Charlie Mac

Charlie was born in East Belfast in 1873, at a time when Belfast was one of the leading industrialist cities in the British Empire. He was born at the start of a very long-running Irish Home Rule… Lue lisää Charlie was born in East Belfast in 1873, at a time when Belfast was one of the leading industrialist cities in the British Empire. He was born at the start of a very long-running Irish Home Rule Campaign and he died just short of 50 years later after that campaign died with the establishment of the border dividing Ireland. He married a country girl, Mary Jane from Annalong, County Down, who had a completely different upbringing. Brought up on a small holding on the lowest slopes of the Mourne Mountains, Mary Jane practised a different religion but they both thought that the love they felt for each other was more important than any differences in upbringing. Their families disagreed, their neighbours disagreed but they persevered, happily devoted to each other and devoted to their family. This story follows Charlie and Mary Jane from they met and set up home together until Charlie died, three days after being shot in his own home as he sat in his favourite armchair. It follows their lives together bringing up their six children, one son who died at eight months and the pain that premature death brought on them, one son who was seriously injured in World War 1 fighting with the Royal Irish Rifles in support of Home Rule, two sons who fought in the War of Independence with the Irish Volunteers while their section of Ireland was in the process of partition, one daughter who lost her sweetheart at the Somme and argued with her brothers over their choices at every stage and one daughter who played peacemaker at every stage. It follows the divisions that existed in Irish society at that time, the differences and the similarities of each opposing section and the effect on those living through it. Charlie and Mary Jane had a mixed marriage in a sectarian city, a city which was divided by religion and politics and eventually led to the division of a country. Theirs is not a story of rebellion and heroism, of freedom fighters or socialists; their story is not even a love story. This is just an ordinary tale of ordinary people trying to live their lives in extraordinary times.