Part II

. their daughter, adopted by a saintly English clergyman, learns her parentage on the morrow of her engagement. She releases her betrothed; but a year afterwards marries a charming elderly baronet (the “gentleman” of the story). The first part is rather coarse. The

## book is witty, the plot well worked out, some of the characters

most amusing; the end unexpected. By the same Author: _John Darker_.

=LEFANU, J. Sheridan.= B. in Dublin, 1814. Ed. T.C.D. Contributed largely to DUBL. UNIV. MAGAZINE, of which he became ed. and owner, as well as of the DUBLIN EVENING PACKET and EVENING MAIL. D. 1873. His chief power was in describing scenes of a mysterious or grotesque character, and in the manipulation of the weird and the supernatural.

This Author also wrote _Uncle Silas_, _In a Glass Darkly_, _The Tenants of Malory_, _Willing to Die_, _The Rose and Key_, _The Evil Guest_, _The Room in the Dragon Volant_, _A Chronicle of Golden Friars_, _Checkmate_, _The Watcher_, _Wylder’s Hand_, _All in the Dark_, _Guy Deverel_, _Wyvern Mystery_, &c. Nearly all published by Downey & Co. Messrs. Duffy publ. a set of eight of his novels at 3_s._ 6_d._ each.

⸺ THE COCK AND ANCHOR: A Tale of Old Dublin. Pp. 358. (_Duffy_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1845]. 1909.

A dreadful story of the conspiracy of a number of preternaturally wicked and inhuman villains to ruin a young spendthrift baronet, and to compel his sister to marry one of themselves. The threads of the story are woven with considerable skill. The tale, a gloomy one throughout, reaches its climax in a scene of intense and concentrated excitement. The time is the Viceroyalty of the Earl of Wharton, the story ending in 1710, but, except for the incidental introduction in one scene of Addison, Swift, and the Viceroy himself, the events or personages of the time are not touched upon. There are some slight pictures of the life of the people of the period, but of Ireland there is nothing unless it be the talk of some comic Irish servants.

⸺ THE FORTUNES OF COL. TORLOGH O’BRIEN. Pp. 342. (_Routledge_). 3_s._ 6_d._ Twenty-two Plates by Phiz. [_Anon._: 1847]. Several other eds. 1904.

Reckoned among the three or four best Irish historical novels. Main theme: the efforts of the hero, an officer in the Jacobite army, to regain possession of his estates in Tipperary, which are held by the Williamite, Sir Hugh Willoughby, whose daughter O’Brien loves. There are many minor plots and subordinate issues, among them the unscrupulous and nearly successful conspiracy against Sir Hugh. The history is not the main interest, but there is an account of the causes of Jacobite downfall, descriptions of James’s Court at Dublin, and a fine description of Aughrim. There are excellent pictures of scenery, and some skilful though roughly drawn character sketches. The action closes shortly after the Treaty of Limerick.

⸺ THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCHYARD. (_Duffy_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1863].

“A sensational story with a mystery plot based on a murder. Black Dillon, a sinister and ingenious ruffian, is a grim figure of melodramatic stamp. The setting gives scenes of social life in a colony of officers and their families near Dublin.”—(_Baker_, 2).—Chapelizod.

⸺ THE PURCELL PAPERS. Three Vols. (_Bentley_). 1880.

Short stories collected and ed. by Mr. A. P. Graves, with short memoir of the Author prefixed. For the most part they are either rollicking comic stories, told in broad brogue, or tales of mystery and terror in the vein of this Author’s longer novels. Examples of the former are:—“Billy Malowney’s taste of love and glory” and “The Quare Gander.” These are not meant as “stage-Irish” ridicule, but as pure fun. Examples of the latter type:—“Passages in the Secret History of an Irish Countess” and “A Chapter in the history of a Tyrone family.” There are also pure adventure stories, such as:—“An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain.” All are admirably told. All but one are of Irish interest. They were originally contributed to the DUBLIN UNIV. MAGAZINE.

=LENIHAN, D. M.=

⸺ THE RED SPY: A Story of Land League Days. Pp. 236. (_Duffy_). 3_s._ 6_d._ _n.d._ (in print).

Appears to be largely autobiographical. A story of Land League days, full of incident. The interest chiefly turns on the interplay of plot and counterplot, in which the various parties—the moonlighters, the Castle, and Parnell’s followers—figure. The centre of all the plots is McGowan, the “Red Spy,” a secret service agent of the Castle. The scene shifts from America to Ireland—Dublin, Kildare, the Kerry border (good description), Lisdoonvarna. Types well studied—the genial landlord Col. O’Hara; the sporting squire Sir Thady Monroe; the weak-minded oppressor Sir Richard A⸺; the American journalist, &c. The “Red Spy” in real life was “Red Jim” McDermott.

=LEPPER, J. H.=

⸺ CAPTAIN HARRY. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 6_d._ 1908.

“Tale of Parliamentary Wars, introducing the principal characters who took part on the Royalist and the Parliamentary sides.”

⸺ FRANK MAXWELL. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 6_d._ Paper.

Adventures of an Irish Puritan planter’s son, who by an unlucky series of accidents finds himself on the royalist and Irish side just before the rebellion of 1641. The central incident of the story is the journey of one Hugh O’Donnell to Glasgow, where he meets Charles secretly, and is returning as Viceroy when he is wrecked, and Frank Maxwell along with him, on the coast of Antrim. The Irish are, on the whole, represented as rather bloodthirsty and barbaric, especially “Hugh O’Donnell.” A good “adventure” book.

=LESTER, Edward.=

⸺ THE SIEGE OF BODIKE: A Prophecy of Ireland’s Future. Pp. 140. (LONDON: _Heywood_). 1886.

A political skit written from a strongly Tory standpoint, in which the Author tells us how _he_ would deal with the Irish question. The time is 188-, yet an imaginary Fenian rebellion is described. Kilkenny falls into the hands of the enemy, and a bomb is dropped from a balloon on Bodike, a village in Kilkenny. The whole is wildly improbable, but it is probably meant to be so.

=LETTS, W. M.= A granddaughter of Alexander Ferrier, Esq., of Knockmaroon Park, Co. Dublin, where she spent many summers. She resides in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. Ed. at St. Anne’s, Abbots Bromley, and Alexandra College, Dublin. Has written _Diana Dethroned_, _Christina’s Son_, _The Rough Way_ (Wells, Gardner), short Irish stories for children in the MONTH and other periodicals. She is coming to be very well known as a poet, and has written some plays for the Abbey Theatre.

⸺ THE MIGHTY ARMY. Pp. 128. (_Wells, Gardner_). 5_s._ net. Ill. by Stephen Reid. 1912.

Stories from the lives of saints, including St. Columba.

=LEVER, Charles.= Born (1806) in Dublin, of English parentage; graduated at T.C.D. Wrote much for the NATIONAL MAGAZINE, the D.U. MAGAZINE, BLACKWOOD’S, the CORNHILL, &c. Consul in Spezzia, 1858, and at Trieste, 1867. Here he died in 1872. Is by far the greatest of that group of writers who, by education and sympathies, are identified with the English element in Ireland. He was untouched by the Gaelic spirit, was a Tory in politics, and a Protestant. “His imagination,” says Mr. Krans, “did not enable him to see with the eyes of the Catholic gentry or the peasantry. He knew only one class of peasants well—servants and retainers, and he only knew them on the side they turned out to their masters. Most of his peasants are more than half stage-Irishmen.” He had no sympathy with the religious aspirations of Catholics, and his pictures of their religious life are sometimes offensive. These are his limitations. On the other hand, his books are invariably clean and fresh, free from vulgarity, morbidness, and mere sensationalism. His first four books overflow with animal spirits, reckless gaiety, and fun. It has been well remarked by his biographer, W. J. Fitzpatrick, that his genius was much more French than English. After _Hinton_ he is more serious, more attentive to plot-weaving, and to careful character-drawing. His books give a wonderful series of pictures of Irish life from the days of Grattan’s Parliament to the Famine of 1846. Many of these pictures, though true to certain aspects of Irish life, create a false impression by directing the eye almost exclusively to what is grotesque and whimsical. Lever’s portrait gallery is one of the finest in fiction. It includes the dashing young soldiers of the earlier books; the comic characters, an endless series; diplomatists, doctors, lawyers, politicians, usurers, valetudinarians, aristocrats, typical Irish squires, adventurers, braggarts, spendthrifts, nearly all definite and convincing. See Art, in BLACKWOOD, Apr., 1862, and in DUBL. REV., 1872, Vol. 70, p. 379. Also Edmund Downey’s book, _Charles Lever: his Life and Letters_. Many of Lever’s novels were originally published in shilling monthly parts, with two illustrations by “Phiz” (Hablot K. Browne), and had as great a vogue as those of Dickens. There have been many editions since by _Routledge_ (3_s._ 6_d._) and _Chapman & Hall_ (2_s._), with and without illustrations, but the finest ever issued is:—

⸺ COMPLETE NOVELS. Edited by the Novelist’s Daughter. Thirty-seven Vols. (_Downey_). Publ. £19 18_s._ Cloth. 1897-9.

The only complete and uniform ed. of Lever. Contains all the original steel engravings and etchings by “Phiz” and Cruikshank, and many ill. by Luke Fildes and other artists. Ed. and annotated by means of unpublished memoranda found among Author’s papers. Lever’s prefaces are printed, and bibliographical notes appended to each story.

⸺ HARRY LORREQUER. Pp. 380. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00. [1839].

The first of Lever’s rollicking military novels. The hero is a dashing young English officer, who comes to Cork with his regiment, and there passes through what the Author calls “a mass of incongruous adventures. Such was our life in Cork, dining, drinking, riding steeplechases, pigeon-shooting, and tandem-driving.” The book abounds in humorous incidents, and is packed with good stories and anecdotes. All sorts of Irish characters are introduced. There are sketches of Catholic clerical life in a vein of burlesque. The latter part of the story takes the reader to the Continent (various parts of France and Germany), where we meet Arthur O’Leary, afterwards made the hero of another story. Mr. Baker describes the book well as “very Irish in the stagey sense, very unreal.”

⸺ CHARLES O’MALLEY. Pp. 632, close print. (N.Y.: _Putnam_). 1.00. [1841].

From electioneering, hunting, and duelling with the Galway country gentry, the scene changes to Trinity, where the hero goes in for roistering, larking, and general fast living with the wildest scamps in town. Then he gets a commission in the dragoons, and goes to the Peninsula (p. 147). There he goes through the whole campaign, and ends by viewing Waterloo from the French camp. Throughout, the narrative is enlivened by the raciest and spiciest stories. The native Irish, where they appear, are drawn in broad caricature. “Major Monsoon” was the portrait of a real personage, and so was the tomboy Miss “Baby Blake.” “Mickey Free” is the best known of Lever’s farcical Irish characters.

⸺ JACK HINTON. Pp. 402. (BOSTON: _Little, Brown_). 5.00. [1843].

Adventures of a young English officer who arrives in Ireland during the Viceroyalty of the Duke of Grafton. The hero’s Irish experiences include steeplechasing, fox-hunting, “high life” in Dublin, a glimpse of society life in the Castle, love, duelling, and murder. But Lever wrote the book to show how Irish character and Irish ways differed wholly from English, and he represents Hinton as constantly having his prejudiced English eyes opened with a vengeance. This novel contains some of Lever’s most famous characters: Corny Delaney, Hinton’s body servant; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rooney, parvenu leaders of Dublin society; Father Tom Loftus, Lever’s idea of the jolly Irish priest; Bob Mahon, the devil-may-care impecunious Irish gentleman; most of all Tipperary Joe. “For these,” says the Author (Pref.,) “I had not to call upon imagination.” Tipperary Joe was a real personage. For the last 100 pages the scene shifts to Spain, France, and Italy. Throughout, event succeeds event at reckless speed. There are some scenes of Connaught life, and a fine description of a meeting of “The Monks of the Screw.”

⸺ TOM BURKE OF “OURS.” Pp. 660. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). [1844].

The early scenes (150 pp.) of Tom’s life (told throughout in the first person) take place in Ireland. Lever tells us (Pref.) that he tried to make Tom intensely Irish before launching him into French life. Tom enlists, but in consequence of a quarrel with a fatal ending has to fly the country. He goes to France, then under the First Consul, and joins the army. Military, civil, and political life at Paris is described with wonderful vividness and knowledge. These form a background to the exciting and dramatic adventures and love affairs of the hero. Then there is the Austerlitz campaign fully described; then life at Paris in 1806. Then the campaign of Jena. Finally, we have a description of the last campaign that ended with the abdication at Fontainebleau. The portrait of Napoleon is lifelike and convincing. Lever throws himself thoroughly into his French scenes. A pathetic episode is the love of Minette, the Vivandière, for Tom, and her heroic death at the Bridge of Montereau. Darby the Blast is a character of the class of Mickey Free and Tipperary Joe, yet quite distinct and original. The scene near the close where Darby is in the witness-box is a companion picture to Sam Weller in court, and is one of the best things of its kind in fiction.

⸺ ARTHUR O’LEARY. Pp. 435. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00. [1844].

Rather a collection of stories of adventure than a novel. Lever has worked into it many of his own experiences in Canada, and also at Göttingen. There is a good deal about Student life in Germany. Many stories (of the Napoleonic wars chiefly) are told by the various characters all through the book. Some contemporary critics thought this the best of Lever’s books.

⸺ ST. PATRICK’S EVE. Pp. 203. (_Chapman & Hall_). illustr. by “Phiz.” (N.Y.: _Harper_). [1845].

A short and somewhat gloomy tale of a period that Lever knew well—the pestilence of 1832. Scene: borders of Lough Corrib. The life described is that of the small farmer and the peasant struggling to make ends meet. Faction-fighting is dealt with in the opening of the tale, and the relations between landlord and agent and tenantry, at the period, are described with insight. “When I wrote it, I desired to inculcate the truth that prosperity has as many duties as adversity has sorrows.” It is far the most national of Lever’s stories, and there is a depth of feeling and of sympathy in it that would surprise those acquainted only with _Charles O’Malley_ and _Harry Lorrequer_.

⸺ THE O’DONOGHUE. Pp. 369. (_Routledge_). [1845].

Scene: Glenflesk (between Macroom and Bantry) and Killarney. Period: from just before to just after the French expedition to Bantry. The O’Donoghue, poor and proud, is intended as a type of the decaying Catholic gentry of ancient lineage, living in a feudal, half-barbaric splendour, beset by creditors and bailiffs whom fear of the retainer’s blunderbuss alone kept at a distance. Mark O’Donoghue, proud, gloomy, passionate, filled with hatred of the English invader, wears a frieze coat like the peasants, sells horses, hunts and fishes for a livelihood. He joins the United Irishmen, who are represented as making an ignoble traffic of conspiracy, and takes part in Hoche’s attempted invasion. Other characters are: Kate O’Donoghue, educated abroad; Lanty Lawler, horse-dealer, who supplies plenty of humour; in particular Sir Marmaduke Travers, a well-meaning but self-sufficient Englishman, who, knowing nothing of Ireland, makes ludicrous attempts to better his tenants’ condition. “I was not sorry to show,” says Lever (Pref.), “that any real and effective good to Ireland must have its base in the confidence of the people.” For this book Lever was bitterly accused of Repeal tendencies.

⸺ THE MARTINS OF CRO’ MARTIN. Pp. 625. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1856. [1847].

Scene: chiefly Connemara; the novel opening with a fine picture of the old-time splendours of Ballynahinch Castle, the seat of the “Martins.” For awhile the scene shifts to Paris during the Revolution of 1830. The story illustrates the practical working of the Emancipation Act. Martin is a type of the ease-loving Irish landlord, “shirking the cares of his estates, with an immense self-esteem, narrow, obstinate, weak, without ideas, and with a boundless faith in his own dignity, elegance, and divine right to rule his tenants” (Krans). Rejected by his tenantry at an election he quits the country in disgust, leaving them to the mercies of a Scotch agent. Lever pictures vividly the sufferings of the people both from this evil and from the cholera, drawing for the latter upon his own experiences when ministering to cholera patients in Clare. He says of the people that “no words of his could do justice to the splendid heroism they showed each other in misfortune.” Mary Martin is one of Lever’s most admirable heroines. There is a fine study, also, of a young man of the people, son of a small shopkeeper in Oughterard, who, by his sterling worth, raises himself to the highest positions.

⸺ THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE. (PHILADELPHIA: _Peterson_). 1847.

A close study, based on considerable knowledge, of the ways and means adopted by the English Government to destroy the Irish Parliament. Castlereagh figures in no flattering fashion. Con Heffernan is a type of his unscrupulous tools. The Knight himself is an engaging portrait of a lovable old Irish gentleman, frank, high-spirited, courteous, chivalrous. At first placed in ideal circumstances for the display of all his best qualities, he shows himself no less noble in meeting adversity. Other notable characters are Bagenal Daly (a portrait of Beauchamp Bagenal), the villainous attorney Hickman, and Mr. Dempsey, the story-telling innkeeper. In describing the coasts of Antrim and Derry and the country about Castlebar and Westport, Lever draws upon his own experiences.

⸺ ROLAND CASHEL. Pp. 612. [1850]. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1849.

Opens with wonderfully vivid and picturesque description of life in the Republic of Columbia. A harum-scarum young Irish soldier of fortune almost promises marriage to the daughter of a Columbian adventurer. Then he learns he is heir to a large property in Ireland, and he immediately returns there. In Dublin the daughters of his lawyer, Mr. Kennyfeck, and others try to capture the young heir, but instead he falls in love with a penniless girl. Then there are exciting and romantic adventures. The villain, Tom Linton, with the intention of ruining Roland, introduces him to fast society, nearly implicates him with the young wife of Lord Kilgoff; the Columbian adventurer turns up to claim him; he is charged with murder; but eventually all is well. Lady Kilgoff is an admirably drawn character, as also is the Dean of Drumcondra, a portrait of Archbishop Whately. In the last chapter there is a passage which seems to show how Lever realized that the anglicized society of the Pale is far from being the true Ireland. Incidentally, too, the evils of landlordism are touched upon.

⸺ THE DALTONS; or, Three Roads in Life. Pp. 700. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1852].

The longest and most elaborate of Lever’s novels. Subject: the careers of Peter Dalton, an absentee Irish landlord—needy, feckless, selfish, Micawberish—and his children, on the Continent in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Some of the leading characters are involved in the Austro-Italian campaign of 1848, and in the Tuscan Revolution. There is a study—a flattering one—to Austrian military life, and lively, amusing pictures of Anglo-Italian life in Florence. A noteworthy character is the Irish Abbé d’Esmonde, who towards the close of the book takes

## part in some dramatic incidents during a visit to Ireland,

undertaken in the cause of the Church. There is in the book a good deal about “priest-craft.”

⸺ MAURICE TIERNAY. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.00. [1852].

Adventures of a young Jacobite exile in many lands, 1793-1809. Opens with vivid description of “The Terror.” Later Maurice joins the Army of the Rhine, and then Humbert’s expedition to Ireland. The latter is fully related, and also the capture and death of Wolfe Tone. After some adventures in America, the hero returns to Europe, and is in Genoa during its siege by the Austrians. Taken prisoner by the latter, he escapes and joins Napoleon, of whose Austrian campaign a brilliant description is given. Napoleon and some of his great marshals loom large in the story, and the military life of the period on the Continent is described. But perhaps the best part of the book is the account of Humbert’s invasion of Ireland.

⸺ CON CREGAN. Pp. 496. (PHILADELPHIA: _Peterson_). [1854].

Lever describes his hero as the “Irish Gil Blas.” Born on the borders of Meath, Cregan goes to Dublin, where he has some exciting experiences, ending in his being carried off in the yacht of an eccentric baronet. He is wrecked on an island off the coast of North America. Here he meets a runaway negro slave, Menelaus Crick, one of the most striking characters in the book. There follow experiences (tragic and comic) in Quebec, and afterwards in Texas and Mexico, life in which is described with remarkable vividness and wealth of colour. At last Cregan returns to Ireland, and marries a Spanish lady whom he had met in Mexico.

⸺ SIR JASPER CAREW. Pp. 490. (N.Y.: _Harper_). [1855].

The early part (152 pages) deals with the career of the hero’s father, a wealthy Irish gentleman of Cromwellian stock, who has estates and copper and lead mines in Wicklow. He goes to Paris, allies himself by a secret marriage with the party of the Duke of Orleans, then returns to Ireland, where he kills a Castle official in a duel, receiving himself a mortal wound. His widow is deprived of the property, and left in poverty. She retires to Mayo, with her son, Jaspar. In this part there are elaborate pictures of politics in the early days of the Irish Parliament, and of the wild, extravagant social life of the period. Jasper goes to France, is involved in revolutionary plots, is sent to London as secret agent, and there has interviews with Pitt and Fox. Finally he returns to Ireland to claim his birthright. The story is told in the first person, and Lever intended the narrative to reveal the intimate character of the teller. The

## book is crammed with adventure. It was a favourite with the

Author.

⸺ THE FORTUNES OF GLENCORE. Pp. 395. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1857].

Intended (_see_ Pref.) as an experiment to bear out (or the contrary) his conviction that “any skill I possess lies in the delineation of character and the unravelment of that tangled skein that makes up human motives.” The scene at first is in a castle on the shores of the Killaries, between Mayo and Galway; afterwards it is on the Continent. Lord Glencore is a passionate, proud, soured man, misanthropical and suffering from disease. A scandal connected with his wife has filled him with hatred and bitterness. He determines to disown his son, who, after a terrible scene, runs away from home. The

## book is largely taken up with the adventures in Italy and

elsewhere of Sir Horace Upton, a distinguished diplomatist and a valetudinarian, together with the doings and sayings of his follower, Billy Traynor, formerly poor scholar, hedge-schoolmaster, fiddler, journalist, now unqualified medical practitioner—a strange character drawn from a real personage. Many of the characters are cosmopolitan political intriguers. In the end Lady Glencore’s innocence is established.

⸺ DAVENPORT DUNN. (PHILADELPHIA: _Peterson_). 1859.

The astonishing histories of two adventurers. Dunn is an ambitious, clever man who by shady means lifts himself into a high position as a financier and launches into immense financial schemes. This character was drawn from John Sadlier, Junior Lord of the Treasury, who was the associate of Judge Keogh in “The Pope’s Brass Band,” (so-called) and closed an extraordinary career by committing suicide on Hampstead Heath. Grog David, a blackleg, rivals Dunn in another sphere, his sporting cheats being as vast as the other’s financial swindles. Davis’ high-hearted daughter, Lizzie, is a finely-drawn character.

⸺ ONE OF THEM. Pp. 420. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.50. (1861).

## Scene varies between Florence and the North of Ireland, many of

the incidents described being real experiences of his own gone through in each of these places. Lever having been asked which of his novels he deemed best suited for the stage, replied that if a sensation drama were required, he thought _One of Them_ a good subject. Deals largely with the adventures on the Continent of a queer type of Irish M.P.; but its outstanding character is Quackinboss, a droll specimen of Yankee.

⸺ BARRINGTON. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 0.50. [1862].

A novel of social and domestic life in the middle classes. Scene: a queer little inn, “the Fisherman’s Home,” on the banks of the Nore, Co. Kilkenny. Here the Barringtons live. Among the striking characters are the fire-eating Major M’Cormack; Dr. Dill, an excellent study of a country medical man, and his lively daughter, Polly. The interest largely turns on the disgrace and subsequent vindication of Barrington’s son, George. In this Lever portrays his own son and his career.

⸺ A DAY’S RIDE. Pp. 396. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1863].

The whimsical adventures of Algernon Sydney Potts, only son of a Dublin apothecary. An extravaganza in the vein of _Don Quixote_, and quite unlike Lever’s other works. Potts’s experiences begin in Ireland, but most of them take place on the Continent.

⸺ THE DODD FAMILY ABROAD. Pp. 565. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 0.50. [1863-65.]

Humorous adventures on the Continent of an Anglo-Irish family filled with preposterously false ideas about the manners and customs of the countries they visit. Told in a series of letters in which the chief personages are made the unconscious exponents of their own characters, follies, and foibles, each character being so contrived as to evoke in the most humorous form the peculiarities of all the others. There are many acute reflections on Irish life, especially in the letters of Kenny Dodd to his friend in Bruff (Co. Limerick). Kenny Dodd is a careful and thoughtful character-study. The Author considered Kate Dodd to be the true type of Irishwoman. Biddy Cobb, servant of the Dodds, is one of Lever’s most humorous women characters. Lever held that he had never written anything equal to “The Dodds.”

⸺ LUTTRELL OF ARRAN. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1865].

Opens in Innishmore, Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway. Luttrell, a proud, morbid man of broken fortunes arrives there with his wife, the daughter of an Aran peasant. The latter dies, leaving an only son, Harry. Shortly afterwards Sir Gervais Vyner, a wealthy Englishman, calls at the island in his yacht, and renews acquaintance with Luttrell. Vyner then goes to Donegal, where he meets with and adopts a beautiful peasant girl. The interest turns largely on the success of Vyner’s experiment in making a fine lady out of the girl. She is one of Lever’s most charming heroines. After many vicissitudes she comes to Innishmore. Here she meets Harry, who had returned from an adventurous career at sea, and they are married. Tom O’Rorke, who keeps an inn in a wild part of Donegal, provides a good deal of the humour. His inveterate hatred of everything English, his wit and his audacity (not always commendable), mark him out for special mention. There is also an amusing American skipper.

⸺ TONY BUTLER. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1865].

Scene: partly in North of Ireland, partly on the Continent. Tony gets a post in the diplomatic service, and has many adventures, strange, humorous, or stirring. Diplomatic life (Lever was a British Consul abroad for most of his days) is described with a cunning hand. Some of Tony’s experiences take place during the Garibaldian war. The most striking figure in the book is Major M’Caskey, the noisy, swaggering, impudent soldier of fortune. Skeff Damer, the young diplomat, is also interesting, and Dolly Stewart is a most pleasing study.

⸺ SIR BROOKE FOSBROOKE. [1866]. (_Routledge, &c._). 3_s._ 6_d._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.50.

“Reproduces much of the humour and frolic of his earlier tales, the mess-room scene in the officers’ quarters at Dublin, with which the drama opens, recalling the sprightly comedy of Harry Lorrequer. The vigorous story that follows contains much more serious characterization and portraiture of real life than the earlier books.”—(_Baker_).

⸺ THE BRAMLEIGHS OF BISHOP’S FOLLY. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.50. [1868].

Scene of first portion: North of Ireland, near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry; afterwards Italy. Deals with the experiences of a rich English banker and his family, who come to Ireland, but the central figure is the selfish old peer, Viscount Culduff, a neighbouring landowner, on whose estate coal is found. Much of the novel deals with the exploiting of the Culduff mine. Tom Cutbill, a bluff, vulgar, humorous engineer, who comes to work this mine, provides most of the fun, which is scattered through the story. All the characters are vividly drawn, among others that of a young Irish Protestant clergyman, the only one that appears prominently in Lever’s pages. The mystery that runs through the book is kept veiled with great cleverness to the very end. Finally, the book is packed with witty epigrammatic talk.

⸺ LORD KILGOBBIN. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.00. [1872].

Lever’s last novel. It pictures social and political conditions in Ireland about 1865, the days of the Fenians. The book is marked by almost nationalist sympathies, one of the finest characters being Daniel Donogan, Fenian Head-Centre and Trinity College student, who while “on his keeping” is elected M.P. for King’s County. Matthew Kearney, styled locally Lord Kilgobbin, is a shrewd, good-natured, old-fashioned type of broken-down Catholic gentility, living in an old castle in King’s County. His daughter Kate, is a high-spirited, clever, and amiable girl, but the real heroine is the brilliant Nina Kostalergi, of mixed parentage (the mother Irish, the father a Greek prince and adventurer), who bewitches in turn Fenians, soldiers, politicians, and Viceregal officials. A remarkable creation is Joe Atlee, a kind of Bohemian student of Trinity, cynical, indolent, but miraculously clever and versatile. It teems with witty talk and dramatic situations. Throughout there is food for thought about the affairs of Ireland. Has been illustr. by Luke Fildes (Macmillan). 3_s._ 6_d._

⸺ GERALD FITZGERALD. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.40. [First ed. in book form, 1899].

The hero is a legitimate son of the Young Pretender, offspring of a secret marriage with an Irish lady. Recounts his surprising adventures and his relations with Mirabeau (whose death is powerfully described), the poet Alfieri, Madame Roland, the Pretender himself, whose court at Rome is described, &c., &c. There is little humour, the book being a sober historical or quasi-historical romance. There are some passages offensive to Catholic feeling.

Lever also wrote:—_A Rent in a Cloud_; _That Boy of Norcott’s_; _Paul Goslett’s Confessions_; _Nuts and Nutcrackers_, 1845; _Tales of the Trains_, 1845; _Horace Templeton_, 1848; _Cornelius O’Dowd_, 1873.

=LIPSETT, Caldwell.=

⸺ WHERE THE ATLANTIC MEETS THE LAND. Pp. 268. (_Lane_). 3_s._ 6_d._ net. 1896.

Sixteen stories, many of them artistically constructed, and told with literary grace and finish. The Irish character is viewed from an unsympathetic and, at times, hostile standpoint. Only a few of the stories deal with the peasants or have any special bearing on Irish life. Two or three deal with seduction in rather a light manner.

=LIPSETT, E. R.=

⸺ DIDY. Pp. 301. (_Duckworth_). 6_s._ $1.30. Eight full-page Illustr. by Joseph Damon. 1912.

Published in U.S.A. by the John Lane Co., N.Y., under the title of _The House of a Thousand Welcomes_ (price 1.50), this being the name of a boarding house in New York opened by Mr. and Mrs. Dunleary and their daughter Didy, who have emigrated from Cork. The story is chiefly concerned with the lodgers in this house—the eccentric Dr. O’Dowd, a journalist, and the son of a big landlord in Ireland—all of whom fall in love with Didy. The last named is successful, and he makes the journalist, a Protestant named Healy (the remainder of the personages are Catholics), editor of the principal Irish Unionist paper, which he owns, in order “to make it a message of peace to all Ireland.” The author avoids religious or political bias, and tells a merry, good-humoured story.

=“LISTADO, J. T.”=

⸺ MAURICE RHYNHART. Two Vols. (_Chapman & Hall_). 1871.

“Or, A few passages in the life of an Irish rebel.” The hero, descended from a Williamite soldier, “in every respect the very model of a respectable young Protestant,” is a clerk in Selskar (Wexford) and in love with Miss Rowan, socially much above him. An ardent young Irelander, he joins the local branch and works might and main for the movement. Soon he is “on his keeping,” but escapes to London. There he marries Miss Rowan. After many hardships they go to Australia, where he rises to be Premier and is knighted. Returns, and is made M.P. for Selskar. Reminds one of the career of Sir C. Gavan Duffy. Splendidly told, the interest never flagging. Protestant dissenting tea-parties hit off cleverly. The whole atmosphere of the critical summer of ’48 is reproduced with vividness and fidelity. Dialogue good and characterisation life-like.

=LOCHHEAD, A.=

⸺ SPRIGS OF SHILLELAH. Pp. 158. (DUNDEE: _Leng_). 1907. 6_d._

Sixteen humorous sketches, “founded on fact—more or less,” reprinted from the PEOPLE’S FRIEND.

=LOGAN, J.=

⸺ THE McCLUSKY TWINS. Pp. 112. (_Drane_). 1912. 1_s._

A tale of twin tomboys, who provide gossip for an Ulster countryside. Dialect well handled.—(I.B.L.).

=LOUGH, Desmond.=

⸺ THE BLACK WING. (_“Ireland’s Own” Library_). 6_d._ _n.d._ (1914).

A story of secret societies and of revenge. Scene: Kerry and Corsica. Unconvincing, but unobjectionable.

⸺ RED RAPPAREE. Pp. 179. (_“Ireland’s Own” Library_). 6_d._ _n.d._

Thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes of Cahir Ronayne, who has taken to the road in revenge for his father’s execution. A fair lady is involved, also a dissolute lord, and there are plenty of plots and counter plots, duels and combats.

=LOUGHNAN, Edmond Brenan.=

⸺ THE FOSTER SISTERS. Three Vols. (_Tinsley_). 1871.

Opens in Sligo, near Lough Arrow. Largely concerned with an intricate family history and mysteries of identity. Scene soon shifts to Paris, where many of the personages have gone and where most of the action takes place. The chief interest is a very melodramatic murder in the secret room of the _Chat Noir_, and the subsequent tracing of the crime to the murderer, a typical stage villain. The story is pretty well told, but the conversations are most artificial.

=LOVER, Samuel.= B. in Dublin, 1797. Was not only a novelist but a musician, a painter, and a song-writer (he wrote some 300 songs, and composed the music for most of them). He ed. the DUBLIN NATIONAL MAGAZINE and the SATURDAY MAGAZINE. D. 1868. _See_ “Lives” by J. A. Symington and Bayle Bernard. “Lover,” says Mr. D. J. O’Donoghue, “is first and last an Irish humourist.” Readers should bear this fact in mind. His humour is of the gay, careless, rollicking type. He is sometimes coarse, but never merely dull. He does not caricature the Irish character, for his sympathies were strongly Irish; but wrote to amuse his readers, not to depict Irish life. He was often accused by his friends of exaggerating the virtues of his countrymen, and it may be admitted that he sometimes did so. “The chief defect of his novels,” says Maurice Francis Egan, _q.v._, “is that they were written with an eye on what the English reader would expect the Irish characters to do.”

⸺ RORY O’MORE. Pp. 452. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1837]. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00. 1897.

Introduction and notes by D. J. O’Donoghue, who considers this to be Lover’s best long story. A tale of adventure in 1798, with a slight historical background. National in sentiment, without being unfairly biased. Contains some of Lover’s best humour, especially the endless drollery and whimsicalities of the hero, Rory. Some of the types are very true to life. There are passages of genuine pathos. Tries to prove that the more heinous atrocities in ’98 were due to a few desperadoes.

⸺ HANDY ANDY. Pp. 460. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ Portrait of Lover. [1842]. 1898. Critical Introd. and Notes by D. J. O’Donoghue. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00.

A series of side-splitting misadventures of a comic, blundering Irishman. Does not pretend to be a picture of real Irish life, yet, though exaggerated, it is not without truth. Besides Andy’s adventures there are scenes from the life of the harum-scarum gentry, uproarious dinners, a contested election, practical jokes. The characters include peasants, duellists, hedge-priests, hedge-schoolmasters, beggars, and poteen distillers. There is a good deal of vulgarity.

⸺ TREASURE TROVE; or, He Would be a Gentleman. Pp. 469. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1844]. Many since. (BOSTON: _Little, Brown_). 1.00. 1899.

Critical introduction by D. J. O’Donoghue. Adventures of a somewhat stagey hero, Ned Corkery, with the Irish Brigade in the service of France and of the Young Pretender. Fontenoy, and the ’45 in Scotland, are introduced. The novel, says the editor, can only be called pseudo-historical. The writer had but imperfectly mastered the history, and treats it unconvincingly. The humour is below the author’s usual standard, but the interest is well sustained. It is coarse and vulgar in parts.

⸺ LEGENDS AND STORIES OF IRELAND. Two Vols. Pp. xix. + 240, and xvi + 274. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ each. [1832 and 1834; many editions since]. 1899. (N.Y.: _Sadlier_). 1.50.

Introductions by the Author and by the editor, D. J. O’Donoghue. A miscellany consisting chiefly of humorous stories with regular plots. It contains also some old legends told in comic vein, yarns told by guides and boatmen, and several serious stories. There is nothing to offend Catholic feeling. There is a most sympathetic sketch of a priest and a story about the secret of the confessional that any Catholic might have written. The peasantry are seen only from outside, though the author mixed much among them. They are not caricatured, though chiefly comic types are selected. There is plenty of brogue, faithfully rendered on the whole. The first volume contains a humorous essay on Street Ballads, with specimens. Lover is at his best in uproariously laughable stories such us “The Gridiron” and “Paddy the Sport.”

⸺ FURTHER STORIES OF IRELAND. Pp. 220. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1899. Critical and biographical introduction (pp. xxviii.) by D. J. O’Donoghue.

Chiefly very short, humorous sketches. Some are stories written around various national proverbs.

⸺ IRISH HEIRS: A Novel. Pp. 173. (N.Y.: _Dick & Fitzgerald_). Illustr. 187-.

Mentioned in catal. of N. Y. Library. _Treasure Trove_ bore on original title-page the announcement that it was “the first of a series of accounts of Irish Heirs.”

=LOVER and CROKER.=

⸺ LEGENDS AND TALES OF IRELAND. Pp. 436. (_Simpkin, Marshall_, &c.). _n.d._ Now in print.

Contains:—Lover’s _Legends and Tales of Ireland_ (twenty-four in all), and Croker’s _Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland_. “Croker and Lover,” says W. B. Yeats, “full of the ideas of harum-scarum Irish gentility, saw everything humourized. The impulse of the Irish literature of their time came from a class that did not—mainly for political reasons—take the people seriously, and imagined the country as a humorist’s Arcadia; its passion, its gloom, its tragedy they knew nothing of. What they did was not wholly false; they merely magnified an irresponsible type, found oftenest among boatmen, carmen, and gentlemen’s servants, into the type of a whole nation, and created the Stage-Irishman.”—(Introd. to _Fairy and Folk-tales of the Irish Peasantry_).

=LOWRY, Frank M.=

⸺ THE DUBLIN STATUES “AT HOME”: A New Year’s Tale. 4to. (_Sealy, Bryers_). Illustr. with Seven Cartoons. 1912.

=LOWRY, Mary.=

⸺ THE ENCHANTED PORTAL. Pp. 142. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 6_d._ Paper. _c._ 1910.

Scene: Antrim coast, whose scenery is vividly pictured. A novel of romance, intrigue, and adventure, pleasant and healthy in tone, but fanciful and somewhat unreal.

Author has also written _The Clans of Ireland_, _Old Irish Laws and Customs_, and _The Story of Belfast_.

=“LYALL, Edna”; Ada Ellen Bayley.= Was born and educated at Brighton, and resided there and at Eastbourne. Her first story, _Won by Waiting_, appeared in 1879. Titles of eighteen of her books are to be found in Mudie’s LIST.

⸺ DOREEN. Pp. 490. (_Longmans_). Various prices from 6_d._ to 6_s._ [1894]. 1902.

Doreen, daughter of an old ’48 man and Fenian, and herself an ardent Nationalist, is a professional singer, but helps the Home Rule cause by her singing. The chief interest is a love story, but in the background there is the national struggle and a vivid picture is drawn of the feelings of those engaged on both sides. The author is on the nationalist side, and the most striking figure in the book is Donal Moore, a Nationalist member. The first ed. was dedicated to Gladstone.

=LYNAM, Col. William F.= Belonged to the 5th Royal Lancashire Militia. Lived at Churchtown Ho., Dundrum, 1863-87, and then at Clontarf till his death in 1894. He was a Catholic and a man of much piety. He lived a very retired life.

⸺ MICK McQUAID.

Magazine stories that have never been published in a volume do not come within the scope of this work. But I think an exception must be made in this case. The serial or series of serials centering in the character of Mick McQuaid has made a record in literature. It began in the pages of the SHAMROCK on Jan. 19th, 1867. With short interruptions it has been running ever since in the pages of that periodical, and is running still, though the Author died in 1894. The following are some of the series that appeared:—1. “M. McQ.’s Conversion,” 1867; 2. “M. McQ., the Evangeliser,” 1868-9; 3. “M. McQ. Under Agent,” 52 chapters, 1869-70; 4. “M. McQ., M.D.,” 28 ch., 1872; 5. “M. McQ., M.P.,” 51 ch., 1872-3; 6. “M. McQ., Solicitor,” 43 ch., 1873-4; 7. “M. McQ.’s Spa,” 91 ch., 1876-8; 8. “M. McQ., Alderman,” 61 ch., 1879-80; 9. “M. McQ., Moneylender,” 47 ch., 1880-1; 10. “M. McQ., Gombeen Man,” 48 ch., 1881-2; 11. “M. McQ.’s Story,” 1884; 12. “M. McQ., Workhouse Master,” 1885; 13. “M. McQ., Sub-Sheriff,” pt. 1, 47 ch., 1888-9; 14. “M. McQ., Sub-Sheriff,” pt. 2, 1889; 15. “M. McQ., Stockbroker,” 61 ch., 1889-90; 16. “M. McQ., Removable,” 1890.

The Author himself tired of Mick McQuaid, and tried to put other creations in the field:—“Dan Donovan,” “Corney Cluskey,” “Japhet Screw,” “Sir Timothy Mulligan,” and so on. But after a few chapters the readers invariably demanded “Mick” again, and, if the Author had not new adventures ready, he had to reproduce the already published adventures. More than once editors tried to drop the series, but the circulation which was 60,000 fell at once, and “Mick” had to appear again. Apart from their issue in the SHAMROCK many of “Mick’s” adventures were reproduced in penny numbers, and sold far and wide. After the Author’s death the editors simply reproduced the series over again. Harry Furniss began his artistic career by illustrating _Mick McQuaid_. Besides _Mick McQ._ another humorous series, _Darby Darken, P.L.G._, ran in the IRISH EMERALD.

=LYNCH, E. M.=

⸺ KILBOYLAN BANK; or, Every Man his own Banker. Pp. 240. (_Kegan Paul_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1896.

Father O’Callaghan returning from Italy greatly impressed by what he has seen of the Raffeisen Banking System at work, tries to start a similar system in Kilboylan. The book is the story of his efforts, difficulties, and final success. The local types—landlord, strong farmer, miller, publican, schoolmaster, “pote,” and “chaney merchant” are cleverly hit off, and their conversation rings true. The book is primarily a lesson in economics, but the characters are well brought out, and a little love-story runs through the whole. Miss Lynch also wrote for Sir Charles Gavan Duffy’s “New Irish Library” a story adapted from the French—_A Parish Providence_. It was intended to teach certain economic lessons to Irishmen.

=LYNCH, Hannah.= B. in Dublin. Lived much in Spain, in Greece, and in France, publishing various articles and books about them, notably a book on Toledo and _French Life in Town and Country_. Among her novels are _Prince of the Glades_, _Dr. Vermont’s Fantasy_, _Daughters of Men_, _Jimmy Blake_, _Clare Monroe_. She was associated with Miss Anna Parnell in the Ladies’ Land League in the eighties. When UNITED IRELAND was suppressed she carried the type to Paris, and the paper was issued there. Mrs. Hinkson says of her,[6] “She was one of the few people I have known who eat, drink, and dream books, and not many can have given to literature a more passionate delight and devotion.”

[6] _Reminiscences_, p. 76-7.

⸺ THROUGH TROUBLED WATERS. Pp. 460. (_Ward, Lock_). 1885.

Scene: chiefly Carantrila House, Dunmore (“Cardene”) near Tuam, Co. Galway. Opens with an impending lawsuit about the inheritance of “Cardene.” It is settled by Mrs. St. Leger giving it up to her brother-in-law for a large sum. Henceforth she plots to get it back for her son. In later years he comes on a visit to the place. He falls in love with Nora Dillon, but carries on an innocent flirtation with a peasant girl. He is accused of seduction, the real culprit being Nora’s brother, and denounced from the altar. This latter scene is well done. But the truth comes out, and all is well with Hartley and Nora. The portrait drawn of one of the two priests introduced is rather satirical, but the tone is Catholic throughout.

⸺ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CHILD. Publ. Anon. Pp. 306. (_Blackwood_). 6_s._ 1899.

Clearly genuine autobiography. Begins in little village in Kildare, but at five or six the child is taken to Dublin. Story of an unhappy childhood, for she was treated with great harshness by sisters and mother. Had some friends, however, among them an old gentleman, who believed himself to be Hamlet and O’Donovan Rossa, then a young lad. (_See_ p. 609 in BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE, vol. 164, where the story appeared serially). Her unhappiness was continued at the convent school, near Birmingham, where she was educated. Everything is set down, including a flogging she received and an account of her first confession. A very curious book, very well written.

=LYON, Capt. E. D.= Late 68th Durham Light Infantry.

⸺ IRELAND’S DREAM: a Romance of the Future. Two Vols. (_Sonnenschein_). 1888.

A forecast of Ireland under Home Rule. Contains much about relations of Orangemen and Catholics, the National League, secret societies, emigration, and so on. Represents an Ireland hopelessly “gone to the dogs”—no security for life or property, murder rife, prosperity gone, &c. Written in flippant style, betraying bitter contempt for Irish nationalism.

=LYSAGHT, Mrs.=

⸺ REX SINGLETON; or, The Pathway of Life. (_Wells, Gardner_). 2_s._ Illustr. Third ed., _c._ 1911.

Thoroughly a boy’s book, full of the adventures and pranks of an Irish boy.—(Publ.).

=LYSAGHT, Sidney Royse.= Eldest son of T. R. Lysaght, of Mintinna, Co. Cork. Has published three volumes of verse between 1886 and 1911. Lives in Somerset.

⸺ HER MAJESTY’S REBELS. Pp. 488. (_Macmillan_). 6_s._ 1907.

In a prefatory note the Author tells us that though the career of his hero resembles that of Charles Stewart Parnell, Connor Desmond is not intended as a portrait of Parnell. “There is an historical basis for the structure of the story—not for the persons.” A political novel, written mainly about the course of national life in Ireland, 1875-1891. The central figure most obviously reproduces the career and even the personal characteristics of Parnell, who is well and even sympathetically portrayed. The writer’s view-point is free, on the whole, from party bias. He is convinced that a Royal residence in Ireland would be a sure antidote to seditious tendencies. There is a strong love interest. The Author depicts many scenes of Irish life among various classes. The hero is “involved in flagitious relations with several women.”—(_Baker_, 2).

=LYTTLE, Wesley Guard; “Robin.”= Born, 1844, at Newtownards, Co. Down. Was successively a junior reporter, a school teacher, a lecturer on Dr. Corry’s _Irish Diorama_, a teacher of shorthand, an accountant, an editor. Started, in 1880, THE NORTH DOWN AND BANGOR GAZETTE, a strong Liberal and Home Rule paper. Afterwards owned and edited THE NORTH DOWN HERALD. Died 1896.

⸺ ROBIN’S READINGS. Eight Vols.

Series of humorous stories, poems, and sketches in the dialect of a Co. Down farmer, of which he had a thorough mastery. Some verse as well as prose. The Author gave several thousand recitals in various parts of the three kingdoms. The success of the above books was immediate and remarkable. They have enjoyed great popularity ever since. The character of these readings may be seen from the following titles:—V. I. “Adventures of Paddy McQuillan”—“a simple country fellow”—“his trip tae Glesco”—“his courtships”—“his wee Paddy”—“his twins”—“his tay perty.” V. II. “The adventures of Robin Gordon”—“Peggy and how I courted her”—“Wee Wully”—“the fechtin’ dugs”—“Robin on the ice”—“dipplemassy.” V. III. “Life in Ballycuddy, Co. Down”—“my brither Wully”—“kirk music”—“the General Assembly of 1879” (exciting scenes, Robin’s oration)—“the royal visit to Ireland”—“the Ballycuddy Meinister”—“wee Paddy’s bumps,” &c., &c.

⸺ SONS OF THE SOD: a Tale of County Down. (BANGOR). 1_s._ Paper. 1886.

A racy story dealing with the peasantry of North Down which the Author knew well, and could depict admirably. The tale gives a picture of their merry-makings, courtships, humours, joys, and sorrows—wakes, weddings, evictions, &c., &c.

⸺ BETSY GRAY. Pp. 116. (BANGOR). 1_s._ 3_d._ [1888]. New ed. (BELFAST: _Carswell_). Revised by F. J. Bigger. 1913.

Betsy Gray, the heroine (founded on a real personage) takes

## part in the rebellion, and fights at Ballynahinch. A story of

thrilling interest. Relates events that preceded rebellion, dwelling much on the atrocities of the yeomanry, then describes in full the chief incidents of the rebellion. Introduces Wm. Steele Dickson, William Orr, H. Joy McCracken, Henry Munro, and Mick Maginn—the informer. “The Author has gone over every inch of the ground, and has hunted up old documents and old traditions indefatigably.” In entire sympathy with rebels. There is a good deal of local dialect, and much local colour.

⸺ THE SMUGGLERS OF STRANGFORD LOUGH.

“A melodramatic romance of an old-fashioned type, founded on facts. What with murder, robbery, abduction, smuggling, secret societies, and underground caverns, the reader is carried breathlessly along from start to finish. The local dialect is well conveyed.”—(I.B.L.). The headquarters of the smugglers was Killinchy, and the period of the story the end of the eighteenth century.

⸺ DAFT EDDIE. Pp. 162. (BELFAST: _Carswell_). 6_d._ 1914.

A re-issue of _The Smugglers of Strangford Lough_.

=MACALISTER, R. A. Stewart, M.A., F.S.A.= B. Dublin, 1870. At present Professor of Irish Archæology in the National University. Author of a series of learned works on Palestine exploration, the Philistines, Ecclesiastical Vestments, Irish Epigraphy and Archæology, &c.

⸺ TWO IRISH ARTHURIAN ROMANCES. Pp. ix. + 207. (_Nutt, for Irish Texts Society_). 10_s._ 6_d._ net. 1908.

Text and transl. on opposite pages. Contains two stories:—The Story of the Crop-eared Dog and The Story of Eagle-Boy. They are of the Wonder-voyage type. Arthur plays a secondary part. “The dreamland of _gruagachs_ and monstrous nightmare shapes is here as typically a creation of Irish fancy as in any of the stories of the Finn cycle.”... “Eagle-Boy is a striking story, displaying ... no small constructive ingenuity and literary feeling.”—(_Introd._).

=M’ANALLY, D. R., Jr.=

⸺ IRISH WONDERS. Pp. 218. (_Ward, Lock_). Illustr. (pen and ink), H. R. Heaton. 1888.

“The ghosts, giants, pookas, demons, leprechawns, banshees, fairies, witches, widows, old maids, and other marvels of the Emerald Isle. Popular tales as told by the people. Collected during a recent lengthy visit, in the course of which every county in the Island was traversed from end to end.”—(_Title-page and Pref._). Very broad brogue. Somewhat “Stage-Irish” in tone.

=“MACARTHUR, Alexander”; Mrs. Nicchia=, _née_ =Lily MacArthur=. At present residing in New York.

⸺ IRISH REBELS. Pp. 219. (_Digby, Long_). 3_s._ 6_d._ _n.d._ (1893).

“O’Donoghue,” the hero, a young Catholic T.C.D. student, is deputed by the secret societies to shoot a landlord. He escapes at the time, and has a successful career at the bar, in parliament, and also in love, for he marries the girl of his choice, a daughter of “Judge Kavanagh,” a bitter Orangeman. But years afterwards his crime becomes known to some of his friends, and the discovery kills his wife. The Author is entirely favourable to the national cause. Parnell is mentioned several times. The central figure is not O’D., but “Lowry,” a remarkable portrait, probably drawn from life.

=M’AULIFFE, E. F.=

⸺ GRACE O’DONNELL: A Tale of the 18th Cent. Pp. 220. (CORK: _Guy & Co._). 1891.

Ireland in Penal times, middle of 18th century (Fontenoy, 1745, is introduced). Period fairly well illustrated—sufferings of Catholics, tithe-proctors, hedge-schools, etc. Scene varies between Galway, Madrid, London, Dublin, and Paris. The characters all belong to the better class, and the tone of the story may be described as “genteel”: there is nothing specially national about it. Author wishes to show “how many claims each [Catholic and Protestant] has on the other for love and admiration.” Some poems are included.

=MACCABE, William Bernard.= B. in Dublin, 1801. Was a journalist for the greater part of his life, first in Dublin, then for fifteen years in London, and again in Dublin from 1852-57. Wrote many Catholic works. Died at Donnybrook, 1891.

⸺ AGNES ARNOLD. Three Vols. (LOND.: _Newby_). 1861.

A well constructed plot, with many fine dramatic scenes and much truthful character drawing. Shows the courses by which the people were driven into rebellion in 1798. The Author tells us that much of the materials were gleaned from his conversations in his boyhood with Wm. Putnam MacCabe, one of the insurgent leaders. Scene: Wexford.

=M’CALL, Patrick J.= B. in Dublin, 1861, and ed. at Catholic University School, Leeson Street. Much better known as a poet by his _Irish Noinins_, _Songs of Erin_, _Irish Fireside Songs_, and _Pulse of the Bards_ than as a prose writer. Resides in Patrick Street, Dublin.

⸺ FENIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS. Pp. 132. (DUBLIN: _T. G. O’Donoghue_). [1895].

Twelve evenings of story-telling at a Wexford fireside. The stories are mostly Ossianic legends, but there are a few fairy tales. They purport to be told by a farmer with all the arts of the shanachie—the quaintness, the directness, the pithy sayings, the delightful digressions, and the gay humour. They are, of course, in dialect.

=M’CALLUM, Hugh and John.= Ed. an original collection of the poems of Ossian, Orrann, Ullin, and other bards who flourished in the same age. (_Montrose_). 1816.

=M’CARTHY, Justin.= B. in Cork, 1830, and ed. there. Began there his literary career of over sixty years. In 1853 he went to Liverpool, and thence to London in 1860. From that time till his death in 1912 he lived almost exclusively in England. But he never lost touch with Ireland. For many years he was a Nationalist M.P., and from 1890-96 was Chairman of the Party. His works number over forty, many of them dealing with Ireland—novels, history, biography, reminiscences, &c.

⸺ A FAIR SAXON. Pp. 386. (_Chatto & Windus_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1873]; several since. New ed. about 1907.

Main theme: the love of an English girl for Maurice FitzHugh Tyrone, an Irish M.P., famous in the House as a clever and insuppressible opponent of the Government. Much of the story (a complicated one) is concerned with the efforts of another lover of the Fair Saxon to supplant Tyrone, and also to get him to violate the conditions of a legacy. The latter are (1) that Tyrone shall not marry before forty; (2) that he shall not join the Fenians; (3) that he shall not fight a duel. His efforts meet with a wonderful succession of alternate success and failure. Incidentally we have glimpses of Fenian plotting, the Fenian movement being portrayed with little sympathy. The characters are nearly all insipid or vicious worldlings, drawn in a satirical and sometimes cynical vein. Such is Mrs. Lorn, the rich American widow, of fast life. The heroine, and to a certain extent the hero, are exceptions. The precocious young American, Theodore, is one of the best things in the book.

⸺ MAURICE TYRONE. (_Benziger_). 0.75. The American ed. of _A Fair Saxon_.

⸺ MONONIA. Pp. 383. (_Chatto & Windus_). 6_s._ [1901]. New edition, 1902.

Scene: a large Munster town, presumably Cork. Time: the attempted rising in 1848. The chief interest is the unfolding in action of the various characters. Some of these are strikingly and distinctively portrayed. The treatment of the love element is original, the course of true love being smooth from the start. Here and there are pleasant bits of description. The standpoint is Catholic and nationalist, but without anti-English feeling, several of the principal and most admirable characters being English. A happy love story runs through the book.

=M’CARTHY, Justin Huntley.= S. of preceding. B. 1860. Ed. University College School, London. Began writing 1881. Nationalist M.P. 1884-1892, during which period he was an ardent politician. Publ. _England under Gladstone_ (1884), and in the same year a successful play, “The Candidate.” Then followed _Hours with Great Irishmen_, _Ireland since the Union_, _The Case for Home Rule_, &c., and a number of books, poems, tales, &c., on Oriental subjects. His knowledge of our myth and legend has been described as comprehensive and exhaustive. He has publ. many other novels and plays and volumes of verse. But of late years the theatrical world has claimed him wholly.

⸺ LILY LASS. Pp. 150. (_Chatto & Windus_). 1_s._ 6_d._ 1889.

Picture from nationalist point of view of Young Ireland movement, especially in Cork. Full of sensational incidents, told with much verve.

⸺ THE ILLUSTRIOUS O’HAGAN. (_Hurst & Blackett_). 1905. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.50, &c.

Melodramatic adventures of two cosmopolitan adventurers of Irish origin, in various parts of Europe and, in particular, among the courts of the petty German princes, where very fast living prevails. The picture we are given of these latter is frank enough. The colouring is brilliant, the style bright and swift. Copyrighted for the stage.

⸺ THE O’FLYNN. Pp. 352. (_Hurst & Blackett_). 1_s._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.50. 1910.

O’Flynn is a swashbucklering, swaggering soldier of fortune, who has seen service in the Austrian army. The story tells of the varying fortunes of O’F. and of Lord Sedgemouth in their rivalry for the hand of the Lady Benedetta Mountmichael. Both suitors are in the service of King James, and the scene varies between Dublin Castle and Knockmore, a castle “in the heart of the Wicklow hills.” Full of more or less burlesque plots and stratagems and surprises. Written in a pleasant but reckless and rattling style. Smacks strongly of the stage throughout, indeed it was originally a successful play before appearing in book form. Incidents not historical. _Not for young people._

⸺ THE FAIR IRISH MAID. Pp. 344. (_Mills & Boon_). 6_s._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.30. 1911.

Ireland a few years after the Union; but not political. Mr. McC., in his usual vein of gay romanticism, takes his beautiful maiden from Kerry to London, where in the modish days of the Dandies she is for a time the reigning toast. But she is true to her Kerry lover, whom she finds in London lost and ruined, and whom she rescues and enables to produce his Irish play. Other characters are Lord Cloyne, the Irish ascendancy landlord, Mr. Rubie, the English M.P. who has come to visit and improve Ireland, and an antiquary who wants to buy a round tower and provides many amusing situations.—(_Press notices_).

=M’CARTHY, Michael J. F.= B. Midleton, Co. Cork. Ed. Vincentian Coll., Cork; Midleton College, Cork; T.C.D. After the appearance of _Five Years in Ireland_ in 1901, “has written and spoken against the power exercised by the Roman Catholic Church in politics and in education. Started and conducted Christian Defence Effort in opposition to Home Rule, 1911-14.” Author of _Priests and People in Ireland_, _Rome in Ireland_, &c.—(WHO’S WHO).

⸺ GALLOWGLASS. Pp. 540. (_Simpkin, Marshall_). 6_s._ 1904.

Purports to portray the social and political life of various classes in a typical South of Ireland town (“Gallowglass”). Written in a vein of bitter satire. Peasant, shopkeeper, politician, and especially priest, are held up to unmeasured scorn. Aspersions are cast upon Catholic teachings and practices. Eviction scenes, the workings of a secret society, political meetings, a scene in Parliament, serve the writer for his purpose in various ways.

=M’CHESNEY, Dora.=

⸺ KATHLEEN CLARE. Pp. 286. (_Blackwood_). Six Illustr. by J. A. Shearman. 1895.

Story of Wentworth, Earl of Strafford’s Viceroyalty in Ireland, told in form of diary purporting to be written by a kinswoman of Strafford’s, who sees him in his home life and acquires extraordinary love and reverence for him. The tale of his execution is pathetically told. Quaint Elizabethan English. Pretty Elizabethan love-songs interspersed.

=M’CLINTOCK, Letitia.=

⸺ A BOYCOTTED HOUSEHOLD. Pp. 319. (_Smith, Elder_). 1881.

Period, _c._ 1880. Mr. Hamilton is a model as a man and landlord. His family is in very reduced circumstances owing to “No-Rent Campaign.” Then we have various incidents of the land war—threatening letters, burning of hay, and finally the eldest son is brutally murdered by tenants on whom favours had been heaped. The beautiful home life, sympathetic love affairs, &c., of the Hamiltons are dwelt upon as pointing the contrast with the wickedness of the League and the meaningless ingratitude of the peasantry. Sympathies of Author wholly with landlords. The Hamilton boys were all educated at Rugby, and the general outlook of the family is English. Scene: King’s Co. and Donegal alternately.

=M’CLINTOCK, Major H. S.=

⸺ RANDOM STORIES; chiefly Irish. Pp. 147. (BELFAST: _Marcus Ward_). Illustr. _n.d._ _c._ 1885.

A collection of unobjectionable smoke-room yarns, more or less original, and more or less humorous. Illustr. somewhat crude.

=M’CRAITH, L. M.= Mrs. L. M. M’Craith Blakeney, of Loughloher, Cahir, Co. Tipperary. B. 1870. Ed. in Ireland and at Cheltenham. Has written also _The Suir from its Source to the Sea_, _The Romance of Irish Heroines_, _The Romance of Irish Heroes_, &c. In these and other writings her aim has been to popularise Irish local history and antiquities in the hopes of fostering a love of country, especially in the young.

⸺ A GREEN TREE. Pp. 221. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1908.

A pleasant family story with a sympathetically, though somewhat dimly-sketched, Irish background. All through there is the contrast between English and Irish ideals. One or two peculiar Irish types are well drawn.

=MACDERMOTT, S.=

⸺ LEIGH OF LARA: a Novel of Co. Wicklow. (_Gill?_). 1_s._ 6_d._

A slight but pleasant tale, told in straightforward manner, without character-study, scene-painting, problems, or politics. Deals with the false and misunderstood position of a man who has been entrusted with the charge of his sister-in-law, while his brother is abroad “on his keeping,” and the complications that arise from this position.

=MACDERMOTT, W. R.=

⸺ FOUGHILOTRA: A Forbye Story. Pp. 326. (_Sealy, Bryers_). _c._ 1906.

Sub-t.:—A memorial of the Ulster handloom weavers. A sociological study, in form of novel, of the history and development of a family. Scene: shore of Lough Neagh. Time: present day, though the family history goes back two hundred years. The forceful and pungent dialect in which it is written is quite natural and true to life. An unusual and noteworthy book—interesting alike for its plot, its clever character-study and the thoughtfulness that pervades it. Has considerable humour, and nothing in the least objectionable. This author also has published, under the pen name of “A. P. O’Gara,” _The Green Republic_.

=MACDONAGH, Michael.= B. Limerick, 1862. Ed. Christian Bros.’ Schools. At twenty-two joined the staff of FREEMAN’S JOURNAL. From 1894 to the present has been on staff of TIMES, and he lives in London. His father, Michael O’Doherty MacDonagh, was a Donegal man, a printer and poet. Has been writing about Ireland all his life in an immense variety of periodicals, and has published about a dozen books, many of them relating to Parliament, of great historic value.

⸺ IRISH LIFE AND CHARACTER. Pp. 382. (_Hodder & Stoughton_). 6_s._ Many editions, the 5th being in 1905.

Object: “To give a clear, full, and faithful picture of Irish life and character, illustrated by anecdotes and by my own experience during a twelve years’ connexion with Irish journalism.” “I have admitted into my collection only anecdotes that are truly genuine, really humorous, and certainly characteristic of the Irish people.” “The face of Ireland as seen in these pages is always puckered with a smile.”—(_Pref._). May be described as anecdotes, chiefly comic, classified and accompanied by a running commentary. Chapters: The Old Irish Squire; Duelling; Faction Fighting; Some Delusions about Ireland (_e.g._, “Stage-Irishman”); Bulls; In the Law Courts; “Agin the Government”; Irish Repartee and Sarcasm; Love-making in Ireland (its matter-of-factness, &c.); Humours of Politics In and Out of Parliament; The Ulster Irishman; The Jarvey; The Beggar; Sunniness of Irish Life, &c. It is to be observed that the laugh is often against the Irish throughout, and perhaps our national failings are rather more prominent here than our national virtues, the serious side of Irish life being scarcely touched on at all.

=M’DONNELL, Randal William.= B. in Dublin, 1870. Son of Randal M’Donnell, Q.C. Ed. Armagh Royal School. B.A., T.C.D. Was for a time assistant librarian in Marsh’s Library, and now a L.G.B. inspector. Has published also three volumes of verse.

⸺ KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN. Pp. 270. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 2_s._ Frontisp. 1898.

Pictures first the causes and events that led to the rebellion, Tone’s visit to America, his schemes, the French invasion. Then vivid description of the outbreak in Wicklow, the fight at Tubberneering, the battle of New Ross, the capture and death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.

⸺ WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA. Pp. 147. (_Gill_). 2_s._ 6_d._ Map of Drogheda and map of Ireland in time of Cromwell. (N.Y.: _Benziger_). 0.90. 1906.

“Edited from the record of Clarence Stranger,” an officer in the army of Owen Roe O’Neill. Covers principal events from Cromwell’s landing to the Plantation, including defence of Clonmel.

⸺ MY SWORD FOR PATRICK SARSFIELD. Pp. 201. (_Gill_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1907.

Adventures of Phelim O’Hara (character well drawn), a colonel in Sarsfield’s horse, who witnesses siege of Derry, battle of the Boyne, two sieges of Limerick. Much history, varied by startling adventures.

⸺ ARDNAREE. Pp. 227. (_Gill_). 1911.

“The story of an English girl in Connaught, told by herself.” Mainly a record of social life (tea-parties, military balls, &c.), with a good deal of fairly mild love-making. The ’98 insurrection (landing of French at Killala, &c.) forms a kind of background but is little spoken of. The Author hits off cleverly enough the outlook and language of a narrator such as the heroine.

=MACDOUGALL, Rev. J.=

⸺ CRAIGNISH TALES, collected by. Notes on the War Dress of the Celts by Lord A. Campbell. Pp. xvi. + 98. (_Nutt_). 5_s._ 20 plates. 1889.

⸺ FOLK AND HERO TALES. Pp. xxx. + 311. Demy 8vo. (_Nutt_). 7_s._ 6_d._ net. Three Illustr. by E. Griset. 1891.

Introduction by A. Nutt deals with aims of study of folk-lore, and various theories of the origin of this latter, and the value of Celtic folk-lore.

Ten tales collected in district of Duror (Argyllshire) between Summer of 1889 and Spring of 1890, obtained from a labouring man named Cameron, who had them in his boyhood from Donald MacPhie and others. As folk-lore they are thoroughly reliable and genuine, the Gaelic text given after each story being written at the narrator’s dictation with painstaking accuracy. The stories are typical folk-tales—a string of marvellous adventures of some hero with giants and enchanted castles and witches, &c., &c.—often grotesque and extravagant and devoid of moral or other significance beyond the mere narrative.... Free from coarseness. Finn is the hero in several of these tales. Good Index. 50 pp. of Notes, devoted chiefly to variant versions of the tales, explanations of terms and comparisons with other tales.

=M’DOWELL, Lalla.=

⸺ THE EARL OF EFFINGHAM. Pp. 280. (_Tinsley_). 1877.

Time: the forties, in Ballyquin, Co. Galway. It is a kind of appeal in story form to the Irish landlords to stay at home and “right Ireland’s wrongs.” The good points in the Irish character are well brought out, the brogue is well reproduced, and there is much humour. There are some glimpses of Dublin society. The bias is somewhat Protestant.

=“MACEIRE, Fergus.”=

⸺ THE SONS OF EIRE. Three vols. (LOND.: _Newby_). 1872.

Author styles himself “The last of the Sons of Eire,” an old broken-down Irish family living in Hampshire (Vol. II. brings them back to Ireland). A long autobiography, with a multitude of rather trifling incidents, much conversation, and a good deal of moralising. The portrait of the writer’s mother is interesting and curious. The Author seems Catholic and Irish in sympathies. In the end the teller marries the betrothed of his brother Brian, the real hero, who has been killed in a skating accident.

=MACGILL, Patrick.= “The Navvy Poet.” B. Glenties, Co. Donegal, 1891. Ed. at National school until he was twelve. At fourteen began to write verse for the DERRY JOURNAL. Soon after set out for Greenock with 10_s._ in his pocket. “Since then I have done all sorts of things, digging, draining, farming, and navvying.” In 1912 was a plate-layer on the Caledonian Railway.—(I.B.L., III., p. 71). His poems are _Songs of a Navvy_, _Gleanings from a Navvy’s Scrap Book_, and _Songs of the Dead End_. Is now a soldier in the London Irish Rifles, and has written a good account of military life in _The Amateur Army_. A series of sketches from the firing line, entitled _The Red Horizon_, is in preparation.

⸺ CHILDREN OF THE DEAD END. Pp. 305. (_Herbert Jenkins_). 6_s._ 1914.

“Most of my story is autobiographical.”—(_Foreword_). It opens in the Glenties with a faithful picture of the people and their hard life. The scene then shifts to Scotland and depicts the toils and temptations that beset the men, and especially the girls, in their sordid and insanitary surroundings. The hero goes on tramp with “Moleskin Joe,” a philosophic vagabond, finely described; and the shifts they are put to and the scenes they come through all bear the mark of truth, as does the wild life led by the navvies at Kinlochleven. The description of these scenes in a London newspaper led to his employment on the press. The hero’s love for Norah Ryan is purely and touchingly delineated, and, save for one unhappy gibe at the P.P., the

## book is unobjectionable.

⸺ THE RAT PIT. Pp. 308. (_Jenkins_). 1915.

The story of Norah Ryan, the heroine of _The Children of the Dead End_, from her childhood in Western Donegal to her death, a woman of the streets, in a Glasgow slum. A heartrending story from start to finish, with scarcely a gleam of cheer. The Author has exceptional powers of observation and gifts of description, and the book is extraordinarily realistic. But the realism and the sombreness being exclusive, the effect is exaggerated even to falseness. Farley McKeown is impossibly villainous, the picture of the wake revolting because undiscerning, Norah’s innocence overdrawn. Yet on the whole the Author’s claim that it is a transcript from life, life seen and lived by him, is doubtless well sustained. There are several needless sneers at the priests, _e.g._, p. 286, which is wantonly unpleasant. The Author is not prurient, but he describes plainly and vividly scenes in Glasgow brothels. Good picture of the conditions of life of the Irish migratory labourers.

=[M’GOVERN, Rev. J. B.]; “J. B. S.”= Of St. Stephen’s Rectory, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. An enthusiast for Irish archæology and a frequent contributor on his favourite subject to N. & Q., CORK ARCHAEOL. JOURNAL, the ANTIQUARY, &c.

⸺ IMELDA, or Retribution: a Romance of Kilkee. (_Tinsley_). 7_s._ 6_d._ 1883.

Scene: varies between Kilkee and Meenahela on the one hand and Italy on the other. The story is concerned with the faithlessness of Imelda Lestrange, an Irish girl, to her affianced Florentine lover, Gasper Bicchieri, whom she had met at Kilkee, and the Nemesis that befalls her in the faithlessness of her new lover—and husband—Monckton, who deserts her for his cousin, Teresa Dempsey. Most of this happens at Kilkee. The end is tragedy. Forty years later Gasper returns to Kilkee to brood in the scene of the catastrophe of his life. There is little or no characterisation or study of motive. The story opens in 1829.

=M’HENRY, James, M.D.= B. Larne, Co. Antrim, 1785. Ed. Dublin and Glasgow. Lived 1817-1842 in U.S.A. From 1842 till his death in 1845 he was U.S. consul at Derry. Publ. several volumes of verse (Mr. O’Donoghue enumerates nine) and several novels besides those mentioned below.

⸺ THE INSURGENT CHIEF. Pp. 128, very close print. (_Gill_). Bound up with HEARTS OF STEEL. _n.d._

Adventures of a young loyalist during the rebellion in the North, pleasantly told, but with improbabilities and a good deal of the _deus ex machina_. Gives the very best description of the scenes in Belfast and Larne leading up to the Battle of Antrim and the consequent defeat of the “United men,” many of whom were personally known to the Author. The leaders are referred to by name, and the heroic death of Willy Neilson pathetically described. The famous rebel ballad of “Blaris Moor” is put into the mouth of a ballad singer in Belfast, and the northern dialect is excellently rendered.

The original title of this was _O’Halloran; or, The Insurgent Chief_, [1824], Philadelphia, three vols., and in same year London, one vol. Republ. frequently in Glasgow (_Cameron & Ferguson_) and Belfast (_Henderson_).

⸺ THE HEARTS OF STEEL. (_Gill_). 6_d._ [1825]. Still in print.

A story full of sensational adventure. There is a good deal about the Oak Boys and Steel Boys, Ulster Protestant secret societies which indulged in agrarian outrages as a protest against various abuses. The writer praises the Presbyterian religion somewhat at the expense of the Catholic. Some of the incidents related are rather coarse. Includes legends of Carrickfergus, also a good deal of verse.

=MACHRAY, Robert.= B. 1857. Formerly Prof. of Ecclesiastical History in St. John’s University College, Manitoba. War editor, DAILY MAIL, 1904-05. Between 1898 and 1914 has publ. a dozen novels, besides other works.

⸺ GRACE O’MALLEY, Princess and Pirate. Pp. viii. + 338. (_Cassell_). 6_s._ 1898.

Purporting to be “Told by Ruari Macdonald, Redshank and Rebel, The same set forth in the Tongue of the English.” Scene: various points on the west coast from Achill to Limerick. To a dual love story—of Grace (= Grania Waile) and Richard Burke, Ruari (the hero) and Eva, Grace’s foster-sister—are added many stirring descriptions of sea-fights and escapes, sieges and hostings. Historical personages, such as Sir Nicholas Malbie, the Earl of Desmond, and Stephen Lynch of Galway, are introduced. The moral tone is entirely good. The point of view is Grace O’Malley’s.

=M’ILROY, Archibald.= B. Ballyclare, Co. Antrim, 1860. Entered first the banking and then the insurance business. Took part in public life in his native county and in Co. Down. For the last three years of his life, which was ended in the Lusitania disaster, 1915, he lived in Canada.

⸺ THE AULD MEETIN’ HOOSE GREEN. Pp. 260. (BELFAST: _M’Caw, Stevenson & Orr_). 1898.

Stories of the Co. Antrim peasantry. Time: thirty or forty years ago. Imitative of the “Kailyard” school in England. An intimate picture of Ulster Presbyterianism and its ways of thought. Has both humour and pathos. Is offensive to no creed or class. Ulster-Scot dialect true to life. Titles of some of the stories:—“Two Little Green Graves,” “At Jesus’ Feet,” “The Old Precentor Crosses the Bar.”

⸺ WHEN LINT WAS IN THE BELL. (_Unwin_). 1898.

⸺ BY LONE CRAIG LINNIE BURN. Pp. 153. (_Unwin_). 1900.

“Two series of local stories of the Scoto-Irish folk of Ulster, the chat of village gossips, character-sketches of doctor, minister, agent, and inn-keeper: quaint blends of Scottish and Irish traits. Most of the tales of idyllic kind.”—(_Baker_). The reviewer in the IRISH MONTHLY says of the second of the above: “It is a wonderfully realistic picture of various grades of social life in a little country town in the North ... giving amusing glimpses of the working of practical Presbyterian theology in the rustic middle class.... Leaves on the reader a very remarkable impression of truthfulness and reality.” In this second novel there is some humour and a good deal of pathos. The same remarks apply here as to _The Auld Meetin’ Hoose Green_.

⸺ A BANKER’S LOVE STORY. Pp. 247. (_Fisher Unwin_). 1901.

The story opens in “the Union Bank, Spindleton” (the Ulster Bank, Belfast), the various types of bank directors and clerks being cleverly described—the mischief-making Blake, the jolly Harry Burke, &c. The scene shifts to “Craig Linnie” (Ballyclare), where George Dixon’s love story begins. He is transferred to Ballinasloe (good description of the big fair). Through no fault of his own he comes under a cloud, but eventually matters clear up and all ends happily. The Author knows his Ulster types thoroughly.

⸺ THE HUMOUR OF DRUID’S ISLAND. Pp. 127. (_Hodges, Figgis_; and _Mullan_, BELFAST). 2_s._ 6_d._ 1902.

Scene: “Druid’s Island” is Islandmagee, Co. Antrim. A series of very short anecdotes told to one another by the Presbyterian country people, in their peculiar Scoto-Irish dialect, and full of the dry, “pawky” humour of the North. Gives glimpses of the manners and life of the place.

=MACINNES, Rev. D.=

⸺ FOLK AND HERO TALES. Collected, ed. (in Gaelic), and trans. by; with a Study on the Development of the Ossianic or Finn Saga, and copious Notes by Alfred Nutt. Pp. xxiv. + 497. (_Nutt_). 15_s._ net. Portrait of Campbell of Islay and two Illustr. by E. Griset. 1890.

Gaelic and English throughout on opposite pages. The tales were taken down at intervals during 1881-2, chiefly from the dictation of A. MacTavish, a shoemaker of seventy-four, a native of Mull. The tales are typical folk-tales, full of giants, monsters, and other mythic and magic beings. They are often quaint, imaginative and picturesque, but abound in extravagance and absurdity. In Mr. Nutt’s notes (pp. 443 to end) he studies chiefly—(1) What relation, if any, obtains between the folk-tales current in Scotland and the older Gaelic literature; (2) what traces of early Celtic belief and customs do these tales reveal. They are very elaborate and scholarly. Good Index.

=M’INTOSH, Sophie.= Born at Kinsale, where she resided for many years, until her marriage with Rev. H. M’Intosh, of Methodist College, Belfast. In her sketches she describes faithfully and vividly the people of her native town.—(IRISH LIT.).

⸺ THE LAST FORWARD, and Other Stories. Pp. 152. (_Brimley Johnson_). Five Illustr. by Jack B. Yeats. 1902.

Ten Irish school and football stories, with plenty of schoolboy language and slang, told in lively, stirring style, never dull.

=McKAY, J. G.=

⸺ THE WIZARD’S GILLIE; or, Gille A’Bhuidseir and Other Tales. Ed. and transl. by J. G. McKay. (_St. Catherine’s Press_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1915.

A selection from the MS. collection of the tales gathered by the late J. F. Campbell, of Islay (_q.v._), and preserved in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh. The Gaelic and the translation are given on opposite pages. Some of the titles are “Donald Caol Cameron,” “The Carpenter MacPheigh,” “The Sept of the Three Score Fools.”

=MACKAY, William.=

⸺ PRO PATRIA: the Autobiography of a Conspirator. Two Vols. (_Remington_). 1883.

The narrator, Ptolemy Daly, is a weak, conceited youth, given to hysterics and poetry. Full of visions of Robert Emmet, he joins the staff of “The Sunburst,” the organ of an insurrectionary movement led by Phil Gallagher, a fine character, evidently modelled on T. C. Luby. At the critical moment Daly plays the traitor and decamps to England. Isaac Butt and John Rea are introduced, under thinly disguised names. Scene: Dublin and Wicklow. Written in ironical vein: Daly’s only “Speech from the Dock” was on a charge of drunk and disorderly. The Author was one of three brothers, all well-known London journalists. He was born in Belfast in 1846. Wrote also _A Popular Idol_ and _Beside Still Waters_.

=MACKENZIE, Donald A.=

⸺ FINN AND HIS WARRIOR BAND; or, Tales of Old Alban. Pp. 248. (_Blackie_). 2_s._ 6_d._ 1910.

Stories, arranged in a connected series, of the Fenian cycle, adapted for children from twelve to fourteen or thereabouts. Told in picturesque language, but perfectly simple and direct. For the most part folklore, full of magic and wonder, nine-headed giants and fire-breathing dogs. But here and there the antique hero-tale appears, as in the Battle of Gavra and the death of Dermaid. Localities mostly Scotch. The illustrations (6 coloured, 34 in black and white) are charming in every way. Picture cover.

=MACKENZIE, R. Shelton.=

⸺ BITS OF BLARNEY. (N.Y.: _Redfield_). [1854]. (N.Y.: _Alden_). 1884.

“A series of Irish stories and legends collected from the peasantry,” familiar to the Author in youth (see pref.). It is a volume of miscellanies. Includes three stories of Blarney Castle told in serio-comic manner by a schoolmaster; some local legends of Finn McCool, &c.; eccentric characters (the bard O’Kelly, Father Prout, Irish dancing masters, Charley Crofts, Buck English); Irish publicists; sketches of Grattan and O’Connell (the former enthusiastic, the latter not wholly favourable—O’C. “the greatest professor of Blarney these latter days have seen or heard”). He speaks of O’C. from personal knowledge. On the whole thoroughly nationalist in tone. The Author, b. in Co. Limerick, 1809, educated Cork and Fermoy, was a journalist in London, afterwards in New York, and wrote or edited many valuable works, historical and biographical. D. 1880.

=M’KEON, J. F.=

⸺ ORMOND IDYLLS. Pp. 144. (_Nutt_). 1_s._ Paper. 1901.

Scene: Co. Kilkenny. Eight little sketches of peasant life, pathetic and sad. In one a glimpse is given with knowledge and sympathy of the work of a country priest.

=M’LENNAN, William.=

⸺ SPANISH JOHN. Pp. 270. (_Harper_). 6_s._ Eighteen v. g. Illustr. by F. de Myrbach. 1898.

Adventures of Col. John McDonnell from the Highlands, when a lieutenant in the regiment Irlandia, in the service of the K. of Spain, operating in Italy (1744-6). At the Scots College in Rome, whither he had been sent to be made a priest, he had met a young student, a Mr. O’Rourke. This latter, now a chaplain in the Irish Brigade, saves McD.’s life on the field of Villetri. Subsequently the two are sent by the Duke of York to Scotland on a mission to Prince Charlie. They find that all is lost. Characters admirably drawn, notably the humorous, warm-hearted, heroic Father O’Rourke.

=“MACLEOD, Fiona”; William Sharp.= B. Paisley, 1856. Ed. Glasgow Univ. Spent his boyhood in the West Highlands and Islands and became imbued with love for things Celtic. Even as late as 1899 it was positively stated that, in spite of conjectures to the contrary, William Sharp and Fiona MacLeod were not the same person, and Mrs. Hinkson says in her _Twenty-five Years’ Reminiscences_ that she is not yet convinced that they were.

⸺ THE LAUGHTER OF PETERKIN. Pp. 288. (_Constable_). Four Drawings by S. Rollenson. 1897.

“A re-telling of old tales of the Celtic Wonder-World. Contains: ‘The Laughter of Peterkin’; ‘the Four White Swans (Sons of Lir)’; ‘the Fate of the Sons of Tuireann’; ‘Darthool and the Sons of Usnach.’” Told in language of great beauty and simplicity.

⸺ SPIRITUAL TALES. (EDINB.: _Geddes_). 1897.

⸺ TRAGIC ROMANCES. (EDINB.: _Geddes_). 1897.

⸺ BARBARIC TALES. (EDINB.: _Geddes_). 1897.

⸺ THE DOMINION OF DREAMS. (_Constable_). 1899.

⸺ THE SIN-EATER, and Other Tales. (_Constable_). 1899.

⸺ THE WASHER OF THE FORD, and Other Tales. (_Constable_). 1899.

⸺ The collected works written under the above pen-name (between 1894 and 1905). Ed. by his widow, and publ. by _Heinemann_ in seven Vols., 5_s._ net each. Three Vols. have appeared, viz.:—I. _Pharais; The Mountain Lovers_. II. _The Sin Eater; The Washer of the Ford_ (April). Pp. 450. III. _The Dominion of Dreams; Under the Dark Star_ (April). Pp. 438. The following are announced:—IV. _The Divine Adventure; Iona_, &c. V. _The Winged Destiny._ VI. _The Silence of Amor; Where the Forest Murmurs._ VII. _Poems and Dramas._

Some titles of the stories in these three vols.:—“Morag of the Glen,” “The Dan-nan-Ron,” “The Sin-Eater,” “The Flight of the Culdees,” “The Harping of Cravetheen,” “Silk o’ the Kine,” “Cathal of the Woods,” “St. Bride of the Isles,” “The Awakening of Angus Ogue,” “Three Marvels of Iona,” &c.

These books of Fiona Macleod’s are, for the most part, shadowy, elusive dream-poems in prose, wrought into a form of beauty from fragments of old Gaelic tales heard in the Western isles (where the Author lived for years) from fishermen and crofters. They are full of the magic of words subtly woven, of vague mystery, and of nature—wind and sea and sky. He strives to infuse into his stories the sadder and more mystic aspects of the Gaelic spirit, as he conceives it. “I have not striven to depict the blither Irish Celt.” But many of his stories are simply Irish legends, _e.g._, _The Harping of Cravetheen_. The Author thus describes his work: “In certain sections are tales of the old Gaelic and Celtic Scandinavian life and mythology; in others there is a blending of paganism and Christianity; in others again are tales of the dreaming imagination having their base in old mythology, or in a kindred mythopæic source.... Many of these tales are of the grey wandering wave of the West, and through each goes the wind of the Gaelic spirit which turns to the dim enchantment of dreams.” On the other hand, some of these stories deal with life in modern Gaelic Scotland, _e.g._, _The Mountain Lovers_, which, however poetically told, is after all a tale of seduction. _The Winged Destiny_, amid much matter of a different nature, contains several tales of Gaelic inspiration.

=MACLEOD and THOMSON.=

⸺ SONGS AND TALES OF ST. COLUMBA AND HIS AGE. By Fiona Macleod and J. Arthur Thomson. Third edition. Large paper 4to. (EDINB.: _Patrick Geddes_). 6_d._ nett.

=M’MAHON, Ella.= Dau. of late Rev. J. H. MacMahon, Chaplain to the Lord-Lieutenant. Ed.: home. Has written much for various magazines and periodicals, and particularly on historical and archæological subjects. Has publ. about seventeen novels. Now resides in Chelsea.—(WHO’S WHO).

⸺ FANCY O’BRIEN. (_Chapman & Hall_). 6_s._ 1909.

A tragedy of city life centering in the betrayal and desertion of Bridgie Doyle by Fancy O’Brien. Full of human interest, careful and skilful study of character and motive. Catholic in sympathy. “In its minor details the book is true to life, photographic in its realism.” The story is of high dramatic and literary excellence. In the account of the Easter Monday excursion to Bray “the story of Bridgie’s undoing is told with a rare combination of poetry, force, and restraint.”—(N.I.R., Aug., 1909).

⸺ THE JOB. Pp. 383. (_Nisbet_). 6_s._ 1914.

Sir Thady, a Cromwellian-Irish baronet, grows interested in his Irish surroundings on his estate of Ballymaclashin. He ceases to haunt the Bath Club, Piccadilly, and takes to starting carpet factories (_The Job_). Many of the incidents are furnished by the difficulties that beset the task owing to the amateurish innocence of the baronet and the stupidity of his local helpers. And besides there are the love affairs of Sir Thady and the English Miss Devereux. The point of view is Anglo-Irish, the “mere” Irish being regarded _de haut en bas_ as rather impossible, thriftless, poor people, in short, as a problem to be dealt with philanthropically. The style is easy and pleasant.

=MACMANUS, Miss L.= Holds a distinct place among Irish authors of to-day as being one of the very few writers of Irish historical fiction who write from a thoroughly national standpoint. Her books are straightforward, stirring tales, enthusiastically Irish, free from tedious disquisitions, but based on considerable historical research. She is a worker in the ranks of the Gaelic League, and in her Co. Mayo (Kiltimagh) home does much for the cause of Irish Ireland. She is interested in folklore, and some of the tales she has collected have recently been publ. in the FOLKLORE JOURNAL. Some of her stories in the Dublin weeklies deal in the weird and the mysterious. The following have been publ. by The Educational Co. of Ireland as penny pamphlets:—_In the High King’s Camp_, _A Battle Champion_, _Felim the Harper_, _The Prince of Breffny’s Son_, _How Enda went to the Iceland_, _The Leathern Cloaks_. She has publ. two serials in SINN FEIN: _The Professor in Erin_ and _One Generation Passeth_.

⸺ THE SILK OF THE KINE. Pp. 282. (_Fisher Unwin_). 3_s._ 6_d._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.00. 1896.

Scene: chiefly Connaught and south-west Ulster during the Parliamentary Wars. The heroine is a daughter of the Maguire of Fermanagh. Her capture by the Roundheads, her rescue from the man-hunters by a Parliamentarian officer, her condemnation to slavery in St. Kitt’s, and her escape, are told in vivid and thrilling style. It is a story for young readers especially.

⸺ LALLY OF THE BRIGADE. (_Duffy_). 2_s._ 1_s._ (BOSTON: _Page_). 25_c._ 1899.

Adventures, during the War of the Spanish Succession, of a Colonel of the Brigade, who, after many thrilling experiences, distinguishes himself at Cremona, and marries a girl whom he had met during the war under romantic circumstances. The tale is lively and interesting, and makes one realize somewhat of the intrigues and dangers of war.... Young readers may derive a great deal of amusement and instruction from the book.—(N.I.R.). Lally is a young captain in the regiment of Dillon. “James III.,” Louis XIV., Prince Eugène, Marshall Villeroy, and General O’Mahony all appear in the story.

⸺ NESSA. Pp. 147. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 2_s._ (N.Y.: _Benziger_). 0.60. _n.d._ (1904).

A tale of the Cromwellian Plantation, characterized by a simple unpretentious style and considerable power of description, both of character and scenery.—(_Press notices_). The little book was highly praised by the ACADEMY and by the IRISH TIMES. It is, of course, strongly national in sentiment. Scene: an old castle near Lough Conn, Co. Mayo.

⸺ IN SARSFIELD’S DAYS. Pp. 306. (_Gill_). Illustr. 1907.

“A Passage from the Memoirs of Brigadier Niall MacGuinness of Iveagh, sometime captain in Sarsfield’s Horse.” Scene: Limerick during Siege. Includes account of Sarsfield’s Ride and of the repulse of William’s assault. The plot hinges on the disappearance of Balldearg O’Donnell’s cross, which Iveagh is suspected of having stolen. The central figure is perhaps the wayward and imperious Ethna Ni Briain. The story moves rapidly, unencumbered by descriptions or digressions. The scenes are vivid and dramatic. The Author’s play, “O’Donnell’s Cross,” is founded on this novel. Publ. in U.S.A. (N.Y.: _Buckles_), 1.50, under title _The Wager_.

⸺ NUALA. Pp. 322. (_Browne & Nolan_). 3_s._ 6_d._ Four Illustr. by Oswald Cunningham. 1908.

Tells how the only child, aged fifteen, of the head of the O’Donnells, then in the service of the Austrian Government, is entrusted by her father just before his death with the mission of obtaining the Cathach, or battle-book of the O’Donnells, from the monks at Louvain. On the way she passes through exciting adventures, being captured by some of Napoleon’s soldiers. Gen. Hoche figures in the story. Juvenile.

=MACMANUS, Seumas.= B. Mountcharles, Co. Donegal, 1870. Son of a peasant farmer. Was for some years a National School teacher, but subsequently turned entirely to journalism. Has written for most of the Irish papers and magazines and for many English and American periodicals. Is well known in the States, where he frequently goes on lecturing tours.

⸺ SHUILERS FROM HEATHY HILLS. Pp. 102. (MOUNTCHARLES: _G. Kirke_). 1893.

The Author’s earliest poems and three prose sketches:—“Micky Maguire” (the last of the hedge schoolmasters), “How you bathe at Bundoran,” and “A Trip with Phil M’Goldrick.”

⸺ THE LEADIN’ ROAD TO DONEGAL. Pp. 246. (_Digby, Long_). 3_s._ 6_d._ (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 2.00. [1896]. Second ed., 1908; others since.

Twelve short stories of the Donegal peasantry, full of very genuine, if somewhat broad, humour and drollery. They are not meant as pictures of peasant life. The dialect is exaggerated for humorous purposes, and at times the fun goes perilously near “Stage-Irishism.” But they are never coarse or vulgar.

⸺ ’TWAS IN DHROLL DONEGAL. (_Gill_). 1_s._ Third ed., 1897.

Eight tales dealing with the humorous side of the home-life of Donegal peasants. A few, however, are folk-tales of the Jack the Giant-killer type. Told with verve and piquancy and with unflagging humour, but the skill in story-telling is naturally not as developed in this as in the Author’s later work, drawing a good deal upon humorous padding to aid the intrinsic humour of the incidents.

⸺ THE BEND OF THE ROAD. (_Gill, Duffy_). 2_s._, 3_s._ (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.75. [1897].

This is a sequel to _A Lad of the O’Friels_,[7] but consists of detached sketches, and is not told in the first person. Most of the sketches are humorous, notably “Father Dan and Fiddlers Four”; but there is pathos, too, as in “The Widow’s Mary,” a scene at a wake before an eviction. The Introduction is an admirable summing up of the peculiarities, emotions, and vicissitudes of life in an out-of-the-way Donegal countryside.

[7] Yet seems to have been publ. before it. I give the dates as they are given (doubtless by the Author) in the _Literary Year Book_.

⸺ THE HUMOURS OF DONEGAL. (_Unwin_). (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1898].

Seven stories admirably told, and full of the richest and most rollicking humour. In the first only, viz., “When Barney’s Thrunk Comes Home,” is there a touch of the pathetic. It would be hard to beat “Shan Martin’s Ghost,” and “Why Tómas Dubh Walked,” and “How Paddy M’Garrity did not get to be Gauger.” “One St. Patrick’s Day” gives the humorous side of Orange and Green rivalry.

⸺ THROUGH THE TURF SMOKE. (_Fisher Unwin_). 2_s._ (N.Y.: _Doubleday_. TORONTO: _Morang_). 2.00. [1899]. 1901.

Simple tales of the Donegal peasantry. There is both pathos and humour—the former deep, and at times poignant; the latter always rich and often farcical. The Author writes with all the vividness of one who has lived all he writes about. He has full command of every device of the story-teller, yet never allows his personality to show except, as it should, through the medium of the actors.

⸺ IN CHIMNEY CORNERS. Pp. 281. (N.Y.: _Harper_). Illustr. by Pamela Colman Smith. 1899.

“Subtle, merry tales of Irish Folk-lore.”—(_Pref._). The stories are very similar in kind to the same Author’s _Donegal Fairy Tales_. There is the same quaint, humorous, peasant language, the same extravagances and impossibilities. The illustrations are very numerous. They are very brightly coloured, but for the most part extremely bizarre.

⸺ THE BEWITCHED FIDDLE, and Other Irish Tales. Pp. ix. + 240. (N.Y.: _Doubleday and McClure_). 1900.

Ten short stories, humorous for the most part, but one, “The Cadger Boy’s Last Journey,” moving and pathetic. They are an exact reproduction in dialect and phraseology of stories actually heard by the Author at Donegal firesides, and the fidelity of the reproduction is perfect.

⸺ DONEGAL FAIRY STORIES. Pp. 255. (_Isbister_). 1902. (N.Y.: _McClure_).

Dedication in Irish and English. Thirty-four full-page pen and ink drawings, signed “Verbeek.” These latter are quaint and amusingly grotesque. The stories are folk-tales, told just as the peasantry tell them, without brogue, but with all the repetitions, humorous extravagances and naïveté of the folk-tale. They are just the thing for children, and are quite free from coarseness and vulgarity.

⸺ THE RED POACHER. (N.Y.: _Funk & Wagnalls_). 0.75. 1903.

⸺ A LAD OF THE O’FRIELS. Pp. 318. (_Gill_; _Duffy_). 2_s._, 2_s._ 6_d._, 3_s._ (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 2.00. [1903]. Third ed., 1906.

In this