Between Two Flags: John Mitchel & Jenny Verner

Between Two Flags tells the gripping story of the turbulent yet enduring and loving marriage of John Mitchel and Jenny Verner. Their courtship was opposed by both families, and their elopement and marriage caused public consternation, but this remarkable couple went on to live through and influence the politics of mid-19th-century Ireland and the United States. Both were ardent supporters of physical force Republicanism and of the American Confederates. Their story spans the landscape - of Ulster, Europe, the Americas, and Van Diemen’s Land (the island of Tasmania) - on a journey through the Great Famine, the American Civil War, Fenianism, revolution, and deportation. Beset by tragedies within their family life, theirs was a world of paradox and adventure, counter-pointed by sacrifice to shared political ideals. Controversially, their enthusiastic support of the institution of slavery is a subject that the book meets head on in an evocation of the period and its context. Destined to be separated by death in different continents, John Mitchel’s and Jenny Verner’s heroic relationship is sympathetically documented and analyzed in this engaging and captivating story. *** As fascinating as it is edifying, ‘Between Two Flags’ is highly recommended. – Midwest Book Review, Wisconsin Bookwatch: November 2015, The Biography Shelf [Subject: Biography, Irish Studies, History, Politics]