1916

by Morgan Llywelyn

Reviewed by Coral

Ned Halloran and his parents are on their way from Ireland to America for Ned's sister's wedding, when tragedy strikes. Unfortunately, the ship that Kathleen's fiancée booked them passage on was the Titanic.

Ned is the only member of his family who survives. But instead of staying in America with his sister, he decides to head back to Ireland. There, his family's landlord (I think) arranges to have Ned sent to Saint Edna's School, run by its headmaster Padraic Pearse.

At Saint Edna's, Ned learns more than just reading and writing, he learns patriotism and nationalism. He learns what it is to yearn for a free country and to have it be denied by the British.

The Nationalist movement in Ireland is growing more and more determined to grab their independency and with Britain determined to stop them, the stage is set for the fateful rising of 1916.

This author has been hit or miss for me in the past and, unfortunately, this was most definitely another miss.

I was never drawn to any of the characters or the plot. Both Kathleen's sub-plot and Ned's brief love triangle were dull and unnecessary. The book seemed to drag in a lot of places.

And I have always had an irrational dislike of books where, for no logical reason, the main hero can, somehow, escape the bloodshed and turmoil around him and get his happily ever after.

Grade: F