ABHRÁIN GRÁDH CHÚIGE CONNACHT or LOVE SONGS OF CONNACHT: (Being the Fourth Chapter of the "Songs of Connacht"), Now for the First Time Collected, Edited, and Translated

London and Dublin: T. Fisher Unwin and Gill & Son, 1909. Fifth Edition. Vellum. Very good. First published in 1893, this bilingual anthology of Gaelic love songs was widely praised for capturing the untutored passions and language of the country people of western Ireland. Allusions to this work appear in James Joyce's Ulysses (1922). Hyde (1860-1949) was a distinguished Gaelic scholar and writer and the first president of the Republic of Ireland. He was the outstanding figure in the struggle for the preservation and extension of the Irish language from 1893, when he founded the Gaelic League (a nationalistic organization of Roman Catholics and Protestants), (truncated) until 1922, when the founding of the Irish Free State accorded the Irish language equal status with English. Octavo: viii, 158 pp. In the publisher's full vellum over cardstock, with three green silk binding ribbons, and black-printed ornament and hand-lettered uncial titling. Occasional faint staining to the bottom edge of the contents, with some neat underlining and Gaelic marginalia to the first few love songs, presumably in the hand of Séamus ó h Aodha, whose signature appears at the top of the first page of the preface. Armorial bookplate of Vincent Lloyd-Russell to the front pastedown. Some mild soiling to the vellum; otherwise very good. Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin. (Inventory #: 77891)