Ian McGuire

Yes, that's right.

I mean, martyrdom is an important idea in the novel, I think.

I mean, martyrdom is an important idea within the sort of mythology and the ideology of Irish nationalism, Irish republicanism.

The idea of the martyr is a very powerful, powerful one, both.

these three men who were hanged, who became known as the Manchester Martyrs.

And then, you know, moving forward in 1916, the Easter Rising and the martyrs that were created then.

So this idea of martyrdom was very interesting.

It is important within that history, but it was also interesting to me in terms of trying to explore the psychology of a kind of terrorist organisation and what would motivate

those involved to sacrifice themselves or potentially sacrifice themselves.

So that became a kind of way of digging into the kind of psychology of terrorism and political violence, beginning to sort of explore the motivations of men like that.

Yes.

I mean, the Fenians as an organization were betrayed again and again.

They were riddled by informers.

And so that sets up just this very interesting sort of contrast between a deep sort of fidelity to the cause and opposed to that willingness to betray it for other purposes.

So that, I mean, it's an interesting contrast.

And of course,

The people who did betray the course were often met a very sort of grisly end.

Yeah, O'Connor is a Dublin policeman who is sent to Manchester to help control the Fenian activity there.

But his backstory is that his wife has died about a year or more before the novel begins.

And as a result of that, he's turned to drinking.