SOURCE: Butler, Pierce. “Revolution and Afterwards.” In Seán O'Faoláin: A Study of the Short Fiction, pp. 11-19. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.

In the essay, Butler traces the developing realism of several of O'Faoláin's early short stories.

O'Faolain's first collection, Midsummer Night Madness and Other Stories (1932), is concerned primarily with the experience of war. The stories are set in the Ireland of “The Troubles,” the War of Independence that culminated in the infamous Anglo-Irish Treaty that partitioned the country and the subsequent Civil War, from which the pro-Treaty faction emerged the victors. In spite of the seriousness of his subject, the tone of the stories is predominantly romantic and lyrical, as though O'Faolain were suppressing his anger and disillusionment in favor of a celebration of youth and the rugged beauties of the Irish countryside.

The narrator of the title story¹ is an idealistic young revolutionary sent...