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'Tipperary' Covers A Long Way
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Published: January 20, 2008
"Tipperary," by Frank Delaney (Random House, $26.95)
Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with recent Irish history, at least as it pertains to the struggle between Irish republicans and the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland that wants Ulster to remain a part of the United Kingdom.
But to truly understand the stresses and strains behind that dispute, it's helpful to know more about how Ireland was governed from London for so many years and how Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army came into existence and became prominent and controversial players in their country's fight for independence.
Frank Delaney, an Irish author (and former British radio personality and prominent literary figure) who lives in the United States, had a best seller ("Ireland: A Novel") in 2005 that addressed the conflict largely through the story of a 9-year-old entranced by an itinerant storyteller who is given (by the boy's parents) a night's lodging in exchange for his tales of the past.
In "Tipperary," Delaney's device is essentially a love story - and a very sad love story it is, for the most part - that is examined, with a very personal kind of passion, by an aging history teacher.
In his own words, Delaney says of his new novel: "Colonization is one of the world's oldest stories - history, as the saying goes, is geography. Thus, the freedom struggles of countries trying to overthrow their invaders have given us some of our most dramatic legends and our most enduring myths.
"This book tells the story of a passionate romance within an epic struggle for nationhood, and the narrators who tell it embody these varying perspectives: A thoughtful wanderer considers his country's upheavals alongside his heart's obsession. The fierce activist records his tale for his nation's archive. And a modern commentator tries to remain objective, until he discovers, deep in his researches, that in Ireland everything is personal, especially the past."
Other than its engaging examination of Irish history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, what's so impressive about "Tipperary" is the graceful complexity of the story. Delaney's history teacher finds an account of his times by a man named Charles O'Brien ("part wanderer, part journalist and many parts lover") and essentially offers it to his readers. But- noting that O'Brien had written "be careful about me" - he strives to amplify and clarify his source's narrative with his own commentary, which at times shows that O'Brien had (for reasons that gradually become clear) occasionally left out essential elements of his story.
The larger story, though, is Ireland's fight for independence, and there's quite a bit of bloodshed and violence.
Neither the Irish nor the British are innocent of wrongdoing. And, by cleverly having O'Brien befriend, to one degree or another, almost every prominent Irishman of his time - including Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and the revolutionary hero Michael Collins - Delaney brilliantly creates a character who had a front-row seat as his country's history unfolded before his eyes.
Al Hutchison is a freelance writer who lives in Inverness.
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