Daughter of Lir by Diana Norman - Reading Ireland Month 2024

Title: Daughter of Lir
Author: Diana Norman
Publication: Headline Books, paperback, 1988
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 12th century Ireland

Description: Taken from Ireland and abandoned at a French convent in the Loire Valley at 6, Finola is renamed Sister Boniface and brought up by the nuns, then at 18 is chosen to be Abbess of Kildare in Ireland. Her focus on her new Abbey and not the warring factions around it is disastrous and she makes a serious enemy, Dermot of Leinster. Too clever to kill a nun, he has her raped and thus made powerless. Somehow, she finds her way to Lough Mask where she was born and there she begins to plot her revenge. This requires gaining political knowledge not only of Ireland but also of Henry II and his spies, one of whom is the man who saved her life. While at first Finola merely wants revenge on Dermot, she becomes more concerned about the threat of Norman invasion of Ireland.

My Impression: There is no doubt that one of the signs of a great historical novel is for the reader to feel transported to another world. In Daughter of Lir, Norman succeeds in capturing the pageantry and brutality of the 12th century in a way that is frighteningly immediate – it is painful but convincing and I couldn’t stop reading. Norman reminds me of Dorothy Dunnett in her ability to depict violence and political machinations and humor at the same time. Finola is prepared by upbringing to manage a convent but she is not equipped to cope with the political realities and fatally offends upon her arrival in Ireland, leading to the attack that kills 170 and ends in her being raped by a mercenary.

Rejected by the Church, sick and bitter, her recovery is slow but fueled by her desire for revenge, Finola somehow finds her own kin and begins to plan her revenge. Her biggest realization is understanding that without being able to write, she has been at the mercy of men who disapprove of and censor her; needless to say, they refuse to teach a woman how to write. Although she feels hard-hearted and has difficulty expressing kindness, she attracts a found family of misfits devoted to her and settles near Lough Mask, a lake in the Western region of Ireland (County Mayo), shrouded in mystery and beauty:

Once their summer lands had extended over most of Connemara, but now the encroachments of more modern, vigorous clans had confined the Partraige to thin stretches of fields on the east of the Lough and the mountains in the west which bore their name, and where they ran their herds of horses. Mainly they were lake dwellers, the people of upper Lough Mask, using its water as a thoroughfare and an inexhaustible larder, and its many island as pasture and refuge.

Finola could have returned to her convent in France but she no longer is interested in the contemplative life. Her new life begins at Lough Mask as she reclaims her Irish heritage.

Fontevraud

The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, where Finola was brought up, is located where the three regions of Poitou, Anjou and Touraine meet, and is one of the largest surviving monastic cities from the Middle Ages. From its beginning, it was under royal patronage and Eleanor of Aquitaine was its patron and returned here after the death of her husband. Henry II, Eleanor, and their son, Richard the Lionheart, are all buried there. It is located near Saumur, home of the Dukes of Anjou and the French cavalry academy (which I remember from Came a Cavalier by Frances Parkinson Keyes). It sounds well worth visiting.

This is my sixth book for Marg's 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge but I also chose it for Reading Ireland Month with Cathy at 746Books. I had bought the book years ago because I so enjoyed Norman’s trilogy that begins with A Catch of Consequence but I suppose the description scared me from reading it until my friend Sara mentioned last week that it is a favorite.  I thank her for the recommendation!  I can understand why Sara rereads it every few years because Norman’s research and attention to detail is so vast I think it would be impossible to fully absorb the richness in a single read. However, it would benefit from a list of characters because I could not always remember who was on which side or keep track of those known by multiple names – but maybe Norman was making a point about shifting alliances!

Title: In Irish legend, the Children of Lir, three brothers and a sister – named Finola – were associated with the remote terrain of north County Mayo where they were destined to spend 300 years as swans under a spell by their evil stepmother. Finola warns her stepmother there will be retribution, which presumably inspired Norman when she was setting an important part of the book in Lough Mask. Ah, being an armchair traveler is better than nothing but there are certainly many places I would like to see – in the present. Don’t time travel me to medieval Ireland; it is much too violent for me!  Like Dunnett, Norman is not sentimental about the past.

Source: Personal copy. I was reminded of a childhood favorite, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver.  It is a National Book Award Finalist for children’s books in which Eleanor of Aquitaine is in heaven, waiting to learn whether or not Henry II of England, will be released from purgatory to join her; my second favorite of Konigsburg’s books.