It’s 1848, a time when the Irish Potato Famine has claimed more lives than anyone cares to count while English landlords continue to evict their tenants with a ruthless lack of compassion. Young Brian O’Rourke, an educated and savvy son in an impoverished family of Ribbonmen, meets Elizabeth Reilly, a talented pianist from London when she’s visiting her father in Ireland. After secretly promising themselves to each other at the age of sixteen, their twisted fates encounter unforeseen difficulties when Elizabeth returns to London and then follows Chopin to Paris to study piano, while Brian immigrates to America on a famine ship. Brian uses his telegraph expertise to help slaves escape on the Underground Railroad. He then travels to California to work on the Transcontinental Telegraph and to Washington to help President Lincoln during the Civil War, while Elizabeth launches a successful career as a concert pianist in Europe and America.
This epic historical drama weaves a story of love overcoming every obstacle during one of the most tumultuous periods in history, when revolutions in Europe and the Civil War in the United States shook the basic foundations of society while inventions such as the telegraph changed the way the world worked. Their enduring romance captures the passionate spirits of two people determined to find each other regardless of the forces conspiring to keep them apart.
Patrick Francis Rooney was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He lived in Texas and Virginia for several years before he settled down in Colorado. A former software engineer in the computer industry, he now devotes himself full-time to writing fiction novels as well as performing and composing music. He plays electric bass and acoustic guitar in the Denver/Boulder area when he isn't writing.
So what and where is Innisfree? Innisfree is a small uninhabited island in Lough Gill, Ireland, featured in the poem Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats, at least, it was uninhabited in this novel. The Angel of Innisfree starts out in Ireland at Creevelea Abbey, Dromahair, Ireland in the year 1848. Dromahair is a small village in County Leitrim, Ireland.
Ireland in 1848 is known at this time for the potato famine, the Young Irelander Rebellion. The rebellion mainly had to do with the British and how they treated the Irish, lower than dirt, they took the lands from the people that had resided there for centuries, turned them out of their homes, burned what they could and left the people to die. The food that the Irish people grew was taken from them and sold to other countries or it went back to Britain.
Brian O'Rourke is one of the sons of Big Paddy O'Rourke, one of these Irish that are told to get off the land or else. Well in Brian's family it was the or else, Brian's father and brothers are killed by the soldiers, the mother left to die and his sister kidnapped. Brian rescues his sister, which he does but his mother dies in the meantime. Brian vows revenge, kills a man and he becomes a wanted man and hides out on Innisfree. He and his sister Mary escape to America, hoping that life will be better there.
Elizabeth Reilly is a privileged woman who lives with her aunt in London but is visiting with her father who is tasked with the duty of having the Irish evicted from their lands, he does not condone the killing of course but he does what he is told. While Elizabeth is visiting she happens to hear beautiful music floating through her window. Elizabeth is a pianist and wants to be a concert performer but her father has other ideas. Well, Brian plays the fiddle and he is playing for the men, women and children who have died as a result of starvation.
After Brian kills a man he is badly wounded and Elizabeth takes care of him on the island of Innisfree and they fall in love. Well, there is no happy ending at this time as Brian and Mary escape Ireland the cruelty that they find there. Elizabeth and Brian pledge that they will find each other no matter what or how long it may take, it actually takes 14 years.
Upon arrival their lives are hard but they make it work and Brian eventually gets involved in working for the Telegraph companies. The Telegraph is in its infancy at this time and Brian becomes very prosperous, but he still pines for Elizabeth. Elizabeth, on the other hand, does eventually go to Paris to study with Chopin until his death.
The Angel of Innisfree is one of those epic novels that takes place over a period of 50 years. It takes the reader through the development of the telegraph, the international underground telegraph lines to Europe, the gold rush, concert halls, the Underground Railway, the Lincoln administration and his assassination and the Civil War. Through all of this Brian and Elizabeth persevere.
Is there a happy ending? Well, you have to decide that. This novel is easy to read, lots of history but not bogged down in it to make it dull. This is a bit different than the other novel I read by Mr.Rooney, The Acheron Perception, but just as good if not better. I am partial to anything Irish of course so this book was perfect for me. I loved it and highly recommend it. Like I said before, this is not a history book and if that is what you are looking for, this isn't it. This is an epic love story that enforces that even in the face of war and other atrocities, love can beat all.
I received a copy of this book for review and was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.
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