James McKeon Honour the Holy Ground

Annotation

Honour the Holy Ground is the story of Steven Kennedy's struggle to survive the poverty of post-war Ireland. He is one of seven children yet he is determined to reach for the stars and succeed against all the odds. He is sent to live with his Aunt Agnes who has a hotel in Dublin. Agnes is a butch woman living with her partner, Peg. She has an adopted daughter, Molly. Steven falls in love with the mysterious Molly. Steven returns to Cork for his father's funeral and discovers that Molly is really his sister. On discovering this she commits suicide. His life changes when a US couple invite him to LA because he looks like a twin of their dead son. He loses his sexual innocence in a sauna and is seduced by an older woman. He marries the boss' daughter, Mary, and becomes a huge corporate success in the family advertising business. Mary is a film writer and Steven appears in one of her films. His young sister, a model, is kidnapped and raped in New York. While handing over the ransom he shoots both kidnappers dead with a gun borrowed from an IRA pub. He frequents the notorious West Manhattan and South Boston areas and gets involved with the Mafia and IRA gun-running. Steven gets caught up in two murders and a shoot-out in an IRA pub and begins to wonder what lies ahead.