The Untilled Field by George Moore

A farmer whose son is set on emigration to America visits a convent to persuade a young novice to forsake her vows. A priest who has abruptly postponed a wedding sets off in pursuit of the couple to save them from mortal sin. A humble priest sets out to make his parish the Oberammergau of the West, and a woman who has spent her life's savings on a stained-glass window for a crumbling church comes to be revered as a local saint.

Written in part as a model for writers in Irish, and in part in condemnation of the oppressive power of the Catholic church, this seminal short-story collection portrays the thinkers, expatriates, peasants, and priests of a stateless nation in the final years before its independence.