Alice Curtayne

Life
1901-1981; b. Co. Kerry, ed. England, m. Stephen Rynne 1935; works, chiefly biographical, include St Catherine of Siena (1929); Patrick Sarsfield (1934) [[Talbot Press ‘Irish Lives Series’]; House of Cards (1940); The Trial of Oliver Plunkett (1953); Irish Saints for Boys and Girls (1955), ill. Eileen Coughlan; The Irish Story: A Survey of Irish History and Culture (1962); Francis Ledwidge (1972); ed. Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge (1974); and Lough Derg (Omagh 1976) - which includes a disparagement of William Carleton (pp.81-82). IF2 DIW OCIL

 

Works

The Irish Story: A Survey of Irish History and Culture (Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds 1962), 176p. [Notes and Suggested Reading, pp.164-68]; index, pp.169-76]. CONTENTS: Chap. I, Heroes of the Celts [9]; Chap. II, Ireland Goes Christian [19]; Chap. III, The Art of the Golden Age [32]; Chap. IV, The Descent of the Vikings [43]; Chap. V, The Two Archbishops [52]; Chap. VI Norman Conquest and Gaelic Recovery [63]; Cha. VII, A Martyr and a Soldier [viz., Dermot O'Hurley and Earl of Desmond; 75]; Chap. VIII: Another Martyr & Soldier [viz., Oliver Plunkett & Patrick Sarsfield; 90]; Chap. IX, The Penal Night [107]; Chap. X, O’Connell, Davitt and Parnell [121]; Chap. XI, 1916 [133]; Chap. XII, Forty Years fo Freedom [145]; Chap. XIII, Literature in Twentieth-Century Ireland [154]. NOTES [164]; INDEX [169]. See quotations from the above (Irish Story) under Aongus Ruadh Ó Dálaigh, Patrick Sarsfield, Count Redmond O'Hanlon, James Joyce, J. K. Whitaker, et al.

 

Quotations
Alice Curtayne, The Irish Story: A Survey of Irish History and Culture (Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds 1962): ‘After a slow start, during which people were confused and inhibited by political catch-cries, aftermath of the troubled years, a wave of national efort at cultural reconstruction is now sweeping the country. There is a new clamour for the products of all creative workers, which is evoking a response. Every year sees some exciting development - it may be a set of stained glass windows in a church, a book in Irish, or an original play. No one knows to what crest this wave may yet carry us.' (p.163; End)

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References
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), gives details: m. Stephen Rynne; lecturer and critic, b. Tralee, ed. Southampton & Italy; works incl. Catherine of Siena (1942); Labourers in the Vineyard; Sarsfield; Borne on the Wind; Lough Derg; Trial of Oliver Plunkett; writes reviews for The Furrow; lists The House of Cards (Dublin 1940) [Irish orphan grows up to become secretary of a Milanese industrialist and, having gained all, finds it is worth nothing compared with home].

Whelan Books (Cat. 1932) lists The Trial of Oliver Plunkett (London: Sheed & Ward 1953), and The Irish Story: A Survey of Irish History and Culture (Clonmore & Reynolds 1962).

University of Ulster Library holds Francis Ledwidge, 1887-1917 (1972) PR 6023; Oliver Plunkett (1953), Catherine of Siena (1952 [rep.]), and St. Patrick’s Purgatory [at] Lough Derg (Anthonian Press, Dublin 1933). ANJ, ‘excellent biography’ of Francis Ledwidge [Anglo-Irish Literature, 1980, p.185]; and see praise for same from Seamus Heaney, under Ledwidge, q.v.

 

Notes
Lough Derg (Monaghan: R&S Printers 1968), argues that hagiographies of St. Patrick permit the speculation that the saint was in the Lough Derg region during his missioin in spite of the deficit of specific biographical record to that effect in those books.

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