Idylls of Irish country life (West Limerick), told with simplicity and genuine sympathy in language charged with feeling, and often of much beauty. Memory has no doubt cast a golden haze over the scenes and persons, idealizing them somewhat, yet they are very real for all that. They are nearly all in the form of stories, and are told with zest. Some are sad enough, but with a sadness that is softened by the kindly genial spirit of the teller. The writer is of course in complete sympathy with the people. Many queer types (Micky the Fenian, the bell-man, Mad Matt the tramp, the polite beggar, the believer in ghosts, &c.) are studied in these sketches. “There is not one of the twenty-six sketches that is not in its way a masterpiece.”—(C.B.N.).
CASEY, W. F.
⸺ ZOE: a Portrait. Pp. 376. (Herbert & Daniel). 6s. 1911.
A study from the life of an exceedingly unpleasant Dublin girl, an inveterate society flirt. The plot is chiefly concerned with her treatment of her various suitors, including a loveless marriage, contracted with one of them in order to spite another. Incidentally there are other clever character studies—Major Delaney, Barry Conway, Maurice Daly. Some are doubtless studies from life. Incidentally there is a clever and accurate picture of the Dublin middle-class, with its golf, its bridge, and its theatres. The Author has written successful plays for the Abbey Theatre.—(Press Notices).
CASSIDY, Patrick Sarsfield.
⸺ GLENVEAGH; or, The Victims of Vengeance. (Boston). 1870.
First appeared in the Boston Pilot; afterwards in book form. The Author was born at Dunkineely, Co. Donegal, 1852. In 1869 or so he emigrated to America, where he became a journalist. Deals with the celebrated Glenveagh trials, arising from difficulties between landlord and tenant, at which the author had been present in boyhood. He wrote also The Borrowed Bride: a Fairy Love Legend of Donegal. Pp. 255. (N.Y.: Holt). 1892. A long story in verse.
CAWLEY, Rev. Thomas.
⸺ AN IRISH PARISH, ITS SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS. Pp. 189. (Boston: Angel Guardian Press). 1911.
Stories collected from magazines in which they first appeared (“Irish Rosary,” “C.Y.M.,” “Irish Packet”). Giving pictures drawn with knowledge and skill, and considerable humour of local celebrities and their political careers. Satirises the shady side of local politics, and depicts the ruin wrought by drink. But the moral is not too much obtruded. Father Cawley is a curate in Galway City.