CONCANNON, Mrs., née Helena Walsh. Born in Maghera, Co. Derry, 1878. Educated there and at Loreto College, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin; also at Berlin, Rome, and Paris. M.A. (R.U.I.) with Honours in Mod. Lit. Besides the story mentioned below, she has published A Garden of Girls (Educational Co. of Ireland), and is about to publish a Life of St. Columbanus which won against noteworthy competitors a prize offered by Dr. Shahan of the Catholic University of America. Has contributed to Catholic magazines. Resides in Galway. Her husband is prominently connected with the Gaelic League, and she herself reads and speaks Irish.
⸺ THE SORROW OF LYCADOON. 12mo. Pp. 150. (C.T.S.I.: Iona Series), 1s. 1912.
Story of the life and martyrdom (1584) of Dermot O’Hurley and of the first mission of the Jesuits to Ireland. The author has an “historic imagination” of exceptional vividness. The incidents and the colouring are both solidly based on historic fact. But erudition is never allowed to obtrude itself on the reader. The characters are flesh and blood, and the story has a pathetic human interest of its own. It is told with much charm of style.
CONDON, John A., O.S.A. Born in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, in 1867. Educated locally at the Augustinian Seminary and at Castleknock College. Became an Augustinian 1883. Has studied in Rome and travelled in U.S.A. and Canada. He has resided in various parts of Ireland—New Ross, Cork, Dublin. Has held positions of special trust in his Order.
⸺ THE CRACKLING OF THORNS. Pp. 175. (Gill). 3s. 6d. Six Illustr. by M. Power O’Malley. 1915.
Ten stories of various types. The majority are of the high-class magazine type and very up-to-date in subject and treatment, but here and there one comes upon bits of real life observed at first hand and pictured with genuine feeling. Several are Irish-American, and their interest turns on the sorrow and hardship of emigration. The last, “By the Way,” in which Sergeant Maguire, R.I.C., spins yarns, is full of the most genuine Irish humour (dialect perfect), and is a fine piece of story-telling.
CONYERS, Dorothea. Born 1871. Daughter of Colonel J. Blood Smyth, Fedamore, Co. Limerick. Has published, besides the works here mentioned, Recollections of Sport in Ireland. Resides near Limerick. It may be said of her books in general that they are humorous, lively stories of Irish sport, full of incident, with quick perception of the surfaces and broad outlines of character. Her dramatis personæ are hunting people, garrison officers, horse dealers, and the peasantry seen more or less from their point of view.
⸺ THE THORN BIT. Pp. 332. (Hutchinson). 6s. 1900.
An earlier effort, with the Author’s qualities not yet developed. Society in a small country town, days with the hounds, clever situations.