Sun and Wind

Standish James O'Grady (1846-1928) is known principally for his two-volume History of Ireland published in 1878 and 1880 and for his role in the Irish Literary Revival. He worked as a journalist on the Daily Express, the Dublin-based unionist newspaper, until 1898; after 1898 he edited his own newspapers and wrote for others including The Irish Worker. Edward A. Hagan is Professor of English at Western Connecticut State University. He is the author High Nonsensical Words (Whitston, 1986), a study of O'Grady, and edited O'Grady's To the Leaders of Our Working People for the Classics of Irish History series.

"a welcome republication, intelligently introduced by Hagan in such a way as to emphasise its purely utopian dimensions." Utopian Studies 16.1 2004 "O'Grady's Sun and Wind is well worth reading, whether from a historical, a literary or a general interest point of view. In it come together a number of trends which link the nineteenth with the twentieth century and that can still engage the reader today: social and political change, nationhood, religion, idealism, and childhood. It combines the romantic, the spiritual, the political and the personal, and presents O'Grady as a questioning and flexible thinker." Irish Studies Review 13 (4) 2005 "University College Dublin Press has now published over thirty 'Classics of Irish History'. These contemporary accounts by well known personalities of historical events and attitudes have an immediacy that conventional histories do not have. Introductions by modern historians provide additional historical background and, with hindsight, objectivity." Books Ireland Nov 2007 "Scholars of nineteenth-century Irish and Irish-American politics should reacquaint themselves with these classics, part of a long running and immensely useful series from University College Dublin Press." Irish Literary Supplement Fall 2008

• Part I Sun and Wind: An Irish sunrise; A little epic and a small hero; Child, teacher and book; Children and animals; A welcome visitor. Part II Nature and Man: Nature, The reat Psalm, Air and light and heroic (To Young Ireland), Nations and nations, The Greek polis, Arcadia, An event of world history, The silent race, Homer's men, Greek women, A picture; Editor's notes.