Dubliners are learning that the front entrance to Trinity, and many other architectural landmarks, were built with money from tobacco and other slave-related revenues. There have been calls to replace a statue of John Mitchel, a nationalist hero who supported US slavery, and a plaque to Major Richard Dowling, a Galway-born officer in the Confederate army. Dublin’s Shelbourne hotel removed four statues believed to depict slaves, only to reinstate them when the figures were revealed to not be slaves.
It is all part of a wider reckoning sparked by Ireland’s increasingly diverse population, the BLM movement and new books – academic and fiction – about historical figures.
Publisher
Lilliput Press (hardback)
Neil Jordan s depiction of the revolutionary, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his faithful manservant, Tony Small, is an enthralling and stirring chronicle set against the backdrop of tumultuous late 18th century events, incorporating the American War of Independence and 1798 Irish Rebellion, among others.
It is an expertly spun ballad defined by themes of belonging, illusion and, fundamentally, fidelity. So, my dear Tony, we both got it wrong. But at least we both laboured under the same illusion…The illusion of belonging. And you are still a mongrel. Like me.
The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small is a curious, albeit distinct retelling of a salient period of Irish history told through the fictional account of Tony Small, a runaway Carolina slave who had rescued Lord Edward Fitzgerald following the Battle of Eutaw Springs in 1781.
Updated / Saturday, 27 Feb 2021
07:00
We re delighted to present an extract from
The Ballad of Lord Edward & Citizen Small, the new novel by writer and filmmaker Neil Jordan, published by The Lilliput Press.
Blending the drama of real events with Jordan s inimitable storytelling ability, this work spotlights a long-forgotten chapter in Ireland’s history. The tale is related by Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s manservant Tony Small, a runaway slave who rescued Lord Edward after the Battle of Eutaw Springs during the American War of Independence. While the details of Lord Edward’s life are well-documented, very little is known of Tony Small, who, in this gripping narrative, examines the ironies of empire, captivity and freedom. Small, who knows too well the consequences of rebellion and resistance, reflects on Lord Edward’s journey from being a loyal servant of the British Empire to becoming a 1798 rebellion leader.
One of the most intriguing friendships in Irish history has been transformed into fiction the bond between Lord Edward Fitzgerald, aristocrat turned revolutionary, and Tony Small, a runaway slave who saved his life.
Film-maker Neil Jordan is also an award-winning novelist, and this panoramic, painstakingly researched novel told through Small’s voice is a convincing reconstruction of the way their lives interlocked despite origins in diametrically opposed worlds.
One man sprang from Ireland’s most patrician family, the other was born into slavery on an American plantation. They met in 1781 during the American War of Independence, when Small dragged Lord Edward, wounded and unconscious, from a battlefield the young lieutenant was fighting on behalf of the British crown.
9 min read
Ireland s most garlanded director talks about ageism in film, Harvey Weinstein and his new novel, about the aristocratic rebel Lord Edward FitzGerald and his manservant, the freed slave Tony Small
We begin by comparing facial hair. Neil Jordan has cough-cough years on me, but, over the previous 12 months, we seem to have mutated into variations on the same grizzled, spectacled hermit
âHow is that beard coming?â he asks.
Our most garlanded film director â who is currently holed up in his rural Cork pad â has been eyeing the closing, opening and closing again of cinemas with weary interest. Among his greatest pleasures is âwalking down a city centre street and going into the cinemaâ. That wonât be happening for a while.