Frank Delaney: "The Matchmaker of Kenmare"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-02-14/frank-delaney-matchmaker-kenmare
Ireland's rich literary history is peopled with unforgettable characters. The female protagonist of Frank Delaney's new novel joins their ranks. Kate Begley is the matchmaker of Kenmare. She's strong, fearless and dangerously charming. She persuades the novel's narrator, Ben MacCarthy, to accompany her on missions to wartime Europe in search of a lost American officer. Part love-story, part-spy thriller, the book is a sequel to "Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show." It explores friendship and the boundaries of faith. And it forces the reader to question whether neutrality is truly possible -- in war or love.
Guests
Frank Delaney
author of the best-selling novel "Ireland" and several other books; former BBC broadcaster and judge for the Man Booker Prize.
Related Items
Author Extra: Frank Delaney Answers Questions
Mr. Delaney stayed after the show to answer a few more questions.
Q: What is it about the English that permitted them to go forth and divide and conquer? The Welsh? The Scots? The Irish? The French? Spanish? The Americas? India? Etc., etc. - From Efrain via email
A: Well – they had the energy and they had the means. They were a belligerent island nation who saw opportunities early, and who had the imagination to explore. When they found countries less well developed than themselves they colonized them. Remember – a ship full of armed sailors could easily overwhelm unarmed native people.
Diane would have liked to ask Mr. Delaney the following questions, but she didn't get to them during the show:
Q: What it is about the narrator, Ben McCarthy, that has sustained you through two novels?
A: His essential decency: Is it possible to have a good but somewhat tragic man as a hero-protagonist?
Q: Is there anything quintessentially Irish about Kate?
A: She is full of possibility and she is imaginative. She can't be confined, she won't stay in any box, and she believes much more in the law of possibility than probability or determination.
Q: Is there a tradition of matchmaking in Ireland?
A: Yes – as there is in all mainly rural societies. But they don't have to be rural. And there's always been informal matchmaking too!
Q: In what ways do you see the characters of Charles Miller and Sebastian Volunder as similar?
A: They are both men who understand that ruthless killing is a necessary part of war and neither will permit the element of emotion to enter.
Q: You've written on your blog that you have an almost obsessive fascination with mythology. How did that come about?
A: I suppose I must have been exposed to mythology earlier. If you're taught as fact that the first political division of your country was between the conquerors who took command of everything above the ground and the vanquished who took control of everything below the ground you tend to ingest mythology early!
Q: Could you describe the Ireland of your childhood?
A: Mystical and impoverished; magical and violent; green and silent; lonely and invasive – a land of contrasts and strong opinions; a land of safety and sudden danger – and a land of stories, stories, stories and glorious horses.
Q: Why did you give up your journalism career for writing fiction?
A: I wanted to go deeper and I wanted to live my emotional life according to my own stories.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
Although Ireland (the Republic) was officially neutral during World War 2 tens of thousands of people from the Republic volunteered to fight against the Nazis . Eight people from Ireland won VC's during that war. Seven were from 'neutral " Ireland. One was from Northern Ireland and he was a Catholic.
Ireland was right to declare neutrality. In 1939 nobody foresaw the genocides later committed by the Nazis . Ireland had been through rebellion , a war of independence and civil war. Britain's promise of Home Rule made in 1914 was forgotten by 1918 despite the hundreds of thousands of Irishmen who had enlisted and the tens of thousands who had died in the trenches . In 1914 the British Government promised the majority of nationalist Ireland that they would have Home Rule for all of Ireland and they promised the pro British unionists of Ulster that they would'nt have Home Rule. Go figure as Americans say ?
My father was in the Irish Army in World War 2. He told me before passing that their orders were, if attacked by the British they were to fire a few shots over their heads then surrender - but if the Germans attacked they were to keep fighting for as long as they could until the British would 'come to the rescue "
After 40 years of off and on conflict there is peace in Northern Ireland and we all hope it will continue . For those in the USA or UK or elsewhere who believe it was a 'religious ' war or had anything to do with people's religious beliefs they are very much mistaken .
It was a conflict over political power and 'nationalisms'. Now that the leaders of both communities have agreed to share whatever little power there is and whatever little 'money ', people in Northern Ireland live in peace while still being divided about 50/50 on the constitutional question which both sides agree will only change when a majority of people in Northern Ireland vote for such a change .
I enjoy your show immensely. Long may NPR endure.
Mr. Delaney's claim that Ireland made the correct decision in declaring its neutrality in World War II betrays both moral and strategic fatuousness. In implying a moral equivalence between England and Germany, he is at best quite confused. In suggesting that neutrality prevented German attacks on Ireland (if Ireland had sided with England), Mr. Delaney somehow forgets how easily Germany could ignore and trample on a country's declaration of neutrality; see, e.g., the short-lived history of Belgian and Dutch neutrality in WW II. If England had fallen to Germany, does Mr. Delaney truly believe that Germany would have left Ireland alone because it was 'neutral'? Intellectual and historical honesty arguably requires him to recognize that, in successfully defending itself against German aggression, England also effectively protected Ireland.
There was no implication of moral equivalence as between the UK and Germany . De Valera's main concern was the prevention of another civil war in Ireland . The country remained united during WW2 which was of greater benefit to England than had it succumbed to another civil war . De Valera sent the Dublin Fire Brigade to assist the people of Belfast following the Luftwaffe bombing in which some 2,000 people were killed . He also called in the German Ambassador to protest at the bombing and warned the Germans that any further bombing of Northern Ireland would result in Ireland revoking it's neutrality . The Germans did'nt bomb Belfast again.
England benefited much more from Irish neutrality in terms of food supplies , volunteers for the army , workers for the factories and a place for 'English ' tourists to get some decent food during the war than they ever would have otherwise .
Churchill promised Irish 'unity' in return for joining the war on the Allied side but De Valera turned him down knowing full well that what Churchill promised he could not deliver. Much of the UK establishment at the time including leading members of the military and the aristocracy were not keen on war with Hitler's Germany - Had Lord Halifax become Prime Minister instead of Churchill -Hitler might have gotten away with his annexation of Europe in return for leaving Britain it's overseas Empire.
A little known fact of WW2 is that Churchill's long term political mentor (30 yrs) and confidant was Brendan Bracken who Churchill appointed Britain's 'Minister for Information' for the war's duration . Bracken was the scion of an Irish Republican family from Tipperary and had been 'exiled ' to Australia at the age of 15 , but returned a few years later. Bracken also hired George Orwell for his overseas propaganda radio services.