Customer Reviews

Patrick Pearse: The Triumph of Failure

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This 1977 biography has been reissued this year, the 90th anniversary of the Rising, in its original form. It is difficult to imagine a subject for a biography which would be more capable of stiring controversy. It is also difficult to imagine an author taking a more scholarly yet not altogether detached approach to their subject.

This biography manages to humanize a man who is often reduced, in character and deed,to a faceless political icon. The book is thorough in relating his work in the Gaelic League, his writings, his tenure as a schoolmaster, and the development of his political philosophy and activism.

Finally, the book allows the reader a firm basis with which to independently evaluate Pearse the man. This is not to say that the work is inchoate, for the very title itself, The Triumph of Failure, reveals a frame upon which the facts are sculpted. By this it is meant that the book intends to give fair treatment to a subject rather than obscure it by an ideological or euhemeristic approach.

The author notes in the 2006 preface that she has been constantly in controversy with those who use or condone the use of violence to accomplish political ends. The author does make judgments about Pearse with respect to his character and the Rising. She notes that Pearse was an exponent "...of a romantic morality which sanctined the the sacrafice of self and others in the pursuit of self-realization." It is clear that the Rising was in the author's eyes an undemocratic insurrection.

It is also clear that the author has attempted to produce a balanced and fair biography of Pearse the man which in some respects must be fairly described as sympathetic.


It is well worth the time and it is written in a clear and reader-friendly style.

I named my son after Padraic Pearse. He is a very inspirational figure to me. While I was pregnant with my son I read this book, and while it doesn't paint a "horrible" picture of him, it doesn't paint the "best" picture of him either. I knew this when I bought the book, so I took it all with a grain of salt. I feel like I do have a better understanding of his life and times, and who he was after reading the book, which is exactly what I wanted. I'm still looking to read more about this incredible man, so if anyone has suggestions let me know.