Joseph O’Neill - Blood-Dark Track - A Family History

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

This Harper Press edition published 2009

First published in Great Britain by Granta Books in 2000

Copyright © Joseph O’Neill 2000

Joseph O’Neill asserts the moral right to be identified

as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007309252

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780007380770

Version: 2017-01-19

From the reviews of Blood-Dark Track :

‘This is a beautifully written and complicated book, in which difficult perceptions are expressed with forensic honesty’

Sunday Telegraph

‘Joseph O’Neill is a corporate lawyer, a novelist … a philosopher. The story he tells here yields much evidence of the quickness of mind, analytical skill, contemplative ability and sheer endurance that these three roles demand … He also writes beautifully … But the book’s greatest triumph is in the delicate, sympathetic peeling back of layer after layer of two families before and after they overlap’

Financial Times

‘ Blood-Dark Track is a superbly composed double-narrative … an extraordinary piece of detective work, removing the veil of silence that had been drawn across a history of the two branches of his family, and of the turbulent and often violent times in which O’Neill and Dakad lived’

Esquire

‘A gripping detective story, a thoughtful enquiry into nationalism, and a moving evocation of world war at the edges of its European theatre’

The Economist

‘An extraordinary book. The progress of [O’Neill’s] investigations are imbued with all the darkening excitement of a novel by le Carré or Greene’

TLS

‘His thoroughness and energy are phenomenal’

LRB

‘He uncovers fascinating parallels between the two men, illuminating the ways in which individual lives mesh with history’

Sunday Times

‘Joseph O’Neill writes beautifully. The fascination of this book lies in watching him come to terms with the violence in his family’s past’

Daily Mail

‘A most intriguing beast, this … An unusual and fascinating book’

Evening Herald

‘In its very unease, it is a remarkable work’

Irish Times

‘ Blood-Dark Track moves adroitly between Ireland and the Middle East, and interlaces O’Neill’s own quest to discover what his grandfathers were up to with fascinating and unfamiliar insights into the history of their times … the result is riveting’

Sunday Express

‘An exploration into his secretive family history … makes compulsive reading’

Tatler

‘A book of remarkable virtuosity and illumination … This wonderful account is a joy to read, not least for the chance it gives us to understand ourselves’

The Herald

‘ Blood-Dark Track is full of good things’

Independent

‘Unusual, expressive and absorbing. It is a rare triumph’

Irish Independent

To the memory of Joseph Dakad (1899–1964) and James O’Neill (1909–1973); to my sons; and to Sally .

Some day we shall get up before the dawn

And find our ancient hounds before the door,

And wide awake know that the hunt is on;

Stumbling upon the blood-dark track once more,

That stumbling to the kill beside the shore

– W. B. Yeats, ‘Hound Voice’

Cover

Title Page JOSEPH O’NEILL Blood-Dark Track A Family History

Copyright Copyright Copyright Praise Dedication Epigraph Maps Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Epilogue Keep Reading Acknowledgements About the Author Also by the Author About the Publisher Fourth Estate An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk This Harper Press edition published 2009 First published in Great Britain by Granta Books in 2000 Copyright © Joseph O’Neill 2000 Joseph O’Neill asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Source ISBN: 9780007309252 Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780007380770 Version: 2017-01-19

Praise

Dedication

Epigraph

Maps

Prologue

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Epilogue

Keep Reading

Acknowledgements