Ireland At War Historical Novel About Northern Ireland Explores The Roots Of The Violence That May Now Be Coming To An End

“The End of the Hunt” (Dutton, $24.95) by Thomas Flanagan

Since October, dialogue has replaced the gun in Northern Ireland’s conflict, and a “Framework Document” for negotiations was recently issued by the British and Irish governments.

On this possible dawn of a new era of Irish peace, it would behoove those concerned to read Thomas Flanagan’s new novel, “The End of the Hunt.” In it, Flanagan goes back to the origins of the current Irish troubles and explains why the fighting between England and Ireland began and why Ireland was divided between north and south.

“The End of the Hunt” is the last historical novel in Flanagan’s Irish trilogy, which includes “The Year of the French” and “The Tenants of Time.” While these first two novels traversed the historical landscape of Irish nationalism from the Uprising of 1798 to the fall of Charles Stewart Parnell in 1891, this latest piece of fiction takes us to the end of the hunt for Irish freedom, the tragic and seemingly inevitable creation of a divided Ireland plagued by a civil war.

As in his past works, Flanagan weaves a riveting story based upon historical accuracy, multiple narrators and meticulous detail in the geographical setting.

The story of this “hunt” focuses upon those events and persons associated with the times of troubles involving Irish freedom. It includes the Easter uprising of 1916, the Anglo-Irish war 1919-1921, and the Irish civil war, 1922-1923. Although these were the nation-making events of Irish nationalism, Flanagan goes beyond the patriotic myths and accurately depicts the historical realities and verities.

The 1916 uprising, for example, was not supported by the Irish majority. The Irish war of independence was not an Anglo-Irish war. It was a hunt, in which brutal ambushes, murders, assassinations, executions and bombings were the modus operandi and not the great military strategies and battles that result in victories. Lastly, not a national celebration but an Irish civil war ensued following the passage of the London Treaty that gave the Irish freedom in 26 counties of southern Ireland.

Flanagan is masterful in his use of multiple narrators. Each Irish narrator describes and reacts differently to these times of Irish unrest. Patrick Prentiss, who loses an arm while fighting for England during World War I, does not become involved in the Irish struggle; Janice Nugent, who lost her husband at Gallipoli in 1915 and eventually loses her lover in the Irish civil war, does not care about Irish freedom. Frank Lacy, Elizabeth Keating and Christopher Blake, on the other hand, are Irish nationalists who were willing to take up the gun to fight for their shared goal of an Irish Republic in spite of their different economic, social and intellectual backgrounds.

Yet these last three lose something as well. Lacy and Keating lose the ideal of a united Irish Republic and instead have to settle for an Irish Free State. Christopher Blake loses his life in a brutal ambush in the Irish countryside.

Taken together, this historical setting, these discordant voices and personal tragedies effectively convey Flanagan’s paradox of Irish freedom: that more important than winning the fight for Irish freedom was experiencing the senseless loss of a limb, idea or life. Ireland itself also encountered tragedy when it was permanently scarred by civil war and divided between north and south. Flanagan would agree with Yeats’ assessment of these events, “a Terrible Beauty is born.”

Beyond the historical plot and characters, Flanagan’s work paints a mental picture of Ireland. In particular, the novel allows the reader to walk the streets of Dublin and take a historical tour of the sites associated with this time period.

An example: “Had I turned right at Portobello Bridge, a ten-minute walk past Leeson Street Bridge, and Baggot Street Bridge, along the treeshaded towpath, would have taken me to Mount Street, where, in Easter week, rebels held houses which commanded that bridge, and fought off British troops being marched to the city from Kingstown …” Just as James Joyce in “Ulysses” provides a Bloomsday tour of Dublin, Flanagan provides a tour of Dublin in the times of troubles.

In the end, Flanagan’s novel has neither heroes nor villains. It simply depicts ordinary human beings being confronted by extraordinary historical times. When the twain meet, the result is human/Irish frailty and tragedy. No one is left whole in this fight for Irish freedom, even Ireland itself. Fate has not been kind.

Perhaps the end of the hunt means an end to these times of troubles, but it also portends that the pain, the loss and the gunmen in Irish life will continue as they have through 1994. If nothing else, Flanagan’s work will demonstrate to most just how significant and radical a turning point the current developments in Northern Ireland seem to be. It provides the hindsight of violence and despair as well as the foresight of peace and hope.

MEMO: Timothy J. Sarbaugh, an associate professor of history at Gonzaga University, teaches the History of Modern Ireland and has edited “The Irish in the West.”