Cuculain and his friends are historical characters, seen as it were through mists of love and wonder, whom men could not forget, but for centuries continued to celebrate in countless songs and stories. They were not literary phantoms, but actual existences; imaginary and fictitious characters, mere creatures of idle fancy, do not live and flourish so in the world's memory. And as to the gigantic stature and superhuman prowess and achievements of those antique heroes, it must not be forgotten that all art magnifies, as if in obedience to some strong law; and so, even in our own times, Grattan, where he stands in artistic bronze, is twice as great as the real Grattan thundering in the Senate. I will therefore ask the reader, remembering the large manner of the antique literature from which our tale is drawn, to forget for a while that there is such a thing as scientific history, to give his imagination a holiday, and follow with kindly interest the singular story of the boyhood of Cuculain, "battle-prop of the valour and torch of the chivalry of the Ultonians."

This publication contains Standish James O'Grady's important but little-known pieces from "The Irish Worker", written in 1912-13. Although O'Grady has usually been regarded as a Protestant unionist, he was always a maverick and, later in life, shared the columns of "The Irish Worker" with socialists such as Jim Larkin, James Connolly and Sean O'Casey. He makes militant statements against capitalism and uses military vocabulary to advocate a commune system. He would not have supported armed insurrection, yet his rhetoric is a stirring call for action.