For almost thirty years I had the privilege of knowing and working with Father Stephen Brown. During most of these years we were working on a new edition of Ireland in Fiction. New edition is hardly correct for what in fact he had planned was a second volume which would bring Ireland in Fiction up-to-date, provide for books omitted from the first volume and more detailed entries of books originally listed as anonymous, or only traced in title. It was quite clear even to such a tireless and enthusiastic worker as Stephen Brown that the task of providing a second volume was beyond the ability of one man. Realising this, he suggested to me that a small committee consisting of himself, the late Mr P J Stephenson, City of Dublin librarian, and the late Mr J T Dowling, and myself should get together and work on the projected new volume. Already a considerable amount of work had been done by a group of devoted readers. Our small committee met frequently at Milltown Park, but work was very slow, and in the end only Father Brown and myself were left to work on the projected second volume.

Working with Stephen Brown over the years gave me, I think, an insight into the formidable task that must have confronted him when he first embarked on a Readers Guide to Irish Fiction, published in 1910, and from which Ireland in Fiction eventually evolved. The task was infinitely greater and more difficult than the projected second volume we were working on, because in the first instance he was faced with the problem of going back to the 18th century and indeed earlier sources, and a greater number of the books noted for inclusion were entirely out of print, scarce, and very difficult to trace and locate. He often told me of the long weary hours spent in the British Museum searching through the catalogues, of the hours of reading books that were more often than not extremely dull and uninteresting, and very far removed from the reading he was used to, but read them he did.

His work in the British Museum, in the Bodleian and various libraries was brought home very clearly to me in later years when working with him on the second volume of Ireland in Fiction. I had prepared a list of little-known books which he intended to check in the British Museum during the summer months. He was then in his seventieth year, and his sight was poor. He worked for some weeks in the British Museum, and one day left to return to the Jesuit House where he was staying. As he stepped off the pavement opposite the museum he was struck by a passing car, and removed unconscious to St John and St Elizabeth Hospital, where he spent many weeks hovering between life and death. When he was sufficiently recovered to return to his beloved Militown Park he telephoned me, and I saw him in his bedroom. He could only walk with difficulty and his speech was slurred, but the thought uppermost in his mind was to get on with the new volume of Ireland in Fiction . I had most of the material, and as each few pages were typed I brought them to him for correction. Unfortunately Stephen Brown did not live long after his accident, and the last occasion I saw him was a few weeks before his death, but even then though enfeebled in mind and body he still spoke lovingly of the task of completing Ireland in Fiction . Writing an obituary note shortly after his death, I made the following comment: 'Father Brown's enthusiasm in the field of Irish bibliography lasted to the very end, and the writer of this note has had the pleasure and satisfaction of working with him on a new edition of Ireland in Fiction up to a few weeks before his death. This must now be completed without his aid, if for no other reason than that it should be a tribute to the memory ofa great priest, a great bibliographer, and a very great Irishman.'

Whilst the words written above referred to what in effect would be volume two of Ireland in Fiction, it can be said that the reprinting of Ireland in Fiction by Irish University Press is not only a tribute to Stephen Brown, but a recognition of the importance of this work now long out of print, and very difficult to obtain. Though one may have slight reservations regarding certain aspects of Father Brown's Ireland in Fiction , and feel, despite the disclaimer in the Introduction, his appraisal of books occasionally followed the principles which guided the Abbé Bethléem in his Romans a lire et romans a proscrire. Though Father Brown himself wished to be as objective as possible he could not entirely forget that he was first and foremost a priest giving advice, and much that was anti-Irish or anti-clerical pained him, and coloured his criticism. Much of what he called prurient would not be accepted as such by the average critic, and much that might be thought by him to be anti-Catholic, anti-Irish and anti-clerical is accepted less critically today.

Despite a slightly moralistic approach to the novel, Stephen Brown's Ireland in Fiction must remain a monumental work of more than ordinary interest, and in this regard one is constrained to quote the words of the reviewer in the Irish Book Lover who wrote 'Henceforth Ireland in Fiction takes its place amongst those books for all time which, emphatically, no library worth the name, can be without.' Unfortunately most libraries were constrained to do without this book, for the bulk of the first edition perished in the flames of Easter week 1916, but as the reviewer in the Irish Book Lover rightly states the author with commendable zeal immediately commenced to repair the loss, and embraced the opportunity of bringing the work up-to-date. The second edition published in 1919 has been out of print for many years and is in fact a collector's piece. A new reprint is more than welcome, and will help to fill a vacant place in all libraries, as well as providing the bibliographer with a work of exceptional importance, and the student of Irish literature and literature dealing with Ireland, with a comprehensive guide, even though the works dealt with are novels, for the novelist, intentionally or otherwise, depicts the contemporary scene and blends fact with fiction from which we may often learn more than we might from the more erudite works of the historian.

In closing this Introduction I sincerely hope that in the not too distant future when the second volume of Ireland in Fiction is published by Irish University Press the sure hand of Father Stephen Brown will be as evident as it is in this reprint.

Introduction to reprint of Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore , July 1968