Winds of Change: Three Children Caught Up In Ireland’s Land War

By Brian Gallagher

Winds of Change explores the challenges faced by a range of characters against the backdrop of Land League agitation, evictions and boycotting in 1880’s Ireland.  The story is told through the eyes of three Irish children: Clara Parkinson, Molly O’Hara, and Aidan Daly, whose contrasting circumstances result in differing responses to the unfolding turmoil.

Despite their differing backgrounds, Clara, Aidan, and Molly become friends – a friendship that in the tinderbox climate of the Land War brings real physical dangers.  Meanwhile Molly has to grapple with her divided loyalties when her father takes part in evictions with the Royal Irish Constabulary.

Interspersed with time-slip elements from the present day, with student Garret Byrne exploring his family’s past, the story is set during the pivotal period of late 1880 to early 1881, a time when the face of Ireland was changing forever, with dramatic – and sometimes shocking – consequences for our cast of characters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The O'Brien Press
• Release date: Mar 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781788492607

Brian Gallagher

BRIAN GALLAGHER was born in Dublin. He is a full-time writer whose plays and short stories have been produced in Ireland, Britain and Canada. He has worked extensively in radio and television, writing many dramas and documentaries. Brian is the author of four adult novels, and his other books of historical fiction for young readers are Winds of Change set against the backdrop of Land League agitation, evictions and boycotting in 1880's Ireland; One Good Turn and Friend or Foe – both set in Dublin in 1916; Stormclouds, which takes place in Northern Ireland during the turbulent summer of 1969; Secrets and Shadows, a spy novel that begins with the North Strand bombings during the Second World War; Taking Sides, about the Irish Civil War; Across the Divide, set during the 1913 Lockout; Arrivals, a time-slip novel set between modern and early-twentieth-century Ontario, and Pawns, set during Ireland’s War of Independence. Brian lives with his family in Dublin. Find out more about Brian's books at briangallagherwriter.com