ricks though they are, did not come out of his
knowledge of Irish life. Knowledge of Ireland he ought to have, for he
is said to have lived for comparatively long periods in various places
in country as an excise officer. As such Mr. Boyle was himself one of
the principal types, that of the official, that exist in Ireland, and in
a position to learn much of many other types, surprisingly few of which
he has realized with any depth of insight in his plays.

It would seem with his great success seven years back and his newer
plays less effective, that we cannot look to Mr. Boyle with great hope
for the future, as we can to Mr. Robinson or Mr. Murray. When we so say,
however, let us remember that Lady Gregory did not attempt plays until
she was close on fifty.

MR. T.C. MURRAY

The North is generally held to be another country than the rest of
Ireland. Ulster is alien alike in race and religion and economic
conditions from Connacht and Leinster and Munster. It is Scotch Ireland,
Protestant Ireland, industrial Ireland. It is, moreover,--many of its
citizens say therefore,--prosperous Ireland. Certainly men would not
divide all Irishmen into "Irishmen" and "Scotch Irishmen" were there not
many grounds for such a distinction. All other of the immigrants into
Ireland have, as a people, disappeared. The Norman has left his mark on
the land in his castles and his names, but as a distinctive element of
the population he no longer exists, any more than does Welshman or
Englishman or Palatinate. Apart from distinctions of class the men of
Ireland are "Irishmen" and "Scotch Irishmen," and until yesterday,
therefore, Nationalists and Unionists.

[Illustration]

And yet, definite as are these distinctions, life in the various parts
of Ireland seems much alike, class for class, as it is represented by
the many contemporaneous playwrights, whether the scenes of their plays
are Down or Kerry, Galway or Wicklow. A tinker is a tinker wherever you
find him, a strong farmer a strong farmer, a landlord a landlord. The
same emotions dominate rival brothers in "The Turn of the Road" and in
"Birthright," though the Orangeman turned actor wrote the one and the
Cork schoolmaster the other. Mr. T.C. Murray is one of those to whom Mr.
Yeats has given the name "Cork Realists." His first play, "The Wheel o'
Fortune," was produced by the Cork Dramatic Society at the Dun, Cork,
December 2, 1909. It has not been published, so far as I know, and al