The Year of the French

In 1798, Irish patriots, committed to freeing their country from England, landed with a company of French troops in County Mayo, Ireland. They were the advance guard, to be followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone. Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry. But help was too late and too little, and before long the insurgency collapsed before a brutal English counter-attack. The Year of the French brings to life peasants and landlords, Protestants and Catholics, soldiers, politicians and poets, along with old and abiding questions of secular and religious commitments, empire, occupation and rebellion. It is quite simply a great historical novel.