“Draw the imagination of the young,” echoed Ned. “That was Mr. Pearse’s dream too.” He fell silent again. Like Henry, Ursula waited.
Then she heard Ned say in a thoughtful voice, “If I had it to do over again perhaps I wouldn’t be a soldier, Henry. Perhaps I’d be a teacher, a writer. A bard. Fight for minds instead of with bullets.”
The woman listening in the passage was deeply shaken by his words. Battle had been Ned’s creed. And through him, hers.
Ursula turned and went silently back down the stairs.
Later, much later, Henry joined Ursula and Eileen in the kitchen. The tracks of dried tears were still visible on his cheeks. “Ned’s fallen asleep, I hope I didn’t overtire him.”
“He goes in and out of sleep a lot now,” Ursula assured him. “Sometimes when he has bad headaches he sleeps all day. But in spite of the pain he could last for months, the doctors think. He seems determined to hold on as long as he can.”
“Ned’s always been stubborn,” said Henry.
Eileen had prepared enough food to feed an army, or so it seemed, but a small army of children was waiting to gobble it down so none would go to waste. Henry was introduced to each of them in turn. Ursula saved Barry for last. At almost ten years of age he already came to his mother’s shoulder. Long-boned and sturdy, he promised to be tall.
The boy held out his hand to Henry. “How do you do, sir. My mother speaks very highly of you, and I’m glad to meet you at last.”
Henry chuckled. “So formal! How do you do, Barry.” He shook the proffered hand, then reached out to rumple the boy’s abundant red-gold hair. “You make me feel as old as God’s governess, young fella. But where ever did you get those pointy ears?”
The formal inauguration of the Republic of Ireland took place on 18 April, 1949. Easter Monday.
Because Ned was now too weak to leave his bed, Gerry had carried the wireless up to his room. Everyone gathered there to listen to the broadcast announcement. As Éire formally left the Commonwealth, Ned’s hand groped across the quilt to find Ursula’s.
The wireless crackled with magic.
Between one heartbeat and the next, the Republic of Ireland became official.
When the broadcast was over Ursula switched off the machine. “On Easter Monday thirty-three years ago,” Ned murmured, “we marched out together for the Rising…” Exhausted by the excitement, he fell asleep in mid-thought.
His family tiptoed from the room.
Some time later, Ned Halloran awoke and lay listening to the sounds of life filling the old house. Counting his blessings.
He and Henry were friends again.
Síle was waiting in a place where the horizons were limitless.
And Ireland was a republic at last. Well, twenty-six counties of it. The Boys would win back the rest in time.
Turning his face to the wall, Ned Halloran went thankfully, peacefully, into the densely peopled dark.
Flaming in the western sky were the banners of a salmon and gold sunset. Birds sang themselves to sleep in the hedgerows and shadows flowed like water across the hills of Clare.
The great fires that had swept the world and shaken its inhabitants to the core were over…for a time.
Ireland Act, 1949
Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
It is hereby recognized and declared that the part of Ireland heretofore known as Eire ceased, as from the eighteenth day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-nine, to be part of His Majesty’s dominions.
It is hereby declared that Northern Ireland remains part of His Majesty’s dominions and of the United Kingdom and it is hereby affirmed that in no event will Northern Ireland or any part thereof cease to be part of His Majesty’s dominions and of the United Kingdom without consent of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.
The part of Ireland referred to in subsection (1) of this section is hereafter in this Act referred to, and may in any Act, enactment or instrument passed or made after the passing of this Act be referred to, by the name attributed thereto by the law thereof, that is to say, as the Republic of Ireland.
Source Notes
Chapter Six
1. The Victory of Sinn Féin, p. 73
2. Guns and Chiffon, p. 42
3. Forty Years of Irish Broadcasting, p. 26
Chapter Eight
1. The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 8
2. De Valera, p. 400
3. Constance de Markievicz, p. 349
Chapter Nine
1. De Valera, p. 405
2. Rose and Crown, p. 323
3. Forty Years of Irish Broadcasting, p. 44
Chapter Eleven
1. Forty Years of Irish Broadcasting, p. 59
2. The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 154
Chapter Twelve
1. Soul of Fire, p. 143
2. Ireland This Century p. 106
3. Ireland’s Holy Wars, p. 303
4. Women of the House, p. 28
5. Seán Lemass, p. 55
Chapter Fourteen
1. A View from Above, p. 72
2. A View from Above, p. 53
Chapter Fifteen
1. The Last Secretary-General, p. 3
2. The Last Secretary-General, p. 13
Chapter Sixteen
1. A View from Above, p. 65
Chapter Seventeen
1. Ireland This Century, p. 108
Chapter Eighteen
1. Women of the House, p. 16
2. The Last Secretary-General, p. 24
Chapter Nineteen
1. Twentieth Century Ireland, p. 20
2. De Valera, p. 436
Chapter Twenty
1. Ireland 1912–1985, p. 176
2. John Charles McQuaid, p. 73
3. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, p. 321
4. Ireland; A Social and Cultural History, p. 38
5. The Eucharistic Triumph, p. 22
Chapter Twenty-Three
1. The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921–1936, p. 327
Chapter Twenty-Five
1. The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921–1936, p. 347
2. The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921–1936, p. 323
3. Diana Mosley: A Biography, p. 186
Chapter Twenty-Six
1. Forty Years of Irish Broadcasting, p. 91
Chapter Twenty-Seven
1. Chronicle of the 20th Century, p. 436
2. De Valera, p. 473
Chapter Twenty-Eight
1. The Shelbourne Hotel, p. 223
2. A View from Above, p. 75
Chapter Thirty
1. Ireland’s Holy Wars, p. 332
Chapter Thirty-Three
1. Chronicle of the 20th Century, p. 462
2. The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 361
3. Chronicle of the 20th Century, p. 463
4. The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 366
5. The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, p. 6
Chapter Thirty-Four
1. Chronicle of the 20th Century, p. 478
Chapter Thirty-Five
1. Erin’s Blood Royal, p. 183
2. The Last Secretary-General, p. 151
Chapter Thirty-Six
1. Irish Political Documents 1916–1949, p. 218
2. The Last Secretary-General, p. 158
Chapter Thirty-Nine
1. The Chronicle of the 20th Century, p. 502
Chapter Forty
1. The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, p. 200
Chapter Forty-One
1. The Last Secretary-General, p. 168
Chapter Forty-Two
1. Chronicle of the 20th Century, p. 507
2. The Last Secretary-General, p. 180
Chapter Forty-Four
1. Irish Political Documents 1916–1949, p. 221
2. The Last Secretary-Gene
ral, p. 182
3. Ireland This Century, p. 148
4. The Emergency, p. 122
5. A U.S. Spy in Ireland, p. 109
6. An Irish Century 1845–1945, p. 146
7. The Last Secretary-General, p. 187
Chapter Forty-Five
1. The Last Secretary-General, p. 187
Chapter Forty-Six
1. Step Together!, p. 3
2. British State Papers de-classified and released in 1999
Chapter Forty-Seven
1. Irish Political Documents 1916–1949, p. 224
Chapter Forty-Eight
1. De Valera, p. 566
2. The Emergency, p. 36
3. The Lost Years, p. 128
Chapter Forty-Nine
1. Irish Times, December 23, 1998
Chapter Fifty
1. A Chronology of Irish History, p. 227
Chapter Fifty-One
1. The Lost Years, p. 184
2. The Emergency, p. 11
3. John Charles McQuaid, pp. 175–192
4. Irish Political Documents 1916–1949, p. 231
Chapter Fifty-Two
1. The Emergency, p. 131
2. De Valera, p. 528
3. Twentieth Century Ireland, p. 152
4. Ireland This Century, p. 161
5. De Valera, p. 621
Chapter Fifty-Three
1. De Valera, p. 156
Chapter Fifty-Four
1. Eamon de Valera, p. 413
2. 2RN, p. 176
Chapter Fifty-Five
1. Step Together!, p. 169
Chapter Fifty-Six
1. Modern Ireland, p. 565
Bibliography
Akenson, Donald Harmon. Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants 1815–1922. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1991.
Andrew, Christopher, and Vasili Mitrokhin. The Mitrokhin Archive. London: Allen Lane, 1999.
Barrington, Brendan. The Wartime Broadcasts of Francis Stuart, 1942–1944. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2000.
Bell, J. Bowyer. The IRA; The Secret Army. Dublin: AP Press, 1970.
Boylan, Patricia. All Cultivated People. Buckinghamshire, England: Colin Smythe Ltd., 1988.
Brennan, Robert. Allegiance. Dublin: Browne and Nolan, Ltd., 1950.
Brome, Vincent. The International Brigades: Spain 1936–1939. London: Heinemann, 1965.
Brown, Terence. Ireland; A Social and Cultural History 1922–1985. London: Fontana Press, 1985.
Capuchin Annual, The. Dublin: 1970.
Carey, Tim. Mountjoy: The Story of a Prison. Cork: The Collins Press, 2000.
Clayton, Pamela. Enemies and Passing Friends. London: Pluto Press, 1996.
Clear, Caitriona. Women of the House. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2000.
Coogan, Tim Pat. De Valera. London: Hutchinson, 1993.
Coogan, Tim Pat. Ireland Since the Rising. London: Pall Mall Press, 1966.
Coogan, Tim Pat. Wherever Green Is Worn. London: Hutchinson, 2000.
Cooney, John. John Charles McQuaid. Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1999.
Corbett, John. A Time and Place for Mirth and Mischief. Dublin: Lough Ree Publishing Co., 1998.
Dalley, Jan. Diana Mosley: A Biography. London: Faber & Faber, 1999.
De Valera, Eamon. Peace and War: Speeches on International Affairs. Dublin: M.H. Gill & Son, Ltd., 1944.
Doherty, Richard. Irish Men and Women in the Second World War. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999.
Dwyer, T. Ryle. Short Fellow. Dublin: Marino Books, 1995.
Elliott, Marianne. The Catholics of Ireland. London: Allen Lane, 2000.
Ellis, Peter Beresford. Erin’s Blood Royal. London: Constable & Co., 1999.
Fallon, Brian. An Age of Innocence: Irish Culture 1930–1960. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1998.
Fallon, Charlotte H. Soul On Fire. Cork: Mercier Press, 1986.
Fanning, Kennedy; Keogh and O’Halpin, editors. Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Volume I. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy for the Department of Foreign Affairs, 1998.
Farrell, Brian, editor. RTE 100 Years. Dublin: Town House, 2001.
Fischer, Joachim, and Myles Dillon, editors. The Correspondence of Myles Dillon. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999.
Fisk, Robert. In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster, and the Price of Neutrality. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1996.
Fitzgibbon, Constantine. Out of the Lion’s Paw: Ireland Wins Her Freedom. London, Macdonald & Co., 1969.
Forrest, Andrew D. Worse Could Have Happened. Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1999.
Gageby, Douglas. The Last Secretary-General: Sean Lester and the League of Nations. Dublin: Town House Press, 1999.
Gallagher, Frank. The Indivisible Island. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1957.
Gorham, Maurice. Forty Years of Irish Broadcasting. Dublin: Talbot Press Ltd., 1967.
Gray, Tony. Ireland This Century. London: Little Brown & Co., 1994.
Gray, Tony. The Lost Years: The Emergency in Ireland 1939–45. London: Little, Brown & Co., 1997.
Griffith, Kenneth, and Timothy O’Grady. Curious Journey. Cork: Mercier Press, 1998.
Harkness, D. W. The Restless Dominion. New York: New York University Press, 1970.
Haverty, Anne. Constance Markievicz: An Independent Life. London: Pandora, 1988.
Hegarty, Patrick Sarsfield. The Victory of Sinn Féin. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1998.
Jackson, John Wyse. Flann O’Brien at War. London: Duckworth, 1999.
Kearns, Kevin C. Dublin Street Life & Lore: An Oral History. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1997.
Keogh, Dermot. Twentieth-Century Ireland: Nation and State. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994.
Kershaw, Ian. Hitler 1889–1936. London: Allen Lane, 1998.
Kiely, Benedict. Counties of Contention. Cork: Mercier Press, 1945.
Laffan, Michael. The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party 1916–1923. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Lee, Joseph. Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
McCabe, Ian. A Diplomatic History of Ireland 1948–49. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1991.
MacCarron, Donal. A View from Above: 200 Years of Aviation in Ireland. Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2000.
MacCarron, Donal, Step Together!: Ireland’s Emergency Army. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1999.
McCool, Sinéad. Guns and Chiffon: Women Revolutionaries and Kilmainham Gaol. Dublin: Government of Ireland Stationery Office, 1997.
MacEoin, Uinseann. The IRA in the Twilight Years 1923–1948. Dublin: privately published, 1997.
MacEoin, Uinseann. Survivors. Dublin: Argenta Publications, 1987.
MacLysaght, Edward. Changing Times. London: Colin Smythe Ltd., 1978.
McNamara, Maedhbh, and Pascal Mooney. Women in Parliament. Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 2000.
MacThomáis, Eamonn. Me Jewel and Darlin’ Dublin. Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1974.
Marreco, Anne. The Rebel Countess. London: The Phoenix Press, 2000.
Mercer, Derrick, editor-in-chief. Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Longmans, 1988.
Mitchell, Arthur, and Pádraig Ó Snodaigh. Irish Political Documents 1916–1949. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1985.
Moreton, Cole. Hungry for Home. London: Viking Press, 2000.
Nelligan, David. The Spy in the Castle. London: Prendeville Publ. Ltd., 1999.
Norman, Diana. Terrible Beauty: A Life of Constance Markievicz. Lond: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., 1987.
O’Broin, Leon. Protestant Nationalists in Revolutionary Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1985.
O’Callaghan, Fr. Jerome. The Eucharistic Triumph. London: Sands & Co., 1933.
O’Casey, Sean. Autobiographies 2: Rose and Crown. London: Papermac, division of Pan Macmillan, 1992.
O’Donoghue, David. Hitler’s Irish Voices. Belfast: Beyond the Pale Publications, 1998.
O’Neill, Marie. Grace Gifford Plunkett. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2000.
Oram,
Hugh. The Newspaper Book. Dublin: MO Books, 1983.
O’Sullivan, Donal. The Irish Free State and Its Senate. London: Faber & Faber, 1940.
Pakenham, Frank, Earl of Longford, and Thomas P. O’Neill. Eamon de Valera. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1970.
Pakenham, Frank. Peace by Ordeal. Cork: Mercier Press Ltd., 1951.
Pearce, Donald R. The Senate Speeches of W. B. Yeats. London: Prendeville Publishing Ltd., 2002.
Pine, Richard. 2RN and the Origins of Irish Radio. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002.
Quigley, Martin S. A U. S. Spy in Ireland. Dublin: Marino Press, 1999.
Regan, John M. The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921–1936. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1999.
Ryan, Desmond. Unique Dictator: A Study of Eamon de Valera. London: Arthur Barker Ltd., 1936.
Saorstát Éireann: Official Handbook. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1932.
Share, Bernard. The Emergency: Neutral Ireland 1939–45. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1978.
Skeffington, Owen Sheehy. What Has Happened? 1916–1966. Dublin: TCD Publishing Co., 1966.
Small, Stephen. An Irish Century 1845–1945. Dublin: Roberts Books, 1998.
Somerville-Large, Peter. Irish Voices. London: Chatto & Windus, 1999.
Spellissy, Seán, The Merchants of Ennis. Co. Clare: Ennis Chamber of Commerce, 1996.
Stradling, Robert. The Irish and the Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Manchester: Mandolin, 1999.
Tanner, Marcus. Ireland’s Holy Wars. London: Yale University Press UK, 2001.
Townshend, Charles. Ireland: The 20th Century. London: Arnold, 1999.
Van Voris. Constance de Markievicz. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1967.
Ward, Margaret. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: A Life. Cork: Attic Press, 1997.
By Morgan Llywelyn
from Tom Doherty Associates
Bard
Brian Boru
The Elementals
Etruscans (with Michael Scott)
Finn Mac Cool
Lion of Ireland
Pride of Lions
Strongbow
1916
1921
1949
Acknowledgments
The author owes a great debt to the numerous Irish men and women who have contributed to this novel by sharing their time and their memories. There are too many to thank them all by name, but without them it would have been impossible to construct a picture of Ireland during the Thirties and Forties.
1949 Page 43