Keefy Mullen.... A novel of love and war in Ireland

I'm doing the research for my next novel, to be titled Keefy Mullen. An American, Keefy Mullen, an ex-Marine veteran of The Great War, goes to Ireland in 1919 to join Michael Collins and the Irish Republican Army in their struggle against the British. Because of his military background, Keefy becomes a principal “arms guy” in charge of IRA weaponry. While there, he meets and falls in love with Oona Riordan who is herself an arms-bearing member of the Cumann na mBan, the women’s auxiliary to the IRA.

Collins's signing of the treaty granting Ireland its freedom (although keeping the six northern counties in U.K. hands, to the great chagrin of many in Ireland and around the world) brings on the Irish Civil War of 1922. Despite her worrying reservations, Oona sides with Collins and the new Irish Free State while Keefy joins the anti-treaty IRA, against the state. Both are deeply conflicted by their choices, especially as the lovers now end up on opposite sides of the civil war.

My novel is the story of two people devoted to each other who find themselves as political enemies, and their conflicted efforts to nourish and covet the love they have so cherished.

Your donation to this GoFundMe in any amount will help me live in Dublin, Ireland for four months. Rent, food, getting around, more research (in much greater detail, at Trinity College Library and from Trinity faculty). But here is the most important thing for me: as an American writing about this pivotal moment in Irish history, in a novel with several Irish characters, I have to immerse myself in the Irish accents and their English usages, for authenticity’s sake.

The Thirteenth Apostle demands it.

For a sample of the writing (the first two chapters in which we meet Keefy in San Francisco), please click here.

For information about my other published work (with reviews), go to terenceclarke.org/books or my Substack at terenceclarke.substack.com .