Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love
A family story of blood and memory and the haunting power of the past.

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

After nearly three decades reporting conflict from all over the world for the BBC, Fergal Keane has gone home to Ireland to tell a story that lies at the root of his fascination with war. It is a family story of war and love, and how the ghosts of the past return to shape the present.

Wounds is a powerful memoir about Irish people who found themselves caught up in the revolution that followed the 1916 Rising, and in the pitiless violence of civil war in north Kerry after the British left in 1922.

It is the story of Keane’s grandmother Hannah Purtill, her brother Mick and his friend Con Brosnan, and how they and their neighbours took up guns to fight the British Empire and create an independent Ireland. And it is the story of another Irishman, Tobias O’Sullivan, who fought against them as a policeman because he believed it was his duty to uphold the law of his country.

Many thousands of people took part in the War of Independence and the Civil War that followed. Whatever side they chose, all were changed in some way by the costs of violence. Keane uses the experiences of his ancestral homeland in north Kerry to examine why people will kill for a cause and how the act of killing reverberates through the generations.

"1126943991"
Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love
A family story of blood and memory and the haunting power of the past.

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

After nearly three decades reporting conflict from all over the world for the BBC, Fergal Keane has gone home to Ireland to tell a story that lies at the root of his fascination with war. It is a family story of war and love, and how the ghosts of the past return to shape the present.

Wounds is a powerful memoir about Irish people who found themselves caught up in the revolution that followed the 1916 Rising, and in the pitiless violence of civil war in north Kerry after the British left in 1922.

It is the story of Keane’s grandmother Hannah Purtill, her brother Mick and his friend Con Brosnan, and how they and their neighbours took up guns to fight the British Empire and create an independent Ireland. And it is the story of another Irishman, Tobias O’Sullivan, who fought against them as a policeman because he believed it was his duty to uphold the law of his country.

Many thousands of people took part in the War of Independence and the Civil War that followed. Whatever side they chose, all were changed in some way by the costs of violence. Keane uses the experiences of his ancestral homeland in north Kerry to examine why people will kill for a cause and how the act of killing reverberates through the generations.

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Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love

Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love

by Fergal Keane
Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love

Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love

by Fergal Keane

Paperback(Reprint)

$17.99 
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Overview

A family story of blood and memory and the haunting power of the past.

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

After nearly three decades reporting conflict from all over the world for the BBC, Fergal Keane has gone home to Ireland to tell a story that lies at the root of his fascination with war. It is a family story of war and love, and how the ghosts of the past return to shape the present.

Wounds is a powerful memoir about Irish people who found themselves caught up in the revolution that followed the 1916 Rising, and in the pitiless violence of civil war in north Kerry after the British left in 1922.

It is the story of Keane’s grandmother Hannah Purtill, her brother Mick and his friend Con Brosnan, and how they and their neighbours took up guns to fight the British Empire and create an independent Ireland. And it is the story of another Irishman, Tobias O’Sullivan, who fought against them as a policeman because he believed it was his duty to uphold the law of his country.

Many thousands of people took part in the War of Independence and the Civil War that followed. Whatever side they chose, all were changed in some way by the costs of violence. Keane uses the experiences of his ancestral homeland in north Kerry to examine why people will kill for a cause and how the act of killing reverberates through the generations.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780008189273
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 11/27/2018
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 368
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Fergal Keane OBE was born in London and educated in Ireland. He is one of the BBC's most distinguished correspondents, having worked for the corporation in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Asia and the Balkans. He has been awarded a BAFTA and has been named reporter of the year on television and radio, winning honours from the Royal Television Society and the Sony Radio Awards. He has also been named Reporter of the Year in the Amnesty International Press Awards and won the James Cameron Prize and the Edward R.Murrow Award from the US Overseas Press Association.

Table of Contents

Prologue: We Killed All Mankind 1

1 The Night Sweats with Terror 23

2 The Ground Beneath Their Feet 41

3 My Dark Fathers 57

4 Revolution 77

5 Tans 105

6 The Abode of Wolves 116

7 Sunshine Elsewhere 128

8 Assassins 142

9 Between Gutter and Cart 161

10 Executions 185

11 The Republic Bold 197

12 The War of the Brothers 216

13 A New Ireland 246

14 Inheritance 269

15 Afterwards 279

Acknowledgements 301

A Short Note on Sources 303

Noters 307

Chronology of Major Events 325

Glossary 329

Select Bibliography 333

Illustration Credits 337

Index 339

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