The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Roger Clark
Audiobook
14 hr
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

One sunlit evening, May 6, 1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland, were ambushed and stabbed to death while strolling through Phoenix Park in Dublin. The murders were funded by American supporters of Irish independence and carried out by the Invincibles, a militant faction of republicans. A new spirit of goodwill had been burgeoning between British Prime Minister William Gladstone and Ireland's leader Charles Stewart Parnell, with both men forging in secret a pact to achieve peace and independence in Ireland-with the newly appointed Cavendish, Gladstone's protege, to play an instrumental role. The impact of the Phoenix Park murders was so cataclysmic that it destroyed the pact, almost brought down the government, and set in motion repercussions that would last long into the twentieth century. From the adulterous affair that caused Parnell's downfall; to Queen Victoria's prurient obsession with the assassinations; and the investigation spearheaded by Superintendent John Mallon, also known as the "Irish Sherlock Holmes," culminating in the eventual betrayal and clandestine escape of leading Invincible James Carey and his murder on the high seas, The Irish Assassins brings us intimately into this fascinating story that shaped Irish politics and engulfed an Empire.

About the author

Julie Kavanagh is the author of Secret Muses; Nureyev: The Life, which was shortlisted for a Costa Book Award, the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award, and was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; and The Girl who Loved Camellias. Kavanagh has held positions as the London editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker.

Roger Clark is a professional actor and voice-over artist who lives in New York City. He has performed in over forty-five countries.

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