ABSTRACT
THE Editor of BELTAINE has assured me that it is necessary to give some definite information as to the basis of this play. If it was to be produced before a company of Kerry peasants, a single note would not be needed ; they would appreciate fully the masterful attitude of Fionn towards Grania, her unconcealed ill-will to Oisin, her suavity to gentle Caoilte MacRonan. But an ‘educated’ Dublin audience will need to be told who these people were ; for have not the most cultured and learned men of Trinity College declared that a finished piece of Irish literature does not exist? We must therefore assume that they have never opened the Ossianic dialogues, which, even in a crude translation, afford a perpetual fund of humour and philosophy. Briefly then I may give the outlines of the story that runs through a whole series of tales and poems.
