Dedicated to Thomas Moore. A story of the Desmond Rebellion 1580-2, (battle of Monaster-ni-via, the massacre of Smerwick, &c.) with, as personages in the story, the chief historical figures of the time:—the Desmonds and Ormonds, Fr. Allen, S.J., Sanders, Sir Henry Sidney, Sir William Drury, Dr. Dee the Astrologer, Queen Elizabeth herself. The Author has worked into the slight framework of her story an elaborate and careful picture of the times, the fruit, she tells us, of years of study and research. As a result the romance is overlaid and well-nigh smothered with erudition, apart even from the learned notes appended to each volume. The Author is obviously inspired by a great love and enthusiasm for Ireland, and takes the national side thoroughly. The book is ably written, but resembles rather a treatise than a novel.
⸺ THE DEATH FLAG; or, The Irish Buccaneers. Three Vols. (London). 1851.
CUNINGHAME, Richard.
⸺ THE BROKEN SWORD OF ULSTER: A brief relation of the Events of one of the most stirring and momentous eras in the Annals of Ireland. Crown 8vo. (Hodges & Figgis). 3s. 6d. 1904.
Account of chief events. Not in form of fiction. Tone somewhat anti-national (cf. authorities chiefly relied on). Moral: Ireland’s crowning need is to accept the teaching of St. Paul on charity. This is “the God-provided cure for all her woes.” This Author wrote also In Bonds but Fetterless, 1875.
CURTIN, Jeremiah, 1840-1916. Born in Milwaukee, educated at Harvard. A distinguished American traveller, linguist, and ethnologist. Has translated great numbers of books from the Russian and the Polish, and has published many works on the folk-lore of the Russians, Magyars, Mongols, American Aborigines, &c. Visited Ireland in 1887 and 1891.
⸺ MYTHS AND FOLK-LORE OF IRELAND. (Sampson, Low). 9s. Etched frontispiece. 1890.
“Twenty tales” says Douglas Hyde (Pref. to Beside the Fire), “told very well, and with much less cooking and flavouring than his predecessors employed.” The tales were got from Gaelic speakers through an interpreter (Mr. Curtin knowing not a word of Gaelic). Beyond this fact he does not tell us where, from whom, or how he collected the stories. Dr. Hyde says again, “From my own knowledge of Folk-lore, such as it is, I can easily recognise that Mr. Curtin has approached the fountain-head more nearly than any other.”
⸺ HERO TALES OF IRELAND, collected by. Pp. lii. + 558. (Macmillan). 7s. 6d. 1894.
Learned introduction speculates on origin of myths of primitive races. Compares Gaelic myths with those of other races, especially North American Indians. Contends that the characters in the tales are personifications of natural forces and the elements, and that the tales themselves in their earliest form give man’s primitive ideas of the creation, &c. The volume consists of twenty-four folk-lore stories dealing chiefly with heroes of the Gaelic cycles. Not interesting in themselves, and with much sameness in style, matter, and incident. There is some naturalistic coarseness here and there, and the tone in some places is vulgar. The stories were told to the Author by Kerry, Connemara, and Donegal peasants, whose names are given in a note on p. 549.