March 14th: "A Gun-Running Episode" by George A. Birmingham

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Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on March 14th, 2015 (00:30 A.M., March 14th (GMT)), for a discussion of A Gun_Running Episone by George A. Birmingham (the pen name of James Owen Hannay (16 July 1865 - 2 February 1950).

 

Hannay was an ordained Anglican minister who spent most of his life in Ireland.  He was a prolific novelist, devoting much of his literary efforts into various historical and political novels dealing with Ireland and its people.  Around the turn of the last century, he was an active member in the Gaelic League (at that time an non-partisan organization devoted to the preservation of the Irish Language and culture).  He resigned from the league after performance of his Play: General John Regan drew criticism from the League.  He continued to serve as a clergyman in various parishes in Ireland and later in England until his death in 1950.

 

This story is a humorous look at the circumstances surrounding the Irish independence movement in the early 20th century (before partition into two distinct political areas by the Parliament's granting home rule to most of the Island while maintaining British government in the nrth.  The initial partition occurred in 1914, but the unwillingness of the mainly Anglican population in the Belfast area and consequent religious and political strife resulting from those differences led to the Irish Civil War with ultimate full independence being granted to Ireland except for the separate United Kingdom realm of "Ulster" in the northeastern corner of the Island.  That separation proved as successful at stopping the conflict as did the partition of Korea into North and South, the division of Vietnam into North a Jewish and an Arab checkerboard.

 

I feel confident that you will enjoy the story as well as our discussion in #readers_corner.

 

The story is available on line at: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/24170/

 

Meeting Place: 

 

Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner 

 

mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner

 

Don't forget to bring a friend and your sense of humor (humour for you folks who still owe allegiance to the crown--thus being forced to use gratuitous U's by the adherence to the rigid and antiquated rules of the "Queen's English").

 

Log attached:  #readers_corner 20150314.txt