MacBride's Wars

MacBride's Wars by Dermod Judge is true historical fiction featuring many actual people, places, and situations. It is an intriguing story of a man with strong beliefs who is not necessarily a good man in all areas of his life. It is a war story, and most of all it is an Irish story. It was a good read. More importantly, the Introduction is a must-read. It is insightful, interesting, and the words of a true historian. It is as well worth reading as is the novel.
MacBride and colleagues have gone to South Africa to fight with the Boers against the rule of England. They see this as a fight parallel to their own in Ireland. They hope to learn. Irish men are recruited, trained, and paid well for their part in the war. They live hard and love hard. It is an educational read. I recommend it.

I received a free ARC of MacBride's War from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #macbrideswar

I really loved the first half of this story as MacBride arrives in Dublin and immediately falls in with the key theatrical and revolutionary figures of the day who would later become both iconic and household names. MacBride's obsession with Maud Gonne is captured perfectly entwining his love of Ireland and Maud herself. The tragic breakdown of their marriage is briefly visited towards the end of the story as well as a short account of MacBride's role in 1916 and his time in Kilamainham gaol.

Whilst I am not familiar with any actual historical accounts of events of this period, I thought some of the "lighthearted / comedic" tales told during MacBride's exploits in South Africa were at odds with the overall mood of the rest of the story.

After reading "MacBrides Wars" I have been inspired to learn more about these historical characters and this period.

I have a huge interest in irish history and am always keen to read books based on the time. I loved it. Would highly recommend.

I personally struggled through this book a bit. Perhaps it is not my genre/ type of story. I have a keen interest in Scotland/ Ireland in the 1700s-1900s and other history, however, I feel like a deeper knowledge of Ireland's history and Macbride is required to read this story and for that reason, I did not finish it. I got to Chapter 13 where I stopped. I wasn't enjoying it, didn't understand the lingo for a lot of it. Again, might just be me and my upbringing (out of Europe) but I can't say the story is for me.

This book follows the character McBride in his quest to rebel against the English colonials with a group of other men to fight in Africa. Overall, the book had some good ideas and characters but fell a bit short in descriptions and was too lengthy in other areas. Sometimes, the text did not flow and was overly-lengthy or detailed. I would have preferred other parts of the story to be longer in detail or characterisation as well, but overall thought it was promising.