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The Unquiet Land
As a newly ordained priest, Father Padraig returns on foot, at night, in the dark, during a storm, to the Irish fishing village of Corrymore, in the Mourne Mountains area of County Down, at the outset of Ron Duffy's The Unquiet Land (Libros Libertad $23)
Corrymore is based on the County Down fishing village of Annalong where Duffy has relatives and spent holidays, an area that remains his spiritual home after forty years in Canada. All of the names used in this tale of fiercely-held beliefs and tragically-held prejudices are fictitious-except for Belfast and Dublin.
"I did this to spare the residents of these places any embarrassment,"; Duffy says.
Padraig's mission is to convert his adopted father-the proud, pagan fisherman Finn MacLir- to Christianity, along with Finn's beautiful daughter, Caitlin. Finn MacLir had rescued Padraig from an abusive life in Scotland and adopted him, as a nine-year-old orphaned epileptic.
Even before Finn dies as an adamant unbeliever, Padraig increasingly focuses his attentions, both ecclesiastical and sexual, on his beautiful step-sister Caitlin, who begins to question her morals and almost looses her fiance, Michael Carrick, who objects to the ever-increasing amount of time his beloved is spending with the good Father.
When a vulnerable Caitlin seeks Padraig's counsel one night, he acts in a decidedly unfatherly way.
After Padraig and Caitlin spend a night together, Michael gives Padraig a beating that almost kills him.
These events are almost overshadowed by the arrival of the "Black and Tans,"; an auxiliary of the British forces, who raid Corrymore in search of Caitlin's fanatical Republican brother-in-law, Flynn Casey. Flynn slips escapes capture, but those closest to him are not so fortunate.
No one is left unscathed. The turmoil of the war, the shattered trust of loved ones, the violent deaths of family; all contribute to a turbulent and convincing drama about political, moral and religious conflicts. Duffy has a talent for portraying human conflict in its most multi-dimensional form. These characters are believable, fragile and vibrant, and he makes sure even the antagonists get their say.
Having first e-published a novel, close to 400,000 words in length, Ron Duffy was recently convinced by his print publisher to separate his work into a Northern Ireland trilogy, with The Unquiet Land serving as Volume One. He has also written a short history of Northern Ireland, called Until the Troubles Started, meant to complement the trilogy.
Prior to attending university, Duffy wrote a four-volume "topographical" history of his beloved County Down, Northern Ireland, now available at the Linenhall Library in Belfast. As a student at Queen's University in Belfast when The Troubles began, Duffy was soon immersed in student agitation for Civil Rights (a period to be described in Volumes Two and Three of the trilogy). He has also self-published two paperback novels, Crossed Lives and The Janus Web.
In 1988, McGill-Queens University Press published his non-fiction book The Road to Nunavut: the Progress of the Eastern Arctic Inuit since World War II written under the name R. Quinn Duffy. Pierre Berton quoted from it extensively for his coffee table book, Winter. Duffy is currently writing an historical novel based on the life of the 17th-century Ulster highwayman, Redmond O'Hanlon. For further background, visit www.ronqduffy.com for an interview Duffy gave to the Mourne Observer in Northern Ireland. 9781926763200
-- by Monica Rolinski, a Vancouver freelancer.
Corrymore is based on the County Down fishing village of Annalong where Duffy has relatives and spent holidays, an area that remains his spiritual home after forty years in Canada. All of the names used in this tale of fiercely-held beliefs and tragically-held prejudices are fictitious-except for Belfast and Dublin.
"I did this to spare the residents of these places any embarrassment,"; Duffy says.
Padraig's mission is to convert his adopted father-the proud, pagan fisherman Finn MacLir- to Christianity, along with Finn's beautiful daughter, Caitlin. Finn MacLir had rescued Padraig from an abusive life in Scotland and adopted him, as a nine-year-old orphaned epileptic.
Even before Finn dies as an adamant unbeliever, Padraig increasingly focuses his attentions, both ecclesiastical and sexual, on his beautiful step-sister Caitlin, who begins to question her morals and almost looses her fiance, Michael Carrick, who objects to the ever-increasing amount of time his beloved is spending with the good Father.
When a vulnerable Caitlin seeks Padraig's counsel one night, he acts in a decidedly unfatherly way.
After Padraig and Caitlin spend a night together, Michael gives Padraig a beating that almost kills him.
These events are almost overshadowed by the arrival of the "Black and Tans,"; an auxiliary of the British forces, who raid Corrymore in search of Caitlin's fanatical Republican brother-in-law, Flynn Casey. Flynn slips escapes capture, but those closest to him are not so fortunate.
No one is left unscathed. The turmoil of the war, the shattered trust of loved ones, the violent deaths of family; all contribute to a turbulent and convincing drama about political, moral and religious conflicts. Duffy has a talent for portraying human conflict in its most multi-dimensional form. These characters are believable, fragile and vibrant, and he makes sure even the antagonists get their say.
Having first e-published a novel, close to 400,000 words in length, Ron Duffy was recently convinced by his print publisher to separate his work into a Northern Ireland trilogy, with The Unquiet Land serving as Volume One. He has also written a short history of Northern Ireland, called Until the Troubles Started, meant to complement the trilogy.
Prior to attending university, Duffy wrote a four-volume "topographical" history of his beloved County Down, Northern Ireland, now available at the Linenhall Library in Belfast. As a student at Queen's University in Belfast when The Troubles began, Duffy was soon immersed in student agitation for Civil Rights (a period to be described in Volumes Two and Three of the trilogy). He has also self-published two paperback novels, Crossed Lives and The Janus Web.
In 1988, McGill-Queens University Press published his non-fiction book The Road to Nunavut: the Progress of the Eastern Arctic Inuit since World War II written under the name R. Quinn Duffy. Pierre Berton quoted from it extensively for his coffee table book, Winter. Duffy is currently writing an historical novel based on the life of the 17th-century Ulster highwayman, Redmond O'Hanlon. For further background, visit www.ronqduffy.com for an interview Duffy gave to the Mourne Observer in Northern Ireland. 9781926763200
-- by Monica Rolinski, a Vancouver freelancer.
Submitted on October 4, 2012 in By David.
