We must try and lick him into shape a bit.' Hyacinth Conneally knew extremely little about the politics, foreign or domestic, of the English nation.

His father neither read newspapers nor cared to discuss such rumours of the doings of Governments as happened to reach Carrowkeel.

On the other hand, he knew a good deal about the history of Ireland, and the English were still for him the 'new foreigners' whom Keating describes.

His intercourse with the fishermen and peasants of the Galway seaboard had intensified his vague dislike of the series of oscillations between bullying and bribery which make up the story of England's latest attempts to govern Ireland.

Without in the least understanding the reasons for the war in South Africa, he felt a strong sympathy with the Boers.