Book Review
TITLE: THE REBELS OF IRELAND - The Dublin Saga
by Edward Rutherfurd
PUBLISHER NOTES:
Book Description
The Princes of Ireland, the first volume of Edward Rutherfurd’s magisterial epic
of Irish history, ended with the disastrous Irish revolt of 1534 and the
disappearance of the sacred Staff of Saint Patrick. The Rebels of Ireland opens
with an Ireland transformed; plantation, the final step in the centuries-long
English conquest of Ireland, is the order of the day, and the subjugation of the
native Irish Catholic population has begun in earnest.
Edward Rutherfurd brings history to life through the tales of families whose
fates rise and fall in each generation: Brothers who must choose between
fidelity to their ancient faith or the security of their families; a wife whose
passion for a charismatic Irish chieftain threatens her comfortable marriage to
a prosperous merchant; a young scholar whose secret rebel sympathies are put to
the test; men who risk their lives and their children’s fortunes in the tragic
pursuit of freedom, and those determined to root them out forever. Rutherfurd
spins the saga of Ireland’s 400-year path to independence in all its drama,
tragedy, and glory through the stories of people from all strata of
society--Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, conniving and heroic.
His richly detailed narrative brings to life watershed moments and events, from
the time of plantation settlements to the “Flight of the Earls,” when the native
aristocracy fled the island, to Cromwell’s suppression of the population and the
imposition of the harsh anti-Catholic penal laws. He describes the hardships of
ordinary people and the romantic, doomed attempt to overthrow the Protestant
oppressors, which ended in defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and the
departure of the “Wild Geese.” In vivid tones Rutherfurd re-creates Grattan’s
Parliament, Wolfe Tone's attempted French invasion of 1798, the tragic rising of
Robert Emmet, the Catholic campaign of Daniel O’Connell, the catastrophic
famine, the mass migration to America, and the glorious Irish Renaissance of
Yeats and Joyce. And through the eyes of his characters, he captures the rise of
Charles Stewart Parnell and the great Irish nationalists and the birth of an
Ireland free of all ties to England.
A tale of fierce battles, hot-blooded romances, and family and political
intrigues, The Rebels of Ireland brings the story begun in The Princes of
Ireland to a stunning conclusion.
About the Author
EDWARD RUTHERFURD was born in Salisbury, England, and educated at Cambridge
University and Stanford University in California. His bestselling novel Sarum is
based on the history of Salisbury and Stonehenge. Russka, his second novel,
recounts the sweeping history of Russia. London tells the two-thousand-year
story of the great city, bringing all of the richness of London’s past
unforgettably to life. His novel The Forest is set in England’s ancient New
Forest. His last novel, The Princes of Ireland is the companion to The Rebels of
Ireland covering the first eleven centuries of Ireland’s history. Edward
Rutherfurd divides his time between Dublin and New York.
Capital Celtic REVIEW:
Edward Rutherfurd’s latest novel, The Rebels of Ireland, is a
breath-taking saga of Irish history. Common knowledge about British domination
over the Irish is made no less poignant in this fictional rendition. An array of
characters becomes friends for whom the reader wishes history to have been
different. The antagonism between the British and the Irish is legend. Spanning
the time frame of A.D. 1597 to the early Twentieth Century, the “Rebels”
encompasses leaders and common men and their desire to have control over their
own lives and land. Almost another hundred years of history has been lived since
the time of the end of the book. Perhaps Rutherfurd will bless the reader with
yet a third in the series, bringing us up to the present.
Order Online at Amazon - CLICK HERE.
Review by: Joy Healy
Published: Capital Celtic Network
Year Written: 2006
