19–15676
Sir Ulick Conolly was a high government official in Ireland whose phlegmatic temperament and easy-going worldly wisdom refused to take the unrest of the Irish Nationals seriously. His policy was not to suppress the rebels but to avert an explosion by letting them blow off steam freely. He did not even suppress his daughter Mona, one of the rebels, who talked in Gaelic and dressed like a Celtic queen; who engaged in conspiracies and led uprisings. But he managed to send her off into the country to her aunt’s, for safe keeping, as he thought. There she organizes the natives and proclaims the Irish republic in the village of Dunally. Her father’s timely interference saves the situation from becoming serious for the rebels and turns the fracas into something of a farce. In the end the girl is put to bed for recuperation under the watchful eye of her aunt.
“The humorous possibilities of the situation are used with delicacy and ingenuity. George A. Birmingham is at his best in this book.”
+ Ath p930 S 19 ’19 120w + Booklist 16:243 Ap ’20
“Never was irony so playful, so kindly an instrument as in Birmingham’s ‘Up, the rebels.’” M. E. Bailey
+ Bookm 51:207 Ap ’20 900w
“To read ‘Up, the rebels!’ is to see new light upon the Irish question. Both as a story and as a study of political and social conditions it is a tribute to the knowledge and skill of a leader among present-day clerical humorists.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p10 Ja 31 ’20 1200w
“Of course it is possible that some persons will not find this tale amusing; there are people who do not find the Gilbert and Sullivan operas amusing. But those who can enjoy wit and a shrewd, ironic treatment of certain human vanities and foibles will undoubtedly chuckle long and deeply over Mr G. A. Birmingham’s new tale.”