Land League story—extreme popular point of view; gives vivid idea of feelings of people during hottest years of the agitation. Introduces amiable Englishman who sees justice done for his tenants. Clear and pleasant style.—(Irish Monthly).
⸺ IRISH DROLLERIES. (Drane). 3s. 6d. 1909.
Ten comic stories such as “Pat Mulligan’s Love-making,” a bashful young man “proposing” by proxy; “Miss Mullan’s Mistake,” story of an elderly spinster who answers a matrimonial advertisement with amusing results. Others are: “Torsney’s Ghost,” “O’Hagan’s Golden Weddin’,” “Tim Mannion the Hero,” “The Wake at Mrs. Doyle’s,” and so on.—(Press Notice). “Mr. Moran has done much good work as a publisher of Irish books in Aberdeen. In his humorous sketches of Irish life he has ever striven to eschew the ‘Stage-Irishman’ type of vulgar comicality. He writes much for various papers. Besides the books noted here, he has published A Deformed Idol, &c.”
MORGAN, Lady. She was the daughter of a poor Dublin actor, named Owenson, and was born in 1777. Her self-reliance, gaiety, and accomplishments won her a prominent place in the literary and social life of Dublin. She married Sir T. C. Morgan, physician to the Lord Lieutenant. She protests energetically in her books against the religious and political grievances of Ireland. “Her books are a sign of the growth of a broader spirit of Irish nationality and reflect the growing interest in Irish history and antiquities.”—(Krans). She is said to have published more than seventy volumes. Her satires of the higher social life of Dublin are spirited and readable even to-day, but their tone is often sharp and bad-tempered. She caught well the outward drolleries of the lower classes: postillions, innkeepers, Dublin porters, &c.; but she seldom looks beneath the surface. It has been well said that her novels are “thoroughly Irish in matter, in character, in their dry humour, and cutting sarcasm; no less than in their vehemence and impetuosity of feeling.” Twenty-two of her works are mentioned by Allibone. She died in 1859.
⸺ ST. CLAIR; or, the Heiress of Desmond. [1803]. 1807, 1812.
“St. Clair, in sentiment and situation a weak imitation of Werter, introduces an Irish antiquary, who discourses upon local legends and traditions, ancient Irish MSS., and Celtic history, poetry, and music.”—(Krans). Aims at upsetting the notion of the possibility of platonic love between the sexes without any approach to real attachment. Into the description of places and scenes the Authoress worked much of her Connaught experience.
⸺ ST. CLAIR EN OLIVIA ... MET PLATEN. Dutch trans. by F. van Teutem. (Amsterdam). 1816.
⸺ THE WILD IRISH GIRL. [1806]. (N.Y.: Haverty). 1.50. (Routledge). n.d. 6d.
A love story of almost gushing sentiment. The scene is the barony of Tirerragh, in Sligo (where the book was actually written). Here the “Prince” of Inismore, though fallen on evil days, still keeps up all the old customs of the chieftains, his ancestors. He wears the old dress, uses the old salutations, has his harper and his shanachie, &c. His daughter, Glorvina, is the almost ethereal heroine. The personages of the book frequently converse about ancient Irish history, legend, music, ornaments, weapons, and costumes. There is much acute political discussion and argument in the book. It is fervently on the side of Irish nationality. “Father John” is a fine character modelled on the then Dean of Sligo. It contains many other portraits drawn from real life. Its success at the time was enormous. In two years it passed through seven editions.—(Fitzpatrick, Krans, &c.).
⸺ O’DONNEL. Pp. 288. (Downey). 2s. 6d. [1814]. 1895.