Excerpt from Old Ireland Hearts and Hands: A Romance of Real Life When the writing of the following pages was undertaken, the idea of their publication was very far removed from the writer's mind; his sole desire being to recall faces, scenes, and incidents of a beautiful Past. On being rash enough to submit them for a friend's perusal, the verdict was promptly forthcoming You must have it published. Whereupon by another rash act they found their way to the publisher, thence into the hands of the reader. If the latter has been brought up in the Old Country, he may, perchance, recall how similar scenes and characters have played a part iri his own youthful experience. While, on the other hand, if he has not hailed from the Isle of Destiny, I hope he will experience as much pleasure in read ing this little story from real life as the writer found in recording it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.