Sorj Chalandon’s 2008 novel “Mon Traître” (My Traitor) tells the true, auto-biographical story of a betrayed friendship, in which the author befriends a senior IRA leader… Only later does he learn that the man had been working for MI5 for 25 years. Betrayed and shocked, he recounts his surprise and dismay… It wasn’t until 2011 that the author took up his pen again, to follow up, and put himself in the shoes of the traitor… A sequel to better understand why his friend has become a traitor…
Now that it’s all out in the open, they’ll speak for me. The IRA, the British, my family, my relatives, journalists I’ve never even met. Some will dare to explain why and how I came to betray. Maybe books will be written about me, and I’m angry. Don’t listen to anything they say. Don’t trust my enemies, let alone my friends. Turn away from those who claim to have known me. No one has ever been inside my belly, no one. If I’m speaking today, it’s because I’m the only one who can tell the truth. Because after me, I hope for silence.
Killybegs, December 24, 2006 – Tyrone Meehan – Editions Grasset –
Tyrone Meehan is 81… Worn out and tired, he is finally discovered and rejected by his family… Everyone knows he’s been a traitor for 25 years… In his little house in Killybegs, he decides to write about his betrayal, to evoke the trap that has been gradually closing in on him, turning him into a mole, a coward and a liar…
He talks about his childhood, his involvement with the IRA, his republican convictions, and his love of Ireland, passed on to him by his father… From his idealistic soul, which he believed to be inflexible, and entirely devoted to Ireland…
Then comes the moment when Tyrone must betray… Cornered by MI5 agents, he is forced to collaborate… Little by little, his pure soul turned gray, dark and tired… Between guilt and a thirst for peace, Tyrone becomes a shadow of his former self, until he is finally discovered…
Mon Traître was already a colorful, fine and hard-hitting work, demonstrating the complexity of the Northern Irish conflict… With “Retour à Killybegs”, Sorj Chalandon offers us more than just a sequel: it’s a real plea for men…
It shows how war can transform men, corrupt them despite their ideals, and slowly consume them… All in all, a very fine work, which depicts the Northern Irish conflict with force and detail, through its past and present… A must-read after “My Traitor”!
4.50/5 (4 votes)
