The Riddle of Father Hackett: A Life in Ireland and Australia by Brenda Niall

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Ex library copy with no external stickers. Stamp on half-title page has been covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Wear to book corners and edges. Tail right front cover corner is protected with book tape. Interior and binding are still very good. Signed by author.

In 1922, at the height of Ireland's civil war, Irish Jesuit William Hackett was transferred to Australia by his order. Assigned to a minor teaching post, this seemingly unremarkable newcomer caused no stir.

Yet Father Hackett had been close to the centre of the provisional Irish Republic's struggle for independence from Britain; part of the network of Irish nationalists who carried intelligence, ministered to republican troops, spoke on republican platforms, and helped to publicise British injustices and atrocities in Ireland. Now, he was effectively an exile.

A significant figure in the biography, Archbishop Daniel Mannix is seen for the first time in close-up, through Hackett's privileged insight into the private self of the famously aloof and powerful prelate. (back cover)