ONCE WE WERE KINGS

By Peter Kinch

‘Once We Were Kings’ is a portrait of irony – of a people who were once Kings but are now stripped of their own lands. This Irish novel, steeped in history, is an epic tale of love, courage, resilience and fate that spans two decades. It features a family whose ancestry stretches back to the Chieftains and Kings of Connacht but find themselves in a frantic fight for survival during the peak of Ireland’s ‘Great Hunger’ in 1847.

The story focuses on 12-year-old Patrick and his cousin Michael, who grow up on the streets of Dublin, creating an unbreakable bond of love and kinship. However, life, chance and circumstance intervene, and difficult choices have to be made. Fleeing the monumental tragedy of Ireland, a country that no longer offers them hope, they risk everything to discover a new land. A land of opportunity, where the hope is to live free from tyranny and create a future of their own making. What awaits them is something they could never have imagined. What unfolds is something they never would have wanted…. it’s the eve of the American Civil War!

The meticulous research of author Peter Kinch allows the reader to experience the harsh truth of life in one of the most memorable periods in the history of Ireland.