The Shamrock & the Rose by Regan Walker

Author:Regan Walker [Walker, Regan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: romance, love, short story, Historical, Regency, rose, englishwoman, shamrock, irishman, boroughs publishing group, lunchbox romance, regan walker
Amazon: B00BA2DUVS
Barnesnoble: B00BA2DUVS
Publisher: Boroughs PublishingGroup
Published: 2013-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

Author’s Note

The issue of emancipation for Catholics consumed England for many decades, beginning in the 18th century and continuing until the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. Prior to that, Catholics could not, among other things, attend Cambridge or Oxford, or hold public office or serve in Parliament. Ironically, the Prince Regent opposed Catholic Emancipation even though he married (illegally) Maria Fitzherbert, a twice-widowed Roman Catholic who was arguably the love of his life. He did not, however, veto the new law in 1829, pressed by the Whigs and opposed by the Tories.

Daniel O’Connell, who in the 1810s and 1820s was one of the leading barristers in Ireland, did indeed lead the campaign for emancipation and thus won the title “The Liberator.” He stood for election in 1828 in County Clare in Ireland, and though he was elected could not take a seat in the House of Commons until 1829. He was a moderate and a brilliant voice speaking for the Irish in a way that England could not ignore.

Though a Deist in his youth, after the infamous duel in 1815 where he killed John D’Esterre, a leading member of the Protestant Ascendancy who challenged him, O’Connell returned to his faith in 1816 and became a devout Catholic to the great joy of his wife. In 1817, he stated,

“My political creed is short and simple. It consists in believing that all men are entitled as of right and justice to religious and civil liberty…I have taken care to require it only on that principle which would emancipate the Catholics in Ireland, would protect the Protestants in France and Italy, and destroy the Inquisition, together with inquisitors, in Spain. Religion is debased and degraded by human interference; and surely the worship of the Deity cannot but be contaminated by the admixture of worldly ambition or human force.”

Daniel O’Connell was a tall, handsome man with a head of dark curls and shining blue eyes. I like to think my hero, the fictional Morgan O’Connell, had the same appearance. Daniel O’Connell did have a Protestant cousin and Protestant friends, so it’s possible, right? In his younger days before he married, when he was training in England, Daniel was quite the rake. Perhaps my fictional Morgan O’Connell was one as well until he met Rose Collingwood.

As for my heroine, while she is fictional, her family is not. Vice Admiral the Right Honourable Lord Collingwood (1st Baron Collingwood) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and a partner with Lord Nelson in several of England’s victories in the wars with Napoleon. The title lapsed when Lord Collingwood died without male heirs. He had two daughters, and but for a brief visit ten years after their birth never returned home. I like to think my fictional heroine was conceived when his ship was in Portsmouth for repairs where his wife joined him—theoretically, of course.

If you’ve read The Holly & The Thistle, which also takes place in 1818, but in December, you know about Lady Emily Picton, whose husband, Sir Thomas Picton, a real historic person, had a reputation as a cruel man.

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