An Irish Rebel on the American Frontier

[Diane Merkel]

I'm curious about this one. There is no mention of Mike Quinn being in the Army, yet he is said to have witnessed Wounded Knee. More fiction than fact?

The book takes us from Mike Quinn's teenage days as a textile worker and Fenian Irish national zealot in his homeland. through the reunion of all three Quinn brothers in Lawrence, MA as they sought a new life. Michael at one point was a soldier in the ill-fated and short-lived Irish invasion of Canada, meant to be a diversion in the post US Civil War era to distract and irritate the hated Brits. He became a frontier freighter, carrying telegraph poles and railroad ties to the frontier, through Nebraska City, NE, Cheyenne, WY, and Deadwood, SD. There was even a foray into cattle ranching in Cuba, and, finally, Rapid City. He fought Indians, but his personal experience, including the haunting memory of a boy's death as he watched during the Massacre at Wounded Knee, forever changed Quinn as he matured into a wealthy cattleman and landowner. He ultimately felt that the native Americans were having their land, if not their soul, taken from them--much like the Irish felt when he was a young boy at home in Kilkeeven Parish.

Book Review: www.joplinindependent.com/display_article.php/jkennedy1167768607