The Dead Republic by Roddy Doyle - Book Review by Doris Mousdale

At the end of "Oh, Play That Thing", the second volume of Roddy Doyle's trilogy about Henry Smart, Henry, his leg severed in an accident with a railway boxcar, crawls into the Utah desert to die - only to be discovered by John Ford, who's there shooting his latest Western. Ford recognizes a fellow Irish rebel and determines to turn Henry's story - a boy volunteer at the GPO in 1916, a hitman for Michael Collins, a republican legend - into a film. He appoints him 'IRA consultant' on his new film, The Quiet Man. "The Dead Republic" opens in 1951. Henry is returning to Ireland for the first time since his escape in 1922. With him are the stars of Ford's film, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, and the famous director himself, 'Pappy', who in a series of intense, highly charged meetings has tried to suck the soul out of Henry and turn it into Hollywood gold-dust.

Book review by Doris Mousdale of Arcadia Bookshop, Newmarket, Auckland - The Dead Republic by Roddy Doyle (9780224090100, Jonathan Cape).

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[KarinPluss]

Yes, Maureen O'HARA, not O'Sullivan and also Henry Fonda had no part in The Quiet Man. I'll be sure to get these books, though!

[Jubiejones]

Thanks for this clip. I think she meant to say "Maureen O'Hara" - not "Maureen O'Sullivan" were on the plane with John Ford and John Wayne. Still - it's a nice review.