Home › Books › The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the …
The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England
by
89/99
Critics' Rating Index
14/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
89/99
Volume of Reviews
42/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
A brilliant work of historical true crime charting a pivotal event in the l9th century, the Phoenix Park murders in Dublin, that gripped the world and forever altered the course of Irish history, from renowned journalist, former New Yorker London editor, and Costa Biography Award finalist Julie Kavanagh. One sunlit evening, May 6 l882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland, were ambushed and stabbed to death while strolling through Phoenix Park in Dublin. The murders were funded by American supporters of Irish independence and carried out by the Invincibles, a militant faction of republicans armed with specially-made surgeon's blades. They ended what should have been a turning point in Anglo Irish relations. A new spirit of goodwill had been burgeoning between British Prime Minister William Gladstone and Ireland's leader Charles Stewart Parnell, with both men forging in secret a pact to achieve peace and independence in Ireland--with the newly appointed Cavendish, Gladstone's protégé, to play an instrumental role in helping to do so. The impact of the Phoenix Park murders was so cataclysmic that it destroyed the pact, almost brought down the government, and set in motion repercussions that would last long into the 20th century. In a story that spans Donegal, Dublin, London, Paris, New York, Cannes and Cape Town, Julie Kavanagh thrillingly traces the crucial events that came before and after the murders. From the adulterous affair that caused Parnell's downfall; to Queen Victoria's prurient obsession with the assassinations; and the investigation spearheaded by Superintendent John Mallon, also known as the "Irish Sherlock Holmes," culminating in the eventual betrayal and clandestine escape of leading Invincible James Carey and his murder on the high seas, The Irish Assassins brings us intimately into this fascinating story that shaped Irish politics and engulfed an Empire. This is an unputdownable book from one of our most "compulsively readable" (Guardian) writers.
Reviews
"Kavanagh...deftly outlines the conspiracy ..."
"This entertaining and richly detailed chronicle offers fresh insights into a conflict whose repercussions are still felt today."
"Kavanagh's writing is engaging from start to finish."
"She describes in the most touching terms the devastation among the families of both the murdered and those men caught up in the conspiracy who paid for it with their lives ..."
"A cinematic, multilayered revenge tragedy centered on Ireland's fraught quest for independence."
"It's refreshing to encounter an author willing to take the time to render political personalities in such fine detail ..."
"Yet at the close one is left with the inevitable question: All that violence, all those deaths, and for what?"
"After sketching out the timeline, Kavanagh fully immerses readers into mid and late 1800s Ireland, providing rich historical details about day-to-day life and tracking the rising political tensions between poverty-stricken Irish tenants and despotic English landlords ..."
"Julie Kavanagh...does a masterful job of sorting through the complexities and making the history accessible and comprehensible ..."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!