The Triumph Of O'Rourke — Brian Cleeve

Francis O'Rourke had a dream: to become rich and build a modern, prosperous Dublin on the rubble of its decaying slums. But other Irishmen had dreams, as well. To possess wealth, power, prestige. To live in a glistening, glass-and-aluminum city; or in a city restored to the Georgian splendor of its Gold Age; or just in a home free from rats.

Brian Cleeve has written a novel about these dreams, and about the men and women who build, destroy, scheme, argue, love, hate, and struggle to bring their conflicting visions to reality. It is a story of greed and sacrifice, of ambition and idealism, of politicians, and peasants, of social climbers and socialists - a sprawling, tumultuous tale of a nation trying to build for the future without destroying a proud past.