Chapter XIII: Part I: tells how a peasant girl is, after a week’s (2)

⸺ FENIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS. Pp. 132. (DUBLIN: _T. G. O’Donoghue_). [1895].

Twelve evenings of story-telling at a Wexford fireside. The
stories are mostly Ossianic legends, but there are a few fairy
tales. They purport to be told by a farmer with all the arts
of the shanachie—the quaintness, the directness, the pithy
sayings, the delightful digressions, and the gay humour. They
are, of course, in dialect.

=M’CALLUM, Hugh and John.= Ed. an original collection of the poems of Ossian, Orrann, Ullin, and other bards who flourished in the same age. (_Montrose_). 1816.

=M’CARTHY, Justin.= B. in Cork, 1830, and ed. there. Began there his literary career of over sixty years. In 1853 he went to Liverpool, and thence to London in 1860. From that time till his death in 1912 he lived almost exclusively in England. But he never lost touch with Ireland. For many years he was a Nationalist M.P., and from 1890-96 was Chairman of the Party. His works number over forty, many of them dealing with Ireland—novels, history, biography, reminiscences, &c.

⸺ A FAIR SAXON. Pp. 386. (_Chatto & Windus_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1873]; several since. New ed. about 1907.

Main theme: the love of an English girl for Maurice FitzHugh
Tyrone, an Irish M.P., famous in the House as a clever and
insuppressible opponent of the Government. Much of the story
(a complicated one) is concerned with the efforts of another
lover of the Fair Saxon to supplant Tyrone, and also to get
him to violate the conditions of a legacy. The latter are (1)
that Tyrone shall not marry before forty; (2) that he shall
not join the Fenians; (3) that he shall not fight a duel. His
efforts meet with a wonderful succession of alternate success
and failure. Incidentally we have glimpses of Fenian plotting,
the Fenian movement being portrayed with little sympathy. The
characters are nearly all insipid or vicious worldlings, drawn
in a satirical and sometimes cynical vein. Such is Mrs. Lorn,
the rich American widow, of fast life. The heroine, and to a
certain extent the hero, are exceptions. The precocious young
American, Theodore, is one of the best things in the book.

⸺ MAURICE TYRONE. (_Benziger_). 0.75. The American ed. of _A Fair Saxon_.

⸺ MONONIA. Pp. 383. (_Chatto & Windus_). 6_s._ [1901]. New edition, 1902.

Scene: a large Munster town, presumably Cork. Time: the
attempted rising in 1848. The chief interest is the unfolding
in action of the various characters. Some of these are
strikingly and distinctively portrayed. The treatment of
the love element is original, the course of true love being
smooth from the start. Here and there are pleasant bits of
description. The standpoint is Catholic and nationalist, but
without anti-English feeling, several of the principal and most
admirable characters being English. A happy love story runs
through the book.

=M’CARTHY, Justin Huntley.= S. of preceding. B. 1860. Ed. University College School, London. Began writing 1881. Nationalist M.P. 1884-1892, during which period he was an ardent politician. Publ. _England under Gladstone_ (1884), and in the same year a successful play, “The Candidate.” Then followed _Hours with Great Irishmen_, _Ireland since the Union_, _The Case for Home Rule_, &c., and a number of books, poems, tales, &c., on Oriental subjects. His knowledge of our myth and legend has been described as comprehensive and exhaustive. He has publ. many other novels and plays and volumes of verse. But of late years the theatrical world has claimed him wholly.

⸺ LILY LASS. Pp. 150. (_Chatto & Windus_). 1_s._ 6_d._ 1889.

Picture from nationalist point of view of Young Ireland
movement, especially in Cork. Full of sensational incidents,
told with much verve.

⸺ THE ILLUSTRIOUS O’HAGAN. (_Hurst & Blackett_). 1905. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.50, &c.

Melodramatic adventures of two cosmopolitan adventurers of
Irish origin, in various parts of Europe and, in particular,
among the courts of the petty German princes, where very fast
living prevails. The picture we are given of these latter is
frank enough. The colouring is brilliant, the style bright and
swift. Copyrighted for the stage.

⸺ THE O’FLYNN. Pp. 352. (_Hurst & Blackett_). 1_s._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.50. 1910.

O’Flynn is a swashbucklering, swaggering soldier of fortune,
who has seen service in the Austrian army. The story tells of
the varying fortunes of O’F. and of Lord Sedgemouth in their
rivalry for the hand of the Lady Benedetta Mountmichael. Both
suitors are in the service of King James, and the scene varies
between Dublin Castle and Knockmore, a castle “in the heart of
the Wicklow hills.” Full of more or less burlesque plots and
stratagems and surprises. Written in a pleasant but reckless
and rattling style. Smacks strongly of the stage throughout,
indeed it was originally a successful play before appearing in
book form. Incidents not historical. _Not for young people._

⸺ THE FAIR IRISH MAID. Pp. 344. (_Mills & Boon_). 6_s._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.30. 1911.

Ireland a few years after the Union; but not political. Mr.
McC., in his usual vein of gay romanticism, takes his beautiful
maiden from Kerry to London, where in the modish days of the
Dandies she is for a time the reigning toast. But she is
true to her Kerry lover, whom she finds in London lost and
ruined, and whom she rescues and enables to produce his Irish
play. Other characters are Lord Cloyne, the Irish ascendancy
landlord, Mr. Rubie, the English M.P. who has come to visit
and improve Ireland, and an antiquary who wants to buy a round
tower and provides many amusing situations.—(_Press notices_).

=M’CARTHY, Michael J. F.= B. Midleton, Co. Cork. Ed. Vincentian Coll., Cork; Midleton College, Cork; T.C.D. After the appearance of _Five Years in Ireland_ in 1901, “has written and spoken against the power exercised by the Roman Catholic Church in politics and in education. Started and conducted Christian Defence Effort in opposition to Home Rule, 1911-14.” Author of _Priests and People in Ireland_, _Rome in Ireland_, &c.—(WHO’S WHO).

⸺ GALLOWGLASS. Pp. 540. (_Simpkin, Marshall_). 6_s._ 1904.

Purports to portray the social and political life of various
classes in a typical South of Ireland town (“Gallowglass”).
Written in a vein of bitter satire. Peasant, shopkeeper,
politician, and especially priest, are held up to unmeasured
scorn. Aspersions are cast upon Catholic teachings and
practices. Eviction scenes, the workings of a secret society,
political meetings, a scene in Parliament, serve the writer for
his purpose in various ways.

=M’CHESNEY, Dora.=

⸺ KATHLEEN CLARE. Pp. 286. (_Blackwood_). Six Illustr. by J. A. Shearman. 1895.

Story of Wentworth, Earl of Strafford’s Viceroyalty in Ireland,
told in form of diary purporting to be written by a kinswoman
of Strafford’s, who sees him in his home life and acquires
extraordinary love and reverence for him. The tale of his
execution is pathetically told. Quaint Elizabethan English.
Pretty Elizabethan love-songs interspersed.

=M’CLINTOCK, Letitia.=

⸺ A BOYCOTTED HOUSEHOLD. Pp. 319. (_Smith, Elder_). 1881.

Period, _c._ 1880. Mr. Hamilton is a model as a man and
landlord. His family is in very reduced circumstances owing to
“No-Rent Campaign.” Then we have various incidents of the land
war—threatening letters, burning of hay, and finally the eldest
son is brutally murdered by tenants on whom favours had been
heaped. The beautiful home life, sympathetic love affairs, &c.,
of the Hamiltons are dwelt upon as pointing the contrast with
the wickedness of the League and the meaningless ingratitude
of the peasantry. Sympathies of Author wholly with landlords.
The Hamilton boys were all educated at Rugby, and the general
outlook of the family is English. Scene: King’s Co. and Donegal
alternately.

=M’CLINTOCK, Major H. S.=

⸺ RANDOM STORIES; chiefly Irish. Pp. 147. (BELFAST: _Marcus Ward_). Illustr. _n.d._ _c._ 1885.

A collection of unobjectionable smoke-room yarns, more or less
original, and more or less humorous. Illustr. somewhat crude.

=M’CRAITH, L. M.= Mrs. L. M. M’Craith Blakeney, of Loughloher, Cahir, Co. Tipperary. B. 1870. Ed. in Ireland and at Cheltenham. Has written also _The Suir from its Source to the Sea_, _The Romance of Irish Heroines_, _The Romance of Irish Heroes_, &c. In these and other writings her aim has been to popularise Irish local history and antiquities in the hopes of fostering a love of country, especially in the young.

⸺ A GREEN TREE. Pp. 221. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1908.

A pleasant family story with a sympathetically, though somewhat
dimly-sketched, Irish background. All through there is the
contrast between English and Irish ideals. One or two peculiar
Irish types are well drawn.

=MACDERMOTT, S.=

⸺ LEIGH OF LARA: a Novel of Co. Wicklow. (_Gill?_). 1_s._ 6_d._

A slight but pleasant tale, told in straightforward manner,
without character-study, scene-painting, problems, or politics.
Deals with the false and misunderstood position of a man who
has been entrusted with the charge of his sister-in-law, while
his brother is abroad “on his keeping,” and the complications
that arise from this position.

=MACDERMOTT, W. R.=

⸺ FOUGHILOTRA: A Forbye Story. Pp. 326. (_Sealy, Bryers_). _c._ 1906.

Sub-t.:—A memorial of the Ulster handloom weavers. A
sociological study, in form of novel, of the history and
development of a family. Scene: shore of Lough Neagh. Time:
present day, though the family history goes back two hundred
years. The forceful and pungent dialect in which it is written
is quite natural and true to life. An unusual and noteworthy
book—interesting alike for its plot, its clever character-study
and the thoughtfulness that pervades it. Has considerable
humour, and nothing in the least objectionable. This author
also has published, under the pen name of “A. P. O’Gara,” _The
Green Republic_.

=MACDONAGH, Michael.= B. Limerick, 1862. Ed. Christian Bros.’ Schools. At twenty-two joined the staff of FREEMAN’S JOURNAL. From 1894 to the present has been on staff of TIMES, and he lives in London. His father, Michael O’Doherty MacDonagh, was a Donegal man, a printer and poet. Has been writing about Ireland all his life in an immense variety of periodicals, and has published about a dozen books, many of them relating to Parliament, of great historic value.

⸺ IRISH LIFE AND CHARACTER. Pp. 382. (_Hodder & Stoughton_). 6_s._ Many editions, the 5th being in 1905.

Object: “To give a clear, full, and faithful picture of
Irish life and character, illustrated by anecdotes and by
my own experience during a twelve years’ connexion with
Irish journalism.” “I have admitted into my collection only
anecdotes that are truly genuine, really humorous, and
certainly characteristic of the Irish people.” “The face of
Ireland as seen in these pages is always puckered with a
smile.”—(_Pref._). May be described as anecdotes, chiefly
comic, classified and accompanied by a running commentary.
Chapters: The Old Irish Squire; Duelling; Faction Fighting;
Some Delusions about Ireland (_e.g._, “Stage-Irishman”); Bulls;
In the Law Courts; “Agin the Government”; Irish Repartee and
Sarcasm; Love-making in Ireland (its matter-of-factness, &c.);
Humours of Politics In and Out of Parliament; The Ulster
Irishman; The Jarvey; The Beggar; Sunniness of Irish Life, &c.
It is to be observed that the laugh is often against the Irish
throughout, and perhaps our national failings are rather more
prominent here than our national virtues, the serious side of
Irish life being scarcely touched on at all.

=M’DONNELL, Randal William.= B. in Dublin, 1870. Son of Randal M’Donnell, Q.C. Ed. Armagh Royal School. B.A., T.C.D. Was for a time assistant librarian in Marsh’s Library, and now a L.G.B. inspector. Has published also three volumes of verse.

⸺ KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN. Pp. 270. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 2_s._ Frontisp. 1898.

Pictures first the causes and events that led to the rebellion,
Tone’s visit to America, his schemes, the French invasion. Then
vivid description of the outbreak in Wicklow, the fight at
Tubberneering, the battle of New Ross, the capture and death of
Lord Edward Fitzgerald.

⸺ WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA. Pp. 147. (_Gill_). 2_s._ 6_d._ Map of Drogheda and map of Ireland in time of Cromwell. (N.Y.: _Benziger_). 0.90. 1906.

“Edited from the record of Clarence Stranger,” an officer in
the army of Owen Roe O’Neill. Covers principal events from
Cromwell’s landing to the Plantation, including defence of
Clonmel.

⸺ MY SWORD FOR PATRICK SARSFIELD. Pp. 201. (_Gill_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1907.

Adventures of Phelim O’Hara (character well drawn), a colonel
in Sarsfield’s horse, who witnesses siege of Derry, battle of
the Boyne, two sieges of Limerick. Much history, varied by
startling adventures.

⸺ ARDNAREE. Pp. 227. (_Gill_). 1911.

“The story of an English girl in Connaught, told by herself.”
Mainly a record of social life (tea-parties, military balls,
&c.), with a good deal of fairly mild love-making. The ’98
insurrection (landing of French at Killala, &c.) forms a kind
of background but is little spoken of. The Author hits off
cleverly enough the outlook and language of a narrator such as
the heroine.

=MACDOUGALL, Rev. J.=

⸺ CRAIGNISH TALES, collected by. Notes on the War Dress of the Celts by Lord A. Campbell. Pp. xvi. + 98. (_Nutt_). 5_s._ 20 plates. 1889.

⸺ FOLK AND HERO TALES. Pp. xxx. + 311. Demy 8vo. (_Nutt_). 7_s._ 6_d._ net. Three Illustr. by E. Griset. 1891.

Introduction by A. Nutt deals with aims of study of folk-lore,
and various theories of the origin of this latter, and the
value of Celtic folk-lore.

Ten tales collected in district of Duror (Argyllshire) between
Summer of 1889 and Spring of 1890, obtained from a labouring
man named Cameron, who had them in his boyhood from Donald
MacPhie and others. As folk-lore they are thoroughly reliable
and genuine, the Gaelic text given after each story being
written at the narrator’s dictation with painstaking accuracy.
The stories are typical folk-tales—a string of marvellous
adventures of some hero with giants and enchanted castles and
witches, &c., &c.—often grotesque and extravagant and devoid
of moral or other significance beyond the mere narrative....
Free from coarseness. Finn is the hero in several of these
tales. Good Index. 50 pp. of Notes, devoted chiefly to variant
versions of the tales, explanations of terms and comparisons
with other tales.

=M’DOWELL, Lalla.=

⸺ THE EARL OF EFFINGHAM. Pp. 280. (_Tinsley_). 1877.

Time: the forties, in Ballyquin, Co. Galway. It is a kind of
appeal in story form to the Irish landlords to stay at home
and “right Ireland’s wrongs.” The good points in the Irish
character are well brought out, the brogue is well reproduced,
and there is much humour. There are some glimpses of Dublin
society. The bias is somewhat Protestant.

=“MACEIRE, Fergus.”=

⸺ THE SONS OF EIRE. Three vols. (LOND.: _Newby_). 1872.

Author styles himself “The last of the Sons of Eire,” an old
broken-down Irish family living in Hampshire (Vol. II. brings
them back to Ireland). A long autobiography, with a multitude
of rather trifling incidents, much conversation, and a good
deal of moralising. The portrait of the writer’s mother is
interesting and curious. The Author seems Catholic and Irish in
sympathies. In the end the teller marries the betrothed of his
brother Brian, the real hero, who has been killed in a skating
accident.

=MACGILL, Patrick.= “The Navvy Poet.” B. Glenties, Co. Donegal, 1891. Ed. at National school until he was twelve. At fourteen began to write verse for the DERRY JOURNAL. Soon after set out for Greenock with 10_s._ in his pocket. “Since then I have done all sorts of things, digging, draining, farming, and navvying.” In 1912 was a plate-layer on the Caledonian Railway.—(I.B.L., III., p. 71). His poems are _Songs of a Navvy_, _Gleanings from a Navvy’s Scrap Book_, and _Songs of the Dead End_. Is now a soldier in the London Irish Rifles, and has written a good account of military life in _The Amateur Army_. A series of sketches from the firing line, entitled _The Red Horizon_, is in preparation.

⸺ CHILDREN OF THE DEAD END. Pp. 305. (_Herbert Jenkins_). 6_s._ 1914.

“Most of my story is autobiographical.”—(_Foreword_). It opens
in the Glenties with a faithful picture of the people and their
hard life. The scene then shifts to Scotland and depicts the
toils and temptations that beset the men, and especially the
girls, in their sordid and insanitary surroundings. The hero
goes on tramp with “Moleskin Joe,” a philosophic vagabond,
finely described; and the shifts they are put to and the scenes
they come through all bear the mark of truth, as does the wild
life led by the navvies at Kinlochleven. The description of
these scenes in a London newspaper led to his employment on the
press. The hero’s love for Norah Ryan is purely and touchingly
delineated, and, save for one unhappy gibe at the P.P., the
book is unobjectionable.

⸺ THE RAT PIT. Pp. 308. (_Jenkins_). 1915.

The story of Norah Ryan, the heroine of _The Children of the
Dead End_, from her childhood in Western Donegal to her death,
a woman of the streets, in a Glasgow slum. A heartrending
story from start to finish, with scarcely a gleam of cheer.
The Author has exceptional powers of observation and gifts
of description, and the book is extraordinarily realistic.
But the realism and the sombreness being exclusive, the
effect is exaggerated even to falseness. Farley McKeown is
impossibly villainous, the picture of the wake revolting
because undiscerning, Norah’s innocence overdrawn. Yet on the
whole the Author’s claim that it is a transcript from life,
life seen and lived by him, is doubtless well sustained. There
are several needless sneers at the priests, _e.g._, p. 286,
which is wantonly unpleasant. The Author is not prurient, but
he describes plainly and vividly scenes in Glasgow brothels.
Good picture of the conditions of life of the Irish migratory
labourers.

=[M’GOVERN, Rev. J. B.]; “J. B. S.”= Of St. Stephen’s Rectory, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. An enthusiast for Irish archæology and a frequent contributor on his favourite subject to N. & Q., CORK ARCHAEOL. JOURNAL, the ANTIQUARY, &c.

⸺ IMELDA, or Retribution: a Romance of Kilkee. (_Tinsley_). 7_s._ 6_d._ 1883.

Scene: varies between Kilkee and Meenahela on the one hand
and Italy on the other. The story is concerned with the
faithlessness of Imelda Lestrange, an Irish girl, to her
affianced Florentine lover, Gasper Bicchieri, whom she had
met at Kilkee, and the Nemesis that befalls her in the
faithlessness of her new lover—and husband—Monckton, who
deserts her for his cousin, Teresa Dempsey. Most of this
happens at Kilkee. The end is tragedy. Forty years later Gasper
returns to Kilkee to brood in the scene of the catastrophe of
his life. There is little or no characterisation or study of
motive. The story opens in 1829.

=M’HENRY, James, M.D.= B. Larne, Co. Antrim, 1785. Ed. Dublin and Glasgow. Lived 1817-1842 in U.S.A. From 1842 till his death in 1845 he was U.S. consul at Derry. Publ. several volumes of verse (Mr. O’Donoghue enumerates nine) and several novels besides those mentioned below.

⸺ THE INSURGENT CHIEF. Pp. 128, very close print. (_Gill_). Bound up with HEARTS OF STEEL. _n.d._

Adventures of a young loyalist during the rebellion in the
North, pleasantly told, but with improbabilities and a good
deal of the _deus ex machina_. Gives the very best description
of the scenes in Belfast and Larne leading up to the Battle
of Antrim and the consequent defeat of the “United men,” many
of whom were personally known to the Author. The leaders are
referred to by name, and the heroic death of Willy Neilson
pathetically described. The famous rebel ballad of “Blaris
Moor” is put into the mouth of a ballad singer in Belfast, and
the northern dialect is excellently rendered.

The original title of this was _O’Halloran; or, The Insurgent
Chief_, [1824], Philadelphia, three vols., and in same year
London, one vol. Republ. frequently in Glasgow (_Cameron &
Ferguson_) and Belfast (_Henderson_).

⸺ THE HEARTS OF STEEL. (_Gill_). 6_d._ [1825]. Still in print.

A story full of sensational adventure. There is a good deal
about the Oak Boys and Steel Boys, Ulster Protestant secret
societies which indulged in agrarian outrages as a protest
against various abuses. The writer praises the Presbyterian
religion somewhat at the expense of the Catholic. Some of
the incidents related are rather coarse. Includes legends of
Carrickfergus, also a good deal of verse.

=MACHRAY, Robert.= B. 1857. Formerly Prof. of Ecclesiastical History in St. John’s University College, Manitoba. War editor, DAILY MAIL, 1904-05. Between 1898 and 1914 has publ. a dozen novels, besides other works.

⸺ GRACE O’MALLEY, Princess and Pirate. Pp. viii. + 338. (_Cassell_). 6_s._ 1898.

Purporting to be “Told by Ruari Macdonald, Redshank and Rebel,
The same set forth in the Tongue of the English.” Scene:
various points on the west coast from Achill to Limerick. To a
dual love story—of Grace (= Grania Waile) and Richard Burke,
Ruari (the hero) and Eva, Grace’s foster-sister—are added
many stirring descriptions of sea-fights and escapes, sieges
and hostings. Historical personages, such as Sir Nicholas
Malbie, the Earl of Desmond, and Stephen Lynch of Galway, are
introduced. The moral tone is entirely good. The point of view
is Grace O’Malley’s.

=M’ILROY, Archibald.= B. Ballyclare, Co. Antrim, 1860. Entered first the banking and then the insurance business. Took part in public life in his native county and in Co. Down. For the last three years of his life, which was ended in the Lusitania disaster, 1915, he lived in Canada.

⸺ THE AULD MEETIN’ HOOSE GREEN. Pp. 260. (BELFAST: _M’Caw, Stevenson & Orr_). 1898.

Stories of the Co. Antrim peasantry. Time: thirty or forty
years ago. Imitative of the “Kailyard” school in England. An
intimate picture of Ulster Presbyterianism and its ways of
thought. Has both humour and pathos. Is offensive to no creed
or class. Ulster-Scot dialect true to life. Titles of some of
the stories:—“Two Little Green Graves,” “At Jesus’ Feet,” “The
Old Precentor Crosses the Bar.”

⸺ WHEN LINT WAS IN THE BELL. (_Unwin_). 1898.

⸺ BY LONE CRAIG LINNIE BURN. Pp. 153. (_Unwin_). 1900.

“Two series of local stories of the Scoto-Irish folk of Ulster,
the chat of village gossips, character-sketches of doctor,
minister, agent, and inn-keeper: quaint blends of Scottish and
Irish traits. Most of the tales of idyllic kind.”—(_Baker_).
The reviewer in the IRISH MONTHLY says of the second of the
above: “It is a wonderfully realistic picture of various grades
of social life in a little country town in the North ... giving
amusing glimpses of the working of practical Presbyterian
theology in the rustic middle class.... Leaves on the reader
a very remarkable impression of truthfulness and reality.”
In this second novel there is some humour and a good deal of
pathos. The same remarks apply here as to _The Auld Meetin’
Hoose Green_.

⸺ A BANKER’S LOVE STORY. Pp. 247. (_Fisher Unwin_). 1901.

The story opens in “the Union Bank, Spindleton” (the Ulster
Bank, Belfast), the various types of bank directors and
clerks being cleverly described—the mischief-making Blake,
the jolly Harry Burke, &c. The scene shifts to “Craig Linnie”
(Ballyclare), where George Dixon’s love story begins. He
is transferred to Ballinasloe (good description of the big
fair). Through no fault of his own he comes under a cloud, but
eventually matters clear up and all ends happily. The Author
knows his Ulster types thoroughly.

⸺ THE HUMOUR OF DRUID’S ISLAND. Pp. 127. (_Hodges, Figgis_; and _Mullan_, BELFAST). 2_s._ 6_d._ 1902.

Scene: “Druid’s Island” is Islandmagee, Co. Antrim. A series of
very short anecdotes told to one another by the Presbyterian
country people, in their peculiar Scoto-Irish dialect, and full
of the dry, “pawky” humour of the North. Gives glimpses of the
manners and life of the place.

=MACINNES, Rev. D.=

⸺ FOLK AND HERO TALES. Collected, ed. (in Gaelic), and trans. by; with a Study on the Development of the Ossianic or Finn Saga, and copious Notes by Alfred Nutt. Pp. xxiv. + 497. (_Nutt_). 15_s._ net. Portrait of Campbell of Islay and two Illustr. by E. Griset. 1890.

Gaelic and English throughout on opposite pages. The tales
were taken down at intervals during 1881-2, chiefly from the
dictation of A. MacTavish, a shoemaker of seventy-four, a
native of Mull. The tales are typical folk-tales, full of
giants, monsters, and other mythic and magic beings. They
are often quaint, imaginative and picturesque, but abound in
extravagance and absurdity. In Mr. Nutt’s notes (pp. 443 to
end) he studies chiefly—(1) What relation, if any, obtains
between the folk-tales current in Scotland and the older Gaelic
literature; (2) what traces of early Celtic belief and customs
do these tales reveal. They are very elaborate and scholarly.
Good Index.

=M’INTOSH, Sophie.= Born at Kinsale, where she resided for many years, until her marriage with Rev. H. M’Intosh, of Methodist College, Belfast. In her sketches she describes faithfully and vividly the people of her native town.—(IRISH LIT.).

⸺ THE LAST FORWARD, and Other Stories. Pp. 152. (_Brimley Johnson_). Five Illustr. by Jack B. Yeats. 1902.

Ten Irish school and football stories, with plenty of schoolboy
language and slang, told in lively, stirring style, never dull.

=McKAY, J. G.=

⸺ THE WIZARD’S GILLIE; or, Gille A’Bhuidseir and Other Tales. Ed. and transl. by J. G. McKay. (_St. Catherine’s Press_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1915.

A selection from the MS. collection of the tales gathered by
the late J. F. Campbell, of Islay (_q.v._), and preserved
in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh. The Gaelic and the
translation are given on opposite pages. Some of the titles are
“Donald Caol Cameron,” “The Carpenter MacPheigh,” “The Sept of
the Three Score Fools.”

=MACKAY, William.=

⸺ PRO PATRIA: the Autobiography of a Conspirator. Two Vols. (_Remington_). 1883.

The narrator, Ptolemy Daly, is a weak, conceited youth,
given to hysterics and poetry. Full of visions of Robert
Emmet, he joins the staff of “The Sunburst,” the organ of
an insurrectionary movement led by Phil Gallagher, a fine
character, evidently modelled on T. C. Luby. At the critical
moment Daly plays the traitor and decamps to England. Isaac
Butt and John Rea are introduced, under thinly disguised
names. Scene: Dublin and Wicklow. Written in ironical vein:
Daly’s only “Speech from the Dock” was on a charge of drunk
and disorderly. The Author was one of three brothers, all
well-known London journalists. He was born in Belfast in 1846.
Wrote also _A Popular Idol_ and _Beside Still Waters_.

=MACKENZIE, Donald A.=

⸺ FINN AND HIS WARRIOR BAND; or, Tales of Old Alban. Pp. 248. (_Blackie_). 2_s._ 6_d._ 1910.

Stories, arranged in a connected series, of the Fenian cycle,
adapted for children from twelve to fourteen or thereabouts.
Told in picturesque language, but perfectly simple and
direct. For the most part folklore, full of magic and wonder,
nine-headed giants and fire-breathing dogs. But here and
there the antique hero-tale appears, as in the Battle of
Gavra and the death of Dermaid. Localities mostly Scotch. The
illustrations (6 coloured, 34 in black and white) are charming
in every way. Picture cover.

=MACKENZIE, R. Shelton.=

⸺ BITS OF BLARNEY. (N.Y.: _Redfield_). [1854]. (N.Y.: _Alden_). 1884.

“A series of Irish stories and legends collected from the
peasantry,” familiar to the Author in youth (see pref.). It is
a volume of miscellanies. Includes three stories of Blarney
Castle told in serio-comic manner by a schoolmaster; some
local legends of Finn McCool, &c.; eccentric characters (the
bard O’Kelly, Father Prout, Irish dancing masters, Charley
Crofts, Buck English); Irish publicists; sketches of Grattan
and O’Connell (the former enthusiastic, the latter not wholly
favourable—O’C. “the greatest professor of Blarney these latter
days have seen or heard”). He speaks of O’C. from personal
knowledge. On the whole thoroughly nationalist in tone. The
Author, b. in Co. Limerick, 1809, educated Cork and Fermoy,
was a journalist in London, afterwards in New York, and wrote
or edited many valuable works, historical and biographical. D.
1880.

=M’KEON, J. F.=

⸺ ORMOND IDYLLS. Pp. 144. (_Nutt_). 1_s._ Paper. 1901.

Scene: Co. Kilkenny. Eight little sketches of peasant life,
pathetic and sad. In one a glimpse is given with knowledge and
sympathy of the work of a country priest.

=M’LENNAN, William.=

⸺ SPANISH JOHN. Pp. 270. (_Harper_). 6_s._ Eighteen v. g. Illustr. by F. de Myrbach. 1898.

Adventures of Col. John McDonnell from the Highlands, when a
lieutenant in the regiment Irlandia, in the service of the K.
of Spain, operating in Italy (1744-6). At the Scots College in
Rome, whither he had been sent to be made a priest, he had met
a young student, a Mr. O’Rourke. This latter, now a chaplain in
the Irish Brigade, saves McD.’s life on the field of Villetri.
Subsequently the two are sent by the Duke of York to Scotland
on a mission to Prince Charlie. They find that all is lost.
Characters admirably drawn, notably the humorous, warm-hearted,
heroic Father O’Rourke.

=“MACLEOD, Fiona”; William Sharp.= B. Paisley, 1856. Ed. Glasgow Univ. Spent his boyhood in the West Highlands and Islands and became imbued with love for things Celtic. Even as late as 1899 it was positively stated that, in spite of conjectures to the contrary, William Sharp and Fiona MacLeod were not the same person, and Mrs. Hinkson says in her _Twenty-five Years’ Reminiscences_ that she is not yet convinced that they were.

⸺ THE LAUGHTER OF PETERKIN. Pp. 288. (_Constable_). Four Drawings by S. Rollenson. 1897.

“A re-telling of old tales of the Celtic Wonder-World.
Contains: ‘The Laughter of Peterkin’; ‘the Four White Swans
(Sons of Lir)’; ‘the Fate of the Sons of Tuireann’; ‘Darthool
and the Sons of Usnach.’” Told in language of great beauty and
simplicity.

⸺ SPIRITUAL TALES. (EDINB.: _Geddes_). 1897.

⸺ TRAGIC ROMANCES. (EDINB.: _Geddes_). 1897.

⸺ BARBARIC TALES. (EDINB.: _Geddes_). 1897.

⸺ THE DOMINION OF DREAMS. (_Constable_). 1899.

⸺ THE SIN-EATER, and Other Tales. (_Constable_). 1899.

⸺ THE WASHER OF THE FORD, and Other Tales. (_Constable_). 1899.

⸺ The collected works written under the above pen-name (between 1894 and 1905). Ed. by his widow, and publ. by _Heinemann_ in seven Vols., 5_s._ net each. Three Vols. have appeared, viz.:—I. _Pharais; The Mountain Lovers_. II. _The Sin Eater; The Washer of the Ford_ (April). Pp. 450. III. _The Dominion of Dreams; Under the Dark Star_ (April). Pp. 438. The following are announced:—IV. _The Divine Adventure; Iona_, &c. V. _The Winged Destiny._ VI. _The Silence of Amor; Where the Forest Murmurs._ VII. _Poems and Dramas._

Some titles of the stories in these three vols.:—“Morag of the
Glen,” “The Dan-nan-Ron,” “The Sin-Eater,” “The Flight of the
Culdees,” “The Harping of Cravetheen,” “Silk o’ the Kine,”
“Cathal of the Woods,” “St. Bride of the Isles,” “The Awakening
of Angus Ogue,” “Three Marvels of Iona,” &c.

These books of Fiona Macleod’s are, for the most part, shadowy,
elusive dream-poems in prose, wrought into a form of beauty
from fragments of old Gaelic tales heard in the Western isles
(where the Author lived for years) from fishermen and crofters.
They are full of the magic of words subtly woven, of vague
mystery, and of nature—wind and sea and sky. He strives to
infuse into his stories the sadder and more mystic aspects of
the Gaelic spirit, as he conceives it. “I have not striven to
depict the blither Irish Celt.” But many of his stories are
simply Irish legends, _e.g._, _The Harping of Cravetheen_. The
Author thus describes his work: “In certain sections are tales
of the old Gaelic and Celtic Scandinavian life and mythology;
in others there is a blending of paganism and Christianity; in
others again are tales of the dreaming imagination having their
base in old mythology, or in a kindred mythopæic source....
Many of these tales are of the grey wandering wave of the
West, and through each goes the wind of the Gaelic spirit which
turns to the dim enchantment of dreams.” On the other hand,
some of these stories deal with life in modern Gaelic Scotland,
_e.g._, _The Mountain Lovers_, which, however poetically told,
is after all a tale of seduction. _The Winged Destiny_, amid
much matter of a different nature, contains several tales of
Gaelic inspiration.

=MACLEOD and THOMSON.=

⸺ SONGS AND TALES OF ST. COLUMBA AND HIS AGE. By Fiona Macleod and J. Arthur Thomson. Third edition. Large paper 4to. (EDINB.: _Patrick Geddes_). 6_d._ nett.

=M’MAHON, Ella.= Dau. of late Rev. J. H. MacMahon, Chaplain to the Lord-Lieutenant. Ed.: home. Has written much for various magazines and periodicals, and particularly on historical and archæological subjects. Has publ. about seventeen novels. Now resides in Chelsea.—(WHO’S WHO).

⸺ FANCY O’BRIEN. (_Chapman & Hall_). 6_s._ 1909.

A tragedy of city life centering in the betrayal and desertion
of Bridgie Doyle by Fancy O’Brien. Full of human interest,
careful and skilful study of character and motive. Catholic
in sympathy. “In its minor details the book is true to life,
photographic in its realism.” The story is of high dramatic
and literary excellence. In the account of the Easter Monday
excursion to Bray “the story of Bridgie’s undoing is told with
a rare combination of poetry, force, and restraint.”—(N.I.R.,
Aug., 1909).

⸺ THE JOB. Pp. 383. (_Nisbet_). 6_s._ 1914.

Sir Thady, a Cromwellian-Irish baronet, grows interested
in his Irish surroundings on his estate of Ballymaclashin.
He ceases to haunt the Bath Club, Piccadilly, and takes to
starting carpet factories (_The Job_). Many of the incidents
are furnished by the difficulties that beset the task owing to
the amateurish innocence of the baronet and the stupidity of
his local helpers. And besides there are the love affairs of
Sir Thady and the English Miss Devereux. The point of view is
Anglo-Irish, the “mere” Irish being regarded _de haut en bas_
as rather impossible, thriftless, poor people, in short, as a
problem to be dealt with philanthropically. The style is easy
and pleasant.

=MACMANUS, Miss L.= Holds a distinct place among Irish authors of to-day as being one of the very few writers of Irish historical fiction who write from a thoroughly national standpoint. Her books are straightforward, stirring tales, enthusiastically Irish, free from tedious disquisitions, but based on considerable historical research. She is a worker in the ranks of the Gaelic League, and in her Co. Mayo (Kiltimagh) home does much for the cause of Irish Ireland. She is interested in folklore, and some of the tales she has collected have recently been publ. in the FOLKLORE JOURNAL. Some of her stories in the Dublin weeklies deal in the weird and the mysterious. The following have been publ. by The Educational Co. of Ireland as penny pamphlets:—_In the High King’s Camp_, _A Battle Champion_, _Felim the Harper_, _The Prince of Breffny’s Son_, _How Enda went to the Iceland_, _The Leathern Cloaks_. She has publ. two serials in SINN FEIN: _The Professor in Erin_ and _One Generation Passeth_.

⸺ THE SILK OF THE KINE. Pp. 282. (_Fisher Unwin_). 3_s._ 6_d._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.00. 1896.

Scene: chiefly Connaught and south-west Ulster during the
Parliamentary Wars. The heroine is a daughter of the Maguire of
Fermanagh. Her capture by the Roundheads, her rescue from the
man-hunters by a Parliamentarian officer, her condemnation to
slavery in St. Kitt’s, and her escape, are told in vivid and
thrilling style. It is a story for young readers especially.

⸺ LALLY OF THE BRIGADE. (_Duffy_). 2_s._ 1_s._ (BOSTON: _Page_). 25_c._ 1899.

Adventures, during the War of the Spanish Succession, of a
Colonel of the Brigade, who, after many thrilling experiences,
distinguishes himself at Cremona, and marries a girl whom he
had met during the war under romantic circumstances. The tale
is lively and interesting, and makes one realize somewhat
of the intrigues and dangers of war.... Young readers may
derive a great deal of amusement and instruction from the
book.—(N.I.R.). Lally is a young captain in the regiment of
Dillon. “James III.,” Louis XIV., Prince Eugène, Marshall
Villeroy, and General O’Mahony all appear in the story.

⸺ NESSA. Pp. 147. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 2_s._ (N.Y.: _Benziger_). 0.60. _n.d._ (1904).

A tale of the Cromwellian Plantation, characterized by a simple
unpretentious style and considerable power of description, both
of character and scenery.—(_Press notices_). The little book
was highly praised by the ACADEMY and by the IRISH TIMES. It
is, of course, strongly national in sentiment. Scene: an old
castle near Lough Conn, Co. Mayo.

⸺ IN SARSFIELD’S DAYS. Pp. 306. (_Gill_). Illustr. 1907.

“A Passage from the Memoirs of Brigadier Niall MacGuinness
of Iveagh, sometime captain in Sarsfield’s Horse.” Scene:
Limerick during Siege. Includes account of Sarsfield’s Ride and
of the repulse of William’s assault. The plot hinges on the
disappearance of Balldearg O’Donnell’s cross, which Iveagh is
suspected of having stolen. The central figure is perhaps the
wayward and imperious Ethna Ni Briain. The story moves rapidly,
unencumbered by descriptions or digressions. The scenes are
vivid and dramatic. The Author’s play, “O’Donnell’s Cross,” is
founded on this novel. Publ. in U.S.A. (N.Y.: _Buckles_), 1.50,
under title _The Wager_.

⸺ NUALA. Pp. 322. (_Browne & Nolan_). 3_s._ 6_d._ Four Illustr. by Oswald Cunningham. 1908.

Tells how the only child, aged fifteen, of the head of the
O’Donnells, then in the service of the Austrian Government, is
entrusted by her father just before his death with the mission
of obtaining the Cathach, or battle-book of the O’Donnells,
from the monks at Louvain. On the way she passes through
exciting adventures, being captured by some of Napoleon’s
soldiers. Gen. Hoche figures in the story. Juvenile.

=MACMANUS, Seumas.= B. Mountcharles, Co. Donegal, 1870. Son of a peasant farmer. Was for some years a National School teacher, but subsequently turned entirely to journalism. Has written for most of the Irish papers and magazines and for many English and American periodicals. Is well known in the States, where he frequently goes on lecturing tours.

⸺ SHUILERS FROM HEATHY HILLS. Pp. 102. (MOUNTCHARLES: _G. Kirke_). 1893.

The Author’s earliest poems and three prose sketches:—“Micky
Maguire” (the last of the hedge schoolmasters), “How you bathe
at Bundoran,” and “A Trip with Phil M’Goldrick.”

⸺ THE LEADIN’ ROAD TO DONEGAL. Pp. 246. (_Digby, Long_). 3_s._ 6_d._ (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 2.00. [1896]. Second ed., 1908; others since.

Twelve short stories of the Donegal peasantry, full of very
genuine, if somewhat broad, humour and drollery. They are not
meant as pictures of peasant life. The dialect is exaggerated
for humorous purposes, and at times the fun goes perilously
near “Stage-Irishism.” But they are never coarse or vulgar.

⸺ ’TWAS IN DHROLL DONEGAL. (_Gill_). 1_s._ Third ed., 1897.

Eight tales dealing with the humorous side of the home-life of
Donegal peasants. A few, however, are folk-tales of the Jack
the Giant-killer type. Told with verve and piquancy and with
unflagging humour, but the skill in story-telling is naturally
not as developed in this as in the Author’s later work, drawing
a good deal upon humorous padding to aid the intrinsic humour
of the incidents.

⸺ THE BEND OF THE ROAD. (_Gill, Duffy_). 2_s._, 3_s._ (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.75. [1897].

This is a sequel to _A Lad of the O’Friels_,[7] but consists
of detached sketches, and is not told in the first person.
Most of the sketches are humorous, notably “Father Dan and
Fiddlers Four”; but there is pathos, too, as in “The Widow’s
Mary,” a scene at a wake before an eviction. The Introduction
is an admirable summing up of the peculiarities, emotions, and
vicissitudes of life in an out-of-the-way Donegal countryside.

[7] Yet seems to have been publ. before it. I give the dates as they are given (doubtless by the Author) in the _Literary Year Book_.

⸺ THE HUMOURS OF DONEGAL. (_Unwin_). (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1898].

Seven stories admirably told, and full of the richest and most
rollicking humour. In the first only, viz., “When Barney’s
Thrunk Comes Home,” is there a touch of the pathetic. It would
be hard to beat “Shan Martin’s Ghost,” and “Why Tómas Dubh
Walked,” and “How Paddy M’Garrity did not get to be Gauger.”
“One St. Patrick’s Day” gives the humorous side of Orange and
Green rivalry.

⸺ THROUGH THE TURF SMOKE. (_Fisher Unwin_). 2_s._ (N.Y.: _Doubleday_. TORONTO: _Morang_). 2.00. [1899]. 1901.

Simple tales of the Donegal peasantry. There is both pathos
and humour—the former deep, and at times poignant; the latter
always rich and often farcical. The Author writes with all the
vividness of one who has lived all he writes about. He has full
command of every device of the story-teller, yet never allows
his personality to show except, as it should, through the
medium of the actors.

⸺ IN CHIMNEY CORNERS. Pp. 281. (N.Y.: _Harper_). Illustr. by Pamela Colman Smith. 1899.

“Subtle, merry tales of Irish Folk-lore.”—(_Pref._). The
stories are very similar in kind to the same Author’s _Donegal
Fairy Tales_. There is the same quaint, humorous, peasant
language, the same extravagances and impossibilities. The
illustrations are very numerous. They are very brightly
coloured, but for the most part extremely bizarre.

⸺ THE BEWITCHED FIDDLE, and Other Irish Tales. Pp. ix. + 240. (N.Y.: _Doubleday and McClure_). 1900.

Ten short stories, humorous for the most part, but one, “The
Cadger Boy’s Last Journey,” moving and pathetic. They are
an exact reproduction in dialect and phraseology of stories
actually heard by the Author at Donegal firesides, and the
fidelity of the reproduction is perfect.

⸺ DONEGAL FAIRY STORIES. Pp. 255. (_Isbister_). 1902. (N.Y.: _McClure_).

Dedication in Irish and English. Thirty-four full-page pen
and ink drawings, signed “Verbeek.” These latter are quaint
and amusingly grotesque. The stories are folk-tales, told
just as the peasantry tell them, without brogue, but with all
the repetitions, humorous extravagances and naïveté of the
folk-tale. They are just the thing for children, and are quite
free from coarseness and vulgarity.

⸺ THE RED POACHER. (N.Y.: _Funk & Wagnalls_). 0.75. 1903.

⸺ A LAD OF THE O’FRIELS. Pp. 318. (_Gill_; _Duffy_). 2_s._, 2_s._ 6_d._, 3_s._ (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 2.00. [1903]. Third ed., 1906.

In this book one actually seems to have been living among the
childlike and quaint yet deep-natured, true, and altogether
lovable little circle of Knocknagar, and to have shared
its joys and sorrows. Every character described stands out
altogether distinct, old Toal a’Gallagher the sententious;
his wife, Susie of the sharp tongue; their son, Toal the
“Vagabone,” with his wild pranks; the grandiloquent “Masther,”
and all the rest. Through it all runs the simple love story of
Dinny O’Friel and Nuala Gildea, companions from childhood. The
book is full of deep, but quiet and restrained, feeling. The
description of the pilgrimage to Lough Derg has much beauty.

⸺ DOCTOR KILGANNON. (_Gill_). 1_s._ (Wrapper). Well illustr. 1907.

A string of loosely-connected after-dinner stories chiefly
about comic duelling and electioneering. Told with pleasant
drollery.

⸺ YOURSELF AND THE NEIGHBOURS. Pp. 304. (N.Y.: _Devin Adair Co._). Five Illustr. by T. Fogarty. 1914.

A picture by one who has lived it of the life of the Donegal
peasant—not their outward life merely, but their most intimate
thoughts and beliefs, hopes and joys, their whole outlook on
things. The Author is discerning and sympathetic in a high
degree. “Yourself and Herself” gives a Donegal man’s life
story from “the barefoot time” through love and marriage to
“evening’s quiet end.” Some of the remaining stories show
the Author’s humour at its best—the Homeric struggles of
the “priest’s boy” with the New Curate and the Tartar of a
postmistress, the “come home Yankee,” and so on.

=M’NALLY, Mrs.=[8]

⸺ ECCENTRICITY. Three Vols. (over 1,000 pp.). (DUBL.: _Cumming_). 1820.

An endless series of love affairs between charming ladies and
wealthy gentlemen, all of the upper classes, very proper, very
stilted, and dull. The eccentricity is on the part of an old
soldier who is a misanthrope and a hermit, but resolves to
return to normal life and renew acquaintance with his daughter.
He descends upon the friend’s family in which he has left her,
carries off another by mistake, &c. The plot never really moves
on.

[8] So the name is given on the title-page, and it seems improbable that this Author is the same as the Author of the following item, first because there is a difference of thirty-four years between the dates, and secondly because the two books are wholly unlike. But the B. Museum Catal. assigns both to the same person.

=M’NALLY, Louisa.=

⸺ THE PIRATE’S FORT. Pp. 210. (_Hodges & Smith_). 1854.

The fort is Dunalong, on Inisherkin, in Baltimore Bay, a
stronghold of the O’Driscoll’s towards close of 16th cent.
English ship captured. O’D.’s natural son, a ferocious pirate,
falls in love with captain’s daughter. She is true to her
English officer. The beautiful daughter of O’D. saves her
from his fury. Vengeance of the English—destruction of the
fort—double wedding of the two fair maids to two English
officers. A prominent rôle is assigned to money-grabbing, idle,
besotted Franciscan friar.

=MACNAMARA, Lewis.=

⸺ BLIND LARRY: Irish Idylls. (_Jarrold_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1897.

“Artless records of life among the very poor in West of
Ireland, the fruit of kindly observation, and, obviously,
essays in the _Thrums_ style. Larry is a poor blind fiddler,
whose one joy in life is his son, and he turns out a reproach
to his father. “Katty’s Wedding” is a very Irish bit of farce,
and “Mulligan’s Revenge” expresses the vindictive passions of
the Celt, an episode of jealousy and crime, alleviated at the
close by repentance and reconciliation.”—(_Baker_).

=MACNAMARA, Rachel Swete.=

⸺ SPINNERS IN SILENCE. Pp. 317. (_Blackwood_). 6_s._ 1911.

Fingal and Lutie are lovers somewhere in the wilds of Ireland.
Enter an Interloper (a danseuse of doubtful reputation),
who falls genuinely in love with F., and tries to win him.
She fails, and exit. The atmosphere is very ideal and the
language, especially the conversations, somewhat high-flown.
Author writes well, and is clearly sympathetic to Ireland. The
housekeeper cousin of “county family” status, with her genteel
notions, is well sketched.

=M’NULTY, Edward.= B. 1856, Randalstown, Co. Antrim. Ed. in the Incorporated Society’s School, Aungier St., Dublin, where he was a schoolmate and intimate of G. B. Shaw. Contributes to various periodicals—IRISH SOCIETY, THE OCCULT REVIEW, &c., and has written a play, “The Lord Mayor,” for the Abbey Theatre. Satirizes Irish failings, but is proud of being an Irishman himself. Resides in Ranelagh, Dublin.

⸺ MISTHER O’RYAN. Pp. 271. (_Arnold_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1894.

A priest, squat, red-faced, whiskey-loving, unspeakably vulgar,
and a ruffian to whom he is disgracefully related, organize a
branch of the “Lague,” and boycott a farmer who will not join.
The latter’s daughter dies tragically in consequence. The
typical “pesint” is introduced as cringeing, priest-ridden, and
wholly degraded. Impossible brogue throughout.

⸺ SON OF A PEASANT. Pp. 342. (_Arnold_). 1897.

A great advance on _Misther O’Ryan_, _q.v._ A tragic-comedy
of life among lower middle class people in a small provincial
town. The “son of a peasant” is Clarence Maguire, an obscure
young schoolmaster, who in the end comes in for great wealth
and all but wins the daughter of Sir Herbert O’Hara, an
impoverished gentleman. A sub-plot is furnished by the love
affairs of Constable Kerrigan and his determined efforts after
promotion. The plot affords the Author scope for many genuinely
humorous scenes, especially those in the Flanagan family, which
are admirably done, and for the clever portrayal of some of
the meaner aspects of human nature—class pride, servility, the
worship of the moneyed man, time serving, &c. The plot largely
turns on an absurd superstition about changelings. This leads
to the hideous tragedy of the close. The book is marred by a
travesty of the brogue. Otherwise it is not anti-national.

⸺ MAUREEN. Pp. 343. (_Arnold_). 6_s._ 1904.

Of the same type as _Misther O’Ryan_. One of the priests
introduced trades with a miraculous statue on the superstition
of the people; the other is a sleek, smooth fop, thoroughly and
heartlessly vicious. There is little else besides this in the
book.

⸺ MRS. MULLIGAN’S MILLIONS. (_Hurst & Blackett_). 6_s._ 1908.

A broad farce, with Irish people (of the worst stage-Irish
type) as actors, and a small, vulgar Irish town for scene.
Mrs. Mulligan is a very low species of tramp. She is supposed
suddenly to come in for a fortune, and her relations tumble
over one another in efforts to gain her favour—until the bubble
bursts. There is much caricature of Irish traits and manners.
Local journalism is specially ridiculed.—(_News cuttings_).

=M’SPARRAN, Archibald.=

⸺ THE LEGEND OF M’DONNELL AND THE NORMAN DE BORGOS. Pp. 213, close print. 16mo. (_Gill_). 1_s._ [BELFAST, 1829]. Still in print.

Writer (1795-1850?) was a school-master in Derry, who emigrated
to America in 1830, where he published _Tales and Stories of
the Alleghenys_ and _The Hermit of the Rocky Mountains_. A
tale of the struggles between O’Neills, O’Donnells, O’Cahans,
M’Quillans, M’Donnells, and other Ulster septs. Scene:
northern portions of Antrim, Derry, and Donegal. The work of a
half-educated man. A rambling story marked by frequent lapses
from literary good taste and numerous grammatical mistakes.
The peasantry talk in broad modern brogue, full of “arrah,”
“musha,” “tare-an-ouns,” &c. Shows a considerable though
undigested knowledge of Irish history and topography. The book
had considerable vogue both here and in U.S.A.

=MACSWEENEY, Rev. Patrick M., M.A.= One of the most erudite of Irish priests. Was Chancellor’s Gold Medallist in the Royal University. Was afterwards Professor of Mod. Lit. in Holy Cross College, Clonliffe. Is at present editor of the IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

⸺ THE MARTIAL CAREER OF CONGHAL CLÁIRINGHNEACH. Pp. lxvii. + 225. (_Nutt, for Irish Texts Society_). 1904.

Ed. for the first time with all the apparatus of
scholarship—critical study of the Tale or Saga, literary study
of the text, grammatical study, notes, glossary, and index. The
story belongs to the pre-Cuchulainn stage of the Red Branch
Cycle. Conghal is supposed to have reigned from 177 to 162 B.C.

=MACWALTER, J. G., F.R.S.L., &c.=

⸺ TALES OF IRELAND AND THE IRISH. Pp. 224. (_Farquhar Shaw_). 1854.

Wrote also _The Irish Reformation Movement_, 1852; _Modern
Mystery_, 1854, &c. The object of these three stories is to
point out the wickedness and the evil influence, especially in
Ireland, of the Catholic Church. In “Betty Bryan’s Fortune,”
Thady becomes a Protestant, and all goes well with him: the
sign of the Cross is called a charm; and there is a description
of Beltaine superstitions. In “The Terry Alt,” a girl is seized
just after marriage and immured in a convent for life: the
conspirators are a monk, a priest, and “Blackboys.”

=MADDEN, M. S.=

⸺ THE FITZGERALD FAMILY. (R.T.S.). 2_s._ Three cold. ill. by Victor Prout. 1910.

The family is left very poor on death of father, a C. of I.
clergyman. Rich and vulgar relations adopt Barry and Moya, the
former of whom becomes an unbearable bounder, the latter a
heartless flirt. The rest of the family remains very poor, very
good, and rather dull. There is an occasional mention of Irish
peasants and the Irish language. Apart from this, the persons,
their doings, and the atmosphere are wholly un-Irish. The story
has a moral purpose that is good and not too obtrusive.

=MAGENNIS, Peter.= A retired National School teacher. B. near Derrygonnelly, Co. Fermanagh, in 1817, the son of a farmer. D. 1910, aged 93, at his birth-place.

⸺ THE RIBBON INFORMER: a Tale of Lough Erne. Pp. 158. (LONDON). 1874.

An unskilfully constructed, rambling narrative, interspersed
with indifferent verse. The Author says in his Preface: “This
novel is founded on fact, almost every incident in it actually
occurred, and many of them within the recollection of the
writer. It contains local traditions and legendary lore. It
treats of highway robbery, illicit distilling, rural manners,
party feeling, and a rather disorganized state of society.”

⸺ TULLY CASTLE: a Tale of 1641. Pp. 266. (ENNISKILLEN: _Trimble_). 1877.

A very crude, rambling tale, bringing in a few incidents of
the Confederate War and several historic characters, but
mainly taken up with private love affairs, abductions, &c. No
character study and no real portrayal of the times. Occasional
vulgarity. Scene: chiefly the shores of Lough Erne.

=MAGINN, J. D.=

⸺ FITZGERALD, THE FENIAN. Two Vols. Pp. 576. (_Chapman & Hall_). 1889.

Deals with Fenian and Land League movements. The Author is
unacquainted with the history and organization of Fenianism.
The land agitation he represents as forced upon an unwilling
peasantry by a kind of murder-club in America. Scene: mainly
Co. Sligo. Parnell and Biggar are brought in under assumed
names, and are broadly caricatured. The portrayal of Butt
is truer to reality and less marred by bias. The Author is
uninformed and, on the whole, uncomprehending: hence some
absurd statements about things Irish, some objectionable (but
evidently unintentionally so) references to the Catholic
Church, and a quite impossible Irish brogue. But he is on the
whole not unfriendly to Ireland.

=MAGINN, William.= B. Cork, 1793. Ed. T.C.D. Began early to write for the magazines (BLACKWOOD’S, &c.), chiefly parodies and other _jeux d’esprit_. Went to London, 1823, where, in 1830, he established FRASER’S MAGAZINE, which with Carlyle, Thackeray, Maclise, Prout as contributors, for some years was at the head of English periodical literature. He fell more and more into habits of drunkenness, and engaged in disreputable journalism. Writing to the end, he died in 1842. Thackeray drew a portrait of him as Captain Shandon in _Pendennis_. Many memoirs of him have been written. His “Bob Burke’s Duel with Ensign Brady” is said to be the raciest Irish story ever written.

⸺ MISCELLANIES: Prose and Verse. (LONDON). [First collection, 1840]. Selections ed. by “R. W. Montagu.” 1885. (N.Y.: _Scribner_). 9.60.

Contains “Bob Burke’s Duel,” “The Story without a Tail,” and
other Irish stories, published in magazines between 1823 and
1842. These stories are told mostly in a vein of broad comedy.
Their characters are roysterers and swaggerers. Maginn was a
man of brilliant gifts. The fantastic humour and wild gaiety of
his stories give them an original flavour. Maginn was a high
Tory and an Orangeman.—(_Krans_). Dr. Mackenzie edited, in
1857, _The Miscellanies of William Maginn_ (5 vols.), published
in America. Contents:—Vols. I. and II. “The O’Doherty Papers.”
III. “The Shakespeare Papers.” IV. “Homeric Ballads.” V. “The
Fraserian Papers,” with a life of the Author.

=MAHONY, Martin Francis; “Matthew Stradling.”= B., Co. Cork, 1831. D. 1885. Was a nephew of “Father Prout.” Also wrote _Cheap John’s Auction_.