Join Kildare County Council Library Service and author Maria McDonald for the launch of her new book The Devil’s Own, a tantalising historical mystery.

This event will be be launched on Friday 20th January at 6pm with guest speaker, and former Irish Army Ranger, Ray Goggins.

The programme is supported by the County Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee and the five municipal districts of Kildare County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-23 initiative. It is administered by the Local Studies, Genealogy & Archives Department of Kildare Library & Arts Services.

A new book which brings Irish history life – with a mysterious murderous twist

An Irish soldier, about to reluctantly retire after 40 years’ service, is clearing the attic of his family home in the married quarters on the Curragh Camp in Kildare as he prepares to move house.
He finds three mysterious diaries, which date from tumultuous times in Ireland in the early years of the 20th century, as the fledgling nation was forged in the furnace of a war for independence followed by civil war.
The diaries tell three interlinked human stories of ordinary people living through torrid times. The first is a chronicle of the life of Arthur, born in England, who saw long colonial overseas service with the notorious Irish regiment, the Connaught Rangers. Posted to India after the great war, the Rangers mutinied in India in protest against the British treatment of the Irish at home. Sent back to England in disgrace, they were disbanded, and Arthur finished his days in the ranks of the new Irish Free State army.
The second diary is penned by Edith, Arthur’s wife, a colonel’s daughter born in India, who defied convention to marry him. Edith’s diary evokes the tough life of an army family trying to get by in dangerous times.
The third diary is the work of Henry, Connaught Ranger, a comrade and friend of Arthur. Through the eyes of this trio, we go back to the beginning of the end of the British Empire and to the times in Irish history currently being marked in the Decade of Commemorations, 1913-1923.

But there is a further sting in this tale because one of the three is a serial killer.

About the author

Originally from Belfast, Maria McDonald lives in Kildare, with her husband Gerry. After raising four children to adulthood, they are having great fun with their grandchildren. Maria is an avid reader who loves to write but only indulged in her passion for writing fiction after retirement. Since then, her short stories and articles have been published in Woman’s Way and Ireland’s Own, as well as numerous anthologies; Intermissions, Grattan Street Press Melbourne; Same page anthology, University College Cork; Fragments of Time, Amber Publishers. Maria is a founder member of Ink Tank Writing Group, based in Newbridge library and contributed to their anthologies, Timeless in Kildare and Let Me Tell You Something.