About This Book
In 1579, Queen Elizabeth's gift of a tower clock-the most sophisticated timepiece in the world-has arrived on the shores of medieval Ireland where it stands as an unwanted symbol of English rule over the Gaelic tribes. The Tower clock heralds the end of the simpler times and ushers in a new age, robbing the Gaels of their long-standing traditions. Convinced that the clock is a devilish thing, they demand it be banned from Irish turf. When the colonizers refuse, an unspoken war erupts between two civilizations, modern and primitive. In 1844, Clancy MacGowan, a clerk-turned-potato-farmer moves from the city to the backward glens of Donegal to save his forefathers' land and his age-old Gaelic heritage. There, in the midst of the Potato Famine, Clancy, his wife, and droves of purebred Gaels are forced to flee their blighted turfs to make way for enterprising landlords. Seeking any means of survival, the evicted stream into the city and into the clutches of the industrial age where the Tower clock makes a resounding toll. Misfits in a modern society, outcasts in their own country, they are doomed to end up in mass graves unless Clancy can find a way to save the Gaelic civilization by reclaiming their land and ridding them of their greatest enemy-the Curse of the Clock.
