The Singing Flame, by Ernie O'Malley #Irishhistory #amreading

Research into the Irish Civil War

I'm reading this book about the Irish Civil War, and beginning to understand how the Civil War came about and what they were fighting over.

For a long time, I found it hard to understand why a group of Irish people fighting for the same cause could be spilt into two or even three factions.

Ernie O'Malley

wrote about the middle classes who were promised power in a Free State by the British Government, and the Catholic Church in Ireland who had the power to sway minds and hearts in their many obedient believers.

While imprisoned O'Malley was refused Holy Communion by the priest who came to visit him, because he was a rebel against the elected government. His fight for a Republic was disregarded.

I read elsewhere that the British had to have a decent outcome for the Irish Free State to set an example to the other Colonial countries who were looking for independence in the early twentieth century. Also, the British couldn't continue the war in Ireland as they had other pressing issues around the Empire and a shortage of manpower after the First World War. They bluffed that they would send in more soldiers if the Free State agreement wasn't accepted. But it was a bluff.

In 'The Singing Flame,' O'Malley also wondered about the Irish men in the pay of the British Government as informers. There were many whose jobs depended on their allegiance to the Empire, for example, policemen and soldiers, and some of them may have earned extra money as informers

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'Home - 1848.' Latest Work In Progress.

I want to incorporate some of this ambiguity into my latest novel which is set in 1848 during the Famine Years. A police constable is also in the pay of the Government as an informer. He will create extreme danger for my protagonist, Jane Keating. I'm still trying to decide how she can survive the situation she uncovers.

See below for the first two novels. Available on Amazon and Kindle.