Belfast

Belfast is the main setting for Neville's novel, and it exists almost as a character within the book itself. It is the home city of most of the main characters, and the central conflict of the novel stems around the city's struggle to recover from the violence of the Troubles. Fegan's meditations on the changing nature of the city from a blood- spattered war zone to an affluent and prosperous metropolis reflect his own inabilities to move on from his blood- stained past. Belfast's difficulties as an emerging political power serve as the back drop for Fegan's personal struggle for justice.

Dundalk

Dundalk, a small seaside town in Ireland, is where the reader first meets Davy Campbell in his undercover position among the dissidents. It is also the city from which Fegan departs aboard a ship at the end of the novel. Dundalk represents an aspect of Irish...