Guests of the Nation

by Frank O'Connor

Book Overview

A collection of stories centered on the Irish Revolution. Shows how war puts a false and cruel ethic upon people. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0905169689
• ISBN13: 9780905169682
• Release Date: June 1985
• Publisher: Irish Books & Medi
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

"I never could make out what duty was, meself."

Frank O'Connor's famous short story, also a stage play by Neil McKenzie, is set in Ireland in 1921, the waning days of the fight for Irish independence. Both the short story and the play emphasize the futility of war as two Irishmen capture two British soldiers while the soldiers are bird-watching, and are assigned to guard them in an Irish cottage for three weeks. All four are country people who have been doing what they are expected to do by those in charge of their "side," and none of them are really committed to the bloodshed which has marked this horrific war for independence. To help the time pass inside Kate O'Connell's thatched cottage, they play cards together, practice step-dancing, share cigarettes, become friends on the most basic level, and even argue about the fine points of religion (Does God bring droughts? What is the role of the pagan gods of Ireland? Do angels wear wings-and who made the wings?). The Irish think their prisoners are "decent chaps....to keep a guard on them is beyond sense," while the British acknowledge that "it's hard to remember what side you're on....I ain't even thinking of being set free no more." When a sixteen-year-old English soldier is killed in the western part of Ireland, the Irish soldiers must decide whether their emotional kinship with these simple, British "good lads" is stronger than their political kinship with the Irish army. The almost slapstick high humor of the beginning becomes agonized decision-making in the course of the action. The Irish guards, effectively convey the difficulties of wielding power over men very much like themselves. Hawkins and Belcher, the English birdwatcher, are so ingenuous that their efforts to be friends, rather than enemies, are completely believable. Kate O'Connell offers common sense advice, gradually changing from being a crotchety scold to a woman blossoming under their attention. Aimed straight at the heart, Guests of the Nation, shows two sets of "lads" trying to understand their "duty" when it is "hard to remember what side you're on." Mary Whipple