- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate (2 Feb 2012)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007429479
- ISBN-13: 978-0007429479
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 130,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'A wonderful novel about what history has done to Ireland, and what Ireland has done to history. The triumph is that it is not only deeply intelligent and self-aware, but also entertaining from the first page to the last.' Hilary Mantel 'With this one novel Darran McCann succeeds where many writers over an entire career fail, laying claim to a terrain entirely his own. Spread the word, Darran McCann has arrived.' Glenn Patterson
Review
‘A wonderful novel about what history has done to Ireland, and what Ireland has done to history. The triumph is that it is not only deeply intelligent and self-aware, but also entertaining from the first page to the last.’ Hilary Mantel
‘With this one novel Darran McCann succeeds where many writers over an entire career fail, laying claim to a terrain entirely his own. Spread the word, Darran McCann has arrived.’ Glenn Patterson
‘After The Lockout is a wholly original, vigorous and insightful piece of writing. It recreates an era and its exigencies with robustness and aplomb’ Patricia Craig, TLS
‘that’s probably the most important virtue of After the Lockout : it has an enemy in its sights and it goes for that enemy, though without becoming shrill or impugning the humanity of the clerical characters. Not enough first books have attitude, but this one definitely does, and that’s rather wonderful.’ Irish Times
‘After The Lockout is a good read’ Sunday Business Post
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
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This impressive debut novel is mostly set in an Irish village in November 1917. Victor Lennon left Madden and headed for Dublin to fight for the ideals he believes in - socialism and workers' rights alongside Irish independence.
The "lockout" mentioned in the title was a 5 month struggle between workers and employers over the right to join a trade union - a story I'm embarrassed, given my interest in Irish and labour movement history, to realise I know very little about.
Victor's father Pius has been drinking himself to death, his 15 children scattered around the world, and Victor's friend Charlie persuades him to come home to try and rescue his heartbroken father. Not everyone is glad to see the great socialist hero return though. Local church figures fear he will challenge their power and influence and stir up the parishioners. Indeed, all kinds of trouble are brewing.
I was intrigued by the setting and thought this was an excellent debut with very well drawn characters - from Victor himself, still angry, still keen to help ordinary people organise for something better, but already feeling some cynicism. I also liked the look at class politics in the Irish struggle at this time, and thought Victor with all his contradictions and confusions was a memorable protagonist. I did wonder at times if there was too much authorial hindsight - would people like Victor in 1917 foresee the betrayal of the nationalist cause so clearly?
Recommended.
The "lockout" mentioned in the title was a 5 month struggle between workers and employers over the right to join a trade union - a story I'm embarrassed, given my interest in Irish and labour movement history, to realise I know very little about.
Victor's father Pius has been drinking himself to death, his 15 children scattered around the world, and Victor's friend Charlie persuades him to come home to try and rescue his heartbroken father. Not everyone is glad to see the great socialist hero return though. Local church figures fear he will challenge their power and influence and stir up the parishioners. Indeed, all kinds of trouble are brewing.
I was intrigued by the setting and thought this was an excellent debut with very well drawn characters - from Victor himself, still angry, still keen to help ordinary people organise for something better, but already feeling some cynicism. I also liked the look at class politics in the Irish struggle at this time, and thought Victor with all his contradictions and confusions was a memorable protagonist. I did wonder at times if there was too much authorial hindsight - would people like Victor in 1917 foresee the betrayal of the nationalist cause so clearly?
Recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
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This is a magnificent book set in Ireland just after the Easter Rising when the whole country is in a turmoil of conflicting beliefs and ideologies. The country's internal battle is fought in miniature over the village of Madden by the bitter reactionary priest and retired bishop, "his grace" (his title matters to him) Stanislaus Benedict and Victor Lennon, "communistic" republican recently released from prison after the Rising.
The story is full of passionate idealism, love, hate and betrayal. The characters are strongly written and you won't forget them in a hurry. It is not a comfortable read, but it is engrossing and very, very powerful. It is hard to believe that it is Darran McCann's first novel - an extraordinary book.
The story is full of passionate idealism, love, hate and betrayal. The characters are strongly written and you won't forget them in a hurry. It is not a comfortable read, but it is engrossing and very, very powerful. It is hard to believe that it is Darran McCann's first novel - an extraordinary book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
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I loved this book and can recommend it highly. I'd got the impression from some early comments that it was going to be some kind of dry argument between politics and church in Ireland in 1917 and was a bit dubious. Truth is, take out the word 'dry' and that indeed is what it is but with so much more. It's a really fine novel, superbly written. Approach it with an open mind and perhaps with a bit of knowledge [dangerous!!] of Irish history and you should find it very rewarding. It takes a lot of the glamour out of my perception of the Easter rising [simply referred to as 'the GPO'] and poses the many questions left in its wake. The main character, Victor Lennon [same initials as his hero, Lenin] is the radical socialist who can paint the hammer and sickle on the door of a building he's funded from family money. He's 'playing the socialist' as his enigmatic would-be girl friend Maggie puts it. He refers to the crowd at the Gaelic football match as "shouting like the Petersburg proleteriat" which I found amusing and which does show his naivety as indeed do other events, notably towards the end. Perhaps the best thing about it is the way it shows the difference between city and rural life. There's a line in there somewhere which goes something like "f*** away off with your Dublin attitudes". The people of Madden, Lennon's home town near Armagh, are deeply religious, something the bishop, Stanislaus, takes advantage of. He's a rather unpleasant figure, very much of the old school. Out of favour with the church hierarchy, his trip to Armagh evokes sympathy for him, but his behaviour in Madden maddened me. However, despite this, it's he who comes out with some telling lines, referring to 1917 Ireland as "a nation that has not begun to understand its trauma" and, brilliant writing this, "a bewildered amputee of a nation". The lockout of the title is the workers dispute in pre-rising Dublin but it also refers to the events in Madden and also, seemingly, the Church's attitude during the Famine. Incidentally, Fron Goch [correctly Frongoch] frequently referred to in the novel, is a small village near Bala in North Wales where an internment camp was set up for Irish 'prisoners' after the rising. Interesting for me, born near there, that the continued references involving the 'struggle' are to the English [sic] who then imprisoned the Irish in Wales. Excellent book, very thought provoking.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Well done, but not captivating
I was attracted to this book as it is not often that one sees literature about revolutionary causes and worker's struggles in traditional socialist colours. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ioannis Glinavos
Irish History
This book was a little slow for me to get into and it never really gripped hold of me. The historical side of things was very informative but I found it difficult to engage with... Read more
Published 2 months ago by kehs
Ideology and religion
It's 1917 and the world is in turmoil; WW1 is in its 3rd year, the Russian revolution is taking place and Ireland has been through the Easter Rising as well as the Dublin Lockout... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Maria2222
After the Lockout ...
After the Lockout.. by Darren McCann is a book I would recommend to readers who like fiction based on actual events. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ms P. Wilson
Okay
This was quite well written and I did find it fairly intriguing.
It took me quite awhile to get into it but it picked up a lot of momentum as it got going. Read more
It took me quite awhile to get into it but it picked up a lot of momentum as it got going. Read more
Published 3 months ago by The Emperor
Shows great promise.....
This is a debut novel which shows great promise. Victor Lennon has returned to his Armagh village having been involved in the Easter Rising and a five month lockout of workers... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Wynne Kelly
Cliched
After The Lockout deals with one of the most turbulent, but unreported, periods in modern Irish history, the period following the Easter Rising but before the War of Independence. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Donald Thompson
Turbulent Time
With moving and meditative portrayals this historical novel is set at a world time of The Great War and Russian revolution, yet it is written from very local and personal levels in... Read more
Published 3 months ago by D. Elliott
Lock out lacking something
Darran McCann's novel is well conceived, articulate and in places immensely compelling.
He tells us the tale of Victor Lennon, an Armagh man who was driven away from... Read more
He tells us the tale of Victor Lennon, an Armagh man who was driven away from... Read more
Published 3 months ago by C. CAMPBELL
Revolution, Football, Conservative Priests and Poteen!
This is a fantastic debut novel from Darran McCann. He has taken as his subject one Victor Lennon, he is one of twelve children born to a rich landowner in the small village of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Tommy D
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