Europe 1969. The failure of the Western Alliance has allowed the Soviet Union to expand its borders to the North Atlantic. The United Kingdom no longer exists and Her Majesty’s Government has long since been overthrown. Ireland remains divided, with the North controlled by the Communists and the South effectively an American client state. Two mighty armies glare at each other across a heavily fortified border, which the locals have grimly christened as the ‘Shamrock Curtain’.In the midst of this chaos is Sean McCann, a young Belfast man with a chequered past who is drawn into a war which is not of his making. Sean returns to his native city and is tasked with the unenviable mission of rebuilding the beleaguered resistance movement, operating right under the noses of the Soviet military and their locally recruited security forces. And yet, even in the face of annihilation, the underground paramilitary groups will struggle to move on from the ancient sectarian conflict, which has plagued their province for so many centuries.As McCann and his comrades fight to stay one step ahead of the ruthless Red secret police, one young man sets out on a mission of violent retribution to avenge his father’s murder. Little does he know that this one isolated act of bloodshed will lead to horrifying consequences for the peoples of Belfast, both Protestant and Catholic. In order to avoid an unprecedented atrocity, former enemies must now work together to find the culprit and bring him to justice. If they fail, the Russian Bear will awaken and the people of the North shall suffer his unrestrained ferocity.This is a gripping debut novel from Mark Lynch, who has lived in Northern Ireland all his life, studied History & Politics at Queen’s University Belfast and maintains a keen interest in both of these subjects. Note from the Author: This novel is a work of alternative history and of fiction. The author's intention is to imagine how the Irish Troubles might have developed differently if the historical context of the late 1960's was significantly altered. Any sectarianism or political extremism in this story do not represent the views of the author, they are an attempt to create realistic characters who may hold intolerant views and beliefs.
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