tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post4939684369360170163..comments2023-09-11T16:32:45.839+02:00Comments on The Pleasures of Underachievement: Thomas Flanagan's The Year of the Frenchseanachiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15359354940953059605noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post-50871345628336985502017-07-20T16:32:11.344+02:002017-07-20T16:32:11.344+02:001798: I just bought "The Year of the French&#...1798: I just bought "The Year of the French'. I've been looking for some historical fiction to chew on. I searched and found this one by Thomas Flanagan. It deals with the Irish Rebellion of 1798 so I could not resist.<br /><br />In 1798/99 our 3rd great grandfather, Frederick Lloyd, was mayor of Limerick City. His wife our 3rd great grandma, Julia Vereker, was sister of Charles Vereker, 2nd Viscount Gort who at the time commanded the Limerick Militia. The book's intro on Amazon reads; "In 1798, Irish patriots, committed to freeing their country from England, landed with a company of French troops in County Mayo, in westernmost Ireland. They were supposed to be an advance guard, followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone. Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry and gathering a group of supporters. But before long the insurgency collapsed in the face of a brutal English counterattack." Our very great uncle Charles Vereker led the attack on those French forces of General Humbert which apparently checked, delayed and prepared for their defeat and surrender. Charles and family were loyal to England but were also publicly outspoken against the Act of Union which dissolved the Irish Parliament.<br /><br />Charles Vereker was uncle of our great great grandfather John Lloyd Esq. of Lisheen Castle, Co. Tipperary who came to Canada in 1856. John's 2nd wife Mary Ann Minton, our GG grandmother, was born into an Irish Catholic family in Co. Waterford. She told the story to her daughter Kate that her own grandparents had died at the 1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill.<br /><br />Our Redmond family were living at Hollyfort Co. Wexford and so were in the middle of the 1798 Wexford rebellion; a handful of kilometers from the townland of Ballylusk near Monaseed, home of Myles Byrne, a leader in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and Chef de Bataillon in Napoleon’s Irish Legion. I have read his memoirs which tell the story of the rebellion. https://archive.org/details/memoirsofmilesby01byrniala<br /><br />We have folk on all sides of this tale. Sarah Cadogan, Grandmother of Lord Edward FitzGerald, a great great grandson of King Charles 11 and a leader of the Rebellion, was a first cousin of our ancestor Elizabeth Prendergast, daughter of Penelope Cadogan and Sir Thomas Prendergast. (Jonathan Swift not a pal of his son, also Sir Thomas. see 'On Noisy Tom' by J.S p.557https://books.google.ca/books?id=_3UEAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA557&lpg=PA557&dq=jonathan+swift+thomas+prendergast&source=bl&ots=jbb8O4-Coi&sig=EuTvcd_rPjpzYE9skunq3N-11XM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX7tuC85fVAhWIxYMKHVq0Dx0Q6AEIKzAB#v=onepage&q=jonathan%20swift%20thomas%20prendergast&f=false ...ha) .<br /><br />I therefore feel compelled to read Flanagan's novel.<br />Keep you posted.<br /><br />It became a best-seller in the US, and also sold very well in Ireland. In Ireland, too, it had a remarkable second life after the national television company,...to make it into a film that was broadcast on television in late 1982 in a six-part series.<br /><br />Flanagan, Thomas. The Year of the French (New York Review Books Classics) . New York Review Books. Kindle Edition.<br /><br />http://www.goodreads.com/…/sh…/651858.The_Year_of_the_French<br /><br />John Redmondjohn r redmondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06936879310918107904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post-6919745629433759542013-04-23T20:20:52.833+02:002013-04-23T20:20:52.833+02:00Hello! I simply would like to offer you a huge thu...Hello! I simply would like to offer you a huge thumbs up for the excellent information you have got here on this post.I am returning to your site for more soon. Check out my web blog ; <a href="http://www.lacitabb.com" rel="nofollow"> 1916 rising commeration in cork </a> Alinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01769920008239959024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post-77352063973287236082009-03-04T23:12:00.000+01:002009-03-04T23:12:00.000+01:00It's well worth having a look at Guy Beiner's bril...It's well worth having a look at Guy Beiner's brilliant book:<BR/>Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory (University of Wisconsin Press).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post-27175611786049117232007-05-31T21:10:00.000+02:002007-05-31T21:10:00.000+02:00I stand corrected re: Pakenham; for some reason I ...I stand corrected re: Pakenham; for some reason I had always thought he was from Wexford.<BR/><BR/>Gorsoon (or gasún) certainly does come from French, though I'm not sure from what era. I think that gasúr, more common in Ulster, is a variant of the same, though I'm not sure if it shares an etymological root with its homonym, the Irish for 'hammer'. There's something wryly (or maybe bleakly) providential about the Irish language having the same word for 'lad' and 'hammer'.seanachiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15359354940953059605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post-42664503389975150942007-05-31T13:55:00.000+02:002007-05-31T13:55:00.000+02:00Pakenham is from westmeath rather than wexford, th...Pakenham is from westmeath rather than wexford, though with a strong (lord) longford connection. Unsurprisingly enough there are very few 1798 memorials in munster - the north cork militia are unlikley to be commemorated any time soon, though there is a monument to a very minor, isolated and unsuccessful rising in skibereen, and some in bantry. fantastic re Com it ee, i suspect there's a dose of french in gorsoon too - the kerry term for a boy and about half way between gasur and garson.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post-15115865706406033192007-05-31T11:45:00.000+02:002007-05-31T11:45:00.000+02:00I had noticed the greater emphasis on Wexford and ...I had noticed the greater emphasis on Wexford and Ulster too in the 1998 commemorations. Wexford could possibly be explained by the fact that two pre-eminent 1798 historians, Tom Pakenham and Kevin Whelan are Wexford-men. Ulster was of course the engine-room of the United Irishmen.<BR/><BR/>However the General Humbert Summmer School takes place every summer in Ballina and Killala and is a fitting venue for progressive republican debate (I mean 'republican', of course, in its historical rather than, contemporary, sense.<BR/><BR/>Interestingly most of the streetnames honouring the United Irishmen in the West date from the centenary commemorations in 1898 (as does the pilgrimage to Wolfe Tone's grave at Bodenstown). The Teeling monument at Collooney - located on a rock beside the site of the battle between Humbert's men and the Sligo garrison, and one of the finest of its kind in the country - was also erected in 1898 and a Sligo Champion report of the day states that a time capsule was deposed at its base.<BR/><BR/>Another legacy of 1798 is the introduction of the word and idea of the 'committee' into Ireland; the Irish have continued to use their own idiosyncratic pronunciation (com-mitt-EE) derived from the French. The GAA, Macra na Feirme, the ICA and many other organisations would be very different things altogether without it.seanachiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15359354940953059605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30964029.post-67315871496282237972007-05-31T10:26:00.000+02:002007-05-31T10:26:00.000+02:00i remember the tv miniseries fairly vividly - i wa...i remember the tv miniseries fairly vividly - i was allowed up late to watch it despite being only 6 at the time, because it was important i suppose and an unusual hiberno-french production. i read the novel years later, indeed i picked up a decayed paper back circe 1982 from a shelf in the sitting room one wet weekened was amazed by how good it was (despite the cover and phonebook thickness).<BR/>the french connection and indeed mayo angle seemed to be largely overlooked by the main commemorations in 1998, with the wexford and ulster narratives much more to the fore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com