Welcome!
Hello and welcome to my website!
My name is Alan Monaghan and I am a novelist and writer living in Dublin, Ireland. I have published three novels set during one of the most turbulent periods in Irish history. The ten years from 1913 to 1923 saw the outbreak of the First World War, followed by the Irish War of Independence and then the Irish Civil War. The Soldier's Song trilogy takes the reader on a thrilling and highly readable journey through this tumultuous decade, following the fortunes of Stephen Ryan, a young Irish man who finds himself very much in the thick of the fray.
'Monaghan is an engaging writer - he won the 2002 Hennessy New Irish Writing award for the short story upon which The Soldier's Song is based - and this is a well paced and immensely readable novel.'
The Irish Times
'Unfussy but strong storytelling… Even if Alan Monaghan's debut novel takes in serious subjects - the First World War, the 1913 Lockout, political maneuvering by the Irish Citizen Army, the 1916 Rising - it remains accessible and compelling, with a strong emotional thrust... Based on this engaging, unsentimental debut, he'll deservingly find a wide readership.'
The Sunday Business Post
'A beautifully written, objective tale of one man's war...Devoid of rants against the High Command and armchair generals, and with the interwoven love story remaining understated, The Soldier's Song is a view of a changing world gone mad, and will stay with me for a long time.'