Reprinted from the Sunday Sun, Leslie’s Weekly, &c. Micky is a youngster of 9 or 10, born of Irish parents, settled at Coney Island, where the scene of the idylls is laid. A good deal of humour and some pathos. A goat figures largely in the sketches.
⸺ MICKY FINN’S NEW IRISH YARNS. N.Y. 1902.
JAY, Harriett. A sister-in-law and adopted daughter of the late Robert Buchanan, Scottish poet and novelist. She lived for some years in Mayo, and the result of her observations was two good novels. She wrote also Madge Dunraven, and some other novels.
⸺ THE QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT. (Chatto & Windus). Picture boards. 2s. n.d. (1875).
How an Englishman, John Bermingham, fell in love with and married the descendant of an old western family. How he tried, but failed, to reform with English ideas the Connaught peasantry. Told with considerable power and insight. Note especially the description of a police hunt over the mountains in the snow. Has been dramatised.
⸺ THE DARK COLLEEN. Three Vols. (Bentley). 1876.
Scene: an island off the W. coast. Morna Dunroon finds a French sailor, survivor of a shipwreck. She afterwards marries him, but he abandons her and goes back to France. She follows him, and passes through strange adventures, but he is still false to her. Nemesis follows in the end. Father Moy is a fine portrait of a priest. The dialect and the scenery are both true to the reality, the description of the storm at the close is particularly well done.
⸺ THE PRIEST’S BLESSING; or, Poor Patrick’s progress from this world to a better. Pp. 308. (F. V. White). Two eds. 1881.
A most objectionable book from a Catholic point of view. Very hostile picture of priesthood of Ireland who keep the people in “bovine ignorance.” The two specimens that appear in the story are villains of the worst type. One is 25, and has been seven years a priest! He drinks heavily, and works miracles. By another a respectable peasant is incited to murder. The views of politics can only be described as “Orange.”
⸺ MY CONNAUGHT COUSINS. Three Vols. (F. V. White). 1883.