Episode 30.1 - The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken

This week we’re reading the first third of The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken.

The Scorching Wind opens from the perspective of Dominic, who is preparing to accompany his older, more handsome brother Dualta to the train that will bring Dualta to the Western Front of World War I. The boys come from a family steeped in the politics of Irish Independence. The Irish Nationalist movement is split at the outbreak of the Great War, on the one side the Redmond volunteers agreeing to fight for the empire in exchange for Home Rule, on the other the hardcore nationalists who wish to prosecute a national independence struggle in Ireland. The family of Dominic and Dualta reflect this split, Dualta is volunteering with Redmond, their father a principled nationalist.

After Dualta is sent off, the book transports us to the future, which culminates in the Easter Rebellion of 1916. The hardcore nationalists, led by the likes of Patrick Pearse and James Connoly, attempt an insurrection against the British state to establish an Irish Republic. Their efforts failed and 16 of the leaders of that rebellion are hanged by the British state.

In the wake of the Easter Rebellion, Dominic’s father is arrested by the British military and dies from a persistent cold exacerbated by prison conditions, Dualta returns from the Western front crippled but still impressive. Dominic remains resistant and intentionally aloof of the bubbling Irish resistance brewing around him, but is inevitably sucked into the schemes of his friends and associates.

The sections leaves off with Dominic on a train, watching as the charismatic Irish section leader Lorry is arrested by the infamous Black and Tans. Dominic wonders of Lorry’s fate and little does he know that Lorry was executed, with two bullets to his head and thrown in a ditch.