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Boycott (novel)

First edition (publ. Brandon)
Boycott is a novel by Irish author Colin C. Murphy, published in 2012. The story is based on the real-life events in Ireland surrounding Captain Charles Boycott, which led to the word 'boycott' entering the English language.

Plot
Although the events surrounding Captain Charles Boycott that brought him to international attention occurred in 1879�80, the novel has parallel narratives alternating between this period and approximately thirty years earlier. The story centres on two brothers, Owen and Thomas Joyce, and begins when they are youths in 1848, at the height of The Great Famine. As the boys struggle to survive, their experiences (involving, among other things, coffin ships, workhouses and cannibalism), profoundly shape their attitudes in different ways towards landlordism and Irish freedom from British imperialism.

Thirty years later, Owen is a tenant on the Lough Mask Estate in County Mayo, which is run by land agent Charles Boycott. Boycott refuses to lower the rent and inspired by a famous speech by Charles Stewart Parnell. With the encouragement of the local parish priest Father John O'Malley, the tenants embark on a campaign of ostracism against Boycott and his family. When Boycott writes a letter to the London Times, an editorial it sparks creates widespread interest, attracting international news coverage.

While Owen is at the forefront of the passive resistance campaign of ostracism, his brother Thomas believes that only violence can achieve an end to landlordism and ultimately bring about Irish freedom. The brothers' conflict becomes in effect a reflection of the wider attitude in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century, which saw different factions advocating either violent or non-violent action to achieve their aims.

The novel culminates in the British government despatching a large military force to protect Boycott, which ultimately brings the brothers directly into conflict with each other and provokes disturbing revelations about how they'd survived the famine thirty years beforehand. The novel also employs the device of beginning each chapter with a number of actual contemporary news reports from the international media.

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