The Seven

Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize 2017 I was fascinated by the nationalist preoccupation with a seamless lineage of heroes and martyrs, particularly over the past two centuries, who have been used to inspire generation after generation to kill for Ireland without any regard to the wishes of the people… I became even more curious about why and how such an apparently ill-matched group should have teamed up and done what they did, what the chemistry was like between them, and who led whom into what and how. On Easter Sunday, 23 April 1916, the seven members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's military council met to proclaim an Irish Republic with themselves as the provisional government. After a week of fighting with the British army on the streets of Dublin, the Seven were arrested, court-martialled and executed. Cutting through the layers of veneration that have seen them regarded unquestioningly as heroes and martyrs by many, Ruth Dudley Edwards provides shrewd yet sensitive portraits of Ireland's founding fathers. She explores how an incongruous group, which included a communist, visionary Catholic poets and a tobacconist, joined together to initiate an armed rebellion that changed the course of Irish history. Brilliant, thought-provoking and captivatingly told, The Seven challenges us to see past the myths and consider the true character and legacy of the Easter Rising. ‘…the sketches are succinct, sympathetic and sometimes mordantly funny.’ – The Evening Standard