Resistance: In a Nazi-Occupied Ireland, Where Would You Stand?

by Brian Gallagher

Dublin, 1943, and Roisin Tierney has changed her identity to evade the police in Nazi-occupied Ireland. With spies and informers a constant threat, Roisin must choose her friends carefully, and keep her Jewish heritage hidden at all costs.

With her mother a prisoner in Spike Island Concentration Camp, and her father shipped abroad for forced labour, Roisin wants to resist. But who can you trust in a country ruthlessly policed by the Gestapo? Her friend Kevin is sympathetic, but has a politician father who carries out German orders. Her other friend Mary is anti-Nazi, but has secrets of her own to conceal. Some Irish people are Nazi sympathisers, some reluctant collaborators, and some fighting with the resistance, so it’s hard to know where to turn.

But Roisin knows time is not on her side - and sooner or later she’ll have to risk everything for the chance of a better future.

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2019

About the author

Brian Gallagher is a full-time writer whose plays and short stories have been produced in Ireland, Britain and Canada. He has worked extensively in radio and television, writing many dramas and documentaries. He collaborated with composer Shaun Purcell on the musical, Larkin, for which he wrote the book and lyrics, and on Winds of Change for RTE’s Lyric FM.

His first book of historical fiction for young readers was Across the Divide, set in the 1913 Dublin Lockout, followed by Taking Sides, set against the background of the Civil War, and Secrets and Shadows, an exciting spy novel that begins with the North Strand bombings during World War II.

Brian lives with his family in Dublin.

Reviews

[Mary Judy]

In this superb work of alternative historical fiction, Gallagher paints a picture of a world that could have easily come into being. The vivid imagery within the pages allows the reader to submerge themselves into a believable, realistic tale. The tension is palpable, the atmosphere, dramatic. The characters are vibrant and easy to identify with as they struggle to find courage and strength to battle against the prevailing circumstances and public opinion. These are gutsy kids; risk-takers, sometimes given to rash actions, but all the while keeping an uncertain future in sight. And the story-telling! The pacing, the rhythm and the cadence of the language fills the imagination and insight, provoking thought and deep consideration. Resistance is an important and riveting book.