Reluctant Rebel PDF Download

The Castle mentioned in the novel's title is Dublin Castle, which was the central control headquarters for the English authorities in Ireland. Also, the title itself is taken from a statement by Michael Collins to Arthur Griffith, in the Castle grounds, during the ceremony when the British relinquished their control to the Irish. The novel, however, follows the adventures of a very young Irishman, Patrick Kyle, who, at the turn of the 20th century, enlists in the British army, serves through the Boer war, returns home, studies law, and briefly gets caught up in a political incident in Ireland. Later on he again joins the British army, (assuming that Ireland would get its independence if the Irish fought for England) and survives the horrors of World War One. When he returns to Ireland, he becomes inadvertently embroiled in the fight for Ireland's freedom, and is finally accused of treason during the civil war there. He is so disappointed, and disillusioned with the outcome of these events, that he leaves his homeland, and sets sail on a ship bound for America, taking along his beautiful wife, Hannah, and his two children. On the voyage he has, what can only described as, a spiritual experience that convinces him that, in America, he will find a life of peace with his wife and family, that had so eluded him in the past. The story also deals with his love-life, and tells how he had fallen hopelessly in love with Hannah Smyth, a beautiful young lady, whose family were ardent members of The Loyal Orange Order. This Orange Order is a group that had been implanted in Northern Ireland in the 17th century for the purpose of creating and maintaining a Protestant ascendancy there, and was given total political control in that area. This implantation created animosity between the Protestant landowner and the Catholic dispossessed. Consequently, the Orange Order's whole history has been influenced by the idea that Catholics were their mortal enemies, and had to be eliminated, or at least be totally suppressed. As it happened, our hero, Patrick Kyle, was a member of the Catholic Church, and this made for a very turbulent courtship between him and his future wife The novel describes, in sufficient detail, how people thought during the early part of the Twentieth Century, what they're values were, and the politics of that era. The story illustrates how those events of so long ago have grossly influenced current Irish politics, and were basically the root cause of the recent violence in Northern Ireland. This connection is briefly described in the Epilogue. It also dispels many myths and lies put out by the British regarding Ireland's involvement in WW1, and consequently it becomes somewhat controversial in its scope. There is action of some sort on every page, and it never lets up. It could be described as an anti- war book and, with some vivid descriptions of W.W.I battles, an illustration of man's inhumanity to his fellow man. It reflects the confusion of a man whose close friends, that he had fought beside a few months previously, were now his worse enemies, and whose loyalties were so confused by these circumstances that he could no longer discern the difference between right and wrong. There are many stories within this book, all dealing with various periods of this man's life through a very turbulent and violent era. The debacle and insanity of Anglo- Irish politics is simply described, and the reasons for the hero's decisions is explained and justified on his terms. However, in spite of a series of violent and disappointing events, the story's ending has a pleasant and upbeat tone.