HICKEY, Rev. P.
⸺ INNISFAIL. Pp. 284. (Gill). 3s. 6d. [1906]. (N.Y.: Pratt). 1.75. Third ed. 1907.
Life-story of a young priest from early youth to departure for Australia, largely told in letters from college, with verse interspersed. Sketches of life in Tipperary (fox-hunt, school scenes, &c.).
HINKSON, H. A. Born in Dublin, 1865. Married Katharine Tynan, 1893 (q.v.). Ed. Dublin High School, T.C.D., and in Germany. Called to the English Bar, 1902. Until the last few years he has resided in England. He now lives in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, for which county he is R.M.
⸺ GOLDEN LADS AND GIRLS. Pp. 312. (Downey). 1895.
A love story of the upper middle classes. Pictures of western (Galway) county family life, and of student life in Trinity, both strongly reminiscent of Lever. Good portraits of Irish types, the country doctor, the unpopular agent, the reforming landlord (English and a convert to Catholicism); the Protestant country clergyman, &c. This latter portrait is rather satirical. The tone on the whole is nationalist and Catholic.
⸺ FATHER ALPHONSUS. Pp. 282. (Unwin). 1898.
The life-story of two young seminarians. One of these, finding he has no vocation, leaves before ordination, and has no reason to repent the step. The other, ignoring uneasy feelings that trouble may come of it later, becomes a priest. Afterwards he meets with a certain lady, a recent convert from Protestantism. A mutual attachment springs up, and eventually they are married. The circumstances, as arranged by the novelist, are so strange as almost to seem to palliate this sin, were it not for his omission of one factor, viz., that particular form of divine help towards the doing of duty which Catholics call the gratia status. The erring priest ends his life in a Carthusian monastery. The tone throughout is almost faultless from a Catholic standpoint. Indeed, though there are several passionate scenes, rendering the book unfitted for certain readers, the moral tone is high. Some of the characteristics of Irish social life are admirably portrayed.
⸺ UP FOR THE GREEN. Pp. 327. (Lawrence & Bullen). 6s. 1898.
“For several of the incidents related in this story, the Author is indebted to the narrative of Samuel Riley, a yeoman [Quaker] of Cork, who was captured by the rebels, while on his way to Dublin, in September, 1798.” This worthy man discovers the rebels to be very different from what he had taken them to be. A healthy, breezy tale with more adventure than history. Standpoint: thoroughly national. There is quiet humour in the quaintly told narrative of the Quaker. Castlereagh, Major Sirr, Grattan, Lord Enniskillen figure in the story.