1691: A Novel

 

Full of great insight, bringing us down under the floorboards of history.  A wonderful achievement — Hugo Hamilton, author of The Speckled People

Great characterisations and evocation of the politics of the times and wonderful, expert depictions of the military aspects. — Liam Cahill, author of Forgotten Revolution, The Limerick Soviet 1919

This is the book my father intended to write but never got around to during his lifetime.

An amateur historian of the battle of Aughrim (where we lived) he collected artefacts from the battlefield which now form the centerpiece of the collection in the village’s visitor centre

He would not have written the book as fiction but he would have approved of its factual base. Writing history as fiction provides new perspectives on historical figures, their motives, decisions, and actions. I believe it enhances our understanding of their dilemmas and it challenges our natural assumption that everything that happened was inevitable.

1691: A Novel opens in May 1691 as the decisive year of the war in Ireland is about to get underway. The armies of the English King James and his Dutch usurper King William are on the move again, resuming where they left off for the winter.

The Jacobites have been pushed westwards beyond the River Shannon following their defeat at the battle of the Boyne the previous year. But they’re far from beaten.

Through the personalities of two opposing generals, the Irish Patrick Sarsfield and the Scottish Hugh Mackay, 1691 brings to life the coming sieges and battles that shaped the future of Ireland for centuries to come.

The friendships and feuds, conspiracies and alliances, strategies and tactics are explored in a readable fictional account that’s true to the historical record.

Broadens our historical understanding in a way that conventional history would struggle to do — Padraig Lenihan, author of The Last Cavalier

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