The Yellow Briar. Patrick Slater
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VOYAGEUR CLASSICS
BOOKS THAT EXPLORE CANADA
Michael Gnarowski — Series Editor
The Dundurn Group presents the Voyageur Classics series, building on the tradition of exploration and rediscovery and bringing forward time-tested writing about the Canadian experience in all its varieties.
This series of original or translated works in the fields of literature, history, politics, and biography has been gathered to enrich and illuminate our understanding of a multi-faceted Canada. Through straightforward, knowledgeable, and reader-friendly introductions the Voyageur Classics series provides context and accessibility while breathing new life into these timeless Canadian masterpieces.
The Voyageur Classics series was designed with the widest possible readership in mind and sees a place for itself with the interested reader as well as in the classroom. Physically attractive and reset in a contemporary format, these books aim at an enlivened and updated sense of Canada’s written heritage.
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The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery, introduced by Dr. Collett Tracey 978-1-55002-666-5
Canadian Exploration Literature: An Anthology, edited and introduced by Germaine Warkentin 978-1-55002-661-0
The Donnellys by James Reaney, introduced by Alan Filewod 978-1-55002-832-4
Empire and Communications by Harold A. Innis, introduced by Alexander John Watson 978-1-55002-662-7
The Firebrand: William Lyon Mackenzie and the Rebellion in Upper Canada by William Kilbourn, introduced by Ronald Stagg 978-1-55002-800-3
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Maria Chapdelaine: A Tale of French Canada by Louis Hémon, translated by W.H. Blake, introduction and notes by Michael Gnarowski 978-1-55002-712-9
Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary by Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe, edited and introduced by Mary Quayle Innis, foreword by Michael Gnarowski 978-1-55002-768-6
The Refugee: Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada by Benjamin Drew, introduced by George Elliott Clarke 978-1-55002-801-0
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VOYAGEUR CLASSICS
BOOKS THAT EXPLORE CANADA
THE YELLOW BRIAR
A STORY OF THE IRISH ON THE
CANADIAN COUNTRYSIDE
PATRICK SLATER
INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL GNAROWSKI
Copyright © Dundurn Press Limited, 2009
Originally published by Thomas Allen in 1933.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Project Editor: Michael Carroll
Copy Editors: Jason Karp and Jennifer McKnight
Design: Courtney Horner
Printer: Marquis
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Slater, Patrick, 1882-1951
The yellow briar : a story of the Irish on the Canadian
countryside / by Patrick Slater ; introduction by Michael Gnarowski.
ISBN 978-1-55002-848-5
1. Irish--Canada--Fiction. I. Title.
PS8526.I73Y4 2008 C813’.52 C2008-906151-9
1 2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
Printed and bound in Canada.
Printed on recycled paper.
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CONTENTS
Introduction by Michael Gnarowski
4 The Hills of Mono
5 Nancy’s Dowry
6 Jimmie’s Speeding
7 Whistling Hill
8 Bob O’New Pitsligo
9 Betty Marshall
10 The Farm-House
11 The Bluebells of Spring
12 Patches of Crimson
INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL GNAROWSKI
Patrick Slater, as a real live individual, never existed. He was the creation of John Wendell Mitchell (1880–1951), an eccentric Toronto lawyer who combined family history with