THE HOUNDS OF BANBA.* A GREAL deal of the interest
of these short stories is derived from their being glimpses behind the scenes, behind the care- fully decorated drop-curtain which was the official version of affairs in Ireland in the few last years before the Treaty. Whether these experiences of a man who was " on the run " after the surrender at Easter, 1916, are those of the author himself is not a question pertinent to the value of the record, for it is sufficient that the book reads with the accent of truth.
Heroics are the perquisite of non-combatants, and it is natural that they should occupy a subordinate position in an account of the actual struggle. More interesting than these would have been, because it reveals the curious twist that living under some great stress gives a mind, is the story of the hunted man who flung caution aside in order to meet his fiancée. It is called " An Unfinished Symphony " because the narrator was " bagged " before he reached his journey's end. As an act of passion his break from cover would not have been remarkable, but the recklessness induced by continuous danger is of another and less understood nature. " Seumas " gives an insight into the reaction of the young Dubliners to the rising and executions of Easter Week. " The Price," though its semi-mystical conclusion is not very well turned, succeeds in fixing the impression of an event typical enough to come within the range of the historian—a Republican attack on a convoy and the subsequent reprisal by the Auxiliaries, the burning of part of the village from which the attackers came.
The book would demand less attention if it were not the work of an artist. Mr. Corkery has a style which is easy without being fluent and evokes the image of a scene without relapsing into the picturesque.
Previous page
