An ambitious and compelling first novel about a key moment in Irish history.
November 1917. With tensions in Ireland, war in Europe and revolution in Russia, Victor Lennon returns to his home village after a long exile. Radicalised by his experiences in the Dublin Lockout and Easter Rising, Victor is a hero to many but a danger to some.
Those closest to Victor know his true nature: his father, Pius, now drinking himself to death; his oldest friend, Charlie, wounded in the trenches; and the love of his life, Maggie, who he left behind years before. But soon Victor and the fearsome parish priest, Stanislaus Benedict, are on a collision course, with the very souls of the people caught between religion and socialism.
Told from the perspectives of these two equally strong-willed characters, After the Lockout is a first novel of tremendous ambition and achievement. At its heart is a conflict emblematic of a recurring faultline in Irish history, and of one more eternal and universal: between hope and experience; between ideals and human weakness.



![E. F. Benson: Lucia Victrix [1991]](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/9780140119633_{width}x.jpg?v=1761679358)
![Bella Frances: The Argentinian's Virgin Conquest (Claimed by a Billionaire, Book 1) [2017]](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/9780263924206_{width}x.jpg?v=1761679374)
![Sophia James: A Night Of Secret Surrender (Gentlemen of Honour, Book 1) [2018]](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/9780263932812_{width}x.jpg?v=1761679027)
![Yasmin Zaher: The Coin [2025]](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/9781804441893_{width}x.jpg?v=1761679045)
![Cat Schield: At Odds With The Heiress [2013]](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/9780263914559_{width}x.jpg?v=1761679369)