Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
The Donnellys: Powder Keg 1840–1880 - cover

The Donnellys: Powder Keg 1840–1880

John Little

Publisher: ECW Press

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

Summary

A violent family living in violent times.
		 
In the 1840s, the Donnelly family immigrates from Ireland to the British province of Canada. Almost immediately problems develop as the patriarch of the family is sent to the Kingston Penitentiary for manslaughter, leaving his wife to raise their eight children on her own.
		 
The children are raised in an incredibly violent community and cultivate a devoted loyalty to their mother and siblings, which often leads to problems with the law and those outside of the family.
		 
The tensions between the family and their community escalate as the family’s enemies begin to multiply. The brothers go into business running a stagecoach line and repay all acts of violence perpetrated against them, which only worsens the situation.
		 
Refusing to take a backwards step, the Donnellys stand alone against a growing power base that includes wealthy business interests in the town of Lucan, the local diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, law authorities and a number of their neighbours.
Available since: 11/02/2021.

Other books that might interest you

  • I'm Looking Through You - Growing Up Haunted: A Memoir - cover

    I'm Looking Through You -...

    Jennifer Finney Boylan

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    For Jennifer Finney Boylan, creaking stairs, fleeting images in the mirror, and the remote whisper of human voices were everyday events in the Pennsylvania house in which she grew up in the 1970s. But these weren't the only specters beneath the roof of the mansion known as the "Coffin House." Jenny herself-born James-lived in a haunted body, and both her mysterious, diffident father and her wild, unpredictable sister would soon become ghosts to Jenny as well.I'm Looking Through You is an engagingly candid investigation into what it means to be "haunted." Looking back on the spirits who invaded her family home, Boylan launches a full investigation with the help of a group of earnest, if questionable, ghostbusters. Boylan also examines the ways we find connections between the people we once were and the people we become. With wit and eloquence, Boylan shows us how love, forgiveness, and humor help us find peace-with our ghosts, with our loved ones, and with the uncanny boundaries, real and imagined, between men and women.
    Show book
  • No Laughing Matter - The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien - cover

    No Laughing Matter - The Life...

    Anthony Cronin

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    First published in 1989 No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien was the first full-length biography of Flann O'Brien. Rich in background, anecdote and social history, it is an extraordinary portrait of a writer and his times, perceptive, sympathetic and authoritative. Flann O'Brien (aka Brian O'Nolan) was born in Tyrone in 1911 and worked as a civil servant for many years. He also developed an alter ego, Myles na Gopaleen, whose saitrical column in the Irish Times soon acquired legendary status.
    At Swim-Two-Birds, his first novel, appeared in 1939 and was praised by James Joyce, Graham Greene, Dylan Thomas and others. His second novel, The Third Policeman, failed to find a publisher at the time but has since been acknowledged as one of the most important novels to come out of Ireland in the twentieth century. With a foreword by acclaimed author Kevin Barry and striking redesign, No Laughing Matter is an undisputed classic of Irish literary biography.
    Show book
  • The Voice of Anfield - My Fifty Years with Liverpool FC - cover

    The Voice of Anfield - My Fifty...

    George Sephton

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    George Sephton's relationship with Liverpool Football Club began in 1971 when he wrote to the club secretary applying to be the stadium announcer. His first match also marked the debut of Kevin Keegan. For the past fifty years, Sephton has been at Anfield for all but a handful of home fixtures, as well as travelling with the team to major finals.From the highs of winning numerous league titles and European Cups, to the lows of Heysel and Hillsborough, Sephton has been with Liverpool through it all. From encounters with great managers and legendary players - from Bill Shankly to Kenny Dalglish, John Barnes to Jurgen Klopp, he tells his unique and entertaining story of the greatest club in the world.'George Sephton is part of the brickwork of Liverpool Football Club and was witness to so many iconic moments. He has lived through a huge chunk of our history, from when Liverpool were in the Second Division, when he used to come to Anfield with his father, all the way to being crowned World Club and Premier League champions. It's been a rollercoaster ride, and George has been there for all the ups and downs - but mainly the ups.' Sir Kenny Dalglish
    Show book
  • We Were The Future - A Memoir of the Kibbutz - cover

    We Were The Future - A Memoir of...

    Yael Neeman

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    In this memoir, an Israeli woman born on a kibbutz recounts her childhood there and examines the movement’s effects on the nation. The kibbutz is one of the greatest stories in Israeli history. These collective settlements have been written about extensively over the years: The kibbutz has been the subject of many sociological studies, and has been praised as the only example in world history of entire communities attempting, voluntarily, to live in total equality. But there’s a dark side to the kibbutz, which has been criticized in later years, mainly by children who were raised in these communities, as an institution which victimized its offspring for the sake of ideology. In this spare and lucid memoir, Neeman—a child of the kibbutz—draws on the collective memory of hundreds of thousands of Israelis who grew up in a kibbutz during their height and who intimately share their memories with her. We Were the Future is more than merely a compelling personal account of growing up in the kibbutz movement; it is an unstintingly honest examination of the perils of pioneering and a new lens through which to see the history of Israel.Praise for We Were the Future “An eye-opening look at a fascinating era in Israeli history and what happens when a child is part of a sociopolitical experiment.” —Kirkus Review “Readers curious about life on a kibbutz in the 1960s will love this poetic autobiography. Readers who have never wondered about life on a kibbutz should read this book anyway, as they will be well rewarded. . . . The history of the movement and [Neeman’s] own kibbutz are deftly woven together, and readers come away with a sense of this not as merely an autobiography of an individual woman but as the story of the hopes, dreams, and struggles of an entire movement. A spare, and startling book.” —Christine Engel, Booklist “A highly recommended introduction to the kibbutz movement.” —Library Journal “Both beautifully lyric and devastatingly illuminating.” —The Times of Israel
    Show book
  • Hannibal Barca - The Carthaginian General’s Life and Mission - cover

    Hannibal Barca - The...

    Kelly Mass

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Hannibal Barca, one of Carthage’s most influential generals, lived a couple hundred years before Christ, and has led many Roman troops to victory to conquer the surrounding nations. Famous were his battles with elephants he employed during tactical moves of cavalry and infantry armies alike. His resistance against the Roman powers in the Punic Wars have been praised and lamented worldwide. 
    What was his life like? 
    Where did he come from? 
    What were his motives? 
    Which fights were mostly significant when we speak of his name? 
    How did he die? 
    These are just some of the questions that will be answered in this comprehensive guide. You will get a better understanding of the culture, the times, and the pressures that Hannibal Barca was confronted with.
    Show book
  • Manhunt - Manhunt Book 1 - cover

    Manhunt - Manhunt Book 1

    Colin Sutton

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    NOW A MAJOR TV DRAMA STARRING MARTIN CLUNESWhat does it take to catch one of Britain's most feared killers?THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERLevi Bellfield is one of the most notorious British serial killers of the last fifty years - his name alone evokes horror and revulsion, after his string of brutal murders in the early 2000s. At 3:07pm on 21st March, 2002, Milly Dowler left her school in Surrey for the last time. Less than an hour later, she was to be abducted and murdered in the cruellest fashion, sparking a missing person investigation that would span months before her body was found. In the two years that followed, two more young women - Marsha McDonnell and then Amélie Delagrange - were murdered in unspeakably brutal attacks. Yet with three murdered women on their hands, and few leads open to them, investigating officers were running out of ideas and options, until SIO Colin Sutton was drafted into the investigation for the murder of Delagrange. Seeing a connection between the three women, and thriving under the pressure of a serial killer hunt, Sutton was finally able to bring their murderer to justice after the case had begun to seem hopeless.Manhunt tells the story of how he led the charge to find a mystery killer, against the clock and against the odds - day by day and lead by lead. At once a gripping police procedural, and an insight into the life of an evil man, this is the story behind what it takes to track down a shockingly violent murderer before he strikes again.Check out 'Manhunt: The Night Stalker' also now available in audiobook
    Show book