Justice & Injustice, as Seen by Irish Literary Figures

Justice & Injustice, as Seen by Irish Literary Figures
Friday, May 10, 2024 by KATE DARROCH

Categories: Friday's Fiction / GUEST AUTHORS

PLEASE WELCOME

KATE DARROCH

FICTION FRIDAY

On 17th March this year I brought out a Saint Patrick’s Day anthology of Cozy Mysteries with 100% of sales proceeds going to a charity very dear to me, helping to release children held in internment camps and reunite them with their parents. Our Lord and Redeemer said plainly:

KJV: Luke, chapter 17, verse 2

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

The anthology, Luck of the Irish, did well on launch, and has so far raised well over $600 for RAICEStexas.org. It is for that book I beg your kindness, because it matters to me far more than any book I have written as sole author, even though my books have won many awards.

In honor of Luck of the Irish I shall be sharing some thoughts on Irish literature today. My mother, now gone to her reward, used to say that Oscar Wilde, perhaps the best known Irish author and playwright, was superficial; but I have always felt that beneath his superficial superficiality he was very deep. More than one of his plays contained a heart-felt plea for kindness and justice to be accorded Victorian children, many of whom suffered appallingly, perhaps even as badly as the poor Mexican children trapped in their dreadful situation today.

But Wilde is not my favorite Irish writer, nor is George Bernard Shaw, perhaps the next best known, whose plays also revolve around social injustice. Who can forget J M Synge? whose wonderful and terrible Riders to the Sea is such a classic that it is still taught in schools today, at least in England, which is ironic when you consider that the whole play is an outpouring of condemnation of English policy in Ireland. Not that it is ever taught that way, of course. Pupils are urged to consider the beauty of Synge’s use of the English language.

Isn’t it an interesting thought that apart from Shakespeare (who may have been Irish for all we know, since so many controversies surround his identity) all the most truly wonderful usage of English language comes from the pens of Irish writers?

But Synge is not my favorite Irish writer either. That palm goes to Wolfe Tone, whose poster urging the 1798 Uprising hung by my bed when I was a teenager, in the spot where most young girls hang a poster of a pop group.

Tone’s writing inspired my love of justice and kept me sane (sort of) in a world gone mad. Which is my favorite amongst Wolfe Tone’s essays? One that perforce he delivered verbally. In those days, when a man was about to be condemned to hang, the judge would ask if he had anything to say before judgement was passed upon him; and many great Irish patriots gave wonderful Speeches from the Dock.

Against tradition, the judge sentencing Wolfe Tone interrupted his last words, saying he should be ashamed of spilling innocent blood (Lord Norbury was referencing the English soldiers who died in the Uprising, not the far greater number of Irish patriots who were savagely hacked down). Tone thundered, drowning out Lord Norbury’s words, “And does your lordship dare speak to me of innocent blood, when if all the innocent blood your lordship has shed in your unhallowed reign were collected in one vast reservoir, your lordship might swim in it.”

Why I love Wolfe Tone so much is that the Uprising wasn’t even ‘his fight’. He was a landed Protestant, wealthy. The Uprising was an attempt to gain desperately needed relief for the Irish Catholic poor. Wolfe Tone died for their sakes, just as our Lord and Redeemer, Christ Jesus, died for our sakes. Just as the legal team at RAICEStexas.org are giving up their lives to the thankless task of seeking justice for the sake of little children today.

ABOUT KATE DARROCH

Twice Indie Spotlighted by Publishers Weekly, winner of the 2022 and 2024 Incipere Awards for Best Christian Fiction, 2022 winner of the Readers Favorite Gold Medal for Humor & Satire, Kate Darroch had an absolute blast writing the Huntingdon Hart series, compared by some of her readers to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock.

Kate's first sleuth, Màiri Maguire, has been compared to Miss Marple, Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote, Father Brown and Mr. Quayle, but Kate thinks Màiri's Cozy Mysteries are closer in spirit to the Anty Boisjoly stories.

Recently Kate launched Sweets by The Sea, a series of Second Chance for Lasting Love novels that combine the themes of forgiveness, redemption and recovery, set in sleepy Welcombe Bay on the gorgeous Devon coastline. Readers say these old fashioned love stories are even sweeter than her Cozies. Thanksgiving in Welcombe Bay, the first book in the series, came First in the 2024 Incipere Awards for Christian Fiction and Clean Women's Fiction; and in the Pencraft Christian Fiction Awards. Kate’s latest book is an anthology of 10 Saint Patrick’s day Cozy Mysteries, The Luck of the Irish, sold in aid of children in need.

ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY, LUCK OF THE IRISH

BUY LINK

Ten Tantalizing Cozy Mysteries to delight you on Saint Patrick's Day!
Sure to make you chuckle, and keep you guessing!

Includes the authors' Favorite Saint Patrick's Day Irish Recipes

Ten authors got together to bring you these super Cozy mysteries, themed around Luck, Saint Patrick's Day and — in rather surprising ways — some leprechauns, too.
Enjoy short stories, novellas, and all stops in between!

Enjoy dipping into this book whenever you have a few minutes when you can read.
Whatever your taste in Cozies, I do not hesitate to say that there's something here for everyone…

100% of book sale proceeds go to the non-profit RAICEStexas.org who help children living in dreadful conditions.

Have fun curling up with these Cozy stories and a delicious drink, knowing that just by enjoying these tales you are doing good in the world as well - because 100% of book sales proceeds go to a non-profit helping children living in terrible conditions, RAICESTexas.org

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