The Dead Republic [Paperback]

I was initially disappointed with "The Dead Republic" after I finished it because it didn't have the grab of "A Star Called Henry". Henry has always been a hard character to like, and this is more so in Doyle's new novel. But, I've let the book settle a bit. There are overtones throughout that render "The Dead Republic" unique and a fitting end point to the trilogy.

By the mid to late 20th century, Henry Smart has now become a much-admired and sentimental reminder of the Easter Rising of 1916. The director, John Ford, uses Henry as an IRA consultant to develop "The Quiet Man" (yes, the film with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara) in part, because Ford has the emerald-isle view of the Ireland he never lived and Smart represents. Then, in the 1970's and 1980's, the IRA keeps Smart in their midst for their purposes, despite the fact that some of the things Smart is credited for during the Irish Civil War, he never did. (No spoilers here). It's all become mired in history.

I quite liked "The Dead Republic" for these reasons. Roddy Doyle hits the reader hard with the false and delusional sentiments of the Ireland-that-never-was and reminds us what it was to be Irish, and living in poverty, particularly during the Troubles.

Thirty-five years after Henry Smart became one of the heroes of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, Henry is in Hollywood, where he is an "IRA consultant" to director John Ford, who plans to make a film about Henry's life. The making of this film and its aftermath become a major focus of this final novel in the "The Last Round-Up" trilogy which author Roddy Doyle had intended to reflect Ireland's history from its independence to the present day. A STAR CALLED HENRY, the first of the series, establishes Henry's background as a poverty-stricken child and the reasons for his willingness to put his life on the line in the General Post Office takeover in 1916, when he was only fourteen, and follows him through the War for Independence from 1919 - 1922. The second book of the trilogy, OH, PLAY THAT THING, takes Henry, on the lam from mobsters in Ireland in 1922, to Chicago and eventually Hollywood.

At the outset of this third novel, Henry meets director John Ford, who begins talks with him about a film he plans to make about Henry's life--"The Quiet Man." Ford wants to celebrate Ireland's beauty (and sell more tickets) by removing all references to the War for Independence and the IRA. "No one gets shot in the back. No one gets shot at all," Ford declares, though this is not the Ireland that Henry has seen up close and personal as an IRA assassin. When Henry abandons the project, Ford goes on to make "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara--a sentimental romance celebrating the Ireland that Ford and many other Irish-Americans want to remember. In Part II, Henry, now fifty, is in Ireland, working as a caretaker at a school for underprivileged boys and living a quiet life, until he is eventually "called" again by the IRA. For Henry, "[Ireland] was [now] worse than it had been when [he] was young...The country was already dead."

Though the dialogue is, as always, bright and lively, the novel and the trilogy itself are structurally confused, the emotional triumph of the Easter Rising from the first novel lost in a Hollywoodized version of reality in the second novel and in much of the third. Doyle does attempt to bring the novel back to its revolutionary roots by reconnecting Henry Smart with the Provos and the disastrous bombings of Dublin by the Ulster Defense Force in 1974, then bringing it further up to date with the elections held in 1980, as imprisoned republicans, like Bobby Sands, imprisoned in Long Kesh, go on a hunger strike. This concluding section is the most vibrant part of the novel.

Those who are unfamiliar with the preceding two novels will have a difficult time understanding who the characters are, and as the action cuts back and forth in time without warning, even someone familiar with the trilogy will sometimes be hard pressed to figure out what is happening. Henry's return to Ireland does not result in much greater enlightenment regarding the purpose of the trilogy and the reasons for its many changes of direction. The lives of the Irish revolutionaries become lost in the scenery, as Henry Smart and his legacy go out, not with a bang but a whimper. Mary Whipple

A Star Called Henry (The Last Roundup)
Oh, Play That Thing (Last Roundup)
The Woman Who Walked into Doors
Paula Spencer
The Barrytown Trilogy

Roddy Doyle has finally given us this third novel in the trilogy "The Last Roundup";and it even surpasses what I had expected or hoped for.
I you haven't read the first,"A Star Called Henry" and the second "Oh,Play That Thing";I strongly suggest you read them both,in order,or you will be lost completely in this third novel;as the author continually refers back to them.
Doyle 'in this trilogy ,tells Ireland's history of the 20th Century,through the life of Henry Smart.Henry was born in 1901 and was barely old enough to get involved in the Irish Uprising of 1916-1922.He had to flee for his life to America and didn't return to Ireland until 1951,when he was hired as a consultant by Ford when he was making the movie "The Quiet Man".
Though old,frail and with a wooden leg;Henry meets up with others he was involved with in the Uprising,many friends as well as enemies,a long lost first wife and daughter,and even gets involved with the IRA and all, during the "Troubles" in the 1980's.
The story continues up to the present day,and even after the first arrival of the English in the Norman Invasion,nearly 800 years ago,the Irish have continued to struggle to free themselves of the cruel and brutal oppression of the British and reclaim their country.
The story of this struggle has been told in countless songs and ballads over the years;but none better than by Thomas Osborne Davis (1814-1845)in the mid-1840's.He was a founder of an Irish movement whose aim was an Independent Ireland.

"And then I prayed I yet might
see
Our fetters rent in twain,And Ireland,long a province,
be
A Nation once again!"

The novel ends at the present time,with Henry at the age of 108.It is only 6 years until the 100th Anniversary of the 1916 Uprising and Ireland has yet to attain its dream of Ireland being "A Nation Once Again";and free of the British;but with the passing of every day the hopes and dreams of the Irish people looks better.
As for all the patriots who fought and died to free Ireland an make her "A Nation Once Again";the generations shall remember them and call them blessed .In the meantime,whenever the Irish gather,this song is sung and might as well be their National Anthem.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews  3.8 out of 5 stars