MISREPRESENTING THE IRISH.

New Zealand Tablet, 15 May 1919, Page 19

MISREPRESENTING THE IRISH.

To the Editor, Sir, —I have just read a romance by E. Temple Thurston, the title of which is Enchantment, and as an alleged portrayal of Irish life and character it, to my mind, rings altogether false, and is liable to create a wrong impression, even amongst Irish-born colonials, not to speak of those who have no knowledge whatever of Ireland or genuine Irish types. In Enchantment the stock-in-trade decayed Irish estate and mansion in an extreme state of disrepair, which, it seems to me, might be “written off” with the stage Irishman, are again used up. and the owner of it is an Irish gentlemansave the mark—who never goes to bed sober, and “can carry his liquor like a gentleman”— the author’s words. As a matter of fact, according to the author’s conception, he is not a gentleman of any nationality, but a rather vulgar horse dealer and a confirmed dipsomaniac. He has several daughters, and the youngest, Patricia Desmond, is the heroine. The characters of the daughters are sketchy, but they are. not genuine Irish girls of any class. They are hoydens who run wild on the tumble-down property, “love a horse,” and under an assumed frankness of manner with a delicious Irish brogue—you know the sort in this class of fiction—are vulgar enough to discuss each other’s intimate characteristics with a young man, a stranger to them, on the first occasion of meeting him. Patricia’s mother dies in childbirth, and the author raises the terrible alternative as to whether the mother or child should be sacrificed to save the other. This would not concern us particularly, except that this family are. Catholics, and a “Father Casey” is dragged into the question, the theology set forth being, I venture to say, quite unsound. Patricia is vowed by her drunken father to the conventual life if the life of the mother is saved, and subsequently we have a travesty of what we Catholics know the nuns to be in every quarter of the world, though written from a “kindly” Protestant point of view. If you have had patience to read so far, dear Editor, I will tell you my object in troubling you. Is it not time that some protest was made against this class of fiction, or, rather, should not our own people and other people be educated to the absurdity of it ? Dickens’ characters were avowedly exaggerations, many of them caricatures, but they were faithful to certain types, and hence their value. Authors of E. Temple Thurston’s class write with the convincing air of giving you the real Irish type even to the brogue, and would consequently mislead those who do not know Ireland or the Irish people at Home. The cultured, refined Irish gentleman and gentlewoman, aye, and the truest man and woman are to be found in Dublin, in Cork, ,in Waterford, in Limerick, and in all the other Irish cities, and why are not their polished gifts, their high ideals, their genuine Irish character and nature, put before us, instead of the vulgar charlatanism which now does duty for the “Irish gentry” — hate the word. You may or may not think this worth your notice in the Table, and I am , sending you herewith a copy of the book to see if you think its perusal worth while. The theological part of it you may think worth dealing with. ; brvM-.-u a ■ , We look forward to the Tablet every week, and wish the paper and yourself all success and prosperity. - am, etc., ' P. J. DUNNE. ’ Ohakune, May 7. ■