Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances, and Folk-loreBrown, Stephen J. M. (Stephen James Meredith)
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Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances, and Folk-lore
Brown, Stephen J. M. (Stephen James Meredith)
English fiction -- Irish authors -- Bibliography; Ireland -- In literature -- Bibliography
Seven stories reprinted from THE IRISH REVIEW and ORPHEUS
(an art periodical). They belong to the literary movement
associated with the Abbey Theatre. They have the weird
imaginativeness and the flavour of the occult and uncanny of
Yeats’s prose stories, together with the vivid word-painting
of “Fiona McLeod.” The Author delights in the portrayal of
primitive and savage passions on the one hand, and on the other
in the suggestion of the wild landscapes, rock-strewn and
mist-shrouded, of Western Donegal (_e.g._, Glencolumbcille, in
“Ancient Dominions”). These stories of pure fancy are strangely
interwoven with settings of extreme realism—drunken tinkers,
peasants, &c. Only here and there have we remarks like the
following (p. 123):—“But those who are intimate with the soul
of the Gaelic peasant know that the God of the Christian is
only one amongst a Pantheon of hidden dominations lovely and
terrible, though the priest at the altar may thunder anathemas
from a fettered intelligence,” &c. The reviewer in the TIMES
LIT. SUPPL. pointed out the real defect of these stories—they
are wanting in heart.
=O’BYRNE, D.=
⸺ THE SISTERS AND GREEN MAGIC. Pp. 76. (_Daniel_). 2_s._ 6_d._ net. 1912.
=O’BYRNE, M. L.=
⸺ THE PALE AND THE SEPTS. Two Vols. (_Gill_). [1876].
The design is to illustrate, in all its cruelty, treachery,
greed, and unscrupulousness, the steady advance of the English
settlement. Yet by no means all the English are painted as
villains. We are shown the forces of government at work at
home in the Castle. Careful portraits of Archbishop Loftus
and the old Earl of Kildare. Descriptions of battle of
Glenmalure, Hungerford’s massacre at Baltinglass, the capture
and recapture of Glenchree, &c., &c. Fine description of
scenery, _e.g._, Gougane Barra. The religious persecutions
are vividly portrayed. Highly praised by the ATHENÆUM. The
original sub-title was “Or, The Baron of Belgard and the Chiefs
of Glenmalure. A Romance of the 16th Century, by Emelobie de
Celtis.”
⸺ LEIXLIP CASTLE. Pp. 649. (_Gill_). [1883]. Others since.
Period: years 1690 _sqq._ Deals with battle of Boyne, flight
of James II., sieges of Limerick and Athlone, the battle of
Aughrim—all fully and vividly described. Standpoint: strongly
national and Catholic. Gives pleasant insight into the
private lives of some Catholic families at the time and their
difficulties with Protestant neighbours. Narrative somewhat
tedious and slow-moving.
⸺ ILL-WON PEERAGES; or, An Unhallowed Union. Pp. 716. (_Gill_). 1884.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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