Hyacinth

At the turn of the twentieth century, Ireland was a maelstrom of political and sectoral conflict, and with the publication of his novel Hyacinth, the Church of Ireland clergyman James Owen Hannay (who wrote under the pen name George A. Birmingham) stepped right into the middle of the controversy. Focusing on the life story of a young Protestant boy who grows up surrounded by Catholics, the novel attempts to add a human dimension to the ongoing strife between the two religious traditions.