The Englishmen in Guests of the Nation
“‘I want you and noble to bring them out: you can tell them they’re being shifted again; that’ll be the quietest way.’ ‘Leave me out of that,’ says Noble suddenly. Jeremiah Donovan looked at him hard for a minute or two. “All right so,” he said peaceably. ‘You and Feeney collect a few tools from the shed and dig a hole by the far end of the bog’”. 5th paragraph on page 296 from Guests of the Nation by Frank O’Connor I think this passage shows a lot about the dynamic of the Irish soldiers throughout the story. The passage starts with Jeremiah Donovan explaining how he wants Noble and Bonaparte to start the process of taking the Englishmen to their death. Jeremiah clearly doesn’t seem to have much empathy for the Englishmen. Jeremiah’s orders are very blunt and he has no problem lying to them in a way that might give them false hope. It also seems a bit cruel that Jeremiah has Bonaparte and Noble play a role in the execution of the Englishmen. As we saw throughout the story Noble and Bon