The Rebels of Ireland (The Dublin Saga, #2)

From Rutherford concludes his stirring Dublin Saga with a sweeping follow-up to his widely praised and popular The Princes of Ireland (2004). Taking up where he left off with the ill-fated Irish revolt of 1534, he conducts the reader on a whirlwind journey through the often-twisted annals of Irish history. After the British conquest of Ireland is complete and the installation of the "plantation" system tolls the death knell of Irish autonomy, the die is cast in a centuries-long political and spiritual quest for either independence or security. Told from the diverse viewpoints of several interrelated families, this epic recounting of the often tragic fate of one nation under two banners is transformed into an irresistible multigenerational chronicle featuring huge servings of romance, action, conflict, intrigue, and adventure. Ambitious in scope, teeming with a huge cast of finely drawn and realized characters, and dripping with authentic historical detail, this lengthy but eminently readable narrative will satisfy the appetites of discerning historical fiction aficionados. The previous volumes in the series have proven very popular, and the latest installment should follow suit. Margaret Flanagan Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review Praise for the Bestselling Novels of EDWARD RUTHERFURD The Princes of Ireland : “A giant, sprawling, easy-to-read story told in James Michener fashion.” —Maeve Binchy “A sweeping, carefully reconstructed portrait of a nation . . . Leaps through the centuries.” —_New York Times _ “Spellbinding . . . [A] page-turning Dublin saga . . . Rutherfurd does a magnificent job of packaging a crackling good yarn within the digestible overview of complex historical circumstances and events.” —_Booklist_ London : “Remarkable . . . Grand.” —_New York Times_ “Hold your breath suspense, buccaneering adventure, and passionate tales of love and war.” —_The Times_ (London) “Fascinating . . . A sprawling epic.” —_San Francisco Chronicle_ “A tour de force . . . Breathtaking.” —_Orlando Sentinel_ Sarum : “Bursts with action, encyclopedic in historic detail . . . supremely well crafted and a delight to read.” —_Chicago Tribune _ “A richly imagined vision of history, written with genuine delight.” —_San Francisco Chronicle_ Russka : “An example of how a skillful historical novelist can illumine the present by dramatically re-creating the past.” —_Houston Chronicle _ “Rutherfurd literally personifies history.” —_New York Daily News_ _The Forest: _“As entertaining as Sarum and Rutherfurd’s other sweeping novel of British history, London .” —_Boston Globe “ The Forest_ is Michener told with an English accent.” —_St. Louis Post-Dispatch_

The reigning master of grand historical fiction returns with the stirring conclusion to his bestselling Dublin Saga.
  
The Princes of Ireland, the first volume of Edward Rutherfurd’s magisterial epic of Irish history, ended with the disastrous Irish revolt of 1534 and the disappearance of the sacred Staff of Saint Patrick. The Rebels of Ireland opens with an Ireland transformed; plantation, the final step in the centuries-long English conquest of Ireland, is the order of the day, and the subjugation of the native Irish Catholic population has begun in earnest.

Edward Rutherfurd brings history to life through the tales of families whose fates rise and fall in each generation: Brothers who must choose between fidelity to their ancient faith or the security of their families; a wife whose passion for a charismatic Irish chieftain threatens her comfortable marriage to a prosperous merchant; a young scholar whose secret rebel sympathies are put to the test; men who risk their lives and their children’s fortunes in the tragic pursuit of freedom, and those determined to root them out forever. Rutherfurd spins the saga of Ireland’s 400-year path to independence in all its drama, tragedy, and glory through the stories of people from all strata of society—Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, conniving and heroic.
 
His richly detailed narrative brings to life watershed moments and events, from the time of plantation settlements to the “Flight of the Earls,” when the native aristocracy fled the island, to Cromwell’s suppression of the population and the imposition of the harsh anti-Catholic penal laws. He describes the hardships of ordinary people and the romantic, doomed attempt to overthrow the Protestant oppressors, which ended in defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and the departure of the “Wild Geese.” In vivid tones Rutherfurd re-creates Grattan’s Parliament, Wolfe Tone's attempted French invasion of 1798, the tragic rising of Robert Emmet, the Catholic campaign of Daniel O’Connell, the catastrophic famine, the mass migration to America, and the glorious Irish Renaissance of Yeats and Joyce. And through the eyes of his characters, he captures the rise of Charles Stewart Parnell and the great Irish nationalists and the birth of an Ireland free of all ties to England.
 
A tale of fierce battles, hot-blooded romances, and family and political intrigues, The Rebels of Ireland brings the story begun in The Princes of Ireland to a stunning conclusion.

A sweep through the past 4 centuries of Irish history, woven around a family saga. Very readable and credible accounts of the historical events, although some of the fictional characters are a bit far fetched at the end of the tale, to round up the whole thing. It answers a lot of questions about the complexity of "THE IRISH QUESTION", and you can see modern day parallels to recent post-colonial efforts by other countries. A long book but a good read. Follows the lives and destinies of several Dublin families, both Catholic and Protestant, from all strata of society, from the sixteenth-century colonization of Ireland by the English to the founding of the Irish Free State in 1922 Once again Rutherfurd takes us inside the process of history by tracing the lives of several Dublin families from all strata of society, Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, conniving and heroic