The story opens in “the Union Bank, Spindleton” (the Ulster Bank, Belfast), the various types of bank directors and clerks being cleverly described—the mischief-making Blake, the jolly Harry Burke, &c. The scene shifts to “Craig Linnie” (Ballyclare), where George Dixon’s love story begins. He is transferred to Ballinasloe (good description of the big fair). Through no fault of his own he comes under a cloud, but eventually matters clear up and all ends happily. The Author knows his Ulster types thoroughly.
⸺ THE HUMOUR OF DRUID’S ISLAND. Pp. 127. (Hodges, Figgis; and Mullan, Belfast). 2s. 6d. 1902.
Scene: “Druid’s Island” is Islandmagee, Co. Antrim. A series of very short anecdotes told to one another by the Presbyterian country people, in their peculiar Scoto-Irish dialect, and full of the dry, “pawky” humour of the North. Gives glimpses of the manners and life of the place.
MACINNES, Rev. D.
⸺ FOLK AND HERO TALES. Collected, ed. (in Gaelic), and trans. by; with a Study on the Development of the Ossianic or Finn Saga, and copious Notes by Alfred Nutt. Pp. xxiv. + 497. (Nutt). 15s. net. Portrait of Campbell of Islay and two Illustr. by E. Griset. 1890.
Gaelic and English throughout on opposite pages. The tales were taken down at intervals during 1881-2, chiefly from the dictation of A. MacTavish, a shoemaker of seventy-four, a native of Mull. The tales are typical folk-tales, full of giants, monsters, and other mythic and magic beings. They are often quaint, imaginative and picturesque, but abound in extravagance and absurdity. In Mr. Nutt’s notes (pp. 443 to end) he studies chiefly—(1) What relation, if any, obtains between the folk-tales current in Scotland and the older Gaelic literature; (2) what traces of early Celtic belief and customs do these tales reveal. They are very elaborate and scholarly. Good Index.
M’INTOSH, Sophie. Born at Kinsale, where she resided for many years, until her marriage with Rev. H. M’Intosh, of Methodist College, Belfast. In her sketches she describes faithfully and vividly the people of her native town.—(Irish Lit.).
⸺ THE LAST FORWARD, and Other Stories. Pp. 152. (Brimley Johnson). Five Illustr. by Jack B. Yeats. 1902.
Ten Irish school and football stories, with plenty of schoolboy language and slang, told in lively, stirring style, never dull.