The Collected Stories Volume 1 Books by LIAM O'FLAHERTY published by WOLFHOUND PRESS FICTION Famine Short Stories: The Pedlar's Revenge The Wilderness Skerrett Insurrection The Assassin The Ecstasy of Angus Thy Neighbour's Wife The Black Soul The Informer Mr Gilhooley The Collected Stories AUTOBIOGRAPHY Shame the Devil FOR CHILDREN The Test i!f Courage All Things Come of Age OTHER A Tourist's Guide to Ireland Liam O'Plaher~y: A Descriptive Bibliography~( His Works (George J~fferson) Liam O'Plaher~y's Ireland (Peter Costello) The Letters ofLiam O'Plaher(y (Edited kv A.A. Kel(y) The Collected Stories Volume 1 Edited and introduced by A.A. Kelly Palgrave Macmillan LIAM O'FLAHERTY: THE COLLECI'ED STORIES Copyright © 1999 by Liam O'Fiaherty Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1999 978-0-312-22903-0 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or produced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address: St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1999 ISBN 978-1-349-62699-1 ISBN 978-1-137-07257-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-07257-3 (Volume 2: ISBN 978-0-312-22904-7 Volume 3: ISBN 978-0-312-22905-4 Three-volume set: ISBN 978-0-312-22906-1) Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data O'Fiaherty, Liam, 1896- [Short stories] The collected stories I Liam O'Fiaherty; edited by A.A. Kelly. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-22904-7(cloth: v. 2).- ISBN 978-0-312-22905-4(cloth: v. 3) 1. Ireland-Social life and customs-Fiction. I. Kelly, A.A. (Angeline A.) II. Title. PR6029.FSA6 1999 823' .912-dc21 99-41722 CIP Contents Introduction 9 Spring Sowing 11 Bas na Bo 17 The Cow's Death 20 Benedicamus Domino 23 The Wave 28 The Tramp 31 The Rockfish 41 The Landing 44 Beauty 50 The Blackbird 53 Selling Pigs 56 Blood Lust 62 His First Flight 65 An Charraig Dhubh 68 A Shilling 71 Three Lambs 74 A Pig in a Bedroom 78 The Wren's Nest 83 The Black Mare 86 An Fiach 91 Sport: The Kill 93 The Sniper· 96 Two Dogs 100 The Hook 103 The Doctor's Visit 106 The Wild Sow 113 A Pot of Gold 116 The Fight 122 Colic 126 Josephine 130 The Struggle 136 Wolf Lanigan's Death 138 The Black Bullock 145 The Bladder 149 Going into Exile 152 Pod 161 The Tent 163 Milking Time 170 Blackmail 173 The Conger Eel 180 Civil War 183 The Foolish Butterfly 189 The Wild Goat's Kid 192 The Terrorist 198 The Old Hunter 202 Offerings 210 The Jealous Hens 213 The Fireman's Death 216 Stoney Batter 219 The Wounded Cormorant 227 The Inquisition 230 Daoine Bochta 235 Poor People 238 The Tyrant 242 The Lost Thrush 247 The Outcast 250 A Red Petticoat 254 Trapped 261 Mother and Son 267 The Stolen Ass 270 Charity 274 The Sensualist 277 Your Honour 284 At the Forge 288 The Wing Three-Quarter 291 The Reaping Race 297 The Mountain Tavern 303 The Blackbird's Mate 310 The Oar 315 The Ditch 320 It was the Devil's Work 330 An Seabhac 337 The Hawk 342 The Painted Woman 346 Sources 367 Volume II Contents: Introduction, Red Barbara, Birth, Prey, Mackerel.for Sale, The Fall of Joseph Timmins, The Fairy Goose, The Alien Skull, The Sinner, The Black Rabbit, The Letter, The Little White Dog, The Stream, The Strange Disease, The Stone, The Child of God, The Renegade, The Last Horse, Making a Home, Non-Stop, Pay on Cruiser, The Lost Child, Two Love~y Beasts, An Luch6g, The Mouse, The Bath, Teangabhail, The Touch, An Chearc Uisce, The Water Hen, The Flute-Player, An Beo, Life, Grey Seagull, The Lament, Light, The Tide, The Challenge, The Seal, An Chulaith Nua, The New Suit, The Wedding, The Parting, The Eviction, The Old Woman, The Beggars, Galway Bay, A Public Scandal, The Night Porter, An Extraordinary Case, A Dublin Eviction, One Hundred Pounds, The Library, Unclean, The Wild Swan, Brosnan, Sources. Volume III Contents: Introduaion, The Test of Courage, Oifig an Phoist, The Post Office, An Scathan, The Mirror, An Buille, The Blow, Moving, The Intellectual, The Cutting of Tom Bottle, The Cake, The Backwoodman 's Daughter, Idle Gossip, Limpets, The Aa·ident, The Good Samaritan, The Tinkerwoman 's Child, In Each Beginning is an End, A Public House at Night, Tidy Tim's Donkey, Indian Summer, A Grave Reason, The Black Cat, An Ounce of Tobauo, Di:til, Desire, Match-making, Dioltas, The Pedlar's Revenge, All Things Come r~f Age, Mearbhall, The Fanatic, Patsa, or the Belly of Gold, Wild Stallions, The Mermaid, Uisce Faoi Dhraiocht, Enchanted Water, Lovers, The Flood, The Salted Goat, The White Biuh, Proclamation, Field of Young Corn, The Blacksheep's Daughter, For Love or Money, An tAonach, A Tin Can, Bohunk, A Crow Fight, King of Inishcam, Timoney's Ass, Fishing, The Arrest, The Caress, Sources. LIAM O'FLAHERTY Born in 1896 on lnishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands, Liam O'Flaherty grew up in a world of awesome beauty, echoes from his ancestors and the ancient pagan past. From his father, a Fenian, O'Flaherty inherited a rebellious streak; from his mother, a noted seanchai, came the deep spirituality and love of nature that has enraptured readers through the decades. In France in 1917, O'Flaherty was severely shell-shocked. After eight months' recuperation, he spent several restless years travelling the globe. In 1920 he supported the Republican cause against the Free State government. Influenced by the Industrial Workers of the World's programme of social revolution, O'Flaherty organised the seizure and occupation of the Rotunda Theatre at the top of Dublin's O'Connell Street in 1922. He hoisted the red flag of revolution, calling himself the 'Chairman of the Council of the Unemployed', but fled three days later to avoid bloodshed. Later that year he moved to London, where his writing skills came to the attention of critic Edward Garnett, who recommended to Jonathan Cape the publication of O'Flaherty's first novel. For the next two decades, O'Flaherty's creative output was astonishing. Writing in English and Irish, he produced novels, memoirs and short stories by the dozen. Remarkable for their literary value and entertainment, O'Flaherty's books are also crucial in their charting of the ways and beliefs of a peasant world before it was eclipsed by modernity. Like the work of many authors of his time much of O'Flaherty's work was banned in Ireland. Liam O'Flaherty died in Dublin in 1984, aged 88 years, having enriched forever Irish literature and culture. A.A. KELLY was born in London of Irish/Scottish parentage. She has a Doctorate in English Literature and has taught and lectured in Europe and the US. Her published work includes: (as author) Mat:v Lavin: Quiet Rebel, Liam O'Flaher~y: The Stot:yteller and Joseph Campbell: A Critical Biography(with Norah Saunders); (as editor) Wandering Women: T1Po Centuries of Travel out of Ireland, Pillars of the House: An Anthology of Verse by Irish Women .from 1690 to the present, The Wtlderness by Liam O'Flaherty, The Pedlar's Revenge and Other Stories by Liam O'Flaherty (selected and introduced), The Wave and Other Stories by Liam O'Flaherty (selected and introduced), and The Letters of Liam O'Flaher~y (selected and introduced). INTRODUCTION Here for the first time readers can enjoy the whole body of Liam O'Flaherty's short-story writing, composed 1922-1958. The stories are not presented in any particular order. Those curious about their dates of publi- cation can refer to the source where each title is listed either under its first collection or, if uncollected, under first publication. George Jefferson's bibli- ography of O'Flaherty (Wolfhound, 1993) gives further details. Most of these stories have previously been published in seven different collections ( 1922-1976), plus one Irish language collection of eighteen stories Duil (Sairseal agus Dill, 1953). Irish stories have here been placed next to their English language version with the exception of 'Fod' (uncollected), 'An tAonach' and 'An Charraig Dhubh (never translated). At least two of the Irish stories 'Daoine Bochta' and 'An Fiach' (both written in 1925) were originally composed in Irish. The other stories in Irish were translated or re- composed into their English language version. Until the 1950s it was difficult to get Irish language work published. Those new to O'Flaherty will soon notice the contrast between his lyrical, somewhat mystical, and his brutally realistic work. He is best known for his depiction of nature and life on Aran. His deep love and understanding of nature, the islanders and their way of life in his youth, are unique and will endure. He also enjoys writing about off-beat characters such as Patsa or Stoney Batter, and the excitement of the chase or race-course. Tempered in that crucible of the Battle of the Somme, horrors emerge at times and are expressed in the stark. realism shown by his half dozen war stories, the first of which, 'The Sniper' (1922), brought him his initial fame. Since I wrote the introduction to The Pedlar's Revenge collection (1976) more stories have come to light, such as 'The Cutting of Tom Bottle', tucked away in an unknown 1933 miscellany, and the manuscripts of 'One Hundred Pounds' and 'For Love or Money'. Others were discovered in research con- nected with editing O'Flaherty's collected letters (Wolfhound, 1996 ). At the age of seventy-eight O'Flaherty wrote 'my rose has still too many thorns of unfulfilled desire', yet he wrote no more short stories after the age of about sixty. The mysterious creative impulse, so painfully ardent a fire in his youth and middle age, cooled to leave these immortal embers. His work lives yet. A.A. Kelly