Shanagolden Sean O Roideachain 9781782994824 Books
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IN THE SUMMER OF 1914, a generation of young men bring a football championship to their village. It's their last moment together. As Europe prepares for war and their own country teeters on the brink of conflict between Nationalist and Unionist, ideals and circumstance pull them to opposing sides. Most would have emigrated to America had the First World War not intervened. Instead these young men find themselves either in the trenches Flanders or on the streets of Dublin, as they answer the call to arms. With the Great War now over, the Easter Rising crushed, and half of the team now dead, the survivors find themselves once again taking sides as the War of Independence is followed by Ireland's Civil War. Inspired by the rebel song of the same name, SHANAGOLDEN follows the lives and loves, the dreams and despair of a small rural community in Ireland's southwest, as it is catapulted into the new Irish State.
Shanagolden Sean O Roideachain 9781782994824 Books
I am generally reluctant to read books over 500 pages in length so when Shanagolden arrived, weighing in just under 700 pages I was a bit reluctant to get started. Not being a GAA aficionado didn't help either. But when I got through what was for me an awkward entry to the story, I very quickly fell under its spell. I was fascinated and mesmerized by the very detailed yet intensely human account of the Irish Involvement in the First World War and the subsequent struggles that were the birth pangs of the modern state of Ireland.With large chunks of the narrative set in the trenches of Flanders, the story is at times brutal and stark, yet it captures the resilience and determination of the human spirit in the most depraved circumstances. The dynamics of village life with all its inherent petty power struggles and intricate alliances are well captured, as the hopes of a long oppressed people are expressed. First though small acts of defiance against the established rule of law and eventually through open hostility, guerrilla warfare and the general mayhem that sent the British occupying forces packing - but at a terrible price.
O'Roideachain's main characters are well fleshed out with all the nuances and fragility of the human condition. One hundred years after the start of the war "In Defence of Small Nations," this is a timely read and one that I highly recommend.
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Tags : Shanagolden [Sean O. Roideachain] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. IN THE SUMMER OF 1914, a generation of young men bring a football championship to their village. It's their last moment together. As Europe prepares for war and their own country teeters on the brink of conflict between Nationalist and Unionist,Sean O. Roideachain,Shanagolden,FeedaRead.com,1782994823,FICTION Historical General,Fiction - Historical,Fiction Historical,Historical - General,Historical fiction
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Shanagolden Sean O Roideachain 9781782994824 Books Reviews
Shanagolden
For many years in Ireland, a veil has been drawn
over much of the early years of the twentieth century when the country
gained its freedom from the ruling British. While the Easter Rising and the War of
Independence have been covered in fiction and non-fiction, there is a
reluctance to discuss Civil War and Irish involvement in the First
World War, almost a hundred years later. Even though they have a major bearing on the State that
rose from the ashes of conflict, they don't quite fit into the
narrative.
Sean O Roideachain's book, "Shanagolden" tackles everything that happened between
1914 and 1922 head-on. Using a rural community in the country's
southwest, he traces the shifting moods of a population torn between
making the best of what they've got or rebelling against the whole
structure of power. The story is told from the perspective of number of characters, each giving a different viewpoint on the great events happening around them, ranging from support of the
British colonial regime to enlisting in the Great War to taking up
arms in the fight for freedom.
The story's core revolves around a football team who achieve success
on the day before war is declared and then drift apart forever as they
are drawn to opposing sides in the conflicts of the day. They are also
living in a rapidly changing society that has moved within two
generations from famine to commerical farming and is creaking to the
stresses that this has brought as the pursuit of wealth and status
clashes with older loyalties and customs.
Yet despite the momentous activity surrounding the cast of characters
as the narrative moves between the rural southwest of Ireland, the capital, Dublin and the
Western Front, it still centres on the cares and emotions, on the
trust, love and dreams of ordinary people. Their seamless weaving into
the history around them not only explains a tortured and tangled
passage of history but is also a rattling good read that I found
impossible to put down once I was began. Its almost 700 pages appeared daunting at first but it was a page-turner and I was hooked.
More than anything else, 'Shanagolden' has a superb sense of place and
time as it builds a tale of sadness, romance, intrigue and humour into
real events in Ireland's troubled past. It is also very well written
with many evocative passages of dialogue and description that bring
the world of a century ago to life.
I am generally reluctant to read books over 500 pages in length so when Shanagolden arrived, weighing in just under 700 pages I was a bit reluctant to get started. Not being a GAA aficionado didn't help either. But when I got through what was for me an awkward entry to the story, I very quickly fell under its spell. I was fascinated and mesmerized by the very detailed yet intensely human account of the Irish Involvement in the First World War and the subsequent struggles that were the birth pangs of the modern state of Ireland.
With large chunks of the narrative set in the trenches of Flanders, the story is at times brutal and stark, yet it captures the resilience and determination of the human spirit in the most depraved circumstances. The dynamics of village life with all its inherent petty power struggles and intricate alliances are well captured, as the hopes of a long oppressed people are expressed. First though small acts of defiance against the established rule of law and eventually through open hostility, guerrilla warfare and the general mayhem that sent the British occupying forces packing - but at a terrible price.
O'Roideachain's main characters are well fleshed out with all the nuances and fragility of the human condition. One hundred years after the start of the war "In Defence of Small Nations," this is a timely read and one that I highly recommend.
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