Blacklion
BLACKLION
Baraka Books (September 2023)
246 pages
On CBC’s books to watch fall 2023
Shortlisted 2024 NB Book Award for Fiction
“Beirne achieves a certain Hemingway quality for his protagonist and associates…” - Ottawa Review of Books
Bloody Sunday (1972) catapulted the Irish “troubles” onto the world stage, exacerbating suspicion in US intelligence circles that the IRA might turn to the Soviets for guns. South Boston native Raymond Daly, just off a CIA stint in Laos, is sent to Ireland to re-establish a line running guns to the IRA. He deftly earns the trust of gunrunner Slowey, a tough money-making South Boston native, who introduces him to an IRA splinter group operating near Blacklion, a town bordering the North of Ireland.
Ray begins to manipulate Aoife, an Irish woman, in order to gain the trust of the community and embed himself in the organization. After the British Special Air Services raid a safehouse, Ray finds himself involved in executing an informant and his wife. But he also finds himself getting soft on some of those he was sent to infiltrate and becoming more like his cover, “an Irish American gunrunner with a romantic attachment to the Cause,” and less like an obedient CIA operative.
Events spiral, culminating in a shootout with the British army that compels Ray to make a Faustian decision on his future and that of Aoife and the others he was assigned to manipulate.
“Highly atmospheric… very cinematic…” - CBC The Next Chapter
“The strength of Beirne's writing lies… in a … portrayal of basic human emotions: trust/distrust, love/hate, violence/the longing for a normal life.”
“Luke Francis Beirne’s first novel Foxhunt was a beautifully written slow burn of a literary intrigue novel, and his second novel Blacklion is just as intensely readable.”
“Mr. Beirne’s writing is good, really good…I used to read a lot of Frederick Forsyth, and Blacklion very much recalls the type of story Mr. Forsyth would spin.”
“Mimicking the layered geopolitical context of Ireland in the 1970s, Beirne’s love story is irrevocably attached to a larger, overwhelmingly violent and desperate situation pervading Ireland... Raymond struggles with being caught up in wars that exert a personal price he finds more and more difficult to pay.”
“In Blacklion, Beirne is more interested in what drives politically motivated activists to such extremes of violence, while also exploring the even more complex morality of the undercover agent. The validity of Ray’s actions and mission is never overtly judged; the narrative simply presents what happens and wisely leaves the readers to form their own views.”
Interview - Honest Ulsterman
A written interview in The Honest Ulsterman by Luke’s father, Gerard Beirne!
author interview - Information morning cbc
An interview about Blacklion with Colleen Kitts-Goguen on CBC Information Morning. “You have a way of putting the reader right there… the book is highly atmospheric… both books are very cinematic..”
Author Interview - NB Book award Shortlist
An interview with Vanessa Vander Valk on CBC Shift about Blacklion being shortlisted for the NB Book Award fiction section.
About luke
Luke Francis Beirne was born in Ireland and currently lives in Saint John, New Brunswick.
His writing has appeared in outlets such as Honest Ulsterman, Hamilton Arts & Letters, and Counterpunch. He has also ghostwritten more than a dozen books. His first novel, Foxhunt, was released by Baraka in 2022. His second novel, Blacklion, was published in September 2023.