Irish studies

The story of Frank O'Connor is that of a shy child from a Cork slum who becomes aware that there is something beyond the confines of his life and the lives around him, something grander. And with resolve and labor, he makes his way toward it. From his childhood to the time of his release from imprisonment as a revolutionary, O'Connor conveys the moral fortune and the tragic elements of life, that sparked his storytelling - a life he describes as a "celebration of those who for me represented all I should ever know of God."

Correspondence between the author and his parents, Helen Anne and Angus McGill Mowat, during the latter years of the Second World War.

"This anthology invites readers to experience five of the best new plays produced since 1993 in Ireland's famous Abbey Theatre."--BOOK JACKET. "Michael Harding's Hubert Murray's Widow, his fourth play for the Abbey, is a surreal nightmare revolving around a killing and a funeral. With a macabre sense of humor, he explores the sense of confusion and harsh reality of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland's border counties today."--BOOK JACKET. "Neil Donnelly has had five plays produced by the National Theatre Society since 1980. His comedy, The Duty Master, deals with an Irish-born school teacher who has rejected his roots to the extent that he has become "more English than the English." Marital strife, combined with a visit from his brother to the exclusive public school north of London where he works, results in his being forced to reconsider his personal and national identity."--BOOK JACKET. "In Asylum! Asylum! Donal O'Kelly explores the mysteries and horrors of Irish Asylum Law (or the lack of it). With humor, compassion, and anger, O'Kelly presents the plight of an illegal African immigrant."--BOOK JACKET. "Niall Williams's A Little Like Paradise depicts with hope and humor the regeneration of a small Western Irish town unknown to the European community and ignored by Dublin."--BOOK JACKET. "The final play in the collection, Tom Mac Intyre's Sheep's Milk on the Boil is set on a remote island off the Irish coast."--BOOK JACKET.

Frank O'Connor (1903-1966) is known primarily for his short stories, and fine ones they are. There are seventeen of them in this Reader, and the best of them, in the words of Richard Ellmann "stir those facial muscles which, we are told, are the same for both laughing and weeping." Except for the masterpiece, "Guests of the Nation," the stories included here have been out of print for twenty years, and one story had been previously unpublished. But this is a Reader and it celebrates the creative diversity of one of this century's finest writers. Here one can also sample O'Connor's skillful translations of Irish poetry, including "The Lament for Art O'Leary." There are a number of self-portraits, including "Meet Frank O'Connor" and "Writing a Story-One Man's Way." The final section includes a number of O'Connor's finest essays, from pieces on Yeats, Joyce, and Mozart, to ones on English and Irish pubs and one simply titled, "Ireland": "No one who does not love the sense of the past should ever come near us; nobody who does, whatever our faults may be, should give us the hard word."