Kieran Fitzpatrick is from County Donegal, the most northern county in the Republic of Ireland and the county with the longest border with Northern Ireland.  Kieran’s major flaw is his obsessive devotion to both the cause of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and his friend Ian Murphy.

County Donegal has the reputation for being fiercely independent and boasts the greatest number of Gaelic speakers of any county in the Republic of Ireland.  Kieran is one of the founding members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and a member of their ruling Council.

Kieran recruits Ian to join the PIRA following the death of Ian’s best friend, Timolty Doyle, during a raid in Belfast.  Kieran convinces Ian to use his skills as a writer to write propaganda for the Cause.  In 1977 Kieran recognizes that the PIRA recruits are not disciplined and are disorganized.  Kieran convinces Ian to write a training manual for PIRA volunteers.  Ian writes the manual that became known as the Green Book.  The tide turns for the PIRA with disciplined volunteers and the friendship between Ian and Kieran is impregnable.

Kieran’s devotion to The Troubles and Ian clash in the last chapter of Murphy’s Troubles and he’s forced to make a choice between his devotion to the PIRA and his devotion to his friend, Ian Murphy.  Kieran has the choice to betray the Cause or to betray friendship.  Whatever decision Kieran makes he will pay a personal price.

Caitlin is Ian Murphy’s younger sister.  Ian is ten years old when she is born and at that age has no interest in having a sibling – especially a girl.  Caitlin looks up to her older brother but finds him aloof and a bit of a mystery.  By the time Caitlin is eight her brother is off to Dublin to attend Trinity College.

The relationship with Ian begins when Caitlin is 18 and engaged to be married.  Caitlin wants Ian to be a brother to her finance, Brian Lourigan, because she believes Ian has always wanted a brother rather than a sister.  One of Caitlin’s flaws is that she is always trying to fix things that don’t need fixing.

Ian completely rejects Caitlin’s idea that Brian Lourigan can be his brother.  The two men, on the surface, have nothing in common.  When they meet Brian is 20 years old and a mason by trade.  Ian is 28 years old, a graduate of Trinity College, an author and lecturer at University College Cork.  However, the two men are unaware they have two things in common.  First, they both have secrets and second their secret is that they are volunteers in the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Caitlin’s major flaw is that she is an idealist.  After Brian Lourigan is killed in a botched IRA bombing she moves to Belfast with their one year old daughter (named Brianna for her father) to work with Sinn Fein to bring peace to Northern Ireland.  Her move causes major heartache for her mother.  Her father refuses to visit her in Belfast because as a young man was a volunteer with the IRA and believes violence is the only way to reunite Ireland.  Caitlin’s idealism is the cause of her own family dysfunction.

Brianna is injured by a Molotov cocktail while playing in a Peace Zone in Belfast causing Caitlin’s idealism to be shattered forever.

      

I prefer flaxed characters in literature, plays, and television drama.  In literature we tend to remember the flawed characters.  Take for example the famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes.  His flaws and his strengths are often the same.  He is capable of intense focus but it is obsessive and results in him excluding anything but the case he is working on.  Having the ability to focus in life is certainly an attribute.  However, taken to extreme, as Holms it becomes a flaw because he loses the ability to interact with others.

A flaw can take many forms.  A flaw can be an imperfection, a limitation, in the extreme a phobia, a personality defect, an addiction, hubris, insecurity, or a mental health problem such as depression.  I’m sure readers can add to this list.

Flaws can be divided into three categories:  minor, major and tragic.  A minor flaw is one that makes the character unique and memorable.  A minor flaw might be a noticeable limp from having one leg shorter than another.  A major flaw can be either positive or negative.  For example having rigid beliefs could be positive or negative based on how it drives the characters’ actions.  A tragic flaw is one that causes the character’s own downfall, the tragic hero such as Hamlet. 

Murphy’s Troubles has four primary characters:  Ian Padraic Murphy – the protagonist; Kieran Fitzpatrick, Ian’s friend and member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army Council; Caitlin Murphy (Lourigan), Ian’s sister who is 10 years younger than her brother; and, Eileen Donohue.

Each of these characters has one primary flaw and it is the flaw that drives their behavior and also provides motivation for their actions. I will blog about the flaws of each character in the next few weeks.

As with any relationship my relationship with my former publisher, Mischievous Muse Press was a learning experience for me.  Soon after the contract was signed suggestions for improving my manuscript were made.  One of the owners edited the first three chapters and instructed me to use her edits as a guide to re-writing the novel.  I followed her suggestions; however, my learning style requires constant exchange and a lot of questions. 

My re-write based on the suggestions of the first three chapters was only moderately successful and represented some growth and improvement in writing but I admit, not a great deal.  After reading the first re-write another owner suggested I purchase and study the book Word Painting – A Guide to Writing More Descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan. The instructions I was given for the next re-write was:  Show me Ireland!  I purchased the book and decided to read it carefully before embarking on the second re-write.  The chapters include:  What is Description?; The Eye of the Beholder; From Eye to Word; The Nose and Mouth and Hand and Ear of the Beholder; Figuratively Speaking; Bringing Characters to Life Through Description; The Eye of the Teller: How Point of View Affects Description;  Descriptions of Setting;  How Description Shapes the Narrative Line and finally The Big Picture. 

I took weeks studying McClanahan’s book.  My habit is to extensively underline both to help me to remember and to look up and find key passages months later.

McClanahan’s book has had a profound influence on my writing.  I must admit when I worked on the second re-write I realized my plot took place in a vacuum.  I hadn’t described characters by their appearance or mannerisms or what they ate and drank.  I had also omitted all but the most scarce detail on physical setting. It was a different manuscript when I was finished. 

All of the reviews I’ve received and comments from readers and book clubs extol the sense of actually being in Ireland when they read Murphy’s Troubles.  I’ve been complimented for capturing what it’s like to be in Ireland both from the characters and the landscape.