Thursday, February 09, 2012

Shute in Ireland

When Nevil Shute was thirteen his father became Secretary to the Post Office in Ireland & moved to Dublin. Home for Easter in 1916 Nevil witnessed what, when writing in 1954 but extraordinarily to us now, he described as ‘that half forgotten rising.’

His father was fortunate in that he was not in the PO building when it was taken; Nevil, who had gone down there to walk his father home to lunch, witnessed the killing of 4 Lancers in Sackville Street. ‘These were the first men that I had seen killed.’

His father was soon afterwards recalled to London; the appointment of an Englishman had never been particularly popular & so discretion was the better part of valour – certainly nobody wanted another Phoenix Park.

It seems strange however that Nevil Shute makes no mention in his memoir of the contribution that both his parents made to the record with their own descriptions of this experience, published, of course, under the family name of Norway.

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