‘The Capuchin Annual’ (1930-33) / Review and Correspondence Volume

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A WELCOME FOR A NEW IRISH ANNUAL. The Capuchin Annual, 1930, edited by Fr. Senan, O.S.F.C. (Dublin: Father Mathew Record Office, 1s net.). This is the first year's publication of an annual that, I venture to think, aspires to higher and more ambitious aims than anything yet produced in its own sphere in Ireland. Under the able editorship of Father Senan, O.S.F.C., contributions received from many gifted Irishmen—including Cathal O'Byrne, recently returned from America—are suitably arranged, appropriately indexed, and finally produced in an artistic and tasteful manner. Altogether, this Annual is one of which Fr. Senan and everyone else connected with its production may well feel proud. Having gone through the volume from beginning to end, I find it hard to give readers an adequate idea of its contents, so wide is its scope and so diverse are the subjects treated. Perhaps the best way would be to give a list of the principal contents but the contributors are so varied and the authors so many that space considerations bid me refrain. Sufficient to say that they show that the Annual's contents cover a very wide field; literary, historical, religious, social, and even political articles of outstanding merit are included. The emigration problem is discussed from a new viewpoint by Seamus O'Donnabhain in his essay on "The Depopulation of Ireland." "It is very questionable," he writes, "whether the relative increase in the standard of living is not rather the result of general social improvement, better labour conditions, and the independent spirit engendered by the European War and our home wars, than the effect of a diminished population. . . . In Thomas Davis's time, the model County of Armagh supported more than one soul per acre, and as one-seventh of its area was uninhabitable, it was estimated then . . . that Ireland could support in at least frugal comfort no less than thirty-five millions." No proposal for dealing with emigration is put forward, the article being more a review of the problem in the light of present-day conditions than a proposed remedy. Nevertheless, the writer does suggest that the evil could be checked by a forceful policy of repopulation. It is a workable suggestion, and I recommend the article for the perusal of emigration experts. Premier among the contributions to the literary side is "Resurrection," a dramatic sketch, by the well-known Cork playwright, Daniel Corkery. Short though the playlet is, we have Corkery at his very best. The action is concentrated, and a very realistic portrayal is given of the tragedy, pathos and humour that was the life of the Irish peasant-cottier in the days of the Easter Rising. The nucleus of the book is a religious calendar for 1930, supplemented by illuminating and well-written notes on the differing phases of Holy Mass. Mr. Cathal O'Byrne, besides giving a few beautiful little lyric pieces, contributes a short sketch, "Mrs. Farrell Talks. Beauty," which is a genuine mirth-provoking cari…