The Bloody Red Hand

A bestselling chronicler of the sea turns to a trio of his own ancestors to see what memory and the selective plundering of history has made of the truth in Northern Ireland. The name “Lundy” is synonymous with traitor in Ulster. Derek Lundy’s first ancestral subject was the Protestant governor of Derry in 1688, just before it came under siege by the Catholic Irish army of James II. For reasons that remain ambiguous, Robert ordered the gates of the city opened in surrender. Protestant hard-liners staged a coup de ville and drove him away in disgrace, a traitor to the cause. But Robert is more memorable for his peace-seeking moderation than for the treachery the standard history attributes to him. William Steel Dickson’s legacy is a little different: a Presbyterian minister born in the late 18th century, he preached with famous eloquence in favour of using whatever means necessary to resist the tyranny of the English, including joining forces with the Catholics in armed rebellion. Finally, there is “Billy” Lundy, born in 1890, the antithesis of the ecumenical William, and the embodiment of what the Ulster Protestants had become by the beginning of World War I – a tribe united in their hostility to Catholics and to the project of an independent Ireland. The lives of Robert Lundy, William Steel Dickson and Billy Lundy encapsulate many themes in the Ulster past. In telling their stories, Derek Lundy lays bare the harsh and murderous mythologies of Northern Ireland and gives us a revision of its history that seems particularly relevant in today’s world. Excerpt from The Bloody Red Hand: The other thing I remember is the look the young man gave me, after he had taken the cash, put his pistol away and was standing with his hands in his jacket pockets. It wasn’t the expression of someone who was thinking of shooting me too; I never had that feeling. But the way he looked at me was so familiar – wary and calculating. Many people in Belfast had stared in the same way since I’d arrived for a visit. For a long time, I couldn’t understand what it meant. Eventually, I knew. They were trying to decide “what foot I kicked with” – what religion I was. There were supposed ways to tell, subtle indicators. Was I someone they should fear? Or was I one of them? That was what the armed robber was doing, too. He had just shot a man who knew him by his first name. But he was looking at me, the stranger, and trying to figure out whether I was a Prod or a Taig.

In this remarkable book, Belfast-born Derek Lundy uses the lives of three of his ancestors as a prism through which to examine what memory and the selective plundering of history has made of the truth in Northern Ireland. In Ulster the name 'Lundy' is synonymous with 'traitor'. Robert Lundy was the Protestant governor of Londonderry in 1688, just before it came under siege by the Catholic Irish army of James II. Robert Lundy ordered the city's capitulation. Crying 'No Surrender', hardline Protestants prevented it and drove him away in disgrace. William Steel Dickson's legacy is a little different. A Presbyterian minister born in the mid-eighteenth century, he preached with famous eloquence in favour of using whatever means necessary to resist the tyranny of the English. Finally there is 'Billy' Lundy, born in 1890, the embodiment of what the Ulster Protestants had become by the beginning of World War I - a tribe united in their hostility to Catholics and to the concept of a united Ireland. The lives of Robert Lundy, William Steel Dickson and Billy Lundy encapsulate many themes in the Ulster past. In telling their stories, Derek Lundy lays bare the harsh and murderous mythologies of Northern Ireland and gives us a revision of its history that seems particularly relevant in today's world.

A thrilling story of an island torn in half by ancient influences and outside influences, where the Brothers of the Red Hand act to punish the informers and traitors who betray the aspirations of the Irish people in their struggle for liberty and independence. There is betrayal, arson, and violence committed by both the patriots and the English soldiers. Set on the Emerald Isle in the mid-1840¡_s during the Great Hunger when Irish families faced the potato famine, and where a million people starved to death in their villages and a million others fled overseas. Sufficient food was available in the country to feed the people, but absentee English landlords sent it to England. The story is told against a complex background of adventure and intrigue as the author paints a multicolored picture of unforgettable characters with varying beliefs and loyalties. You¡_ll meet lords and ladies, Republicans and English terrorists, priests and ministers¡ªboth kind and evil¡ªand plain country folk. Irish folklore is woven into the story. Equal importance to the plot of this fine novel is the beauty of the language. So lively is Dillon¡_s style that you can almost smell the fragrant peat fires and taste the porter and poteen. Mr. Dillon has the Irish gift of ¡°passing the time of day¡± in a delightful way.

˜England, 1193. Guy of Gisburne, knight and agent to Prince John, is all that stands between England and anarchy, fighting a shadow battle to protect the kingdom from those who would destroy it. Returning to England after foiling a plot to destroy Jerusalem, Guy of Gisburne is arrested and hauled to the Tower of London; John, England?s regent in the absence of its monstrous King, needs his knight once more. A killer has broken into the Prince?s most secure castle in the north and left a message, drawn on the skin of one of his victims: dies irae venit ? ?Judgement Day is coming? ? signed with a bloody handprint. Is the threat genuine? Who, or what, is the Red Hand? Someone is killing John?s most loyal supporters, and the obvious culprit ? the most dangerous man in the Kingdom, Hood himself ? has an alibi even Guy can?t deny.

The unpublished, unfinished and unmissable writings of the unforgettable Peter Temple

This work explains the origins of the familiar and the unfamiliar in everyday speech and literature, including the colloquial and the proverbial. It embraces archaeology, history, religion, the arts, science, mythology and characters from fiction.

Bloody Hand Matt Braun He found a people who needed his courage... Born a slave, Jim Beckwirth forged his own path to freedom as a mountain man. But when a wealthy trading company owner offered to pay him to live among the Crow Indians, Beckwirth accepted the deal—and discovered another way of life that changed him forever. He fought a battle that had to be won... Here in the Wind River Mountains, amidst blood feuds and blood brothers, he became Bloody Hand, a man sworn to take a hundred scalps—and destined to become the People's greatest warrior—in a life-or-death struggle that shaped the fate of a nation.

Zhou Jiwang looked at the old man in front of him. He was in a daze. He was a young man in his twenties. Although he was younger than the old man in front of him, he didn't know how old he was, but he was called by the other side. He was still not used to it. He wanted to answer the old man's question, opened his mouth, and his throat stung. He couldn't say a word. He wanted to struggle to sit up, but he couldn't use any strength. He simply couldn't feel his body, only