Mayo author tells epic family history in two novels

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the establishment of the Irish Free State, the culmination of a 700-year battle for Irish Freedom from the British Empire.

Much has been written about the top leaders of the decisive 1919-1921 final rebellion - especially Michael Collins and Eamon DeValera.

Many of the well-known patriot commanders have also been rightly lauded, namely Tom Barry, Dan Breen, Ernie O'Malley, Tom Maguire, Michael Kilroy and others.

But Ireland's victory would not have been possible without the unsung heroes, the men and women who fought on the front lines of what the Irish called The Tan War, those who sacrificed their lives daily.

Other heroes were the families of these fighters who bore the brunt of the reprisals meted out by the British Forces, especially by the Black and Tans, and the Auxiliaries.

The plain people of Ireland sheltered and fed these freedom fighters at enormous risk to their own safety.

This is very much the theme of a two-book series recently published by Kilkelly native Gerry Kenny and promoted by Amazon under the heading: ‘Ireland’s Final Rebellion 1919-1921, the story of a County Mayo family from the 1700s to the 21st Century.’

The epic is split into two books, 'Just One Of The Boys' and 'An American Dream Fulfilled.'

Gerry, who writes under the pen name of Michael Gerard, has lived in South Carolina in the US for many years now and always wanted to research and preserve his family stories for posterity.

The protagonist of 'Just One for the Boys' is Thomas Kane, a character based on his father.

Kane was an apprentice tailor when the martyrs of the 1916 Easter Rising made a bold attempt to overthrow British rule in Ireland.

The Republic that Patrick Pearse declared on Easter Monday 1916 was short lived and dozens of its leaders were executed – but the fuse of rebellion was lit, and the Irish population was appalled by these murders while tens of thousands of Irishmen were fighting and dying in the trenches of France for the British Army in World War One.

By 1918 the hardened survivors of 1916 were freed from internment camps and prisons, and regrouped under the leadership of Michael Collins, DeValera, Brugha, Lynch and O’Malley.

This time they were determined to fight a different type of warfare – a guerilla war on their terms that was to bring the British Empire in Ireland to its knees and to the negotiating table.

This was to be the mother-of-all Irish wars – savage, bloody and personal.

This time the entire Irish population was all-in, sheltering and protecting their fighters.

This time the young men and women of Ireland left their farms, their trades and their families and joined the ranks of the Irish Republican Army.

Collins and the high-profile leaders received most of the glory for winning Irish Freedom, but it was the dedicated, fearless, unheralded foot soldiers who really won the day for Ireland, aided in no small part by the women of Ireland.

Thomas Kane was one of these unheralded foot soldiers – he was ‘Just one of The Boys’.

His story represents all the other unsung heroes, recounts the horrors seen and the sacrifices they made to gain victory.

After the war-ending Treaty was signed with Britain, the Irish then engaged in an even more brutal Civil War which pitted former comrades and even family members against each other.

Somehow the country survived, held onto its newfound freedom and eventually prospered.

Thomas survived also, but always regretted his decision not to seek a new life in America.

His young son Sean remembered those expressed regrets from his childhood walks with his father, and eventually travelled to America and settled in South Carolina.

He found success and happiness there and has lived ‘An American Dream’ that eluded his father.

The sequel, 'An American Dream Fulfilled,' is narrated by Sean Kane, youngest son of Thomas Kane.

As a child he experienced his father's regret for not having emigrated to America in search of a new and better life, like some of his comrades had done at the end of the Irish Civil War.

Sean made a promise on his father’s grave that he would fulfil that lost dream.

He recounts his long journey - from growing up poor in the west of Ireland, paying his way through college, changing careers several times as he moved between Ireland's cities, then onto England and South Africa, as he followed his dream until he finally settled in America and built a successful business and a new life in South Carolina.

This two-book story carries the reader along with the Kane family, from the old and free mystic Ireland, through conquest by Britain followed by centuries of Irish Rebellion, the Great Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s, the Land Wars, the Easter Rising of 1916, the Irish War of Independence, resulting in The Irish Free State and Northern Ireland via partition, followed by the horrific Irish Civil War.

Peace then followed, resulting in the modest prosperity that an agriculture based economy could muster through the World War 2 years.

The Kane family story is picked up again by young Sean as he grows up in this modest Ireland of the 1960s, then pursues a quest on behalf of his father, which leads him to his promised land - America. He finds himself among the large throng of undocumented Irish immigrants, together with multiple other ethnic immigrants all chasing the holy grail - a green card.

This book is both a lesson in Irish history and an inspiring story of determination to fulfil dreams.

It is a must-read for everyone who is part of the Irish diaspora and for those who aspire to beat the odds and achieve their personal dream.