Major book launch takes place in Kilkenny this Friday

Well known columnist and producer of many fine books about Callan and its heritage, John Fitzgerald, will launch his book based on the Cromwellian period in Callan at Keogh’s pub on Friday, October 6 at 8pm.

Local historian Joe Kennedy of Callan Heritage will officially launch the book, which is called Invaders. It is novel set in mid-17th Century Ireland, when the country was reeling under the impact of Cromwell’s seemingly invincible expeditionary force. Though other parts of Ireland feature in the story, it centres mainly on what happened when the commander of the most powerful army on the planet arrived at the walls of Callan.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints but the main characters include a brave captain and his 'warrior wife'. The captain has been assigned command of Skerry’s Castle in Callan, a town he hadn’t even heard of back on his farmstead in Westmeath. He’s committed to defending the town and its people but, unknown to him, the town governor contemplates betrayal.

The character is based on the real life Captain Mark McGeoghegan, whose name is honoured on a plaque attached to the surviving fragment of Skerry’s in West Street. The captain’s wife is also crucial to the story, with her insistence on joining the fight and mobilising the women of Callan. Many of them answer her call and follow her into battle.

Edward Comerford, Callan’s Mayor (or Sovereign) plays a major role too as he struggles to steer a path between the two factions on the corporation, one pledged to resist the invaders, the other to suing for reasonable terms of surrender.

There‘s much that we don’t know about what happened back in 1650. What we do know is that Cromwell’s forces did attack the town, subjecting it to a siege lasting at last three days; and that according to a persistent local tradition, the captain’s wife survived (possibly after being left for dead) and fought on.

Cromwell’s own letters to parliament confirm that the town did indeed resist, unlike many other towns that ran up the white flag without a shot being fired.

John has taken what’s known about this singular event in our local history and woven a story around it. Two years of research went into the project. John wrote the first very rough draft of the novel during the Covid lockdown. Being confined to the house, or to within two kilometres of it, gave John the incentive to find something useful to do until life got back to normal.

John is thinking now that the novel might double as a kind of indirect tourist promotion of the town and district. All the local heritage gems are in it, Skerry’s In West Street, the Callan Motte (better known locally as the Moat), the Augustinian Abbey, St Mary’s Church on Green Street and the Fair Green. This was the stretch of ground upon which the invaders positioned their cannons to bombard the South Gate - but you have to buy the book to read the full story.

All are welcome at the launch of Invaders. The book is also available from Amazon. The opening chapters can be read freely online.