Multi-award-winning author and director Neil Jordan will be discussing his new novel, The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small, with distinguished historian Stella Tillyard.

Blending the drama of real events with Jordan’s inimitable storytelling ability, this work spotlights a long-forgotten chapter in Ireland’s history. The tale is related by Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s manservant Tony Small, a runaway slave who rescued Lord Edward after the Battle of Eutaw Springs during the American War of Independence. While the details of Lord Edward’s life are well-documented, very little is known of Tony Small, who, in this gripping narrative, examines the ironies of empire, captivity and freedom. Small, who knows too well the consequences of rebellion and resistance, reflects on Lord Edward’s journey from being a loyal servant of the British Empire to becoming a 1798 rebellion leader.

Neil Jordan is a film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. His first book, Night in Tunisia, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He won an Academy Award (Best Original Screenplay) for The Crying Game (1992.)

Stella Tillyard is a British novelist and historian. She is the author of Citizen Lord: Edward Fitzgerald 1763-1798, the widely-acclaimed biography of 18th century revolutionary Edward Fitzgerald.

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