Synopsis
From the daring pirate-queen Grace O'Malley, to the fiery Protestant lawyer Theobald Wolfe Tone, and the courageous priest-patriot Fr John Murphy, Ireland's rebels have come from diverse backgrounds. But they all had one thing in common: they weren't afraid to take on a powerful Establishment and claim their right to self-determination.
The first half of this lively history shows us the links between the earliest rebellions orchestrated by Celtic nobles such as Dónal O'Sullivan Beare, and the more political attempts at emancipation o f the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, dominated by the Liberator himself, Daniel O'Connell. The second half includes the seminal period of the Easter Rising and the Civil War, the fight for workers' right led by James Larkin, and the war in Northern Ireland.
The personalities featured are: Donal O'Sullivan Beare, Grace O'Malley, Eoin Roe O'Neill, Silken Thomas, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Fr John Murphy, Daniel O'Connell, John Mitchell, William Smith O'Brien, Robert Emmet, Terence MacSwiney, James Larkin, Countess Markievicz, James Connolly, Patrick Pearse, Michael Collins, Gerry Adams, Boby Sands.
Author
New York-born author Morgan Llywelyn is one of the world's leading popular chroniclers of Celtic culture and history. A prolific storyteller, she has written more than twenty books over the past two decades. Her fiction has received several awards and has sold more than 40 million copies, and she herself is recipient of the 1999 Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year Award from Celtic Women International.
In the words of Judith A. Gifford of the reference publication Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, "Drawing on the history and lore that are part of her own heritage, the works of Morgan Llywelyn concern themselves with Celtic heroes and heroines, both real and mythical, bringing them and the times they inhabited to life with stunning clarity." Pauline Morgan, writing in the St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers, has explained, "[t]he majority of Morgan Llywelyn's books may be regarded as fictional biographies. Each book takes a person, often historical or legendary, and relates the story of their life. Most of the novels with a fantasy connection rely heavily on Celtic mythology, particularly that of the Irish.
Morgan Llywelyn now lives outside of Dublin, Ireland, and has become an Irish citizen.
