St Patrick’s Day Tales
Mary Grant Bruce’s St Patrick’s Day tales celebrate Australia’s rich Irish heritage, which she shared. These short stories all appeared in The Leader newspaper’s Tales & Sketches section, being written for adults of all ages.
A Soldier of St Patrick
His Day
My Man Tim
The Racing of St Patrick
The Wearin’ o’ the Kilt
From An International Dispute:
“Him!” said Jean MacWhirter. “Him! He’s Irish!”
“That settles it for Jean,” Nancy Price said with a giggle. “Might as well steal a sheep, mightn’t he, old girl?”
“I’m no saying that,” said Jean, judicially. She whisked a trayful of scones into the oven, shut the door with the firmness that was her characteristic, and turned to face the girls who sat on the kitchen table, regarding her quizzically. “But the Irish people do not seem to me to be quite . . . quite . . . Well, respectable is not altogether to the word I would like to be using—but”—
“Poor old Ireland!” said Nancy, darkly.
” I do not bear any ill will to Ireland and the Irish.” Jean assured her. They do as well as they can, being shiftless bodies. A Scotch pairson would know what I meant—“
“I know, jolly well,” said Maggie West, her Australian gabble contrasting oddly with the Scotch girl’s long-drawn syllables. “Just means you’ve got a down on Tom O’Fearon—and he’s the nicest chap on theplace. Pity he’s so cracked over you.” . . .
The Trustee of The Mary Grant Bruce Family Trust owns the extant copyrights to Mary Grant Bruce’s short stories.