Norwich bulletin., 1920-04-15
SEUMAS MAcMANuS CHARMS .s WITH IRISH FOLK LORE

With the beautiful dancing yellow blaze of the turf fire in an Irish cot tage pictured in imagination before his audience Wednesday evening in the hall at the Elks home, Seumas MacManus, the well known Irish writ CT and lecturer, charmed the packed hall with his lecture on Irish Folk Lore and Irish Fairy Tales. Like the Irish story teller in the chimney cor ner, MT. MacManus held his audience fascinated as he disclosed with poetic touch the beauty and appeal of just a few of these thousands of folk lore tales that have been told over and over again for the last two thousand years in the green glens of Ireland. The lecture was given under the l auspices of Mercier council, Catholic Ladies of Columbus, and was the first of its educational programme, as was ] explained by Miss Rosalie Riordan, i chairman of the educational commit tee, who presided and irtroduced Mir.
 MacManus.
 i The entertainment opened with sev.
 eral selections in Irish song, wei ren-
 dered as follows: The Minstrel Boy, Mrs. Morgan Cronin; Come BacI. to
 Erin, Miss Katherine Kirby; When
 Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Mrs. Eugene Connors: Killarney. Miss Sadie Dris-
 coll; Believe Me, Miss Eleanor Dono- van.
 l The beautiful art of story telling
 has never been forgotten or neglected in Ireland, said Mir. MacManrs as be opened his lecture. The story teller
 ranked third in the land, coming next after the poet who ranked second ,tc
 the king, and the story teller travelled
 around with a numerous retinue, wei. I rnrnod 6UarUUharo Not ,if fIa ,o,
 glen but had it's story teller. Moderr Ireland has lost none of its love ana
 reverence for the story tellef and hi
 art.
 The lecturer went on to i'lustrat, : the different types of folk lore. he.
 roic, romantic and fairy tales, al ] beautiful tales which he sti'd he ha, heard told hundreds of times as {
 child, youth and. the mountain school master, the proud position t , which he attained when he was eight } cen. At that period he reached tn height of his ambition, to return a
 principal, assistant principal. moni tor and janitor to the school wher he had received his own education and at the magnificent remuneratio , of s125 a year.
 Wherever you meet an Irishma you meet a hero. for the Irish yout
 have been fed and bred upon heroi lore, such as the tale of Connel Car ] naugh, captain of the Red Branc : Knights. which Mir. MacManus told 1 illustration of the hero tales.
 . The beautiful faith in the fairie 2 still remains with the Irish people, de clared the lecturer, and he has know A dozens among the mountains of Ire land who. have seen the fairies. In ' sympathetic spirit that held the clos est attention of his audience he .rc
 lated the story of How the Fairi,
 Came to Ireland. Irish folk lore mak. 6 the fairies angels who remained net tral in the fight between Michael an e Lucifer and as penalty were banishe '1 from heaven. but were given the v choice where they wanted to 2 3. Send us to Ireland. the nearest pla, : to heaven" they said to Michael. ar y he took them at their word. The Iris e people feel sympathy for these faiI - folk and still hope that God will ca
 them back to heaven. Irish fairies a e always helpful and only give punisl '- ment where punishment is needed. l. At this point MT. MacManus intr, q. duced to his audience the wonderf =, deeds of the little red man" of tl If Irish fairy tale as he related with e delicious touch of the brogue the fla !. of .Fair-haired John, and the hnmo i'd | ous children's fairy tale of Conn, ,- O'Donnell and "the little red fello,
 who shod. his horse at Connel
 forge. -,;
 te Passing on to mention the Fri, 1t ! proverb the lecturer said the matt
 was particularly rich in this respe