The Demons of Discord

Jamie Vance, a Presbyterian married to a Catholic girl, plays a leading part in Donegal Unionism. His fiercest enemy is Diamuid O'Mara, a hard-bitten IRA fighter. The novel details assassination, murder, bombings, arson, and conspiracies in Ireland and England. Amid this disorder, the strained relationship between Jamie and his wife, Caitlin, and his obsession with an Anglo-Irishwoman is played out. Diarmuid develops a passionate relationship with a young Dublin girl and then a tough fellow IRA activist, Máire. During World War II, the two strands of Unionism and Republicanism clash head-on in a deadly struggle and reach an explosive climax in the Fermanagh Lakelands over a critically important Allied base in the forefront of the war against Nazi control of the Atlantic.

Kenneth Dodds studied history at Leicester and Durham Universities and taught in six secondary schools in Northern England and the west of Scotland. Before and after retiring, he taught Spanish to adults. In 2001 he published Western Designs: A History of the British in Central America. He visits Northwest Ireland regularly and writes history articles for the Donegal Annual. The Stranded Tribe, a novel about Donegal and Ireland, 1895-1922, was published in 2012. He lives and walks with his wife in the Yorkshire Dales but travels regularly to Spain and other warm countries.