RUSSELL, T. O’Neill; “Reginald Tierney.” B. near Moate, Co. Westmeath, 1828. Son of Joseph Russell, a Quaker. Was devoted from about 1858 till the end of his life to the revival of the Irish language. During the Fenian movement he was an object of suspicion. He emigrated, and spent thirty years in U.S.A. Returning in 1895, he threw himself heart and soul into the Gaelic Revival. D. 1908.
⸺ TRUE HEART’S TRIALS. (Gill). 1s. and 1s. 6d. Still in print, 1910.
A rather rambling tale of the troubles of a pair of lovers. Scene: first, the Lake district of Cavan and Westmeath, where we have a glimpse of squireen life. Afterwards the backwoods north of Albany, U.S.A. Both light and shade of American colonist life depicted. There are many laughable episodes in the book.
⸺ DICK MASSEY. Pp. 300. (Gill). 1s. 1860. New ed., poor print, 1908.
Famine in 1814 and following years, as background for a story full of incident, humour, and pathos, with faithful pictures of many sides of Irish life—the emigrant ship, a wedding, relations of good and bad landlords with tenants. Altogether on the side of the peasant. Original title:—The Struggles of Dick Massey; or, the battles of a boy, by “Reginald Tierney.”
RUSSELL, Violet. Is the wife of George Russell, “A.E.,” Ed. of the Irish Homestead and a well-known poet.
⸺ HEROES OF THE DAWN. Pp. 251. (Maunsel). 5s. Sixteen black and white drawings and four coloured illustr. by Beatrice Elvery. n.d. [1913].
Stories of the Fionn cycle, drawn from Standish O’Grady’s Silva Gadelica and from the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, and retold, with a pleasant simplicity and directness, for children. “I would have you see in them,” says the dedication, “a record of some qualities which the heroes of ancient times held to be of far greater worth than anything else—an absolute truthfulness and courtesy in thought and speech and action; a nobility and chivalry of mind, &c....” But the Author leaves the reader to draw his own moral and does not force it on him. The illustrations are charming, and the whole book is produced with great artistic taste.
RYAN, W. P., [see also O’RYAN, W. P.]