The story of an Irish girl living in “Loughros,” in the West of Ireland, some fifty years ago. She is the third and plain daughter of a disappointed “fine lady,” who has married a country doctor out of pique, and rues her fate for the rest of her life, as she cannot appreciate her husband’s good heart and he cannot give her luxuries and grandeur. To this home Peggy comes from school. And the book tells us, with plenty of good fun in the telling, how she made her fortune and how she scattered happiness and blessings around her.—(Press Notice).
COTTON, Rev. S. G.
⸺ THE THREE WHISPERS, AND OTHER TALES. Pp. 256. (Dublin: Robertson). c. 1850.
In the title story we have two attempted suicides of parents distraught with grief, the return of a former convict, and an inheritance for the people who were dying with hunger. Dublin is the scene. The next story, “Grace Kennedy,” takes place in the Queen’s Co.: a mother murders her boy, the sister holds the corpse to the fire and “nestles beside him.” In “The Foundling” the mother drowns herself, but some charitable Protestants rescue her child and bring him up in their religion. “Ellen Seaton” tells how Ellen’s father goes off to be a priest and her mother to be a nun, and deals with the efforts made by priests and nuns to get hold of her. Finally she converts her nun jailer and both escape. In some of these stories the Author introduces very vulgar brogue, with coarse expressions.
CRAIG, Richard Manifold, 1845-1913. Born in Dublin, and educated there. He entered the army as surgeon, and retired with the rank of Lieut.-Colonel. His other works of fiction—A Widow Well Left, All Trumps, A Sacrifice of Fools, &c.—do not deal with Irish subjects.
⸺ THE WEIRD OF “THE SILKEN THOMAS.” Pp. 230. (Aberdeen: Moran). 1900.
The story of how Lord Thomas Fitzgerald was drawn into revolt by the treachery of a private enemy. Purports to be a narrative written at the time by Martyn Baruch Fallon, “scrivener and cripple,” a loyal inhabitant of Maynooth, with some account of the latter’s private affairs. Written in quaint, antique language difficult to follow, especially at the outset of the book. It seems of little value from an historical point of view.
⸺ LANTY RIORDAN’S RED LIGHT.
I am not certain whether this story appeared in book form. It is not in the B. Museum Library.