Now and in the Hour of Our Death: A Novel of the Irish Troubles
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About this ebook
Patrick Taylor's Now and in the Hour of Our Death is a moving and compelling portrait of ordinary men and women caught up in a conflict not of their making, and of the way the past holds onto us even as we try to move on into an uncertain future.
Nine years ago, the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland tore apart two young lovers, consuming their hopes and dreams and changing their lives forever. Now, in 1983, Davy McCutcheon and Fiona Kavanagh find themselves worlds apart.
Davy, once a bomb-maker for the Provisional IRA, is serving a twenty-five-year sentence in a British prison. Having seen enough of death and violence, he wants nothing more to do with the struggle that cost him his freedom and his love. But old loyalties die hard and, despite himself, Davy is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy on behalf of his fellow Provos . . . .
Meanwhile, Fiona has forged a new life for herself in Vancouver, British Columbia, far away from the war-torn streets of Belfast. Now a vice-principal at a local elementary school, she has a successful career, good friends, and a new man in her life. Yet she remains haunted by painful memories of her troubled homeland—and the love she left behind.
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Patrick Taylor
Patrick Taylor, M.D., was born and raised in Bangor County Down in Northern Ireland. Dr. Taylor is a distinguished medical researcher, offshore sailor, model-boat builder, and father of two grown children. He lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia.
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Reviews for Now and in the Hour of Our Death
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patrick Taylor is probably better known for his Irish Country books but as this books shows he can write a darker style of fiction too. This book takes place in Northern Ireland and also in Vancouver. Taylor has lived in both places and the little details he works into the writing make the settings very realistic.In 1983 the Irish Troubles were in full swing. The Irish Provisional Army (the Provos) had been fighting a guerrilla style war against the British army forces to gain independence in the six northern counties that had been left as part of Britain when the rest of Ireland gained indepence. Many civilians had been killed in the ongoing battle. Some Provos saw their deaths as a necessary evil but Davy McCutcheon had finally come to see them as unacceptable. In 1974 he had promised his girlfriend, Fiona Kavanagh, that he would do one final job and then emigrate to Canada with her. Instead he was caught by the British forces and imprisoned in the Kesh. Fiona left Ireland and moved to Vancouver herself where she tried to forget about Davy. Now Davy has a chance to break out of the Kesh with a bunch of other Provos. His friend Jimmy has just run into Fiona in Vancouver and sent him her picture. That impetus persuades him to join the breakout in the hopes he could be reunited with her. The odds against making it are long.It has always astonished me how bloody the conflict between holders of different religious faiths can become. The epilogue to this book starts out as follows:In the twenty-five years of internecine strife (1969-94) in Northern Ireland, 3,268 people were killed and more than thirty thousand wounded. The Troubles didn't even end in 1994 although a peace process started then. It took until 2007 for the process to finish. The British Army ended Operation Banner in July 2007, thirty-eight years after it started. In a way, I find it heartening to have lived to see this. If Northern Ireland could finally achieve peace then perhaps other areas of the world can also do so.