Running with crows: a new novel based on the life of William Mitchell.

William Mitchell’s is not an instantly recognisable name; he was, in fact, the only Black and Tan executed for murder during the Irish War of Independence. The victim was Robert Dixon of Milltown, Dunlavin. Running with crows: the life and death of a Black and Tan is a recently-published novel by D. J. Kelly, which follows Mitchell’s life from his boyhood in Dublin’s infamous Monto, to his soldiering in the already-decaying British Raj and on to the horrors of the trenches of World War One, before joining the Black and Tans and returning to an enormously-changed Ireland.

Kelly evidently did much research into the period spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She skilfully recreates the atmosphere of the time, and her descriptions are utterly believable and not easily forgotten. She has also created very human, well-rounded characters – neither saints nor demons – and their actions are always understandable in the context of the story. It is a good story, very well crafted, and the reader cannot but feel a certain amount of sympathy for Mitchell, as his life story unfurls on the pages. This novel works very well at the human as well as the historical level. Mitchell was a man of his times, reacting to events of his times, in the best way he knew. It is suggested that his execution was actually a miscarriage of justice, as another man may have been responsible for the Milltown murder – but I will not give away the plot. I will, however, heartily recommend this book.

Running with crows is an excellently written novel, fast-paced and with a compelling storyline. It must be remembered that it is a historical novel rather than a history book – and as a historical novel, it works very well and deserves a wide readership. The book is an attractive and competitively-priced paperback of 284 pages and is available online at Amazon.co.uk. I congratulate the author and wish it every success.

New Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society.

Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society, Volume Six [100 pages] now available. Price 10 euro plus 3 euro national or 5 euro international postage and packing. To order contact lawlorcm@hotmail.com.

New novel based on the life of Michael Dwyer.

Citizen Dwyer is a recently-published novel by Sean McCarthy, which follows the adventurous and torturous life of the renowned rebel leader Michael Dwyer. Sean McCarthy, the author of works such as When Jolie met Christie, is a playwright and novelist, who has also written for television, and his new novel has all the ingredients necessary to make it a historical blockbuster. McCarthy evidently did much research into the period spanning the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He skilfully recreates the atmosphere of the time, capturing both the worlds of the powerful elite and the downtrodden masses very well. He paints excellent pictures in words of Ireland and Australia – both of which are utterly believable and neither of which is easily forgotten.

McCarthy’s writing skills do not stop there however, as he has successfully endowed his characters with credible traits and motives for their actions – in short, he has breathed life into characters who lived two centuries ago. The story of Michael Dwyer is gradually revealed, starting in Wicklow and taking the reader through the turbulent years of the 1798 rebellion and its aftermath, when Dwyer and his band of rebels successfully resisted Crown forces in the Wicklow Mountains for over five years. The dialogue between the principal characters, such as Dwyer and Hugh Vesty Byrne, is pithy, earthy and plausible, adding tremendously to the pleasure of reading a good story well told.

The storyline moves on and the action switches to Australia, a raw and vibrant penal colony, following Dwyer’s cessation of military operations and his transportation to the new land. This part of the novel follows Dwyer’s many Australian adventures, and his battle with his increasing reliance on alcohol. Dwyer’s inner demons are laid bare as the plot unfolds, and perhaps McCarthy’s greatest triumph is his depiction of Dwyer as a man at war with himself; a man who has sought and eventually gained freedom – from everybody but himself. There is no doubt that this novel works very well at the human as well as the historical level. Dwyer’s story becomes part of a greater literary mechanism – the struggle of man against his own weakness and his inability to escape from himself – and Citizen Dwyer portrays this aspect of the human condition every bit as skilfully as it places Michael Dwyer in the context of the historical backdrop of his times.
The book is published in Dublin by New Island books, with support from the Arts Council. It is an attractive paperback of 354 pages, which captures the imagination of the reader, and should be under the Christmas tree of anyone with an interest in the period, in Irish history generally, in County Wicklow – or just with an interest in the pleasure of reading a good book with a fine storyline and a depth of insight into the human condition. I heartily recommend it to everyone, and wish it every success.

AN IRISH VILLAGE: DUNLAVIN, COUNTY WICKLOW

NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE

Copies of my new book An Irish village: Dunlavin, County Wicklow are now available. If you'd like a signed copy, please contact me directly at lawlorcm@hotmail.com and don't forget to fill in the subject line, as untitled emails will not be opened. Prices (inclusive of postage and packing) are €30 (Ireland and Britain) and €35 (rest of the world).

Book details below.

Title: An Irish village: Dunlavin, County Wicklow
Author: Chris Lawlor
Published: September 2011
RRP: €29.99
Market: Irish history, Irish lives, local history – both general and specialist readership
ISBN 0-9532947-3-0
Binding: Paperback
Extent: 488 pp [B5 size]

NEW BOOK LAUNCHING 23 SEPTEMBER 2011

Professor James Kelly, the head of the history department in Saint Patrick’s College, Drumcondra (a college of DCU), will launch Chris Lawlor’s new book entitled An Irish village: Dunlavin, County Wicklow in Rathsallagh Golf Club at 8 p.m. on Friday 23 September.

The new book traces the history of the Dunlavin region from earliest times to the present day, but this groundbreaking study is more than the history of a single County Wicklow village and its communities over time. It is, in fact, the history of a whole nation in microcosm. This book explores the impact of national events on a specific locality. In its pages you will read of Celtic warriors, Viking raiders, Norman conquerors, English settlers, improving landlords, liberal loyalists, subversive radicals, rebellions, mass political movements, the Tithe War, the Great Famine, the Land War, political upheavals, social change and economic developments – all viewed through the prism of one village and its environs. The book locates the Dunlavin region within the larger framework of Irish history. It is both an invaluable case study and a work of reference with wider significance, which will appeal to all Irish history enthusiasts, particularly those with an interest in the Wicklow-Kildare region, and will also be of interest to professional Irish historians. Chris’s work has already drawn praise from the Irish academic community, with three history professors speaking very highly of the new book on Dunlavin.

Local people and everyone with a Dunlavin connection may find references to their ancestors in the appendices in the book, which will include all Church of Ireland baptisms in Dunlavin during the 18th century, all households subject to the payment of tithe in Dunlavin parish in 1823, all landholders in Dunlavin parish in 1854 and all householders in Dunlavin from both the 1901 and 1911 censuses, in addition to many other appendices. There is a limited print run, so people should attend the launch night in Rathsallagh Golf Club in order to avoid disappointment later! Books will be on sale at the launch at a specially reduced rate and everybody is welcome on the night. Everybody welcome... hope to see you there on the night!

Made it! Now for the next book...

My thesis on Dunlavin is finished and I was awarded a doctorate by DCU in November. I am currently modifying the thesis and should have a book to publish later this year (2011), so watch this space!

This book will trace the history of the village community of Dunlavin in west Wicklow over many centuries. The Dunlavin region straddles both counties Wicklow and Kildare. A lengthy prologue will treat of the early history of the Dunlavin area. The main study follows the evolution of the village in its regional setting, examining the long and formative impact of Anglophone settlers during the era of ‘Protestant Ascendancy’, positing a model, possibly applicable nationally, of their rise in the seventeenth century, through their zenith in the eighteenth, to their decline in the nineteenth, and replacement by the emerging Catholic interest in the twentieth.
Sir Richard Bulkeley erected the new village of Dunlavin on a greenfield site after the 1641 rebellion. In 1710, Sir James Worth Tynte inherited the village. Tynte and his eighteenth-century successors pursued a model of paternalistic landlordism, but the 1798 rebellion, and the Dunlavin massacre, fractured the relationship between the elite and the masses. The paternalistic model of landlordism failed in the early nineteenth century, and the severe experience of the area during the Great Famine was testament to this. In the post-Famine era, Joseph Pratt Tynte never regained the levels of deference he and his fellow landlords had previously enjoyed. Tynte’s influence was challenged by invigorated nationalism and resurgent Catholicism. The Catholic middle class took control of local politics, and Dunlavin entered the twentieth century with middle-class Catholicism in the ascendancy. The irreversible eclipse of the elite was already advanced, and the process was completed during the twentieth century. A lengthy epilogue will treat of Dunlavin's history during the past century, 1910-2010. This study locates the Dunlavin region in the larger tapestry of Irish history. Dunlavin’s past is as integral to national history as the past in any other part of the island. This case study illuminates an individual section of a complex network of past local experiences, and reveals one part of the range of past behaviours in Ireland.

Pre-Famine Dunlavin

The following description of Dunlavin on the eve of the Famine is taken from The parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland, adapted to the new poor-law, franchise, municipal and ecclesiastical arrangements, and compiled with a special reference to the lines of railroad and canal communication, as existing in 1844-45; illustrated by a series of maps and other plates and presenting the results, in detail, of the census of 1841, compared with that of 1831, ii, (3 vols, Dublin, 1846) p. 146.

Dunlavan, a market and post town in the above parish, stands at the intersection of the road from Ballymore Eustace to Castledermot with that from Kilcullenbridge to Donard, 5 miles south by east of Kilcullenbridge and 26.5 south-southwest of Dublin. The Tynte family are still proprietors of a large circumjacent estate that belonged to their ancestors; and they have of late years very much improved the town. The market house, constructed of neatly cut mountain granite, and occupying a commanding site, is remarkable for the classical elegance of its architecture, and for being surmounted by a fine dome: it was built at the close of the16th century [sic] by Robert Tynte Esq. [sic], and restored in 1836 at a cost of £500, and under the superintendence of Mr. Cross of Athy, by Lady Tynte. Fairs are held on May 20, the first Friday of July, old style, August 21 and the third Tuesday of October. The Dunlavin dispensary is within the Baltinglass poor law union, and serves a district of 38,000 acres, with a population in 1831 of 7,911, and in 1839-40 it expended £109 12s 10d, and administered to 2,318 patients. On the road to Ballytore, and about two miles from Dunlavin, is the demesne of Rathsallagh; and in the vicinity is the seat of Lady Tynte. Area of the town 41 acres. Population in 1831 1,069; in 1841, 990. Houses 143. Families employed chiefly in agriculture 56, in manufacturing and trade 87 and in other pursuits 54. Families dependant chiefly on property and professions 15; on the directing of labour 85; on their own manual labour 81 and on means not specified 16.