The Sword of the Banshee Read Online Free PDF Page A

agrarian society. His operation was alive and well at the time of their marriage and spanned all of County Limerick, Cork, and Clare. Now, three years later he had support for his cause over most of Ireland from Dundalk to Bantry.
    It was not hard rallying the Irish. Centuries of starvation and repression had reduced the country to ashes and anger. The Irish Catholics were treated as sub-human, nothing more than a slave to English landlords and unyielding lands. They lived in caves, dugouts, and hovels left with only with their faith in God and their outrage.
    Colm Fitzpatrick offered them hope. Every Irishman loyal to the cause of freedom drank to his health and pledged their undying loyalty to him. Those who were able to read devoured his pamphlets, bards sang his praises in epic poems, and mothers named their babies after him.
    Since most of Ireland knew his name, shortly after the wedding, Colm thought it best to inform India of the truth about his work. In no time, he had his young bride convinced that shielding her from the truth until now had been in her best interest .
    India arrived back at camp as the sun was dropping low in the sky. It cast an eerie, green light on the glade.  A long narrow cottage made of stones and thatch sat in the clearing and several horses stood by the front door swatting flies with their long tails. Crickets were beginning to sing and only a few birds called from the trees. Two men stepped out of the cottage strapping leather bags onto the horses. India saw Colm standing with Feargus O'Connor examining a map rolled out on a low wall.  O'Connor, a large surly farmer was the leader of Colm's faction here called the Ballyhoura Boys.
    Fitzpatrick dismissed him, rolled up the map and walked over to India linking arms with her. "You were gone far too long, my dear. Do you remember what we talked about?"
    India looked down and nodded. Even though she was a head taller than her husband, she felt Colm Fitzpatrick towered over her in every way, from his intelligence to his bravery.
    "You were right," she admitted. "It was painful to look at the valley again. I won't be going back."
    "Indeed, you won't my love. We are leaving tonight."
    "Why so soon? We have only just arrived."
    "It seems your cousin who lives at Ballydunne has caught wind of us and is organizing a raid."
    "Cousin Raibert?"
    Fitzpatrick nodded. "I am sorry we cannot stay longer. It was a complete waste of time. Feargus will deal with the informant who betrayed us, and we shall return later. We move to Offaly next."
    India did not like the idea of traveling again so soon. She was weary, and she believed Colm to be fatigued to the point of exhaustion. For the first time since their wedding, she noticed deep lines etched onto his face, and his hair had more gray. At forty three years of age, these things were to be expected, but he seemed spent. His life had been an endless struggle of deprivation and violence, and she believed the responsibility of a large scale rebellion was draining him. Nevertheless he was a dedicated partisan. In fact, he was committed to the point of fanaticism.
    At the age of seventeen, Colm Fitzpatrick had experienced the pain and humiliation of British domination. His family fell out of favor with the Monarchy, and his ancestral home in Kilkenny was immediately confiscated by the Crown. The Fitzpatrick clan was stripped of their titles. The family fled to France, and during that time, Colm conspired to regain his estate and launch a revolution in his homeland.
    After several years of schooling at the Sorbonne, he started writing essays and distributing pamphlets to enlist the support of the French in an Irish revolution. After raising a modest sum of money, he moved to Dublin where he studied for the bar and began to organize a rebellion. He was immediately seized and imprisoned.
       During his years in confinement, his hatred for the English deepened, and upon his release, he organized several bands of Irish