Irishmen and Sensitiveness.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14895, 7 February 1914, Page 10

Irishmen and Sensitiveness.

The riot in a West of Ireland town because tho inhabitants identified it wrth the Ballymoy of George A. Birmingham's '"General John Regan," which an unfortunate theatrical company wished to play there, is another proof of the super-sensitiveness of the Irish. It is the same super-sensitive-ness that has been displayed in throe countries over "Tho Playboy of the Western World." Certainly Canon Hannay (to give him his real name, now w.ell known te his admirers), is not complimentary to Ballymoy. It figures in several of his delightfully humorous books, and its citizens, although vastly amusing at times, are not very edifying characters. Westport, Canon Hannay's town, appears to have regarded the attempt to present on tho local stage the amazing hoax perpetrated in "General John Regan," as the ultimate insult to the virtue and intelligence of the placo, and showed its resentment in what they say is the traditional Irish fashion. The sensitiveness of thb Irish is a fault which is not in keeping with their many and great virtues. 'Things that the English or tho Scotch would receive with a laugh, or tako no notice of, sot Irishmen talking and writing furiously, and throwing things. The incident ngnin raises the question whether tho Irish, as a nation, really have the sense of humour often credited to them. Mr G. B. Shaw (himself an .Irishman), and others before him, maintain that they have not. Mr Shaw considers the Englishman the romantic type, and the Irishman a man of gloomy and practical seriousness. It tho characters in Canon Hannay's lighter books are carefully examined, it will be seen that many of the people who seom so amusing to us, havo no sense of humour at all. The inimitable "J.J." in "Spanish Gold," and tho amaz-ng doctor and the servant-girl ir "General John Regan" have it, but Doyle, the publican, and Gallagher, the fiery journalist, are quite destitute of ■fhc saving grace And Canon Hannay knows hii characters. He has what "T'he Times" calls "an extraordinary " eye for the subtler characteristics of " Irish life,"' aud one feels at once on reading aboat Doyle that, making allowance for tho exaggerations of the satirist, he >s a man whom Canon Hannay nas known and studied. These lighter books of his are an excellent foil to recent idealistic literature about Ireland, which is cpt at times to approach perilously near tho ridiculous. He can apparently see little or nothing but humour in "six young men and "five young <vomen gathering in a "small room in a house in Chelsea to " discuss tho relationship between tho "genius of Mr Yeats and the soul of " Pagan Ireland." Yet in "Benedict Kavnnagh," one of his serious novels, he shows himself an almost passionate lover of Ireland, prepared to give all 'his sympathy to the man who surren-

ders an oa&y life among tho Dublin Castle party to go "West anu work with his hands among the real Irish people for the good of tho countiy. Tho tact is, thero are *wo "Pirmingha.-ns," and just now the satirical humorist holds the field. The caustic wind of his satire is .liscon.erting to schemers and sentimentalists.