Deadly Shot: Dan’s Diary
It is 1920. Dan O’Donovan is twelve years old, a promising footballer and a messenger boy for the Irish Free State army and its rebel leader, Michael Collins. Despite promising his cousin Molly, and his mother, not to get caught up in the fighting, Dan is gradually drawn deeper into the struggle for an independent Ireland and becomes involved in a web of ambush and murder plots.
The story is fast-paced and often very graphic for a children’s book, in its description of the actual shootings and bombings. The real-life happenings are seen through the eyes and mind of a child, many with Dan being an eye-witness; for example, the events of Bloody Sunday in 1920, when the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Auxiliary Division opened fire on the crowd at a Gaelic Football match at Croke Park in Dublin, killing fourteen citizens and wounding many others.
Dan, like many boys, has a passion for football. His talent helps him out of many dangerous situations but also is his way of dealing with the increasing violence he witnesses around him during a particularly brutal time in British and Irish history.
Poolbeg Press is a small Irish publishing company, who produce excellent books for both adults and children. Dan’s Diary is one of their Hands on History series, aimed primarily at Irish schoolchildren. Non-Irish children may find the cultural and historical references difficult to understand, despite some helpful facts at the beginning of the book and Author’s Notes at the end. However, I am sure, with a little more explanation, any reader would find the story gripping to the last page.
