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April, 1920

EN years ago in Dublin it was safe to say that every young writer had the manuscript of a peasant play in his pocket, unless by happy chance the document lay in the archives of the Abbey Theatre, or was undergoing the erratic scrutiny of the Abbey Reading Committee. Since August, 1914, there has been a marked change in the trend of literary activity. First came the spell of political writing inspired by the sharpening of the conflict between Ireland and England. Jail journals and the narratives of Sinn Fein prisoners of war, followed by political and economic studies, engaged the energies of the press Censor, whose blue pencil hacked its way through pages of manuscript with the Schrecklichkeit inseparable from such undertakings. Since the armistice, that functionary has gone, abandoning us to the irresponsible efforts of the "competent" military authorities, who have suppressed, by dismantling the machinery, every daily and weekly paper guilty of the heresy of nationalism. We have to wait for the English papers to read matter which has been bayonetted out of the Irish press, for the raids on newspaper offices are always carried out by several carloads of soldiers in full trench equipment. Even a collection of speeches made by the Carsons, F. E. Smiths, and the like, in their Ulster rebellion campaign, has been seized, although bearing the imprimatur of the late Censor. The authorities believed that these incitements to armed revolt by Cabinet ministers should not be allowed to encourage the growth of similar sentiments amongst the mere Irish outside Ulster. An English edition of the booklet, entitled The Grammar of Anarchy, which has never been passed by any censor, is sold without any interference from the authorities, who are careful to limit their intimidation to Irish editors and publishers.

Whether as a result of these conditions or not, there has been a noticeable tendency to use the novel, rather than the political essay, as a means of expressing the struggles, hopes, and aspirations of modern Ireland. The dramatic possibilities of the Easter Rising