Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 29 April 2010.

The final part of Roddy Doyle's trilogy see's Henry Smart return to the Ireland he left 20 years before and once again getting caught up in the Republican movement. A great end to Henry's story and a sad goodbye to this trio of books.

Synopsis

At the end of Oh, Play That Thing , the second volume of Roddy Doyle's trilogy about Henry Smart, Henry, his leg severed in an accident with a railway boxcar, crawls into the Utah desert to die - only to be discovered by John Ford, who's there shooting his latest Western. Ford recognizes a fellow Irish rebel and determines to turn Henry's story - a boy volunteer at the GPO in 1916, a hitman for Michael Collins, a republican legend - into a film. He appoints him 'IRA consultant' on his new film, The Quiet Man. The Dead Republic opens in 1951. Henry is returning to Ireland for the first time since his escape in 1922. With him are the stars of Ford's film, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, and the famous director himself, 'Pappy', who in a series of intense, highly charged meetings has tried to suck the soul out of Henry and turn it into Hollywood gold-dust. Ten years later Henry is in Dublin, working in Ratheen as a school caretaker, nicknamed 'Hoppy Henry' by the boys on account of his wooden leg. When he is caught in a bomb blast, that wooden leg gets left behind. He finds himself a hero: the old IRA veteran who's lost his leg to a UVF bomb. Wheeled out by the Provos, Henry is to find he will have other uses too, when the peace process begins in deadly secrecy...In three brilliant novels, A Star Called Henry , Oh, Play That Thing and The Dead Republic , Roddy Doyle has told the whole history of Ireland in the twentieth century. And in the person of his hero, he has created one of the great characters of modern fiction.

Reviews

If you don't already know Henry Smart, The Dead Republic is an excellent place to meet him -- because it's the best of Doyle's trilogy and because in it Henry reviews his past while serving as Ford's consultant for a movie about the Irish revolution. . . . The Dead Republic is the best part of Doyle's trilogy. As Henry has aged, his creator has also matured. And here he has . . . compos[ed] a thoughtful book about a sometimes thoughtless political process.
-- The New York Times
Doyle retains his canny and surprising eye, his gift for the corporeal. . . . Doyle is a master of [dialogue].
-- The Guardian
The Dead Republic harbors some lovely writing to go with the book's magnificent theme. . . . A fine . . . farewell to one of the more memorable protagonists in recent literature.
-- Denver Post

Doyle's inventive mix of genuine film history and manic storytelling sets up his novel's powerful central themes: What does it mean to be Irish? W

About the Author

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. His first novel, The Commitments, was published to great acclaim in 1987 and was made into a very successful film in 1991. The Snapper was published in 1990 and has also been made into a film. His third novel, The Van, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was also made into a film. Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha won the 1993 Booker Prize. His most recent novel is A Star Called Henry. He lives in Dublin. Photo © Amelia Stein More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation