Ashes in the Wind
Tomas Sullivan, Gaelic Catholic, and John Burke, Anglo-Irish Protestant, become friends at school in County Derry in 1908. As the boys grow up and Ireland lurches towards its fight for independence, they are divided. After a family tragedy in which Tomas is implicated, John leaves Derry for good. Tomas is drawn deeper into subversive activities and has links to charismatic revolutionary Michael Collins.
The historical details are accomplished, and the first third of the novel has a crisp, dynamic narrative, but as Ireland settles into its uneasy peace of the 1920s there is a marked slump in the novel’s tone. The chapters featuring John’s life working with horses are too detailed and dull. Tomas’s life in the police is far more interesting as he has to deal with the Irish splinter factions. The two men encounter each other once more in Dublin and then during the Spanish Civil War, where they again fight on opposing sides. John has a checkered love life but eventually marries Kate, an American war correspondent. Tomas remains true to his first love, Kitty. After World War II, John finds religion and retreats to Mount Athos.
In 1993, John’s son, James, is a retired senior civil servant who impulsively moves to rural Northumberland, where he reflects on his life and plays golf (ditto horses). He also embarks on an affair with his sports masseuse, the much younger Anna. After reading some ancestral papers, James visits Derry and becomes friends with Tomas’s builder son, Michael. James goes into oyster farming (ditto horses, golf), and there is a final resolution of an outstanding mystery on what happened between John and Tomas.
There is much scope here for an exciting and moving saga exploring the repercussions of Ireland’s conflicts on successive generations, but this one falls well short of the mark.
