SOURCE: Casey, Daniel J. “The Instinct and the Art.” In Benedict Kiely, pp. 23-41. London: Bucknell University Press, 1974.

In the following essay, Casey notes the influence of William Carleton on Kiely's fiction and traces the development of his short stories.

Irish writers have made significant contributions to modern fiction, yet it is a seanachie's voice that can be heard in the work of some of the most accomplished of them. It is unmistakable in the stories of Frank O'Connor, Sean O'Faolain, Liam O'Flaherty, and others of the breed; it is unmistakable in the stories of Benedict Kiely.

Kiely admits to sometimes hearing a Gaelic folksinger accompanied by the wind in the bushes and the waves on shore, and he sometimes imagines himself rendering his tales in a sort of splendid isolation in a Gaeltacht cottage with fires dancing shadows off the walls. Nearly every story seems to revive...