⸺ THE CURATE OF KILCLOON. Pp. 282. (Gill). 3s. 6d. 1913.
Labours, sorrows, and consolations of a young priest in a very out of the way country parish. He had been very distinguished at Maynooth and seemed thrown away on such a place as Kilcloon, but he finds that there is work there worth his doing—temperance to be promoted, the Gaelic League to be established, industries to be fostered. The story has the same qualities as the Author’s former books, and in fact differs little from them.
GWYNN, Stephen. Born in Donegal, 1864. Eldest son of Rev. John Gwynn of T.C.D. Is a grandson of William Smith O’Brien. Educated St. Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, and Oxford, where he read a very distinguished course. Since 1890 he has published a great deal—literary criticism, translations, Irish topography, journalism, novels, politics. Has been Nationalist M.P. for Galway City since 1906, and is one of the most active members of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
⸺ THE OLD KNOWLEDGE. (Macmillan). 6s. 1901.
A book quite unique in conception. Into the romance are woven fishing episodes and cycling episodes and adventures among flowers. There are exquisite glimpses, too, of Irish home life, and the very spirit of the mists and loughs and mountains of Donegal is called up before the reader. But above all there is the mystic conception of Conroy, the Donegal schoolmaster, whose soul lives with visions, and communes with the spirits of eld, the nature gods of pagan Ireland.
⸺ JOHN MAXWELL’S MARRIAGE. (Macmillan). 6s. 1903.
Scene: chiefly Donegal, c. 1761-1779. A strong and intense story. Interesting not only for its powerful plot, but for the admirably painted background of scenery and manners, and for its studies of character. It depicts in strong colours the tyranny of Protestant colonists and the hate which it produces in the outcast Catholics. One of the main motives of the story is a forced marriage of a peculiarly odious kind. In connexion with this marriage there is one scene in the book that is drawn with a realism which, we think, makes the book unsuitable for certain classes of readers. The hero fights on the American side in the war of Independence, and takes a share in Nationalist schemes at home.
⸺ THE GLADE IN THE FOREST. Pp. 224. (Maunsel). 1s. Cloth. 1907.
Seven short stories, chiefly about Donegal, five of them dealing with peasant life, of which the Author writes with intimate and kindly knowledge. “The Grip of the Land” describes the struggles of a small farmer and the love of his bleak fields that found no counterpart in his eldest boy, who has his heart set on emigration. Compare Bazin’s La Terre qui Meurt. All the stories had previously appeared in such magazines as the Cornhill and Blackwood’s.
⸺ ROBERT EMMET. (Macmillan). 6s. Map of Dublin in 1803. 1909.