MacDONAGH, Thomas. Literature in Ireland. Studies Irish and Anglo-Irish.

Dublin: The Talbot Press, July 1916. Octavo. First edition, second issue. pp. xiii, [1], 248. Blue cloth, lettered in blue, gilt decoration on upper cover. A very good copy.
First edition, second issue (July 1916) of MacDonagh’s major work of criticism, issued scarcely two months after his execution for his part in the Easter Rising, and quickly assumed as a memorial to the poet-teacher and revolutionary. In these essays MacDonagh sets out a spirited programme for a national literature, taking the long view from the Gaelic inheritance to the Anglo-Irish tradition. He writes with clarity about metrics and prosody, about the ballad and the oral tradition, and about the great intermediaries Swift, Goldsmith, Moore, Yeats, and Synge who fashioned a distinctive literature from Irish speech and experience.

[CAT 162]