Review of Bob Reece (ed.) 'Exiles from Erin: Convict Lives in Ireland and Australia'. With a Foreword by Dr. A.J.F. O'Reilly. Macmillan, London, 1991. Pp. xvi + 336, with 18 plates. Hardcover and paper. Paperback (ISBN 0 333 56437 5) at $29.95 R.R.P.

This volume, - a collection of some 12 essays, half of which are by the editor, Murdoch University historian Bob Reece, - may be said to have a range of aspects: from striking mélange (several printed earlier) of arduously assembled biographical sketches, to subtle vignettes of a random group of provocative and colourful Irishmen; to a set of correctives to common stereotypes of the transported Irish convict; to important new perspectives on: convict narratives; Irish ballads and broadsides; the transfer of the Anglo-Irish and Gaelic literary traditions to Australia; nationalist heroism; and to oral history and its ability to be fed by popular balladry and folklore. Although, arguably, we should be intrigued by all these facets of the (collected) essays, some of the latter ones are, surely, closer to our purposes.