SOURCE: A preface to The Midnight Court: A Rhythmical Bacchanalia from the Irish of Bryan Merryman, translated by Frank O'Connor, Maurice Fridberg, 1945, pp. 5-11.

In the following essay, O'Connor suggests that the humor of "The Midnight Court" conveys a social message in line with the theories of such contemporaries as Rousseau and Savage.

Architecturally, the little city of Limerick is one of the pleasantest spots in Ireland. The Georgian town stands at the other side of the river from the mediaeval town which has a castle with drum towers and a cathedral with a Transitional Cistercian core and a fifteenth century shell, all in curling papers of battlements. Across the bridge are the charming Custom House with its arcade cemented up by some genius from the Board of Works; Arthur's Quay falling into a ruin of tenements, and a fine long street of the purest Georgian which ends...