Life
Author of The Orangeman (1915), a sectarian novel set
in Monaghan and Cavan in 1821 and dealing with ’sufferings and dangers
incurred by Orangemen, a god-fearing, law-abiding, enlighted, progressive,
honorable population, at the hands of their ignorant, fanatical, and lawless
neighbours, the Catholics ...’; a Protestant girl is abducted
and placed in a convent, but rescued by a brave Protestant youth (see further in Brown - as infra). IF
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Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919) , gives an account of The Orangeman (Cincinnati: Montford 1915), 328pp. , set in Co. Monaghan and Co. Cavan in 1821 during the days of the Ribbonmen: ‘The burden of the book is the sufferings endured and the dangers incurred by the Orangemen, a God-fearing, law-abiding, enlightened, progressive, honourable population, at the hands of their ignorant, fanatical, and lawless neighbours, the Catholics, who are sunk in the grossest superstition, and given over to the tyranny of the priests, a class tainted, but in an enhanced degree, with all the formers' worst qualities. One of the main episodes is the abduction, with a view to immuring her in Cavan Convent, of a beautiful Protestant girl, Anne Yalnif [sic], who is finally rescued by a handsome and chivalrous young Orangeman. The hero of the story is one William Yalnif. The following is a specimen of the brogue as represented in this book:- “Oi have been told,” said Fildy [a Ribbonman who is on the verge of conversion, thanks to a chance-found bible] “that the first thing taught in the Boible is that God made mon in his own image. Now, a well-informed mon loike yerself wil undershtand at wance that it is not prastes he made in His image - God f'bid! Mon’s the wurrud that is used, and it ambraces the howl human race, which Oi suppose wud take in the prastes at a pinch.” There is a plentiful sprinkling of pig stories, shillelahs, and “ dhraps iv th' mountain dew,” to give Irish flavour and colouring.’ [End]
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