Imagine a bloodless Northern Ireland, trapped in a dirty war of armor and barbed wire. A context torn by community wars, ideals and big ideas…
This is the setting for Sorj Chalandon’s story. It’s a story that still has a terrible echo today. It tells the true story of a friendship betrayed. A story that the writer really experienced, during his fight for the IRA… His friend, Denis Donaldson, a member of the IRA and Sinn Féin, is said to have betrayed the republican movement for over 25 years, while Chalandon actively participated in the struggle alongside him…
Antoine is a Parisian luthier who quickly falls in love with Ireland. Fascinated by its culture, its landscapes and the warmth of its people, the young Frenchman discovered Northern Ireland, with its gray Belfast, its barbed wire and its political tensions. There he met the locals who would later become his friends. All are part of the Republican movement, and carry out what they can on behalf of the IRA.
In the course of his contacts, Antoine meets Tyrone Meehan, a man he befriends. Tyrone Meehan was a prominent leader of the Republican movement at the time.
As the years go by, Antoine visits his friends more and more. Such was his enthusiasm for the “cause” that he too became involved in the conflict in Northern Ireland, and began to take part in certain actions.
He carried out these acts for over 25 years, probably with the support of his friend Tyrone Mehaan… Until he learns from the press that his friend had in fact been acting on behalf of the British government for over 20 years. Antoine experiences this betrayal as a real heartbreak, and struggles to understand his friend’s motivations…
Sorj Chalandon has decided to tell his story with an admirable pen… It’s a cruel, painful story that seems to haunt him, leaving him with a perpetual questioning… Sorj Chalandon, a brilliant journalist, fell in love with Northern Ireland at an early age, fascinated by its people and the complexity of the Northern Irish conflict.
It was here that he met Denis Donaldson, a prominent IRA leader who would become his friend for over 25 years, until the terrible revelation that Donaldson was in fact a traitor acting on behalf of the British destroyed their friendship.
The news seems to hit Chalandon like a bomb: his friend suddenly becomes a traitor, and their shared values suddenly collapse, leaving room for doubt and incomprehension…
In this book, Chalandon juggles fiction and reality to dissect this cruel betrayal and analyze its complexity… Was Donaldson really a friend, or was he just going undercover? Did he believe in the fight waged by the IRA, or did he lie for 25 years?
This novel reveals his misunderstandings and pain, against the backdrop of a Belfast gripped by a terribly complex conflict where appearances are not always what they seem… If “every word hurts”, it’s with talent that Chalandon recreates a most authentic Northern Ireland, battered by terrible confrontations, where friends become enemies…
4.50/5 (4 votes)
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