The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga    by Edward Rutherford Order:  USA  Can Doubleday, 2006 (2006) Hardcover, Audio, CD Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth The Irish of old would surely have revered Edward Rutherford for he is a man of letters, and education has always been paramount in the Irish mind. Rutherford is a wonderful teacher of Irish history. He brings the years between 1538 to 1922 to life as vividly as he did when he wrote The Princes of Ireland, the first of his Irish sagas. You may recognize Rutherford's name as the author of Sarum, Russka, London and The Forest. This latest of his prodigious works is as engrossing, enlightening, and thoroughly entertaining as his previous books. He is able to capture a period of time and make it his own in such a way that his readers become so enmeshed in his writing that they themselves seem to become one of the characters. The Rebels of Ireland takes us through turbulent times in Ireland's history, introducing us to the people who were making the decisions that affected Ireland and to those who were most likely to either protest those decisions or to have little choice but to buckle down under sometimes inhuman conditions. Rutherford weaves historical figures into the tales of the fictional characters that he created, to present a seamless story that encompasses the important and far-reaching happenings of Irish history: Cromwell and his invasion of the Emerald Isle; the Battle of the Boyne; the effect the American Revolution had on the Irish Patriot movement; the Hedge schools; the presence of the Quakers in Ireland; the great Potato Famine: the Easter Rebellion. The Rebels of Ireland is a scholarly book made eminently readable by a master storyteller. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Historical books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews