1881.



TRAITS AND STORIES

OF THE IRISH PEASANTRY.





INTRODUCTION.

It will naturally be expected, upon a new issue of works which may be
said to treat exclusively of a people who form such an important and
interesting portion of the empire as the Irish peasantry do, that the
author should endeavor to prepare the minds of his readers--especially
those of the English and Scotch--for understanding more clearly their
general character, habits of thought, and modes of feeling, as they
exist and are depicted in the subsequent volume. This is a task which
the author undertakes more for the sake of his country than himself; and
he rejoices that the demand for the present edition puts it in his power
to aid in removing many absurd prejudices which have existed for time
immemorial against his countrymen.

It is well known that the character of an Irishman has been hitherto
uniformly associated with the idea of something unusually ridiculous,
and that scarcely anything in the shape of language was supposed to