“How John O’Grady left his irritating wife and selfish children to revisit the home of his fathers in I. for a short time; how he met ... Mary O’Connor ...; how he fell in love, and told her so—forgetting to mention the irritating wife, &c.... The picture of the old Irish priest, Mary’s uncle, is the one redeeming feature of a mawkish, unsatisfactory tale.”—(T. Litt. Suppl.). This fairly describes the story. Non-Catholic, but not prejudiced. Scene: Glendalough.
DAMANT, Mary. The Author is a daughter of General Chesney, the Asiatic explorer.
⸺ PEGGY. Pp. 405. (Allen). 1887.
Domestic life in North Antrim previous to, and during, the Rebellion of 1798. “Many of the facts of my little tale were told me in childhood by those, whose recollection of the rising was rendered vivid by desolate homes, loss of relations, &c.”—(Pref.). Eschews historical or political questions. Favourable to “poor deluded peasants.” Thinks little of United Irishmen who are “imbued with the poison of revolutionary principles.” Well and pleasantly written in autobiographical form.
DAUNT, Alice O’Neill, 1848-1915. Was the only daughter of W. J. O’Neill Daunt. Contributed to The Lamp, Ireland’s Own, and other magazines. She wrote many little stories, as serials or in book form, for the most part religious (Catholic) and didactic.
⸺ EVA; or, as the Child, so the Woman. Pp. 107. 16mo. (Richardson). 1s. 1882.
One of a little series of Catholic Tales for the young. A sad little story, full of piety. Scene in Ireland, but the story is not specially Irish in any way.
DAUNT, W. J. O’Neill. Born in Tullamore, 1807. Son of Joseph Daunt, of Ballyneen, Cork. Became a Catholic about 1827. Was in Repeal Association from the first, and remained to the end one of O’Connell’s most loyal co-operators. Died 1894. His biography has been published under the title, A Life Spent for Ireland, 1896.
⸺ SAINTS AND SINNERS. Two Vols. aftds. One Vol. (Duffy). (N.Y.: Pratt). 0.50. 1843, &c.
“The reader who expects in this narrative what is commonly called the plot, or story, of a novel will, we fairly warn him, be disappointed. Our object in becoming the historian of Howard is merely to trace the impressions produced on his mind by the very varied principles and notions with which he came in contact” (beginning of chap. xiii.). The book is, besides, a very satirical study of various types of Ulster Protestantism, and a controversial novel, reference to Scripture and to various Catholic authorities being frequently given in footnotes. The story, a slight one, moves slowly, but the situations have a good deal of humour.