Darby O'Gill and the Good People

Rating:
Summary: A forgotten treasure
Review: It took me many years of searching to find my 1906 edition of Herminie Templeton's (before she married Judge Kavanagh) adventures of that daring Tipperary man named Darby O'Gill among the Fairies of Sleive-na-mon. For many years after I guarded that volume as one of my most precious treasures. Now thanks to the kind folks at One Faithful Harp Press, I can have a copy that I feel comfortable lending to my friends or even giving to my boys to read.

"Darby O'Gill & the Good People" (along with "Ashes of Old Wishes" which was published more than 20 years later) is the basis for the 1959 Disney film "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" but it is so much richer than that charming children's film. It is a collection of fairy stories to be sure, but even more it is a celebration of Catholic Ireland, and the goodness and morality of the turn of the century Irish peasant.

If you can muster the accent, I urge you to read this book to your children aloud. They will never forget it.