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MY IRISH YEAR

exists in the country towns has not been fully shown. Still, if not representative of the whole of Ireland, "My Irish Year" is representative of a great part of Ireland. The life described may stand for the life of the Catholic peasantry. And the Catholic peasantry are not merely the bulk of the Irish population; they are, roughly speaking, the historic Irish nation.

Besides its geographical boundary, some readers may be aware of another boundary in this book. That boundary is in the writer's mind: his tradition puts him definitely with the peasant, the nationalist, and the Irish Catholic.

"My Irish Year" is composed of studies made while living among the people of the Midlands and the West. Some of these studies were published in The Manchester Guardian and The Nation, and the author returns thanks to the editors of these journals for permission to republish. Acknowledgments are also due to Messrs Chatto & Windus and to the Cuala Press, Dundrum—to Messrs Chatto & Windus for permission to include the "Horned Women," a story given in Lady Wilde's "Ancient

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