When Dubliner Edward Barrymore falls into the sea off Ballygally Head in north east Ulster, he thinks his end is nigh. Yet, from the darkness comes help in the form of Henry O'Halloran and his beguiling granddaughter, Ellen. Edward is immediately smitten by the beauty of the fair colleen and is enraptured to find she feels the same, but their happiness and that of their families and their country is threatened. Insurgency and rebellion are approaching and Ellen's grandfather, Edward's life-saver, is at the vanguard of the United men in this part of the country. Were the clouds of war not frightening enough, Ellen is also pursued by a monstrous cad who thinks nothing of having her beloved Edward murdered so he may take her for his own. In the dark of the night, when men with pikes will march against their royal masters, when cowards will skulk away and heroes rise, when neighbour will turn on neighbour and many a good man will fall, can love remain true, will honour repay its debts and what will become of O'Halloran, The Insurgent Chief? With forewords by Stephen Dornan, Ian Hooper, David Hume MBE, Angeline King, Stephen McCracken and Claire Mitchell. A re-publishing of the 1824 classic - a tale of two hearts united as Ireland rips herself apart. Note: The main body text of this work is in the Public Domain.
Arvustused
James McHenrys OHalloran; or, the Insurgent Chief: An Historical Tale of 1798 is a landmark of nineteenth-century American-Irish/Ulster historical fiction, and its re-publication is a fitting tribute to marking the 225th anniversary year of the 1798 Rebellion, recalling its often-neglected northern arena. GUY BEINER, Sullivan Chair of Irish Studies, Boston College and author of Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press)
James McHenry was the son of George McHenry and Mary Smiley, was born in Lame in 1785, and witnessed the fighting in the town between the United Irishmen and Royalist troops during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. He would go on to become a medical doctor, a novelist, poet, playwright, editor, reviewer and in the latter stages of his life, a diplomat. In 1817 he moved with his family to the United States and in 1824, he wrote the first American novel to be set in the north of Ireland, OHalloran, or The Insurgent Chief. Best known in his lifetime for his prose, he was heavily involved in American politics. Initially a supporter and personal friend of Andrew Jackson, (whose father had been born in Carrickfergus, the neighbouring town to Larne), McHenry would later become a staunch anti-Jacksonite and a keen advocate of President John Tyler, who, in recognition of his support, appointed Dr James McHenry as US consul at Derry, Ireland. Serving back in his native Ulster from April 1843, James took ill on a trip back to his hometown and died there in Stewarts Hotel on the 21st July 1845.
