The Dawning of the Day

A sweeping epic of interweaving tales following the lives, loves, trials and tribulations of three families, set against the backdrop of a turbulent decade in Irish history and one of great upheaval the world over.

Faithful attention to historical detail only adds to the interest and allure. The 1913 Lockout, the Great War, the Irish War of Independence and subsequent Civil War all come within the scope of this narrative. However, it is impact of these events on the human level – the individual and interpersonal tales – that provide for a rich seam of storytelling.

The Brennans (John, Mary and their children) are a working-class family living in Dublin’s inner city. In 1915, John enlists in the British Army. Sent to fight on the western front, he witnesses, experiences and endures the horrors of war first hand.

In rural County Kildare (not a million miles from Dublin but, what may well seem like a different world) Brian Byrne, a farm labourer with a young family, works at ‘the big house’, owned by Major O’Kelly, a landowner of the Ascendancy class and veteran of the Boer War.

In 1912, Bill Byrne (Brian’s brother) joins the Dublin Metropolitan Police and moves to the city. Events that are about to unfold will change everything.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A native of County Kildare, Liam Nevin lives in Shepperton, England with his wife Marlene, where he is now retired having worked for forty-one years at Heathrow Airport. He has two children and three grandchildren.

He writes on Irish and local history, in both fictional and non-fictional styles.

His first book, The Tobacco Fields of Meath (2010), came about as a result of research into his family history and the discovery of a wealth of information on tobacco growing left by his grandfather, John Nevin, in Randlestown, Navan, County Meath.

Brightening Over Dillon's (2016) combines the experiences of family and friends whom he grew up with, in a small village in Ireland of the 1960s. Of it, he says that it is an attempt to paint a picture of that time. "It is not intended as a wholly historical account of the period, or of any particular family of that time but I tried to include many actual events in Ireland, as they occurred."

Of The Dawning of the Day, Liam recalls that the genesis for this lies in a story that his mother used to relate to him as a young boy, of a soldier being fatally wounded in a field that they would pass on their Sunday walk. The incident occurred during Ireland’s civil war (1922-23), and it stoked an interest in him that he would often return to.