Conor Cruise O'Brien II

During his career in the Civil service, Conor became increasingly sceptical about the position taken on the North by the Dublin governments. He was involved in producing propaganda to try and persuade the British government to hand over the 6 Northern counties to the Irish state. He realised however that most Southern Irish knew little of the north and did not really want partition to end.. as it would mean that a large number of ferociously anti Irish, anti Catholic Protestant Unionists would become Irish citizens and that would change the culture of the southern Irish state. So while the public claimed to want an end to partition, the truth was that they were very ambivalent about it. He married a girl from Northern Ireland and he made an effort to get to know Unionists, and he could see their point of view. While they were bigoted and treated Catholics in the North harshly, there was some truth in their belief that "Home Rule would be Rome Rule" as Southern Ireland was very much dominated by the Catholic church. Conor's first marriage ended in divorce which was unheard of in Ireland. When he left the Civil service,after the Katanga issue, he became a lecturer at various universities abroad, in Africa and in the USA. He became a Labour party activist and stood for election in the 1970s. He became a minister in the Coalition government in 1973.

Conor Cruise O' Brien

I hope to write something on Conor Cruise O'Brien, who was a well known writer, playwright, lecturer and politican in Ireland. He died some years ago. He was an unusual man who did not fit into the Ireland of De Valera that he grew up in. He was born in 1917. His father was a journalist and his mother was one of the Sheehy family who were well known Home Ruler politicans and prominent figures in Dublin Nationalist society. Conor's father died when he was a child, and had wanted him to go to a Protestant school, as he himself was an agnostic. Conor was sent to a Protestant school and grew up to be sceptical about religion and to question the heavy depressing Catholic ethos of the Irish state. He next went to Trinity College and then into the Irish civil service where he looked like he was going to have a brilliant career. I will write some more about him later.

The Real Charlotte Part III

Francie is invited to stay at Bruff for a few days, and she is very nervous. Christopher forgives her gaffes but the ladies of the party don't like her at all and think she is common and stupid. She embarks on a flirtation with Gerald Hawkins, who is a soldier - and who plays around with her with no intention of marrying a penniless girl. Lady Dysart and the other women of the party, except for Pamela, Lady Dysart's sweet natured daughter, are chilly with her. She goes bicycle riding and lets young men flirt with her and can't seem to stop herself. She likes Christopher but is uneasily aware that he will not find her all that interesting or suitable if he gets to know her better.. she's not up to his weight. She goes boating and she and Roddy Lambert who is of the party are almost drowned. Charlotte begins to get annoyed with her young cousin. She seems to get into scrapes continually and to engage in vulgar behaviour. Moreover, she can see that Roddy is growing too fond of Francie, and she is jealous. Although he is married, he and Francie flirt and reminisce over when they knew each other in Dublin. Lucy Lambert, his wife, is getting uneasy. Francie is in love with Gerald Hawkins and wants to marry him but he shies away, as he does not want to get tied down with her. Charlotte is more and more irritated by her, feeling that she is throwing away her chances of becoming Lady Dysart, for the sake of a flirtation with Hawkins. Charlotte is eager to increase her land, and manages to get hold of a farm rented by Julia Duffy. Julia is elderly and poor and not able to manage the farm. She is bedridden much of the time and suffering from depression. Charlotte tells Roddy Lambert that if she had the farm, she would use it for breeding horses and would make money out of it, but Julia is just letting it go to rack and ruin. She gets the tenancy, and Julia breaks down and ends up in the local asylum, having lost her health, her mind and her social status. Charlotte moves into the farm, but her servants dont like it as it is further away from town than her other home.. and they are lonely. There is nothing to do but look after Charlotte's collection of cats whom she adores. Charlotte is getting more and more annoyed with Francie, and she tells Lucy Lambert that she thinks Francie is flirting with Roddy and that Lucy should watch out for her. She gives her letters between the 2 which indicate a heavy flirtation... and Lucy who is never in good health, gets upset and has a heart attack. Charlotte was supposed to be Lucy's best friend, but she is not desperately upset by her death. Roddy feels guilty that he was often neglectful of his wife and goes to Charlotte for consolation. Francie leaves Lismoyle and goes back to Dublin and her Aunt and Uncle are moving out to the seaside, to find a cheaper place to live. She is fond of them, but finds life with them increasingly miserable but she doesn't have enough money to live on her own.

The Real Charlotte II

Charlotte invites Francie to Tally Ho Lodge her home, for a visit.. because her old aunt had wished it. However she is jealous of her cousin, who is young and fresh and charming. She does have ideas though of using Francie.. She can see that the girl has good looks and attracts men, and that it might well be possible to make a match for her with one of the local gentry. Christopher Dysart son of Sir Benjamin, is a gentle likable young man whose mother wants to get him married and if Charlotte were to bring off a marriage, her cousin would be one day "Lady Dysart of Bruff" and an important figure in local society in the town of Lismoyle, and Francie would owe it to her that she had achieved this rank. Francie has been living with her cousins, in Dublin in a shabby neighbourhood. She has a small income of her own but it is not really enough to keep her. Her uncle Robert is not making much money and the family are always on the verge of having to move to an even more downmarket neighbourhood. She is not comfortable with the upper classes in Lismoyle, used as she is to mixing only with her uncle's family and their social equals in Dublin. She likes to flirt and frequently gets things wrong, when mixing socially. She is aware that the Dysarts' circle look down on her for being ill educated and inexperienced in "good society". Christopher Dysart however can't help being strongly attracted to her. Her beauty and naievety please him and he's willing to overlook her lack of education.

The Real Charlotte (published 1894)

This is generally held to be Somerville and Ross's best work. It is a serious novel, set in Victorian Ireland. Charlotte Mullen, the anti heroine is a plain woman who seems jolly and pleasant but with a vicious streak that she hides. She inherits a house and a small property from her elderly aunt.. and she has had an education in running a farm and breeding horses, because her father was bailiff to the Dysart estate and she helped him in his work. Her aunt, when dying, felt guilty about Charlotte's cousin, Frances Fitzpatrick, who sometimes visited the country house... and who was from a family that was "shabby genteel", well born but having no money. Francie has spent much of her life living in Dublin, with relatives who were also poor but who gave her a home. She mixed with poorer Protestants and Catholics in the city and she had little or no education - or refined manners. She was good natured but thoughtless and silly. Charlotte also has lower class origins, that she doesn't like to talk about. The maternal side of her family were Catholic and poor. However she has connexions with the upper classes in the area, because she is a Protestant and an intelligent woman who makes the most of her opportunities. Lady Dysart, the leading lady in hte neighbourhood likes her. She is good friends with Roddy Lambert, who is now the bailiff for the Dysart estate, Bruff.. who used to work under her father. Roddy like her is rather vulgar but manages to keep in with the upper class. He and Charlotte had the beginnings of a romantic relationship but Roddy married a woman who had a small fortune of her own, and she settled her money on him for life. Lucy, his wife is a silly but good hearted woman who is devoted to Roddy, and she has made friends with Charlotte, who advises her on handling her marriage. He is a flirt who likes girls and she often worries about his relationships with local women who are pretty. Charlotte secretly despises Lucy for being so devoted to her husband.

Powder and Patch

This is another of Heyer's Georgian early novels. It hasn't got much plot. It is about a young man Philip Jettan who dismays his father by being a bit of a country bumpkin. Sir Maurice, his father, has an estate but he is a sophisticated man who likes to live in the town and to be a man of fashion. He sends Philip abroad to France to try and make him less awkward and dull -. Philip is in love with a beautiful girl called Cleone Charteris, but she also wishes he were more of a fashionable gentleman. In Paris, Philip learns to dress fancily and to be more amusing and charming. He learns to flirt with ladies, to the point where Cleone is annoyed with him. But he asks her to marry him and they fall in love all over again and get married.

Masqueraders By Georgette Heyer

This is one of Heyer's earlier novels, and is set in Georgian England shortly after the 1745 rebellion which attempted to put Charles Edward Stuart on the throne. The two main characters, Robin and Prudence are brother and sister and Robin has fought for the Stuarts so he is a wanted man. So he and Prudence disguise themselves. Robin is small and slender and he passes as a pretty woman and Prue who is bigger and sturdier, dresses as a man. She can look after herself, has learn to fight with a sword and to carry off an imitation of a male. The siblings have come to London, to hide out, and they take part in society. Robin rescues a young upper class girl, Letitia Grayson from someone trying to abduct her, and he falls in love with her. Prue becomes friendly with a young man, Sir Antony Fanshawe, who was supposed to marry Letty, but he is not in love with her. The siblings are called Merriott, and they have lived mostly abroad with their eccentric adventurer father who has engaged in all sorts of different professions. But then he tells them that their name is not really Merriott - it is Tremaine and he is the heir to a viscountcy. He puts forward a claim to be Viscount Barham, and his children are shocked to learn that they are not penniless adventurers of dubious origin but relatives of a noble family. There is another claimant to the viscountcy, a distant relative whose claim is actually very poor. Tremaine knows all about the family and their estate and he is accepted as the Viscount. Robin defends Letty when she is being forced to elope with her previous suitor. She had agreed to elope with him because he had some evidence that her father, Sir Humphry Grayson had sympathised with the Rebellion.. She is not very clever and is easily fooled by a weak piece of evidence. Robin saves her and fights a duel on her behalf and they fall in love. Prue has become close to Sir Anthony, and he knows her secret and asks her to marry him. Tremaine is now Viscount Barham and is delighted that his children have made good matches. I've never been keen on cross dressing romances but I quite enjoyed this one. However its not one I re read.