This historical novel describes the life of the `Wicklow Chieftain' Michael Dwyer - revolutionary idealist, inspirational guerrilla leader, and violent alcoholic.
Arrested after the rebellion, Dwyer and his family spent time in Kilmainham Gaol before he and his wife were deported to a penal colony in Australia. There they endeavored to reconstruct their lives in the penal colony, but Dwyer's life was ruled and ruined by alcohol.
The story brings to life a pivotal time in Irish history when cruelty was matched by cruelty, an uprising was dependent on French support that never arrived, Robert Emmet was hanged, and a family was brutally separated. This struggle for survival leads to Dwyer's increasing violence and alcoholism, and eventually his death.
“Spinning a novel of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Citizen Dwyer is an excellent read that should prove quite hard to put down.” - Midwest Book Review
