Padraic Colum - A serenity prevails throughout this novel. Perhaps it is a serenity inherent in the life of a humble Irish village combined with the sensitivity, poetically transcribed, of Colum. An almost classical story on universal and particular levels written with understanding and compassion for people, Irish folk, and youth

Padraic Colum, The Flying Swans, Crown Publishers, 1957.


A serenity prevails throughout this novel. Perhaps it is a serenity inherent in the life of a humble Irish village combined with the sensitivity, poetically transcribed, of Padraic Colum. At any rate this is an almost classical story on universal and particular levels written with understanding and compassion for people, Irish folk, and youth. The growth of Ulick O'Rehill as he passes from childhood to early manhood is framed by the circumstances of his parents' marriage. Robert O'Rehill married below his station at the expense of his future, for he relinquished his share of the Moylough fortune in so doing. Fraught with guilt and a discreet connection with another woman, he abandons his young son and his pregnant wife, leaving them virtually to fend for themselves in the hostile arena of haughty in-laws. Unloved and unwanted Ulick's mother, Saba, leaves the O'Rehills to return to the house of her father, Breasal O'Breasal and to raise her two sons fatherless in the midst of probing and often cruel curiosity. Saba's death, the return of Robert, the younger son's melancholia, Ulick's loss of his apprenticeship -these events come and go but the quest for self-discovery and justice persist. The memorable people whom Ulick loves or despises are genuinely Irish in tongue and manner, but one might find them in any country. A truly moving book for lovers of Irish literature. - Kirkus Reviews




Colum is better-known as a poet, playwright and recounter of Irish folk tales so this book – one of the two adult novels – he wrote – is relatively unknown, which is a pity, as it is a very fine story. It tells of the O’Rehill family, formerly Irish gentry but pushed out somewhat by their English colonial masters, but now – late nineteenth century – trying to get back. We follow, in particular, two members, father and son Robert and Ulick. Both father and son seem adrift, unsure of where they are going and what to do. Robert manages to alienate several of his family. He twice abandons his wife and children and shows a general lack of responsibility. Ulick struggles to help his abandoned mother and bring up his younger brother but he, too, cannot find his place and loses his way more than once. Colum tells a superb story, augmented with a large cast of colourful Irish characters.
https://www.themodernnovelblog.com/2019/04/26/padraic-colum-the-flying-swans/


This novel tells the story of Ulick (also known as Francis or Francie) O’Rehill and his family. We start with the family history. The O’Rehill family were a Catholic family of some importance. For a while, they owned land, even though Catholics in Ireland were not allowed to own land. Eventually, however, they lost the land and became tenants to English landlords. The locals, however, still considered the O’Rehills as the true owners and not the English landlord.
Robert, Ulick’s father, was the second son but, as his older brother, Tyrell, was considered too peasant-like, it was expected that Robert would make the good marital match and continue the family’s fortunes. Inevitably, he did not choose the woman his father had intended him to choose. He first had an affair with a cousin (it was illegal to marry a cousin). When that fell apart, he went to his uncle in France and stayed there three years. When he had a row with his uncle’s mistress, he had to leave but his uncle was very generous and he was able to buy a nice house on his return.
His interest was horse-breeding. However, neither his father nor his uncle approved of his essentially indolent life and approved even less when he married Saba, a herder’s daughter from a very undistinguished family. Robert decided to stand for Parliament but made the political mistake of being anti-clerical, which both upset the voters and his own staff. He lost and the costs of the loss were high. He was hoping his uncle would cover the costs but his uncle died and he mistress successfully claimed all the estate. Bailiffs came and the family was driven out. - The Modern Novel
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Selected Short Stories of Padraic Colum, Syracuse University Press, 1986.
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Colum's contribution to Irish letters is unique, because he alone of the early giants of the Irish Literary Revival was Roman Catholic, peasant born, and country bred. His literary themes are tributes to the indomitable Irish spirit, the natural nobility of the Irish peasant, the ancient folk customs of the countryside, and the poetic beauty of Irish English.


The thirteen tales in this anthology are fine examples of Colum's special contribution to Irish fiction. Publishers Weekly

These 13 early stories by Padraic Colum ''are in the main vignettes, chapters in the lives of the Irish peasantry at the turn of the century,'' Thomas Lask said in The Book Review in 1985. ''The writing is informal, uncluttered, colloquial with those precise images and turns of phrase that could have easily been shaped into formal verse.'' T- he New York Times Book Review

Should be added to the holdings of any library that services even the rudiments of a program in Irish studies. - Choice

Colum's soul obviously was on fire and the words tumble out as only an Irishman can fling them. - The San Antonio Express News


Colum was born in Longford, where his father was workhouse master, on 8 December 1881. At seventeen he became a clerk in the Irish Railway Clearing House in Dublin, but left in 1904 determined to make a living through writing. His first poems appeared in The United Irishman, edited by Arthur Griffith. The Saxon Shillin' (1902) won a competition for a play to discourage young Irishmen from joining the British army.
Colum acted with the new Irish National Theatre Society, but after his play Broken Soil was staged in 1903, he concentrated on writing. He was one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre, where his realistic peasant drama The Land (1905) was an early success. Thomas Muskerry (1910) was also staged by the Abbey, but thereafter Colum failed to fulfil his early promise as a dramatist. His first book of verse, Wild Earth, appeared in 1907, with lyric poems like 'The Plougher', 'A Drover' and 'An Old Woman of the Roads'. He married in 1912, and in 1914 the Colums sailed to America, soon entering New York literary circles. Colum began to write children's stories for the Sunday Tribune, which led to a collection, TheKing of lreland's Son (1916), followed over theyears by the many children's books which overshadowed his other work. New poems appeared in an American edition of Wild Earth (1916), including tlhe popular 'She Moved Through the Fair'. In 1922 the Hawaiian legislature commissioned Colum to write for children the islands' folklore, three volumes resulting from his visit. A book of verse, Dramatic Legends (1922), was followed by his first novel, Castle Conquer (1923), set in an impoverished nineteenth century, as was The Flying Swans (1937). Of the later collections of verse, Irish Elegies (1958) is interesting for its portraits of Roger Casement, Griffith, James Joyce and others. The Colums lived in France in the early 1930s, Colum renewing an old friendship with Joyce, for whom he typed parts of Finnegans Wake. On returning to America, they both taught comparative literature at Columbia University, becoming US citizens in 1945.When Mary Colum died in 1957, Colum completed their anecdotal Our Friend James Joyce (1958). In 1959 he published Ourselves Alone, a biography of Griffith begun many years earlier. Colum died in Enfield, Connecticut, on 11 January 1972.
- http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/people/writers/pcolum.shtm