Seven stories reprinted from The Irish Review and Orpheus (an art periodical). They belong to the literary movement associated with the Abbey Theatre. They have the weird imaginativeness and the flavour of the occult and uncanny of Yeats’s prose stories, together with the vivid word-painting of “Fiona McLeod.” The Author delights in the portrayal of primitive and savage passions on the one hand, and on the other in the suggestion of the wild landscapes, rock-strewn and mist-shrouded, of Western Donegal (e.g., Glencolumbcille, in “Ancient Dominions”). These stories of pure fancy are strangely interwoven with settings of extreme realism—drunken tinkers, peasants, &c. Only here and there have we remarks like the following (p. 123):—“But those who are intimate with the soul of the Gaelic peasant know that the God of the Christian is only one amongst a Pantheon of hidden dominations lovely and terrible, though the priest at the altar may thunder anathemas from a fettered intelligence,” &c. The reviewer in the Times Lit. Suppl. pointed out the real defect of these stories—they are wanting in heart.
O’BYRNE, D.
⸺ THE SISTERS AND GREEN MAGIC. Pp. 76. (Daniel). 2s. 6d. net. 1912.
O’BYRNE, M. L.
⸺ THE PALE AND THE SEPTS. Two Vols. (Gill). [1876].
The design is to illustrate, in all its cruelty, treachery, greed, and unscrupulousness, the steady advance of the English settlement. Yet by no means all the English are painted as villains. We are shown the forces of government at work at home in the Castle. Careful portraits of Archbishop Loftus and the old Earl of Kildare. Descriptions of battle of Glenmalure, Hungerford’s massacre at Baltinglass, the capture and recapture of Glenchree, &c., &c. Fine description of scenery, e.g., Gougane Barra. The religious persecutions are vividly portrayed. Highly praised by the Athenæum. The original sub-title was “Or, The Baron of Belgard and the Chiefs of Glenmalure. A Romance of the 16th Century, by Emelobie de Celtis.”
⸺ LEIXLIP CASTLE. Pp. 649. (Gill). [1883]. Others since.
Period: years 1690 sqq. Deals with battle of Boyne, flight of James II., sieges of Limerick and Athlone, the battle of Aughrim—all fully and vividly described. Standpoint: strongly national and Catholic. Gives pleasant insight into the private lives of some Catholic families at the time and their difficulties with Protestant neighbours. Narrative somewhat tedious and slow-moving.
⸺ ILL-WON PEERAGES; or, An Unhallowed Union. Pp. 716. (Gill). 1884.