N.B.—The theme of “The Courtship of Etain,” though not coarse or prurient, is such as to render it unfit for the young.
LEAHY, Walter T.
⸺ COLUMBANUS THE CELT. Pp. 455. (Philadelphia: Kilner). $1.50. 1913.
The eventful career of the great St. Columbanus (d. 615) in the form of fiction. Father Leahy bases his story on the narrative of Jonas, a monk of Bobbio, who wrote the founder’s life about the middle of the seventh century. But some of the incidents (notably the incipient love story) are unhistorical. The Author does little to reproduce the colour and “atmosphere” of these distant times. He even falls into somewhat glaring anachronisms. Yet much is done to make the story interesting.
LEAMY, Edmund. B. Waterford, 1848, and educated there. Was for many years in Parliament as M.P. for Waterford and afterwards for Kildare. Was a kindly man and a delightful story-teller, beloved of children. He died in 1904.
⸺ IRISH FAIRY TALES. Pp. xix. + 155. [1889]. New ed. (Gill). 2s. 6d. With Introd. by Mr. John E. Redmond, M.P., and Note by T. P. G. Delightful Illustr. by George Fagan. Cr. 8vo. Handsome art linen binding. 1906. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.90.
Sources of inspiration: O’Curry and Joyce. Child audience aimed at throughout. Hence naïveté in style. At times there is a simple, sweet beauty of language, and some passages, especially in the last tale, of true prose poetry. Some useful notes at end.
⸺ THE FAIRY MINSTREL OF GLENMALURE. Pp. 48. 4to. (Duffy). 1s. Cover design and many very pretty illustrations by C. A. Mills.
Adventures of Irish children in an Irish fairyland of giants and little old men and little old women. Told in refined and graceful style, quite free from brogue, for very little children, with here and there an unobtrusive moral.