Book description
Dublin, 1921. As the Irish War of Independence comes to a head,
Republican leader Éamon de Valera is arrested but quickly released in
order to facilitate peace talks with the British.
Stephen Ryan, an Irishman who fought for the British in the trenches,
is sent to London where negotiations are beginning, as part of the Irish
delegation. He leaves behind his brother, Joe, who has been jailed for
his actions in the IRA. There are those on both sides who would see the
Treaty fail; Stephen soon finds himself beset by problems - a legal
dispute, a blackmail attempt, even a plot to assassinate Winston
Churchill. When his fiancée Lillian is threatened by a man who is
violent, ruthless, and has a grudge again him, matters become not only
urgent, but personal.
This is a story about two brothers, played out against the political
and military upheavals that racked Ireland in the 1920s. The Anglo-Irish
Treaty brings the war with the British to a close, and Joe too is
released from jail - free, but changed. However, a new war is emerging
and Stephen finds himself once more called upon as a soldier.
Assassinations and guerrilla warfare are the backdrop to the call to
arms, as both sides attempt to force a new order, in a conflict that
will pit Irishman against Irishman, brother against brother . . . Alan
Monaghan was born in Dublin in 1980. He won the Hennessy New Irish
Writing Award and the Prize for Emerging Fiction in 2002. The
Soldier’s Song
was his eagerly-awaited first novel, based on the short story that won
him these prizes, followed by The Soldier's Return
. The Soldier's Farewell
completes the trilogy.
