Ructions in Rural Ulster: Danny Dowdells, Desperate Deeds and the God of Fire

This is the author's second book about its hero and is a prequel to Danny Dowdells: Angel Jo and the Brackish People.
Welcome to the world of our gifted and imaginative young hero, Daniel Malachy Dowdells. We are in Ireland in the pleasant townland of Ballybracken in Mid-Ulster in the 1950s where Danny’s triumphs and disasters will by turn amuse us, amaze us, alarm us, even terrify us. In many unlikely ventures, Danny runs into several unsought ‘difficulties’ with, for example, a grand Monsignor of the Catholic Church, the Orange Order, the local evangelical preachers, a ferocious Mother Superior and a calculating nun who has ‘suspect’ heavenly visions adding to Ballybracken’s already religious minefield. Disaster strikes when Robbie - Danny’s mother’s partner and Danny’ great hero – is shot by the IRA. With Danny’s mother beyond grief and destitute, Danny decides to run away to get money for the family but on his travels he is set upon by a gang and loses his memory.When he recoveries, he meets the beguiling dangerous Aodh, a young man who will take over his life as we look on with increasing dread as to what will be Danny’s fate with the ‘God of Fire.’

The beautiful and mysterious ‘Meeting of the Waters’ which plays such a big part in Danny Dowdells’s story.

“Danny came round with a start, sat up andfixed his gaze on the thick ever-changing cloud of insects hovering over the rivers in sporadic beautiful shafts of sunlight. He could hear the music again.The angel’s visit had done him as little good as it usually did though at least it was reassuring to know that the world mightn’t be wiped out unless we did it ourselves, and surely the smart people in charge on earth would never allow that, would they? As Danny bathed his feet in the meeting waters, his world at that moment seemed such a beautiful place it would surely be a pity if it was destroyed.”

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