The Wind and the Hearth: The Collected Works of Nora J. Murray

“There are voices that shout to be heard, and there are voices that wait for the quiet to speak. Nora Murray’s was one of the latter, and it is a good thing that we can hear it again.”

In the early years of the last century, when Ireland was busy making history with gunfire and speeches, there were other things happening too. There were children to be taught, turf to be cut, and stories to be told by the fire. The Wind and the Hearth gathers up the work of Nora J. Murray—a schoolmistress and a poet who watched the world change from the doorstep of a country schoolhouse.

History books will often tell you what happened in the Big Houses and the city squares. Murray tells you what happened in the boreens and the kitchens. Born in the shadow of the Arigna mines and teaching in Kildare while the 1916 Rising raged in Dublin, she didn’t just observe the life of the people; she lived it.

This collection brings her work back into the light. It includes her poetry from A Wind Upon the Heath, first published by Maunsel & Company in 1918, which holds the “blue-hazed mountains” of Sligo and Leitrim in a way that feels less like a painting and more like a memory.

But it is in her prose that you might find the woman herself. Her essays are quiet journeys through the West of Ireland as it was before the modern world rushed in, and her short stories have a sharp, humorous way about them. She had the measure of the rural character—the tramping man, the strong farmer, the neighbour who prays too loud—and she wrote them down with a wit that is gentle, but misses nothing.

This book is not just a study of the past; it is a chance to pull up a chair with a generation that is gone. It is for those who want the truth of the place, the sound of the wind on the heath, and the way the light falls on the glens.

Inside, you will find:

• The Poetry of the Times: Verse that balances the heat of the revolution with the quiet, spiritual pull of the Yeats country.
• Sketches of a Vanishing Life: Essays that map the folklore and the fabric of Leitrim and the Midlands in the 1920s and 30s.
• Tales by the Turf Fire: Short fiction full of the wit and tragedy of the village, including “The Funeral Man” and “Unexpected Gifts.”
• A Life, Remembered: A new introduction detailing the life of the “Seditious Schoolmistress,” her trouble with the British authorities, and her years in the early Free State.

A fine companion for those who appreciate W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, or just a good story well told.