At the heart of the rebellion against Britain in
Ireland, lies the tragic and compelling story of three sisters. The Gifford sisters were beautiful sisters
born into privilege and educated beyond what many women could expect in the
early twentieth century. They also
rebelled against their Protestant pro-England background to become important
contributors in the Irish fight for freedom much to their family’s dismay.
Muriel trains to become a nurse, and meets the
romantic teacher and writer, Thomas MacDonagh.
As a Catholic and poor teacher, he at first doesn’t meet her parents
approval, but he soon works his way into the family’s heart. Grace is a trained artist and a master
cartoonist that struggles to find a place for her work. When she meets MacDonagh’s friend Joe
Plunkett, she meets someone that shares her deepest thoughts and also
encourages a religious side of her that explores the Catholic faith. Nellie trains as a cook and teaches new
cooking methods to women across the country.
When Countess Markievicz inspires her on the rights of the Irish people,
Nellie joins the Citizen Army. Isabelle is a mother who wants her children to
love God in the Protestant Church and the English rulers, but although her six
sons follow the family line, her six daughters all are inspired to help the
cause of Irish freedom. As events lead
to the Easter Monday Rising of 1916, tragedy looms near for the entire family.
I found this entire book to be intriguing and I
learned a lot a about Irish history. I’ll
admit that as I read it, I thought that the sisters were fiction characters
existing in a historical setting. I
discovered in the afterward that they were all real historical figures and I
was amazed. I then spent a lot of time
online trying to learn all I could about their later lives (the author does
give a brief synopsis of each in the afterward as well) and the Rising in
general and I was fascinated. It is an
amazing part of history and they were amazing women in their own right.
I loved this quote in the novel as it illustrated
the sad fact that Irish children were raised to not learn anything of their own
heritage. I equate this to what was done
in the United States to Native American children.
“There was a large map of Ireland and its counties,
showing its rivers, mountains, and roads.
As they had had only a map of Britain in her school, Muriel knew its
rivers, counties, and countryside far better than those of her own country, she
was ashamed to say.”
A large part of the novel was actually about labor
strikes that were going on in the 1912 and 1913 time period. I found these very interesting as there were
also labor strikes going on at the same time in the United States in the copper
mines of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in the coal mines of Appalachia. I didn’t realize that the labor unrest was
worldwide with the working class wanting to have more of their fair share when
at that time the rich were living at such a high level as compared to the
common working person. I thought this
quote illustrated that:
“A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work is all the
workers want,” Connolly complained angrily.
I also found it interesting that the Irish Rebellion
started during WWI, which was also when the communist revolution was happening
in Russia. This time period was a powder
keg for world change. From a strategic
point of view, this was also a good time for a rebellion with the British
deeply invested in the war on the Continent.
Overall, Rebel Sisters is a great historical fiction
story with wonderful real life characters that are finally getting their story
told. The setting of turn of the century
Dublin was fascinating as was the revolution as it unfolded. I loved the characters stories, their coming into
their own as well as their romances. I
highly recommend this novel.
Book Source:
I received a copy of Rebel Sisters for Review as a part of the TLC Book
Tours. Thank-you! For more great reviews of this novel, check out the full list of tour participants at:
http://tlcbooktours.com/2016/03/marita-conlon-mckenna-author-of-rebel-sisters-on-tour-mayjune-2016/
http://tlcbooktours.com/2016/03/marita-conlon-mckenna-author-of-rebel-sisters-on-tour-mayjune-2016/
More great links about this book:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Sisters-Marita-Conlon-McKenna/dp/1848271999/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25613409-rebel-sisters?from_search=true&search_version=service
Author's website: https://maritaconlonmckenna.com/womens-fiction/rebel-sisters/
Giveaway
One lucky winner will receive a copy of Rebel Sisters by Marita Conlon-McKenna. If you would like to win Rebel Sisters, please leave a comment on why it sounds interesting.
As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.
For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.
I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.
This contest is only open worldwide.
The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday June 10th!
Please
make sure to check the week of June 13th to see if you are a winner. I
send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail"
folder instead of their inbox.
Good luck!