The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Northern Iron, by George A. Birmingham

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Title: The Northern Iron
1907

Author: George A. Birmingham

Release Date: January 23, 2008 [EBook #24140]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NORTHERN IRON ***

Produced by David Widger

THE NORTHERN IRON

By George A. Birmingham

Dublin: Maunsel & Co., Limited

1907

TO FRANCIS JOSEPH BIGGER,

ARDRIGH, BELFAST.

_My Dear Bigger,_

_This story, as you have already guessed, is the fruit of a recent
holiday spent in County Antrim. The writing of it has been a great
pleasure, for almost every place mentioned in it recalls the goodness of
the friends who received me and made my holiday a happy one. I think of
kind people when I write of Dunseveric and Ballintoy--of hours spent in
their company among the Runkerry cliffs, the sandhills, the Skerries,
and of the morning on which I swam, like Neal and Una, into the Rock
Pigeons' Cave, I remember a time--full of interest and delight--spent
with you when I mention Donegore, Antrim, and Temple-Patrick. My mind
dwells on an older, a very dear friend and relative, when I tell of
Neal's visit to Belfast. And the book is more than the recollection of a
summer holiday. I go back in it to my own country--to places familiar
to me in boyhood as the mountains and bays of Mayo are now; to days very
long ago, when I caught cuddings and lithe off the Black Rock or Rackle
Roy and learned to swim in the Blue Pool at Port Ballintrae. Yet I know
that I could not, for all that I remembered of my boyhood or learned
during my holiday, have written this story without your help. You told
me what I wanted to know, you corrected, patiently, my manuscript, and
you have helped me to enter into the spirit of the time. For all this
I owe you many thanks, and if I have succeeded in writing a story which
interests my readers they, too, will owe you thanks._

_I have tried to be faithful to the facts of history and to represent
the thoughts and feelings of the men who took part in the_

"Out, unhappy far off things
And battles long ago,"

_of which I chose to write. Most