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Irish Trilogy #3
The Scorching Wind
The Scorching Wind (The Third Book in The Irish Trilogy)
304 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1964
About the author
Walter Macken
49 books65 followersWalter Macken was an Irish writer of short stories, novels and plays.
Originally an actor, principally with the Tadhbhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in MJ Molloy's The King of Friday’s Men and his own play Home is the Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow. With the success of his third book, Rain on the Wind, he devoted his time to writing. His plays include Mungo’s Mansion (1946) and Home is the Hero (1952).
His novels include I Am Alone (1949); Rain on the Wind (1950); The Bogman (1952); and the historical trilogy Seek the Fair Land (1959), The Silent People (1962) and The Scorching Wind (1964). His short stories were collected in The Green Hills (1956), God Made Sunday (1962) and The Coll Doll and other Stories (1962).
He also published a number of books for children, including Island of the Great Yellow Ox (1966); and Flight of the Doves (1968), which was adapted for the cinema.
Originally an actor, principally with the Tadhbhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in MJ Molloy's The King of Friday’s Men and his own play Home is the Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow. With the success of his third book, Rain on the Wind, he devoted his time to writing. His plays include Mungo’s Mansion (1946) and Home is the Hero (1952).
His novels include I Am Alone (1949); Rain on the Wind (1950); The Bogman (1952); and the historical trilogy Seek the Fair Land (1959), The Silent People (1962) and The Scorching Wind (1964). His short stories were collected in The Green Hills (1956), God Made Sunday (1962) and The Coll Doll and other Stories (1962).
He also published a number of books for children, including Island of the Great Yellow Ox (1966); and Flight of the Doves (1968), which was adapted for the cinema.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 23, 2022
Walter Macken who published his books decades ago, continues to be very popular in Ireland. This was the first book of his I have read and I was surprised and impressed. The novel brings alive the Anglo-Irish Was starting with the Uprising in 1916 and continues through the time of the Irish Civil War. 2022 is the hundredth anniversary of the civil war and it has been a tricky event to commemorate for obvious reasons.
The story is told from the perspective of one brother, Dominic. HIs brother Duatha also figures large in the novel. Macken manages to pack in the confusion and terror of the entire period. He brings alive the violence of the Black and Tans, who were essentially mercenaries terrorizing the Irish countryside on the behalf of the British government.
I avoided reading Macken for decades as I expected a romanticized account of Irish history. I am glad that I have finally read him and will probably go back to him again.
The story is told from the perspective of one brother, Dominic. HIs brother Duatha also figures large in the novel. Macken manages to pack in the confusion and terror of the entire period. He brings alive the violence of the Black and Tans, who were essentially mercenaries terrorizing the Irish countryside on the behalf of the British government.
I avoided reading Macken for decades as I expected a romanticized account of Irish history. I am glad that I have finally read him and will probably go back to him again.
May 15, 2026
I have loved this trilogy. The books are all beautiful and devastating. Extremely human and inspiring, while also warning. Historical fiction truly at its very best.
October 14, 2020
Contrary to the GoodReads blurb which accompanies this excellent novel, no part of it takes part in Dublin. Dublin is merely mentioned as another place where significant national events take place and decisions are taken. This is a book steeped in the geography of both rural and urban Galway and it benefits from the author's clear love of and familiarity with his native county.
This is the final novel in Walter Macken's magnificent Irish trilogy. It completes the story of the Mac Mahon / Duane family, of the Dominic(k)s and Dualtas who people the genealogy from Cromwellian times to the hungry years of the 19th century and into the early years of the 20th century when a nation is painfully born. It is captivating, an event-laden adventure where we see an apolitical character go on his own journey of evolution, transformation and torment, physical and emotional, as Ireland herself completes a similar metamorphosis.
I have loved reading 'Seek the Fair Land', 'The Silent People' and 'The Scorching Wind'. I am delighted that I have finally bitten the bullet and embraced these lyrical titles which have sung off the bookshelves in shops, libraries and private collections to me through all my days. I am not saddened that the read is over for I know that I shall revisit them often and that there is a wealth of yet undiscovered Walter Macken still waiting for me.
Highly recommended.
This is the final novel in Walter Macken's magnificent Irish trilogy. It completes the story of the Mac Mahon / Duane family, of the Dominic(k)s and Dualtas who people the genealogy from Cromwellian times to the hungry years of the 19th century and into the early years of the 20th century when a nation is painfully born. It is captivating, an event-laden adventure where we see an apolitical character go on his own journey of evolution, transformation and torment, physical and emotional, as Ireland herself completes a similar metamorphosis.
I have loved reading 'Seek the Fair Land', 'The Silent People' and 'The Scorching Wind'. I am delighted that I have finally bitten the bullet and embraced these lyrical titles which have sung off the bookshelves in shops, libraries and private collections to me through all my days. I am not saddened that the read is over for I know that I shall revisit them often and that there is a wealth of yet undiscovered Walter Macken still waiting for me.
Highly recommended.
December 5, 2019
Overall the book is very good. It gives a very relative view to the Irish Civil War that is not usually seen. Typically, we a very historical account of what happened in those times leading up to the treaty and there, after. Dominic as a character is quite relatable and the mental back and forth that is depicted in terms of how he feels about the resistance comes across very naturally.
I have do have a couple "gripes" with the book. Namely two.
1. Dominic goes from someone who is constantly on the fringe of both sides, even more so to the side of not participating, to becoming a die hard anti-treaty republic way too quickly and it isn't discussed much as to how he has had such a change of mind. There is a point in the book where he thinks to himself, "now I have made my decision" and it is kind of out of nowhere.
2. The ending is extremely rushed. Without giving away any spoilers, I believe this book could have done with a closing chapter. The chapter that it ends on is more of a climatic chapter, "things coming to a head" kind of chapter, but that's where it ends. There's no aftermath, no reflection. This leaves the reader, at least in my case, very wanting and unsatisfied with the ending.
Again, Overall a really great book. There's 300 odd pages of content here. I wouldn't judge it solely on the last chapter.
I have do have a couple "gripes" with the book. Namely two.
1. Dominic goes from someone who is constantly on the fringe of both sides, even more so to the side of not participating, to becoming a die hard anti-treaty republic way too quickly and it isn't discussed much as to how he has had such a change of mind. There is a point in the book where he thinks to himself, "now I have made my decision" and it is kind of out of nowhere.
2. The ending is extremely rushed. Without giving away any spoilers, I believe this book could have done with a closing chapter. The chapter that it ends on is more of a climatic chapter, "things coming to a head" kind of chapter, but that's where it ends. There's no aftermath, no reflection. This leaves the reader, at least in my case, very wanting and unsatisfied with the ending.
Again, Overall a really great book. There's 300 odd pages of content here. I wouldn't judge it solely on the last chapter.
August 6, 2026
Starts slowly but becomes very gripping.
I’ve wanted to read this for a while, having heard that Macken knew my great grandfather personally, and that some of the episodes in the book are based on his stories.
Macken writes in a very spare, staccato style, reminiscent of Hemingway. It’s all very understated, but lots of it very impactful as a result.
I don’t know much of the Irish War of Independence, but it was interesting to see it from the perspective of rural Galway, with violence rippling out across the country.
Interesting exploration on how far violence is justified - Dominic’s reticence shows that killing our enemies is not necessarily easy. What does it take to be a revolutionary leader? To potentially inspire other men to take action that will lead to their deaths? Is some degree of personal detachment necessary? Dominic frequently muses on these questions of leadership.
Some scenes are quite powerful. Whilst I knew my great grandfather had suffered torture, the description here brought home the reality of what that experience must have been like.
There are great touches of humour throughout (great scene on the boating lake), and I loved all the scenes involving the scheming Sam Brown. Good character development, although the divergence in belief between the two brothers at the end feels a little rushed.
Could see the ending coming, but still great - very somber
I’ve wanted to read this for a while, having heard that Macken knew my great grandfather personally, and that some of the episodes in the book are based on his stories.
Macken writes in a very spare, staccato style, reminiscent of Hemingway. It’s all very understated, but lots of it very impactful as a result.
I don’t know much of the Irish War of Independence, but it was interesting to see it from the perspective of rural Galway, with violence rippling out across the country.
Interesting exploration on how far violence is justified - Dominic’s reticence shows that killing our enemies is not necessarily easy. What does it take to be a revolutionary leader? To potentially inspire other men to take action that will lead to their deaths? Is some degree of personal detachment necessary? Dominic frequently muses on these questions of leadership.
Some scenes are quite powerful. Whilst I knew my great grandfather had suffered torture, the description here brought home the reality of what that experience must have been like.
There are great touches of humour throughout (great scene on the boating lake), and I loved all the scenes involving the scheming Sam Brown. Good character development, although the divergence in belief between the two brothers at the end feels a little rushed.
Could see the ending coming, but still great - very somber
September 17, 2024
Best trilogy I’ve ever read (yes even the hunger games)!
This story again was incredibly well told, bringing these seminal years of Irish history to life through the Duane family. The one thread that wove these three books together through the centuries. The characters are so real that it almost felt as though I was watching the story unfold. It is terrible to see the unity of the rebels in the War of Independence melt into to bitterness and divide after the Treaty is signed. It’s a stark reminder of the violent foundations of our state, and the lengths to which those men and women went to secure freedom.
This story again was incredibly well told, bringing these seminal years of Irish history to life through the Duane family. The one thread that wove these three books together through the centuries. The characters are so real that it almost felt as though I was watching the story unfold. It is terrible to see the unity of the rebels in the War of Independence melt into to bitterness and divide after the Treaty is signed. It’s a stark reminder of the violent foundations of our state, and the lengths to which those men and women went to secure freedom.
June 25, 2025
Though Sad Irish Literature Month for me is traditionally March, I make an exception for Walter Macken’s Irish Trilogy. I read the first two at my dad’s cabin in Maine and I was going to read the third one there, too. The copies I have are ancient 1970’s editions from when my dad was living in London before I was born and as such I consider them to be Family Heirlooms and I will read them properly.
The first book in this trilogy, Seek the Fair Land, takes place during the Cromwellian ravages and I read it several years ago. Last year I determined to make some progress and read the second book, The Silent People, which is about the years leading up to and during the Great Famine. This one, The Scorching Wind, takes place in the 1910s and ‘20s, during the war for independence and the civil war that immediately followed.
Before I get into the book properly I must point out the things that this book has in common with Ken Loach’s movie The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Loach is an Englishman but The Wind that Shakes the Barley, featuring a not-yet-Oscar-winning young Corkman named Cillian Murphy, is nevertheless one of the most tear-jerkingly powerful movies about Irish history I’ve seen, with bonus socialism and extra bonus Cork accents so thick you could cut them with a butter knife and put them on toast. So. In addition to the general time period, both works feature a protagonist who is initially reluctant to join in revolutionary activity, because he is a medical student who is therefore a) very busy studying to be a doctor and b) more about putting people back together than blowing them apart. In the movie our half-doctor revolutionary is named Damian and in the book he is named Dominic. (One major difference: Damian, being played by Cillian Murphy, is very handsome, and Dominic is frequently implied to be not so handsome–certainly not as handsome as young Cillian Murphy, anyway.) Both protagonists have brothers who, at the beginning, are more militant than they are, joining the IRA first, while our black-haired heroes are still reluctant. By the end, though, it is our younger brothers who have become more militant and take the anti-Treaty side in the war, while the older brothers become Free State officials, pitting brother against brother in a way that makes an extremely heart-wrenching and dramatic ending to a drama about war. Also both stories take place largely in the Western part of Ireland, far from the drama in Dublin–Loach’s movie was filmed largely on location in Cork, and Macken’s story takes place in and around his native Galway.
From thence the similarities end, but it’s enough that I tried to look up if Loach had ever mentioned the book in an interview or anything. I can find some webpages that claim the film was influenced by the book but I can’t find any primary sources where they are getting that claim from on a quick search. Ah well.
Anyway. The prose style is trademark Macken, with a lot of very simple descriptive sentences interspersed by the characters’ unpretentious thoughts and bits of Hiberno-English that someone unfamiliar with the area could spend years looking up. Many of the characters speak in Irish but the book doesn’t generally include it; it translates it to English When an Irish word is used because there’s no real English translation or it’s just one word, Macken doesn’t italicize; it just blends in seamlessly the way Irish words are normally incorporated into Hiberno-English. As far as I’m concerned, a real strength is the way the characters talk about politics, especially as people who have a lot of history but not necessarily a lot of theory–it sounds believable to the way real people at the time would talk about politics, and not like the author is performing educational dialogues for the benefit of the audience. The fights Dominic and Dualta have at the end might not be blindingly original but they sound like real fights people on the opposite side of an issue have.
Another interesting approach here is that Macken doesn’t spend a lot of time on the high-level news–other than everybody getting the news of the Easter Rising in Dublin, the book focuses on the individual experiences of the characters involved, with little in the way of dates, cameos by famous people (except one brief one from John Redmond), or the characters conveniently turning up at high-profile historical events. They ping back and forth between various IRA operations and trying to go back to regular life for various stretches of time. The characters only ever seem to know the bits of things they’re involved in, and sometimes not even that–Dominic ends up on multiple jobs where his acquaintances basically just scoop him up and tell him to do something and he’s not really sure what it is that’s in the bag, or where they are going, or some other type of information that you’d think would be fairly critical to being involved in a guerrilla military operation. But no, everything’s done on such a tight NTK information ecosystem that I sometimes worried it’d actually be a security hole, making people do things they hadn’t agreed to with only your judgment of their character that they’d go along with it.
Dominic’s journey from a reluctant revolutionary who would rather be left alone to study to a hardened veteran of the flying columns involves a lot of pretty nasty stuff. Macken really excels at foregrounding the humanity of everyone involved–including unprincipled mercenaries like the Tans Mac and Skin–without falling into the common modern trap of being like “Sure, the oppression is bad, but isn’t fighting back against it worse if you find yourself losing even one inch of moral high ground by doing anything even a little bit shitty to anybody.” Dominic doesn’t like everything he has to do as an IRA man, like burning a really big lovely house down in reprisal for another house burning, but his doubt and disgust that this is really necessary–his reluctance to accept it as necessary even as he acknowledges that it worked–doesn’t lead to him quitting or renouncing the IRA or deciding both sides are just as bad or anything. It’s just used to show how having to do all these terrible things sucks, and no cause or tactical justification makes it not suck. The exploration of what having to do awful things, as well as having awful things done to you, changes you, is, I think, the essence of what makes the novel so powerful.
One of the other great features is its incredible use of ambiguity, which I will not elaborate on because it would give away the ending.
Overall, I’m very glad I finally read these and I’m not sure what took me so long.
Originally posted at An ant's-eye view of the revolution from rural Galway.
The first book in this trilogy, Seek the Fair Land, takes place during the Cromwellian ravages and I read it several years ago. Last year I determined to make some progress and read the second book, The Silent People, which is about the years leading up to and during the Great Famine. This one, The Scorching Wind, takes place in the 1910s and ‘20s, during the war for independence and the civil war that immediately followed.
Before I get into the book properly I must point out the things that this book has in common with Ken Loach’s movie The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Loach is an Englishman but The Wind that Shakes the Barley, featuring a not-yet-Oscar-winning young Corkman named Cillian Murphy, is nevertheless one of the most tear-jerkingly powerful movies about Irish history I’ve seen, with bonus socialism and extra bonus Cork accents so thick you could cut them with a butter knife and put them on toast. So. In addition to the general time period, both works feature a protagonist who is initially reluctant to join in revolutionary activity, because he is a medical student who is therefore a) very busy studying to be a doctor and b) more about putting people back together than blowing them apart. In the movie our half-doctor revolutionary is named Damian and in the book he is named Dominic. (One major difference: Damian, being played by Cillian Murphy, is very handsome, and Dominic is frequently implied to be not so handsome–certainly not as handsome as young Cillian Murphy, anyway.) Both protagonists have brothers who, at the beginning, are more militant than they are, joining the IRA first, while our black-haired heroes are still reluctant. By the end, though, it is our younger brothers who have become more militant and take the anti-Treaty side in the war, while the older brothers become Free State officials, pitting brother against brother in a way that makes an extremely heart-wrenching and dramatic ending to a drama about war. Also both stories take place largely in the Western part of Ireland, far from the drama in Dublin–Loach’s movie was filmed largely on location in Cork, and Macken’s story takes place in and around his native Galway.
From thence the similarities end, but it’s enough that I tried to look up if Loach had ever mentioned the book in an interview or anything. I can find some webpages that claim the film was influenced by the book but I can’t find any primary sources where they are getting that claim from on a quick search. Ah well.
Anyway. The prose style is trademark Macken, with a lot of very simple descriptive sentences interspersed by the characters’ unpretentious thoughts and bits of Hiberno-English that someone unfamiliar with the area could spend years looking up. Many of the characters speak in Irish but the book doesn’t generally include it; it translates it to English When an Irish word is used because there’s no real English translation or it’s just one word, Macken doesn’t italicize; it just blends in seamlessly the way Irish words are normally incorporated into Hiberno-English. As far as I’m concerned, a real strength is the way the characters talk about politics, especially as people who have a lot of history but not necessarily a lot of theory–it sounds believable to the way real people at the time would talk about politics, and not like the author is performing educational dialogues for the benefit of the audience. The fights Dominic and Dualta have at the end might not be blindingly original but they sound like real fights people on the opposite side of an issue have.
Another interesting approach here is that Macken doesn’t spend a lot of time on the high-level news–other than everybody getting the news of the Easter Rising in Dublin, the book focuses on the individual experiences of the characters involved, with little in the way of dates, cameos by famous people (except one brief one from John Redmond), or the characters conveniently turning up at high-profile historical events. They ping back and forth between various IRA operations and trying to go back to regular life for various stretches of time. The characters only ever seem to know the bits of things they’re involved in, and sometimes not even that–Dominic ends up on multiple jobs where his acquaintances basically just scoop him up and tell him to do something and he’s not really sure what it is that’s in the bag, or where they are going, or some other type of information that you’d think would be fairly critical to being involved in a guerrilla military operation. But no, everything’s done on such a tight NTK information ecosystem that I sometimes worried it’d actually be a security hole, making people do things they hadn’t agreed to with only your judgment of their character that they’d go along with it.
Dominic’s journey from a reluctant revolutionary who would rather be left alone to study to a hardened veteran of the flying columns involves a lot of pretty nasty stuff. Macken really excels at foregrounding the humanity of everyone involved–including unprincipled mercenaries like the Tans Mac and Skin–without falling into the common modern trap of being like “Sure, the oppression is bad, but isn’t fighting back against it worse if you find yourself losing even one inch of moral high ground by doing anything even a little bit shitty to anybody.” Dominic doesn’t like everything he has to do as an IRA man, like burning a really big lovely house down in reprisal for another house burning, but his doubt and disgust that this is really necessary–his reluctance to accept it as necessary even as he acknowledges that it worked–doesn’t lead to him quitting or renouncing the IRA or deciding both sides are just as bad or anything. It’s just used to show how having to do all these terrible things sucks, and no cause or tactical justification makes it not suck. The exploration of what having to do awful things, as well as having awful things done to you, changes you, is, I think, the essence of what makes the novel so powerful.
One of the other great features is its incredible use of ambiguity, which I will not elaborate on because it would give away the ending.
Overall, I’m very glad I finally read these and I’m not sure what took me so long.
Originally posted at An ant's-eye view of the revolution from rural Galway.
June 14, 2018
My only disappointment with this book is that it is the end of the trilogy. I love Macken's writing style, love the poetry that I feel from it. These stories of Ireland and her struggles tug at my heart and bring to life the struggles of my own ancestors.
August 16, 2020
The third & final part of Walter Macken's partisan trilogy on Irish conflicts with the near neighbours on the big island of Great Britain.
His work reads well, if occasionally it does assume that his readers are all equally one-eyed & subjective about Anglo-Irish historical events.
This part ends in the early exchanges of the Irish Civil War...where the islanders turn on each other...now that they are free of the hated imperialists...but not of the malign forces of Catholicism & Socialism...and alcoholic halucinations!
They don't write like this anymore...1964 being the year of publication...just before the 800 year old wound re-opened with 'The Troubles'...the I.R.A. & dirty protests...& bombs killing civilians in London, Birmingham & Warrington!
His work reads well, if occasionally it does assume that his readers are all equally one-eyed & subjective about Anglo-Irish historical events.
This part ends in the early exchanges of the Irish Civil War...where the islanders turn on each other...now that they are free of the hated imperialists...but not of the malign forces of Catholicism & Socialism...and alcoholic halucinations!
They don't write like this anymore...1964 being the year of publication...just before the 800 year old wound re-opened with 'The Troubles'...the I.R.A. & dirty protests...& bombs killing civilians in London, Birmingham & Warrington!
December 23, 2019
Set in Ireland in the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916, this book follows the involvement of brothers Dominic and Dualta in the rise of Sinn Fein and the fight for an Irish Republic. Dominic, a medical student, is at first a reluctant recruit to the cause, but is increasingly dragged into it by his older brother Dualta. After being tortured by the British forces, Dominic becomes a staunch believer. By the end of the novel he is more dedicated to the cause than Dualta is - a situation that has dire consequences.
Fast-paced and riveting, with great characters. I didn't know a lot about this period in history, so I really enjoyed reading about it.
Fast-paced and riveting, with great characters. I didn't know a lot about this period in history, so I really enjoyed reading about it.
May 31, 2025
What a beautiful and sad story. The themes of devoting yourself to a cause and standing for what you believe in bring so much depth and humanity to the story, as does the omnipresent showcase of internal conflict and what it costs to figure out who you are. I found myself constantly asking "how far would I go for something I believed in".
November 11, 2017
Good enough read.
June 21, 2018
Excellent but as heartbreaking as one would think.
June 28, 2018
Excellent book. Bit disappointed with the ending but apart from that I enjoyed it.
November 30, 2019
Very realistic story
March 21, 2020
A thrilling adventure set during Ireland's revolutionary years with a memorable cast of characters and a surprising level of political astuteness. Would make for a great film.
July 5, 2020
Enjoyed the family story and the history.
December 28, 2020
Does a good job of describing a conflict which divided Irish society for generations to follow. I was very sad at the ending.
June 16, 2021
This is the most powerful of the three moving novels in this trilogy. It's a tale of two brothers and it is painfully accurate to the period.
January 2, 2023
Macken eloquently navigates Ireland’s Revolutionary period with compassion by presenting a story of friendship and brotherhood against all odds.
May 25, 2025
Helpful way to understand Irish History.
August 28, 2025
Nowhere near as good as the other books in the series.
The main character was not really sympathetic.
The main character was not really sympathetic.
October 11, 2026
A well written fictionalised account of the Easter Rebellion and subsequent Civil War seen through the eyes of two Irish brothers. The narrative is a compelling but overly romantic view of the conflict.
January 17, 2019
This is a powerful and moving novel of two brothers caught up in the tragic and transforming years of Ireland’s fight for freedom against the British state. In all the years I lived in Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles I could not make myself read it. Having finally done so, now I have returned to Ulster, I can see why. At one level it is an inspiring story of how two ordinary young men, a First World War veteran and his younger medical student brother, rise to the challenge of their times, sacrificing the quiet lives they might have led to fight (successfully) for the freedom of their country against vicious and violent oppression. But at another level it is also the story of their progressive radicalisation at the hands of a seductive political ideology, to become ruthless and unforgiving killers, ultimately to their self-destruction. Hopefully in these post Good Friday Agreement days, this romanticisation of violence as a political tool has lost its appeal, as we all benefit from the 20 years of peace and reconciliation it has given us. But, there are unsettling parallels between the current Brexit fiasco and Ireland’s struggle a century ago to negotiate a fair exit treaty from the United Kingdom. I enjoyed reading this disturbing novel but it has left me feeling uneasy and fearful for the future.
August 6, 2011
I started this some time ago but stopped because I felt like I'd missed something. What had happened to make Dualta so ready to fight, to cause Dominic to help? I think I didn't understand the reaction to Easter Rising, that there was something else I wasn't getting, and felt that I needed the information missing from the 1880s to 1916 so went looking for That Book, only to realize big events are the end of, not the beginning or cause. Agatha Christie was right in Toward Zero, and Easter Rising was the culmination of years of unfairness, of little injuries. It was absence of life, liberty and and pursuit of happiness in the every day that led to the anger, resentment and ultimately violence. We don't learn much from history - these were young men who felt they had nothing to lose. Alot like the young men in other countries - our own, even - angry and willing to fight small battles, to die, because those in power are too dense to figure out why. But then, it is difficult when events like the Boston Tea Party are presented as the cause of something when they are really the result of many things.
This was the saddest of the three, though it ends at the beginning of a mostly independent Ireland - something you'd think was positive. This Dominic had far less hope than the one who lost his wife in the massacre of Drogheda, and this Dualta far less than the one starving and watching his family starve.
This was the saddest of the three, though it ends at the beginning of a mostly independent Ireland - something you'd think was positive. This Dominic had far less hope than the one who lost his wife in the massacre of Drogheda, and this Dualta far less than the one starving and watching his family starve.
December 26, 2020
The third book in his Irish trilogy and just as great as the first two. This one focus on the 1916 rebellion and partly the civil war that followed. I am so glad I found Macken; he has become one of my favorite writers of Irish historical fiction. The characters are lively and believable and, as with the first two, there are moments that remind the reader just how terrible these times were for the Irish.
March 13, 2013
"You pass on thoughts,' said Sam. 'They know of you. It's schoolteachers like you who inspire dreamers, and now dreamers are dangerous.'"
My favorite quote in this book...
Second favorite quote...
"'He is a one-minded man,' said Dualta. 'He doesn't see that times have changed.' 'Times might change,' said Dominic, 'but if you have principles, they don't change. He has principles.'
My favorite quote in this book...
Second favorite quote...
"'He is a one-minded man,' said Dualta. 'He doesn't see that times have changed.' 'Times might change,' said Dominic, 'but if you have principles, they don't change. He has principles.'
July 18, 2016
I read a lot of Walter Macken about 30 years ago - I had forgotten how enjoyable his books were. I loved this, the 3rd of his Irish Trilogy set during the time of the Easter Rising. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in this era.
January 14, 2009
Macken is a master storyteller. Irish history has never been more beautifully written.
June 5, 2011
The trilogy as a whole probably deserves 4 stars. I may be a bit biased as Macken is Politically Incorrect amongst Irish M.R.E.'s these days !
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews