of Kinsale. He was remarkable as the author of several important works on the Provençal language and literature. He died in 1909.
— THE O’RUDDY. (Methuen). 6s. 1904.
Has been well described as a fairy story for grown-ups, with plenty of humorous incident—love affairs, duels, &c. The O’Ruddy is a reckless, rollicking, lovable character. There is little or no connexion with real life.—(The Academy).
— LISMORE. Three Vols. (London: Newby). 1853.
A rambling and sentimental tale, the scene of which is Southern Ireland (Lismore and Ardmore) and Italy in 1659-60. It is in no sense historical, nor does the Author seem to have any knowledge of the period dealt with. The personages live in “suburbs” and ring the “breakfast-bell.” An amusing ignorance of Catholic matters is evidenced. The plot is confused and without unity.
— HAZEL GRAFTON. Pp. 350. (Long). 6s. 1911.
Hazel leaves Bournemouth and her school days and two rejected suitors—both curates—to live with her adoring parents in the W. of Ireland. She and Denis Martin fall in love, but the course of love does not run smooth. The two are kept apart by their parents, who are intent on other matches. A quarrel completes the breach, but all comes right in the end by help of a divorce and a death. Trips to Dublin and to Bundoran and the performances of a genuine stage-Irishman are introduced to enliven the tale.
— LEGENDARY STORIES OF THE CARLINGFORD LOUGH DISTRICT. Pp. 201, close print. (Newry: Offices of “The Frontier Sentinel”). 1s. 1914.
Thirty-four stories, embodying the legends of a district exceptionally rich in memories of old Gaelic Ireland—Cuchulain and the Red Branch—and also with great Irish-Norman families like the De Courcys and De Burgos. By a writer thoroughly acquainted with the district.
— THE SOUNDLESS TIDE. Pp. 328. (Arnold). 6s. 1911.
Life of country gentry and peasantry in County Down. With the latter the Author is particularly effective, bringing out their characteristics with quiet “pawky” humour. Especially, there is Mrs. M’Killop and her wise saws. But the Colonel and his wife are also very well drawn. There is pathos as well as humour. Noteworthy also are the descriptions of sea-coast scenery, and the story of the fight on the “twalth”—(I.B.L.). It is a simple tale of lover’s misunderstandings. Religious strife is pictured with perhaps undue insistence.
— TINKER’S HOLLOW. Pp. 336. (Arnold). 6s. 1912.
A charming and delicately-told love story, with a background of life among the Presbyterians (both the better class, and the peasantry and servants) near a small town in Co. Antrim. Shows an intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the people that furnishes the characters of the story. The dialect is perfectly reproduced. There is a pleasant picture of the bright and sunny Sally Bruce growing from girlhood into womanhood amid the dull austerity of Coole House, in the society of her two maiden aunts and her bachelor uncle. There are pleasant gleams of Northern humour, not a few gems of rustic philosophy, and vignettes of Antrim scenery. The human interest is, however, strongest of all.
— THE BLIND SIDE OF THE HEART. Pp. 299. (Maunsel). 6s. 1915.
The story of Dick Sandford’s choice between his cousin Betty—English like himself—bright, charming, wholly of this world, and Ethne Blake whom he meets while on a visit to Ireland. The book is really a study, or rather an imaginative presentment of this strange, almost unearthly, figure as typifying the mystic, faery side of the Celtic temperament, and of the background of haunted Irish landscape and peasant fairy-lore, against which she moves. The vital difference in the two temperaments, Celt and Saxon, is suggested throughout. The peasantry of the remote mountain glens are pictured with sympathy and insight.
— A BIRD OF PASSAGE. Pp. 366. (Chatto & Windus). [1886.] New edition. 1903.
A love story, beginning in the Andamans. There is a lively picture of garrison life, including the clever portrait of the “leading lady” (and tyrant), Mrs. Creery. The lovers are separated by the scheming of an unsuccessful rival. The girl first lives a Cinderella life, with disagreeable relations in London, then is a governess, and finally (p. 256) goes to a relation in Ireland. Then there are amusing studies of Irish types—carmen (Larry Flood, with his famous “Finnigan’s mare”), and servants, and a family of broken-down gentry. Things come right in the end.
— IN THE KINGDOM OF KERRY. (Chatto & Windus). 3s. 6d. 1896.
“Seven sketchy little stories of poor folk, written in light and merry style.”—(Baker).
— BEYOND THE PALE. (Chatto & Windus). 3s. 6d. and 6d. (N.Y.: Fenno). 0.50. 1897.
Story of an Irish girl of good family, who is obliged to train horses for a living, but ends successfully. Scene: a hunting county three hours’ journey from Dublin. Much stress is laid on the feudal spirit of the peasantry, who are viewed from the point of view of the upper classes, but sympathetically.
— TERENCE. Pp. 342. (Chatto & Windus). 6s. Six illustr. by Sidney Paget. (N.Y.: Buckles). 1.25. 1899.
Scene: an anglers’ hotel in Waterville, Co. Kerry, and the neighbourhood, which the Author knows and describes well. A tale of love and foolish jealousy. The personages belong to the Protestant upper classes. The chief interest is in the working out of the plot, which is well sustained all through. “Contains comedy of a broad and sometimes vulgar kind, turning on jealousy and scandal.”—(Baker 2).
— JOHANNA. Pp. 315. (Methuen). 1903.
The story of a beautiful but very stupid peasant girl who, forced by a tyrannical stepmother to fly from her home in Kerry, sets off for Dublin. On the way she loses the address of the house she is going to, is snapped up by the keeper of a lodging-house, and there lives as a slavey a life of dreadful drudgery and of suffering from unpleasant boarders.
— A NINE DAYS’ WONDER. Pp. 310. (Methuen). 6s. [1905].
How Mary Foley, brought up for twenty-one years in an Irish cabin, is suddenly claimed as his daughter by an English peer, and becomes Lady Joseline Dene. How she gives Society a sensation by her countrified speech and manners, and by her too truthful and pointed remarks, but carries it by storm in the end, and marries her early love. The writer has a good knowledge of the talk of the lower middle classes. There is no bias in the story, which is a thoroughly pleasant one.
— LISMOYLE: an Experiment in Ireland. Pp. 384. (Hutchinson). 6s. 1914.
The six months’ visit of a young English heiress to the stately, dilapidated mansion of Lismoyle, in the Co. Tipperary, involving a comedy of courtship, many amusing situations, and some description of the small social affairs of the county. No Irish “problem” is touched upon.
The Scenes of some others of her novels are laid partly in Ireland, e.g., TWO MASTERS (Chatto), 1890; and INTERFERENCE (Chatto), 1894.
— LEGENDS OF THE LAKES. [1829]. Illustr. by Maclise.
Killarney. A series of stories, similar to those in the Fairy Legends, of fairies, ghosts, banshees, &c.
— KILLARNEY LEGENDS. Pp. 294. 16mo. (London: Fisher). Some steel engravings (quite fanciful). [1831]. Second edition, 1879.
An abbreviated ed. of Legends of the Lakes. Second ed. was edited by Author’s son, T. F. D. Croker. Topographical Index.
— FAIRY LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. New and complete edition. Illustr. by Maclise & Green. 1882.
First appeared 1825; often republished since. Classified under the headings:—The Shefro; the Cluricaune; the Banshee; the Phooka; Thierna na oge (sic); the Merrow; the Dullahan, &c. “I make no pretension to originality, and avow at once that there is no story in my book which has not been told by half the old women of the district in which the scene is laid. I give them as I found them” (Pref.). This is the first collection of Irish folk-lore apart from the peddler’s chap-books. Dr. Douglas Hyde (Pref. to Beside the Fire) calls this a delightful book, and speaks of Croker’s “light style, his pleasant parallels from classics and foreign literature, and his delightful annotations,” but says that he manipulated for the English market, not only the form, but often the substance, of his stories. Scott praised the book very highly in the notes to the 1830 ed. of the Waverley Novels, as well as in his Demonology and Witchcraft. The original ed. was trans. into German by the Bros. Grimm, 1826, and into French by P. A. Dufour, 1828.
— BARNEY MAHONEY. [1832].
“Has for a hero an Irish peasant, who conceals under a vacant countenance and blundering demeanour shrewdness, quick wit, and, despite a touch of rascality, real kindness of heart.”—(Krans).
— SONS OF THE MILESIANS. Pp. 306. (Eveleigh, Nash). 1906.
Short stories, some Irish, some Highland Scotch, somewhat in the manner of Fiona MacLeod’s beautiful Barbaric Tales. The stories deal with various periods from the time of the Emperor Julian to the present day, and they are vivid pictures of life and manners at these different epochs. The standpoint is thoroughly Gaelic, and there is much pathos and much beauty in the tales.
— THE DAYS OF FIRE. Pp. 114. (Wellby). Artistic cover in white and gold. 1908.
The scene is laid in Ireland in the days of the first Milesians, but does not deal with historical events. Tells of the love of Heremon the King for a beautiful slave. Full of sensuous description in a smooth, dreamy style. Frankly pagan in spirit.
— THE GOLDEN GUARD. Pp. 407. (Allen). 6s. 1912.
“A tale of ‘far off things and battles long ago,’ when King Heremon the Beautiful, who reigned at Tara over Milesian and Phoenician ..., fought with his Golden Guard against the Northern Barbarians. Lady Cromartie gives fire and passion to the shadowy figures, filling her imaginative pages with crowded hours of love and fighting, toil, pleasure, and vigorous life.”—(T. Lit. Suppl.).
— THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS. Pp. 326. (Ward & Locke). 6s. 1902.
A sympathetic study of Ulster Presbyterian life is the background for the romance, ending in tragedy, of a young minister. Besides the occasional dialect (well handled) there is little of Ireland in the book, but the story is told with much skill, and never flags. Bromley, an unbeliever, almost a cynic, but a true man and unselfish to the point of heroism, is a remarkable study. The author has also published The Crack of Doom, The King’s Oak, For England’s Sake, &c.
— ORANGE LILY. Two Vols., afterwards One Vol. (Hurst & Blackett). 1879.
The story of Lily Keag, daughter of a Co. Down Orangeman, who, to the disgust of her social circle, falls in love with her father’s servant boy. The latter goes to America, and thence returns, a wealthy man, to claim Lily. The scenery is well described and the dialect well rendered. A healthy and high-toned novel.
— BLACK ABBEY. Pp. 447. (Sampson, Low). [1880]. 1882.
We are first introduced to a delightful circle, the three children of Black Abbey (somewhere in Co. Down) and those about them, their German governess and Irish nurse and their playmate Bella, born in America, granddaughter of the old Presbyterian minister. The picture of their home-life is pleasant and life-like, with a vein of quiet humour. Then they grow up and things no longer run smoothly. Bella, by her marriage, well-nigh wrecks four lives, including her own, but things seem to be righting themselves as the story closes. The dialect of the Northern servants is very well done. The tone of the book is most wholesome though by no means “goody-goody.”
— DIVIL-MAY-CARE; alias Richard Burke, sometime Adjutant of the Black Northerns. Pp. x. + 306. (F. V. White). 6s. 1899.
A series of humorous and exciting episodes, forming the adventures of an officer home from India on sick leave. Most of them are located in Antrim. No religious or political bias, but a tinge of the stage Irishman.
— THE GOLDEN BOW. (Holden & Hardingham). 6s. c. 1912.
Story of the sorrows and suitors, from her unhappy childhood to a happy engagement, of an Irish girl, who is poor, proud, and pretty. A lovable character is Judith’s crippled sister Melissa. Scene: N. of Ireland. There is a good deal of dialect, and the ways of the peasantry are faithfully depicted.
— KINSMEN’S CLAY. Pp. 389. (Close print). (Methuen). 6s. First and second editions. 1910.
Main theme: wife and lover waiting for invalid and impossible husband to die. The treatment of this theme and that of a minor plot makes the book unsuited for certain classes of readers. Moreover, the tone is alien to religion. God is “perhaps the flowering of men’s ideals under the rain of their tears.” But the tone is not frankly anti-moral. The personages are all of the country Anglo-Irish gentry, except one peasant family, and this shows up badly. The types are drawn with much skill, and there is constant clever analysis of moods and emotions. The story brings out in a vague way the transmission through a family of ancestral peculiarities.
— BRIDGET CONSIDINE. Pp. 347. (Bell). 6s. 1914.
Bridget’s father is the son of a broken-down shopkeeper somewhere beyond the Shannon, but clings to aristocratic notions. She grows up in London along with “Lennie-next-door,” but her mind outgrows his. She goes to stay W. of the Shannon as secretary to a rich lady. There she becomes engaged to Hugh Delmege, a young landowner. All her yearnings seem fulfilled, yet somehow it is not what she had expected; a short separation from Hugh still further opens her eyes, and she returns disillusioned. This is the bare skeleton: it does not do justice to the philosophy and the style of the book, both of which are remarkable.
— DAVID MAXWELL. (Jarrold). 6s. 1902.
’98 from the loyalist standpoint, and adventures in Mexico and South Texas, &c. “David” is “Scotch-Irish.”—(Baker, 2).
— FOR THREE KINGDOMS. Pp. 241. (Elliott Stock). 1909.
“Recollections of Robert Warden, a servant of King James.” By a series of accidents the teller finds himself on board one of the ships that raises the blockade of Derry; he escapes and goes to Dublin, where he has exciting adventures. Tyrconnell is introduced—a very unfavourable portrait; and the hero goes through the Boyne Campaign. Told in lively style, with plenty of incident.
— NEIGHBOURS. Pp. 307. (Unwin). 6s. 1900.
Pictures of very unlovely aspects of life in a small stagnant town. Twenty separate sketches. Wonderfully true to reality and to the petty unpleasant sides of human nature. The gossip of the back lane is faithfully reproduced, though without vulgarity. The stories are told with great skill.
— THE LOST LAND. Pp. 266. (Fisher Unwin). 6s. [1901]. 1907.
“A tale of a Cromwellian Irish town [in Munster]. Being the autobiography of Miss Annita Lombard.” A picture of the pitiful failure of the United Irishmen to raise and inspirit a people turned to mean, timid, and crawling slaves by ages of oppression. Thad Lombard, sacrificing fortune, home, happiness, and at last his life for the Lost Land, is a noble figure. The book is a biting and powerful satire upon various types of anglicized or vulgar or pharisaical Catholicism (the author is a Catholic). The whole is a picture of unrelieved gloom. The style, beautiful, and often poetic, but deepens the sadness. Thad Lombard, a hundred years before the time, pursues the ideals of the Gaelic League. Period: c. 1780-1797.
— TO-DAY IN IRELAND. Three Vols. (London: Knight). 1825.
Four stories:—1. “The Carders.” 2. “Connemara.” 3. “Old and New Light.” 4. “The O’Toole’s Warning.” The scene of 1 is “Rathfinnan,” on Lough Ree, not far from Athlone. It is a very dark picture of the secret societies and of the peasants in general, but an equally merciless picture of certain types of the Ascendancy class, notably a Protestant curate and Papist-hunter named Crosthwaite. The hero Arthur Dillon (a true hero of romance) is a young Catholic student of T.C.D., who narrowly escapes being implicated in the secret societies. He dreams of rebellion, and is nearly caught in the meshes of a villainous-plotting Jesuit. There is a love story, with a happy ending. 2. Is a burlesque story telling how M’Laughlin, a sort of King of Connemara, escaped his debtors in a coffin. Some smuggling episodes. Description of the fair of Ballinasloe, p. 196. Much about wild feudal hospitality and lawlessness. 3. Is a satirical study of Protestant religious life at “Ardenmore,” Co. Louth. “Sir Starcourt Gibbs” seems obviously intended as a portrait of Sir Harcourt Lees, an Evangelical Orange leader in Dublin in the twenties and thirties.
— CONNEMARA OU UMA ELEIÇÃO NA IRLANDA: Romance Irlandez tradusido por C[amillo] A[ureliano] da S[ilva] e S[ousa] (Porto). 1843.
— YESTERDAY IN IRELAND. Three Vols., containing two long stories, viz.: 1. “Corramahon.” Pp. 600. Large loose print.
O’Mahon, an Irish Jacobite soldier of fortune, is the hero. The plot consists mainly of the intertwined love stories of men and women separated by barriers of class, creed, and nationality. Good picture of politics at the time. Hardships of Penal days illustrated (good description of Midnight Mass). Ulick O’More, the Rapparee, is a fine figure. Interest sustained by exciting incidents. Scene laid near town of Carlow.
2. “The Northerns of ’98.” Pp. 367.
Scene: Mid-Antrim. Adventures of various persons in ’98 (Winter and Orde are the chief names). Feelings and sentiments of the times portrayed, especially those of United Irishmen. Battle of Antrim described. Author leans somewhat to National side.
— GERALDINE OF DESMOND; or, Ireland in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Three Vols. (London: Colburn). 1829.
Dedicated to Thomas Moore. A story of the Desmond Rebellion 1580-2, (battle of Monaster-ni-via, the massacre of Smerwick, &c.) with, as personages in the story, the chief historical figures of the time:—the Desmonds and Ormonds, Fr. Allen, S.J., Sanders, Sir Henry Sidney, Sir William Drury, Dr. Dee the Astrologer, Queen Elizabeth herself. The Author has worked into the slight framework of her story an elaborate and careful picture of the times, the fruit, she tells us, of years of study and research. As a result the romance is overlaid and well-nigh smothered with erudition, apart even from the learned notes appended to each volume. The Author is obviously inspired by a great love and enthusiasm for Ireland, and takes the national side thoroughly. The book is ably written, but resembles rather a treatise than a novel.
— THE DEATH FLAG; or, The Irish Buccaneers. Three Vols. (London). 1851.
— THE BROKEN SWORD OF ULSTER: A brief relation of the Events of one of the most stirring and momentous eras in the Annals of Ireland. Crown 8vo. (Hodges & Figgis). 3s. 6d. 1904.
Account of chief events. Not in form of fiction. Tone somewhat anti-national (cf. authorities chiefly relied on). Moral: Ireland’s crowning need is to accept the teaching of St. Paul on charity. This is “the God-provided cure for all her woes.” This Author wrote also In Bonds but Fetterless, 1875.
— MYTHS AND FOLK-LORE OF IRELAND. (Sampson, Low). 9s. Etched frontispiece. 1890.
“Twenty tales” says Douglas Hyde (Pref. to Beside the Fire), “told very well, and with much less cooking and flavouring than his predecessors employed.” The tales were got from Gaelic speakers through an interpreter (Mr. Curtin knowing not a word of Gaelic). Beyond this fact he does not tell us where, from whom, or how he collected the stories. Dr. Hyde says again, “From my own knowledge of Folk-lore, such as it is, I can easily recognise that Mr. Curtin has approached the fountain-head more nearly than any other.”
— HERO TALES OF IRELAND, collected by. Pp. lii. + 558. (Macmillan). 7s. 6d. 1894.
Learned introduction speculates on origin of myths of primitive races. Compares Gaelic myths with those of other races, especially North American Indians. Contends that the characters in the tales are personifications of natural forces and the elements, and that the tales themselves in their earliest form give man’s primitive ideas of the creation, &c. The volume consists of twenty-four folk-lore stories dealing chiefly with heroes of the Gaelic cycles. Not interesting in themselves, and with much sameness in style, matter, and incident. There is some naturalistic coarseness here and there, and the tone in some places is vulgar. The stories were told to the Author by Kerry, Connemara, and Donegal peasants, whose names are given in a note on p. 549.
— TALES OF THE FAIRIES AND OF THE GHOST WORLD. Pp. ix. + 198. (Nutt). 1895.
Preface by Alfred Nutt. This collection supplements the two previous collections. It is collected from oral tradition chiefly in S.-W. Munster. Illustrates the present-day belief of the peasantry in ghosts, fairies, &c. There are thirty tales, many of them new. A good number of them are, of course, grotesque and extravagant. They contain nothing objectionable, but obviously are hardly suitable for children.
— THE IRISH POLICE OFFICER. Pp. vii. + 216. (Ward, Lock). 1861.
Six short stories, reprinted from Dublin University Magazine, entitled “The Identification,” “The Banker of Ballyfree,” “The Reprieve,” “The Two Mullanys,” “M’Cormack’s Grudge,” “How ‘The Chief’ was Robbed.” They deal chiefly with remarkable trials in Ireland. “They are all founded upon facts which occurred within my own personal knowledge; and for the accuracy of which not only I, but others, can vouch.”—(Pref.). Author was Inspector of Police, and published (1869) The History of the R.I.C. and The Trial of Captain Alcohol. Pp. 48. (McGlashan & Gill). 1871.
— RORY OF THE HILLS. Pp. 356. Post 8vo. (Duffy). 2s. [1870]. Still in print.
A faithful and sympathetic picture of the peasant life and manners at the time (early nineteenth century). The Author, a police officer, has drawn on his professional experiences. The tale, founded on fact, is an edifying one despite the unrelieved villainy of Tom Murdock. The influence of religion is felt throughout, especially in the heroic charity of the heroine even towards the murderer of her lover. Peasant speech reproduced to the life.
— CONFESSIONS OF A WHITEFOOT. Pp. 306. (Bentley). (Edited by G. C. H., Esq., B.L.). 1844.
The supposed teller began as a supporter of “law and order,” but the conviction of the abuses of landlordism is forced upon him by experience and observation, and he ends by joining the secret society of the Whitefeet. He makes no secret of the crimes of this body, and many of them are described in the course of the narrative.
— NED RUSHEEN; or, Who Fired the First Shot? Pp. 373. (Burns & Oates. Boston: Donahoe). Four rather mediocre Illus. 1871.
A murder mystery. The hero is wrongly accused, but is acquitted in the end. The real culprit (scapegrace son of the victim, Lord Elmsdale) confesses when dying. The mystery is well kept up to the end. Indeed, the explanation of it is by no means clear, even at the close. The moral purpose is kept prominently before the reader throughout. Tone strongly religious and Catholic, the Protestant religion being more than once compared, to its disadvantage, with the Catholic.
— TIM O’HALLORAN’S CHOICE; or, From Killarney to New York. Pp. 262. (London: Burns). [1877]. 1878.
“This little story gives a strong picture of the heroic faith, sufferings, and native humour of the Irish poor.”—(Press Notice). When Tim is dying a priest and a “Souper” contend for possession of his boy Thade. Tim is faithful to his Church, but after his death the boy is kidnapped by the proselytisers. He escapes, and is sheltered by a good Catholic named O’Grady. Subsequently he finds favour with a rich American, who takes him off to New York.
— A HANDFUL OF DAYS. Pp. 319. (Long). 6s. 1914.
“How John O’Grady left his irritating wife and selfish children to revisit the home of his fathers in I. for a short time; how he met ... Mary O’Connor ...; how he fell in love, and told her so—forgetting to mention the irritating wife, &c.... The picture of the old Irish priest, Mary’s uncle, is the one redeeming feature of a mawkish, unsatisfactory tale.”—(T. Litt. Suppl.). This fairly describes the story. Non-Catholic, but not prejudiced. Scene: Glendalough.
— PEGGY. Pp. 405. (Allen). 1887.
Domestic life in North Antrim previous to, and during, the Rebellion of 1798. “Many of the facts of my little tale were told me in childhood by those, whose recollection of the rising was rendered vivid by desolate homes, loss of relations, &c.”—(Pref.). Eschews historical or political questions. Favourable to “poor deluded peasants.” Thinks little of United Irishmen who are “imbued with the poison of revolutionary principles.” Well and pleasantly written in autobiographical form.
— EVA; or, as the Child, so the Woman. Pp. 107. 16mo. (Richardson). 1s. 1882.
One of a little series of Catholic Tales for the young. A sad little story, full of piety. Scene in Ireland, but the story is not specially Irish in any way.
— SAINTS AND SINNERS. Two Vols. aftds. One Vol. (Duffy). (N.Y.: Pratt). 0.50. 1843, &c.
“The reader who expects in this narrative what is commonly called the plot, or story, of a novel will, we fairly warn him, be disappointed. Our object in becoming the historian of Howard is merely to trace the impressions produced on his mind by the very varied principles and notions with which he came in contact” (beginning of chap. xiii.). The book is, besides, a very satirical study of various types of Ulster Protestantism, and a controversial novel, reference to Scripture and to various Catholic authorities being frequently given in footnotes. The story, a slight one, moves slowly, but the situations have a good deal of humour.
— HUGH TALBOT. Pp. 473. (Duffy). 1846.
“A Tale of the Irish confiscations of the 17th century,” i.e., the reign of James I. Scene varies between England, Ireland, and Scotland. Opens in 1609. Portrait of James I. No other historical personage. Persecution, arrest, and adventures of Father Hugh Talbot. Chief interest lies in the picture of the times, which is carefully drawn. The story, however, is well told, the conversations clever and fairly natural, the character-drawing good. The Author is strongly opposed to religious persecution. The Irish localities are not specified.
— THE GENTLEMAN IN DEBT. Pp. 339. (Cameron & Ferguson). 1s. (N.Y.: Pratt). 1.50. [1848]. 1851, &c.
Adventures of a penniless young gentleman trying to get a position. Depicts (after Lever), first life in Galway, among impecunious, fox-hunting, hard-drinking, duelling squires (Blakes, Bodkins, and O’Carrolls); then the vapid life of Castle aristocracy in the Dublin of the time, with its place-hunting and ignoble time-serving. Incidentally (for the author does not moralise) we have glimpses of the working of the Penal laws. The story is an unexciting one of rather matter-of-fact courtship and of domestic intrigue. There are not a few amusing scenes, nothing objectionable, and little bias. A striking character study is that of the Rev. Julius Blake, who is of the tribe of Pecksniff, but with quite distinctive features.
— THE EXILE OF ERIN; or, the Sorrows of a Bashful Irishman. Two Vols. (Whittaker). 1835.
Early 19th century. Adventures of a villain of the worst type in Ireland, England, and on the Continent. Commits almost every conceivable crime, including bigamy and embezzlement. Acts every part from strolling player to journalist and political partisan. Tells all this in first person. Incidentally the book is a bitter satire on Ireland, Irish priests, Irish politicians. Represents the “O’Connellite rabble” as capable of any outrage and O’Connell himself (under the name of O’Cromwell) as a political adventurer. Author admits not being Irish.
— ADVENTURES OF A BASHFUL IRISHMAN. (London). 1862.
This is a new ed. of The Exile of Erin; or, the Sorrows of a Bashful Irishman.
— THE BECKONING OF THE WAND. Pp. 164. (Sands). 3s. 6d.. Very tastefully bound. 1908. (N.Y.: Benziger). 1.00. Cheap edition, 1s. 6d. 1915.
We are used to having depicted with painful realism all our faults, all the defects of Irish life on the material side. This little book denies none of these, but it shows another side of the Irish character, the deep-rooted, intense Catholic faith, the union with the supernatural, that brightens even the most squalid lives. The anecdotes, which are true, are related with delicate insight by one who knows and loves the people. There is a vivid sketch of a Lough Derg pilgrimage.
— OLD-TIME STORIES OF ERIN. Pp. 215. (Browne & Nolan). 2s. Illustr. by C. A. Mills. 1908.
Sixteen old Gaelic hero legends retold in simple, lucid style for children. Most of them are well known: “The Wise Judgment of Cormac Mac Art;” “The Neck Pin of Queen Macha;” “The Chivalry of Goll Mac Morna,” &c.
— GOOD MEN OF ERIN. (Browne & Nolan). 2s. Six Illustr. 1910.
Stories of a quaint legendary kind connected with nine Irish Saints. Prettily told.
— THE MARRYING OF BRYAN; and Other Stories. Pp. 83. (Sands). 7d. Coloured frontisp. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.50. Second edition. 1911.
Six little tales, slight in theme, but delicately wrought. They are the poetry of real life, mostly Irish peasant life. A moral may be gleaned from each, but there is no irritating insistence on it. One tells how, through his love for birds and his fear of frightening them, a good old P.P. loses his chance of a canonry. Another tells of the beautiful neighbourly charity of the Irish peasant. Four are love stories. They are perfect of their kind.
— SOME IRISH STORIES. Pp. 96. (C.T.S.). 6d. Stiff wrapper. 1912.
Eight little stories similar in character and qualities to Down West, q.v.
— THE LADY OF MYSTERY. Pp. 159. (Duffy). 2s. 1913.
Better class Catholic family life somewhere in the West—O’Malleys, Dillons, Burkes. Two interwoven love-stories, a mystery of identity, and the story of a philanthropic enterprise, the Drinagh Mills. Thoroughly Catholic atmosphere and moral purpose.
— DOWN WEST, and Other Sketches of Irish Life. Pp. 119. (Roehampton: The Catholic Library). 1s. Preface by Sir H. Bellingham. 1914.
Glimpses of real life in Connemara and Aran (described p. 48 sq.), dealing less with outward incidents than with the beauty of the people’s faith, the hardness of their lot, the joys and sorrows of their lives. Told with a very delicate suggestiveness, full of touches of humour and of feeling, without preaching or moralising, by one in thorough sympathy with the people, and alive, too, to all the influences of nature. The dialect is reproduced with great fidelity.
— CHILDREN OF THE GAEL. Pp. 196. (Washbourne). 2s. 6d. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.75. 1911.
Eight little studies—vignettes—of Irish peasant types, evidently drawn direct from real life. They are in narrative form, but in most the incident is slight. They give curiously vivid glimpses of the life of the poor, of which the Author has intimate knowledge. The tone is Catholic and “Gaelic.” The Author avoids phonetic renderings of peasant dialect.
— CONAN THE WONDER WORKER. Pp. 302. (National Society). 3s. 6d. Four or five illustr. (N.Y.: Whittaker). 1902.
Norway, c. 912-3. Conan is a Christian Scot (i.e., Irishman) who is captured by a Viking, and brought to Norway. In time he converts the Viking and his family. A good story for children and even for grown-ups.
— THE SHEPHERD PRIOR; and other Stories for Sunday Evenings. Pp. 252. (National Society). 2s. 6d. Four illustr. by Violet M. Smith. (N.Y.: Whittaker). 1907.
Written for children in a religious vein, with a moral attached. Only one story deals with Ireland, “The Great Handwriting.” In it the conversion of the King’s daughters by St. Patrick is prettily told. Protestant, but not unsuited to Catholic children.
— PEASANT LORE FROM GAELIC IRELAND. Second edition. Pp. 80. (Nutt). 1s. Stiff wrapper. 1901.
Relates to the Donegal Highlands and Connemara, in the latter of which (at Spiddal, I believe) the writer taught Irish. Consists of illustrations of the peasants’ belief in the preternatural world of spirits and fairies and influences, with examples of common superstitious practices. The writer, if he does not share these beliefs, at least is very far from despising them. “The majority of them [the items included] were related to me in the broken English of a Western peasant”—(Introd.). The book is chiefly interesting to folk-lorists.
The same Author’s Tales and Superstitions of the Connaught Peasants. (Nutt), 1s., 1901, is a collection similar to the preceding.
— O’SULLIVAN, DERNIÈRE INSURRECTION DE L’IRLANDE. Pp. 130. (Limoges: Ardant et Thibant). 1874?
Historical introd. very favourable to Ireland. Scene of story: Cork. Relates incidents of ’98, including French expedition. Told by O’S. himself, part of whose adventures take place in Africa. The last page brings him back to Ireland.
— IRISH TOWN AND COUNTRY TALES. Pp. 232. (Sealy, Bryers). 1s. An ugly cover.
Pleasant little tales, some of them humorous, written in a light, breezy style. Many of them deal with love and courtship, and are sentimental enough, but not in the least objectionable.
— THE BRANDONS: a Story of Irish life in England. Pp. 153. (Denver’s Irish Library). 2s. 6d. Paper 1s. 1903.
An Italian carbonaro tragedy that by a strange combination of circumstances comes into a peaceful back water of Liverpool, Homer’s Gardens, and mingles with the lives of its Irish inhabitants. A romantic interest is added by the love of Hugh and Jack Brandon for Rose Aylmer. Jack’s self-sacrifice is rewarded in the end. There are several pleasant Irish characters besides Hugh and Jack—Father MacMahon, genial, generous, and fatherly; Mick Muldowney and his wife, rough customers enough, but always cheery, and willing to share their last crust with anyone in need.
— OLAF THE DANE. Pp. 103. (Sealy, Bryers). 6d. Paper.
Scene: Donegal. Extraordinary story, full of sensational incidents. It turns chiefly on a prophecy made in the ninth century about men then living, which is fulfilled in their descendants of the nineteenth century. One of these latter is endowed with supernatural powers. There are some pretty faithful pictures of the peasantry.
— THE OLD IRISH KNIGHT: a Milesian Tale of the Fifth Century. Pp. 186. (London: Poole & Edwards). 1828.
By the Author of A Whisper to a Newly-married Pair, Parnassian Geography, &c. In spite of an apparent effort to be archæologically correct the book is full of rather absurd anachronisms. There are already in Ireland abbeys with long lines of arches, there is talk of the finest organ in Europe being purchased for one of them, and so on. The story does not hang together. It is merely a string of disjointed incidents, most of them wholly improbable.
— LE BRISEUR DE FERS. Pp. 316. (Paris: Louis-Michaud). 3fr.10. [1908]. New edition, 1911.
Dedication (to Colonel Arthur Lynch), and Preface (telling about the erection of the Humbert Memorial at Ballina). Humbert’s invasion told in impassioned and somewhat high-flown language. Describes some of the episodes with extraordinary vividness. Based mainly on reliable works, but not strictly historical. The Author is a distinguished writer, and very prolific, having produced a long series of novels, volumes of verse, &c. Born 1863 in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne.
— FAITHFUL EVER, and Other Tales. Pp. 280. (Duffy). 2s. 1910.
Eleven stories of Sligo peasant life. The Author has thorough sympathy with the aspects of life about which he writes. Three of the tales are love stories, one is a story of ’67, others are humorous, e.g., “Meehaul M’Cann’s Wooing.” We have a glimpse of the dance, the pattern, rustic courtship, lake and mountain scenery. The Author avoids politics, but the Catholic atmosphere is pronounced, throughout. The literary standard is, perhaps, not of a high order.
— BEFORE THE DAWN IN ERIN. Pp. 308. (Duffy). 2s. [1913]. Second edition. 1914.
A story of landlord, agent, and tenant in the County Sligo, about the eighteen thirties or forties, bringing out what a hostile agent can do to make the lot of the peasants a very hard one, and showing how in the end his machinations are brought to nought thanks to Father Pat. This latter and Father Tom are fine types of Irish priests. The Author has a good eye for characters and a keen sense of humour.
— EARL OR CHIEFTAIN. Pp. 140. (C.T.S. of Ireland). 1s. 1910.
The opening career of Hugh O’Neill looked at on its romantic side, including his marriage with Mabel Bagenal. Other historic characters appear in the tale, notably Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne.
— THE CRESCENT MOON. Pp. 125. (Long). 1s. 6d. 1911.
A little love story, told skilfully enough in letters from Sir Desmond Fitzgerald to his brother in S. Africa.—[T. Lit. Suppl.].
— THE GAELS OF MOONDHARRIG. Pp. 124. (Sealy, Bryers). 6d.
A collection of pleasant, breezy tales of the exploits, especially in hurling, of the young men of Moondharrig (South Kilkenny), showing an intimate knowledge and love of the people of the author’s native place. An unobtrusive spirit of piety runs through it.