Heather ingman traces the development of the modern short story in ireland from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the present day her study analyses the material circumstances surrounding publication examining the role of magazines and editors in shaping the form ingman incorporates recent critical thinking on the short story traces international connections and gives a central part to irish womens short stories each chapter concludes with a detailed analysis of key stories . The irish quarter a history of the irish short story by heather ingman is a very well done work of literary history with a lot to teach readers like me without academic training in the history of irish literature or the short story ingman did a very good job of explaining how the irish short story became such a dominating literary form she says as does pretty much all who write on the short story that edgar alan poe was the first writer to produce self consciously atristic . It is possible that the irish short story evolved naturally from the ancient tradition of oral storytelling in ireland the written word has been cultivated in ireland since the introduction of the roman alphabet by the christian missionaries in the fifth century but oral storytelling continued independently up to the twentieth century and survived the general switch from the irish to the english language by the mid nineteenth century irish writers had begun to use the english language to . A history of the irish short story though the short story is often regarded as central to the irish canon this is the first comprehensive study of the genre for many years heather ingman traces the development of the modern short story in ireland from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the present day