Insurrection (O'Flaherty novel)
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Comment: Nearly there. The external links need to be formatted within the references and you need to add more links (Easter Rising, etc).Stuartyeates (talk) 09:44, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
Insurrection (Novel 1950)
Insurrection is a 1950 novel by the Irish novelist Liam O'Flaherty. The action takes place during the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. It was O’Flaherty’s final novel.[1]
Plot
A diverse group of characters are caught up in the events of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. The group are despatched to defend the main road from Dublin to Dún Laoghaire (Dublin’s main port) from the expected arrival of British reinforcements. The ensuing battles and violence are used as a vehicle to explore each man’s motivations, fears and hopes. The principle characters are; The uneducated, slow-witted Bartly Madden; Kinsella ,the disciplined commander of a small band of insurgents; Stapleton, an anarchist and would-be poet; Tommy Colgan, a youth consumed by fear and self-doubt. [2][3]
Critical Reception
Insurrection received generally positive reviews, although it was compared unfavourably to some of his other work, such as ‘The Informer’ and ‘Famine’. Kirkus Reviews described it as ‘A vigorous, penetrating study of organized rebellion beside which the Hemingway revolutionists are very cold potatoes.’[4] However, John Hildebidle, in ‘Five Irish Writers’ said: ‘In trying to make fiction out of what amounts to a theory of revolutionary history, he produces characters with none of the persuasive energy and substance of his earlier novels’. [3]The literary review website Goodreads gave ‘Insurrection’ a 3.67 out of 5 rating.