The Yellow House

Occasionally an epic story comes along that makes the reader cry at the end of the novel. I am that reader, and The Yellow House is that novel. Spanning the early twentieth century, set in Northern Ireland during the time of the Irish revolution, we follow Eileen O'Neill, warrior, daughter, and sister as she slowly loses everything she loves but learns to rise again. Growing up at the base of her beloved mountain, Slieve Gullion, Eileen knows the terrors she dreams at night do not bode well for her family. When her younger sister dies of Scarlet Fever, her mother loses her mind in grief. When her Catholic father is killed defending their Yellow House from Protestant uprisers, Eileen must survive or perish in sadness. She stands upright as an O'Neill warrior and takes life by the horns. Growing up in Ireland in the tumultuous 1900s, Eileen O'Neill joins the Cause for the rights of Catholics and all Irish citizens. In 1913 she takes a job working for the Quaker family, the Sheridan's, at their mill in Queensbrook; she also takes up the fiddle, following in her father's footsteps, and it is through these two positions that she meets Owen Sheridan, handsome, privileged, charming, rakish, and safe. When Owen goes to fight in World War 1 Eileen is left confused about her burgeoning feelings, not having ever loved, she doesn't know about Owen. And then she meets James; dark, dangerous, impassioned for the Cause, fighting for his beliefs, for freedom from persecution, for a better Ireland, and she falls for him. Torn between her inner warrior and her outer womanhood, enveloped in a lost family and heritage, dreaming of the Yellow House and her beloved Slieve Gullion, Eileen is a girl who grows to a woman before our eyes, who marches from the ashes of her childhood and raises her arms in defiance. Trapped between two men, Eileen finds herself. The Yellow House is a captivating debut, bountiful and beautifully written. The beginning trudges along, but Eileen will capture you quickly after. Her story will make you smile, make your heart pump, make your breath quicken, make you cry. You will hope for the best, and fear for the worst. You will laugh at Eileen and her anger and feistiness, she has a sailor's mouth and the temper to go with it. You will feel her heartbreak and her desire, you will know her anguish and rapturous delight, you will relate to her because she is the warrior in all of us. You will love Eileen, and you will love The Yellow House.

Synopsis: Set in Northern Ireland in the early 1900s, the story of The Yellow House centers around Eileen O'Neill as she grows up during a turbulent time in Ireland's history. Spanning 20 years, the story picks up during her childhood, as the family falls into poverty and tragedy sets the tone for Eileen's struggles. Working in a mill, in dangerous conditions, she saves her money and dreams of reuniting her family in the home of her childhood, hoping to bring back happier times. Along the way, she finds herself torn between two men, and torn by her own will and the will of others. Her family history and the current political landscape shape Eileen's journey, and secrets and betrayals leave their mark. Analysis: There are books that help you to pass the time, that entertain you, and that allow you to escape your ordinary life. Then, there are books that touch your soul. These books seep into your heart and your mind, so that, upon dragging yourself from its depths, you are surprised to find yourself in your own familiar surroundings. The Yellow House is such a book. Falvey's gift to the reader is her rich, descriptive language. The setting of this book, Ulster, a province located in northern Ireland, is lavishly painted throughout the book. The characters come to life, vibrant and flawed, clinging to dreams and hopes. Falvey uses historic events to provide a dynamic and turbulent backdrop for the characters' stories and personalities to unfold. We see the affect of love and loss, of war and fighting, of betrayal and hatred, each in varying forms and degress, on the human spirit. Eileen, in particular, is molded and shaped through the storm of war and prejudice that engulfs her life. From starry-eyed child to wary, and weary, adult, Eileen's journey is a hard one. Falvey takes us on that journey, perhaps to show us that Eileen's tenacity and fire is vital to her survival, and to encourage us to remember that in our own journeys. We love with Eileen, we cry with her as she suffers loss and humiliation. We feel indignation on her behalf over the injustices she bears, and cringe at her fiery temper. We worry as we foresee possible repercussions of her actions and decisions, and we hope that all will right itself in the end. And in the end, we the reader leave this book remembering what it means to hope and to sacrifice. Falvey teaches us that living for a dream can sustain us through the toughest of days, and that a dream gives us a reason to keep fighting.

As I am a fanatic about anything Irish, when I was approached to receive a copy The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey, I was delighted. I read the reviews and I couldn't wait to get my copy. This is a novel about Ireland and takes place during the years 1900- 1924 during a time of strife and upheaval due to WWI and during the Home Rule in Ireland. The main character Eileen O'Neill is a very strong woman. After the birth of a baby brother her mother takes off and goes home to Eileens grandfather, but has a breakdown and ends up in an asylum for the insane. Eileen, takes her infant brother and lives with a friend of the family and his wife after the family home (The Yellow House) burns down and they lose everything, including her father. She is forced by circumstances at a young age to be both a mother and father to her little brother. She promised herself that she will get The Yellow House back and reunite her family. Eileen had a sister that died, and she also has an older brother Frank who goes to live with their grandfather.The grandfather had disowned their mother because of a scandal that ultimately changes every one's lives in the O'Neill household. Eileen eventually goes to work in the mill owned by the Owen Sheridan, son of a well to do Quaker family. Eileen is very vocal on the working conditions at the mill. Owen is British and against violence of any kind but does eventually go to fight in WWI. Eileen finds that she has feelings for Owen, but ends up marrying James Conlin whom she met while she did her part in a movement proclaiming an independent Irish Republic in the south of Ireland. The story is full of history during this famous time in Ireland's past that shaped the country to how it is today. It is a heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by secrets, war, religion and class distinctions. This book was thoroughly researched and maybe even a bit of the authors own past wound through the story. The characters are very well thought out. It tells the history of Ireland, but does not overwhelm you with the details. It tells about the anger and the hatred between the Catholics and the Protestants. Michael Collins, an Irish revolutionary leader and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations is part of the story. I loved this book to say the least. It was an easy and fun read, when the families and neighbors would get together and have their music sessions, I could almost hear the sad songs of love and loss. Irish fiction at it's best.

There's an unapologetically strong Nationalist/Republican slant in Patricia Falvey's story of the revolutionary years in Ireland that might not be to everyone's taste. Taking in the 1916 Rebellion and the political and social turmoil in the subsequent years leading up to the formation of the Irish Republic and the partition of Northern Ireland, with a few explanatory history passages at relevant points, the novel certainly seems like it has an eye on the Irish-American market, but there's also an involving human story to The Yellow House that has a ring of truth to it, making it more relevant and appealing to a wider readership. The emphasis is certainly however on the suffering of decent, hard-working poor oppressed Catholics, represented here by Eileen O'Neill, a young woman who has seen her mother and father and their glorious yellow painted house in Glenlea, Co. Armagh fall victim to the prejudice and hatred of a bigoted Protestant population, everyone of them hard, dour and authoritarian, acting out of bitterness and fear of what Home Rule might bring. Eileen has to grow up quick, finding herself work in a local mill in order to look after herself and her younger brother, but events lead Eileen to take up arms in the struggle against an unjust society ruled by Protestants who keep the Catholics in their place as second-class citizens. Almost inevitably, the struggle is characterised in romantic as well as political terms, Eileen, even as she joins the Irish Volunteers, finding her feelings torn between the handsome mill owner's son Owen Sheridan, who has returned from the Great War believing that violence isn't the answer, and James Conlon, a fervent follower of Michael Collins, who appeals to the rebellious side of the young woman's nature and her pride in her heritage. In this context, Eileen's determination to restore the Yellow House of her happy childhood and reunite her broken family becomes a personal aspiration that drives her onward, as well as being a strong metaphor for the past that has been lost and which may never again be fully restored to the way it was. One could question the point of bringing up the bitter history of an old conflict that should no longer be relevant in a new progressive and peaceful modern-day Ulster that has apparently moved on considerably from the old ways. While the characters depicted here are recognisably those of previous generations in the north of Ireland however, you don't have to look too deeply past recent headlines to see that the same prejudices and fears remain in the attitudes of the current generation and the politicians who represent them. It's admirable then that Patricia Falvey doesn't feel the need to present a balanced, politically correct, revisionist view of the past, and The Yellow House is all the more readable for it. As highly-dramatic and as one-sided as the storyline might be towards Nationalist aspirations, there is nevertheless a definite authenticity to the historic

The setting is the highly dramatic revolutionary period in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century. Eileen O'Neill's family is at the epicenter. The "Yellow House" in which she spent her childhood is lost to her through political upheaval, and regaining this house and the sense of home it represents becomes the central focus of her young adulthood. Falvey very successfully weaves together the politics, history, and landscape of Ireland in this period. She deftly creates a heroine with strong personality and believable convictions, adds interesting heroes (one a passionate revolutionary leader and one an ardent pacifist) who offer the heroine alternative choices for romantic love. And the island country itself becomes a character: green rocky hills, Catholic rules and comforts, whiskey, music, weavers and mill workers. With this setting and these characters as her tools, Falvey brilliantly illustrates the cultural, political, and economic conflicts that result in erecting Ireland's North/South dividing border. The well-researched history of the period emerges through the characters, their conflicts, and their choices. The story is absorbing and satisfying historical fiction. Reviewed by Marcia Jo