The Project Gutenberg EBook of Irish Books and Irish People, by Stephen Gwynn

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Title: Irish Books and Irish People

Author: Stephen Gwynn

Release Date: August 8, 2007 [EBook #22264]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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IRISH BOOKS
AND IRISH PEOPLE

By

STEPHEN GWYNN.

DUBLIN
The Talbot Press Ltd.
89 Talbot Street

LONDON
T. Fisher Unwin Ltd.
1 Adelphi Terrace

CONTENTS

Page
INTRODUCTION 1

NOVELS OF IRISH LIFE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 7

A CENTURY OF IRISH HUMOUR 23

LITERATURE AMONG THE ILLITERATES:

I.--THE SHANACHY 44

II.--THE LIFE OF A SONG 51

IRISH EDUCATION AND IRISH CHARACTER 65

THE IRISH GENTRY 83

YESTERDAY IN IRELAND 97

INTRODUCTION.

My publisher must take at least some of the responsibility for reviving
these essays. All bear the marks of the period at which they were
written; and some of them deal with the beginnings of movements which
have since grown to much greater strength, and in growing have developed
new characteristics at the expense of what was originally more
prominent. Other pages, again, take no account of facts which to-day
must be present to the mind of every Irish reader, and so are, perhaps
significantly, out of date. Nobody for instance, could now complain that
Irish humour is lacking in seriousness. Synge disposed of that
criticism--and, indeed, the Abbey Theatre in its tone as a whole may be
accused of neglecting Ireland's gift for simple fun. Yet Lady Gregory
made the most of it in her "Spreading the News," and Mr. Yeats