This week we’re reading the second third of The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken.

This section opens up with Dominic on a train, bringing with him weapons and grenades for the Irish Independence movement. While he is on the train, two British soldiers, Skin and Mac, take seats next to him. They chat Dominic up about playing snooker (pool in American), poker, and politics. Dominic escapes without being found out and is picked up by Sam in a buggy which brings them to a “safe” house. In this house is Dominic’s brother Dualta and their mother. Unsurprisingly in this tale of constant action the house is raided by British soldiers, including Skin and Mac, Dominic is beaten half to death while they try to coax out of him Dualta's whereabouts. This is a kind of coming of age moment for Dominic, who is thoroughly converted to the Irish Independence movement.

The rest of the section is a mix of cloak and dagger guerilla warfare, prison escapes, remembrances of the dead, drowning torture scenes, and soliloquies on the meaning of the Irish struggle for freedom. By the end of Chapter 21, Dominic has become a man embroiled in the struggle for Irish Independence, for good or ill.

From the book:

“Walter Macken was born in Galway in 1915. He was a writer of short stories, novels, and plays. Originally an actor, principally with Taibhdhearc in Galway, and the Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in M.J Molloy’s The King of Friday’s Men and his own play Home Is The Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Arthur Dreifuss’ adaption of Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Irish historical novels. Seek The Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind. He passed away in 1967.”