Matt Connell

MATT CONNELL: against a sea of troubles, a novel, an adventure in the west of Ireland, tells of Connell's search for peace in a partitioned land. In his struggle and while falling in love, he meets deadly opposition while leading a 1985 peace march. A throwback revolutionary, Jim O'Grady, seeks to destroy Matt's movement. The two men clash at the summit of Croagh Patrick, Ireland's holy mountain; later, bullets fly. The novel's deeper meanings are universal. Among troubles revealed is love, assassination, war, justice, and something else, salutary or punishing with cosmic implications. The theme is of seeking peace when it eluded the Irish people--and in the larger sense--the meaning of peace for humanity.