Matt Connell: Against a Sea of Troubles

MATT CONNELL, a novel of Ireland, tells of Connell's love for Dr. Sheena McDonagh and his adventure leading a 1985 peace march; it also paints a portrait of a revolutionary, Jim O'Grady. The men meet at the summit of Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain; later, bullets fly. Ireland's tragic partition sets the scope of this story. Among the troubles, there is love, assassination, war, and justice. The theme is of seeking peace when it eludes the Irish people--and in the theme's larger sense--the meaning of peace for humanity.