The Author calls this a historical romance, but the element of romance is very small. Ch. I. gives a backward glance over Ireland’s national struggle in the past. The nominal hero is Hugh O’Donnell and the heroine Eveleen, granddaughter of Florence McCarthy, killed on the Rhine. But Sarsfield is the central figure, and the Author contrives to give us his whole career. There is plenty of exciting incident, partly fictitious—forays of the Rapparees, captures, escapes. In spite of the schemes of the villain rival, Saunders, hero and heroine are united. The historical standpoint seems fair if not quite impartial.
⸺ THE O’DONNELLS OF GLEN COTTAGE. Pp. 498. (N.Y.: Kenedy). n.d. (1874). Still in print.
Scene: Tipperary during the Famine years. The fortunes of a family in the bad times. Famine and eviction and death wreck its peace, and things are only partially righted after many years. The author, whose view-point is nationalist and Catholic, vividly describes the evils of the time—the terrible sufferings of the Famine, eviction as carried out by a heartless agent, souperism in the person of Rev. Mr. Sly, judicial murder as exemplified by the execution of the M’Cormacks.
⸺ THE O’MAHONY, CHIEF OF THE COMERAGHS. Pp. 268. (N.Y.: Sadlier). 1879.
A tale of Co. Waterford in 1798, written from a strongly Irish and Catholic standpoint. Depicts the tyranny of the Protestant gentry, the savagery of the yeomanry. Typical scenes are introduced, e.g., a flogging at the cart’s tail through the streets of Clonmel, seizures for tithes, the execution of Father Sheehy (an avowed anachronism), &c. Chief historical personages: Sir Judkin Fitzgerald, the “flogging” Sheriff, and Earl Kingston. A vivid picture, though obviously partisan, and marred by some inartistic melodrama.
⸺ ROSE PARNELL, THE FLOWER OF AVONDALE. Pp. 429. (N.Y.: Sadlier). 1883.
A tale of the rebellion of ’98.
COSTELLO, Mary.
⸺ PEGGY THE MILLIONAIRE. (C.T.S. of Ireland: Iona Series). 1s. 1910.