The Last of the Fenians

In this narrative history three Donegal childhood-companions invite the reader to revisit Ireland's most turbulent decade for Ireland of the early 1900's was not the Ireland portrayed in the Quiet Man. PJ (Killer) Sleavin becomes a sought-after Fenian, Eddie (Reed) Ward a one-armed priest, and Fiona Glackin, to her remorse, marries an Ulster playboy. During WWI, as a chaplain for the Irish 10th Division, Reed loses his arm in the gullies of Gallipoli. Killer Sleavin, a signal corps...
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In this narrative history three Donegal childhood-companions invite the reader to revisit Ireland's most turbulent decade for Ireland of the early 1900's was not the Ireland portrayed in the Quiet Man. PJ (Killer) Sleavin becomes a sought-after Fenian, Eddie (Reed) Ward a one-armed priest, and Fiona Glackin, to her remorse, marries an Ulster playboy. During WWI, as a chaplain for the Irish 10th Division, Reed loses his arm in the gullies of Gallipoli. Killer Sleavin, a signal corps cyclist, experiences the hopelessness of trench warfare, while serving with the Irish 16th and the Ulster 36th Divisions in Flanders. After suffering through an abusive marriage, Fiona flees with her children to Philadelphia. Following the Great War, Reed and Sleavin return to Ireland to participate in the Easter Rising, Anglo-Irish War, The Treaty, Ulster, and the Irish Civil War-a conflict during which Irishmen execute Irishmen.To deepen the reader's understanding of such historical events, the author employs conversation to present the broader picture. The following are two excerpts from The Last of the Fenians:Excerpt 1 - 10/15/1915-During the Battle of Loos, is a conversation by an aging warrior determined to rejoin his former regiment as they were about to wade through a cloud of poison gas. Returning the dented container to its hiding place, the old Scot continued. "Churchill, the blighter, sucked up every spare shilling for his navy ... leaving us with nothing to acquire any big guns ... or ammunition. Then the blighter convinced everyone he could take Gallipoli by lobbing a few shells at the Turks. But they outsmarted us. Obtained a vast supply of floating mines. Got 'em from the Russians, they did. The Rooskies dropped them in the Black Sea end of the Bosphorus, hoping the current'd take them down. Turks picked them up, transported 'em to the Dardanelles and used them against us. Cost us six ships in one day alone."Excerpt 2 - Michael Collins used a ruse to test the loyalty of a follower by dangling false information. Then he waited to see if the British would act on it. A wide grin formed on Tobin's face. "I've just the thing. Old man Farrell, the former Lord Mayor of Dublin, spent half his life bragging about his twenty-minutes of fame conversing with King George. Let's plant the idea that Farrell's secretly a member of Sinn F#65533;in, and to cherry the matter, stores secret documents at his home on Iona Road." Collins, laughing so hard he almost fell off a chair, replied, "For the first time, I find myself hoping that Jameson's guilty. Can't you picture the look on Farrell's face if the DMP rouse him from bed and accuse him of being disloyal?"The comments of one reviewer:The skill with which James Francis Smith integrates fictitious characters into his novel, The Last of the Fenians, rivals that of Leon Uris in Trinity. Mr. Smith's characters interact with historical figures in a most believable manner. The reader soon forgets which characters are real and which are the works of the author's imagination.This well researched story is a "must read" for those who prefer to get their history in the form of an historical novel.Jodi Sullivan, Tacoma Writers Roundtable