Father Clancy. "7 A. Fremdling. (Duckworth and Co. 6s.)— Mr.
Fremdling's story belongs to an unfamiliar category of Irish fiction,—that in which Irish writers paint their fellow- countrymen in decidedly unattractive colours. The Ireland that Mr. Fremdling lays bare to us with uncompromising realism is mean, squalid, and servile, overridden by grasping priests at once fanatical and immoral. It is true that Father Clancy himself is a gentle, guileless, open-handed, and unselfish character, but his blundering guilelessness is exploited by his flock to aggravate the very evils he seeks to cure. It is obvious that many of the dramatis personae are drawn from the quick, but that does not render the book pleasanter reading. Father Clancy, in short, may be described as an able but decidedly painful addition to the literature of Anti-Clericalism, of which Mr. McCarthy's studies are the most conspicuous examples.
Previous page
