The Irish imagination is dominated by the idea of circles and it tends to view history passively as a pattern of cycles. Although this can be a dangerous view to take, it subtly informs Thomas Flanagan's remarkable historical novel [The Year of the French]. (p. 61)

Flanagan has an unerring sense of the parallels between the political situation in 1798 and the events in Ulster over the last ten years. Thus the Mayo yeomanry are the shadowy and bigoted forerunners of the "B" Specials, the secret society called the Whiteboys of Killala is the Provisional IRA, while the brief "Republic of Connaught" parallels Free Derry nearly two centuries later. Flanagan has considerable sympathy for the aims and ideals of the United Irishmen … but he is also aware of what happens when ideology is translated into action….

Particularly interesting is Flanagan's presentation of Owen MacCarthy, the Gaelic poet who is caught...