=“BIRMINGHAM, George A.”= Rev. James Owen Hannay, M.A., Canon of St. Patrick’s Cathedral (1912). Born 1865, son of Rev. Robert Hannay, vicar of Belfast. Educated at Temple Grove, East Sheen; Haileybury; T.C.D. Curate of Delgany, Co. Wicklow. Rector of Westport, 1892-1913. Has resigned this cure in order to devote himself to literature. Is a member of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland. He has shown himself equally at home in political satire, humorous fiction and historical fiction. He is in sympathy with the ideals of the Gaelic League, and has actively shown this sympathy. He seems on the whole Nationalist in his views, but has nothing in common with the Parliamentary Party. His earlier books showed strong aversion for the Catholic Church, but, except perhaps in _Hyacinth_, he has never striven to represent it in an odious light, and he is an enemy of all intolerance. ⸺ THE SEETHING POT. Pp. 299. (_Arnold_). 6_s._ 1904. Main theme: the apparently hopeless embroilment of politics and ideas in Ireland. Many aspects of Irish questions and conditions of life are dealt with. Many of the characters are types of contemporary Irish life, some are thinly disguised portraits of contemporary Irishmen, _e.g._, Dennis Browne, poet, æsthete, egoist; Desmond O’Hara, journalistic freelance (said to be modelled on Standish O’Grady); Sir Gerald Geoghegan, nationalist landlord; John O’Neill, the Irish leader, who is deserted by his party and ruined by clerical influence; and many others. All this is woven into a romance with a love interest and a good deal of incident. ⸺ HYACINTH. (_Arnold_). 6_s._ 1906. An account, conveyed by means of a slight plot, of contemporary movements and personages in Ireland. Most of these are satirized and even caricatured, especially “Robeen” Convent, by which seemed to be meant Foxford Mills, directed by the Sisters of Charity (see NEW IRELAND REVIEW, March, 1906). A grasping, unscrupulous selfishness is represented to be one of the chief characteristics of the Catholic Church in Ireland. ⸺ THE BAD TIMES. Pp. 312. (_Methuen_). 6_s._ [1907]. New edition, 1_s._ 1914.