A
Life for a Life
'What can I do? yelled O'Malachy.
'I can't march on Limerick. It would take
thousands of men to sack King John's castle.
'If Sir John is going to hang Shane, we
can hang this Norman knight here at Drumshee.'
Can
Shane escape from the dungeon before he is hanged?
Why won't Sir John de
Courcy agree to ransom his stepson?
Will Shane's sister,
Fidelma, be able to save Hugh, the handsome young Norman knight?
Will Hugh's sister,
Isabelle, be forced to marry Sir Piers St Leger?
The country is in turmoil - Celtic Irish
on one side, Norman English on the other.
Is there any future for four young people
whose love stretches across this boundary?
Cora Harrison writes:
The
battle of Dysart O’Dea took place on 18th May 1318.
Every time that I go from my home to Ennis the market town of
Clare, I pass the marshy ground where it was fought and I often wonder
what would be found there if archaeologists excavated it.
Would there be swords, arrows, a brooch that pinned a chieftain’s
cloak, a piece of silver from the time of Edward II, or perhaps the
bones of the people and horses that died there?
The story of the battle is as I have related it in the book – the
Normans led by de Clare, were enticed on to the marshy land beyond the
river by the sight of a small force of men driving a herd of cattle
across the ford at that spot.
No one knows who thought of that strategy – various clans have
claimed it, but in my story I have given the credit to Shane O’Malachy
from Drumshee.
The Irish forces, who had lain hidden in the woods and bushes
around the lake, emerged and fell upon the Normans once the horses
were plunging and sticking in the heavy mud.
Richard de Clare, six of his knights and many of his advance
guard were killed instantly.
The people of County Clare are very proud of this battle as the
Anglo-Normans were driven out of the kingdom of Thomond (Clare) on
that day and did not return until the days of Elizabeth I, over two
hundred years later.
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book
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