The Rising of the Moon

The only novel written by American author Flynn Connolly, The Rising of the Moon is a dystopian science fiction narrative that imagines a future Ireland that has become a theocratic autocracy where women are completely oppressed. Published in 1993, the novel centers on the rise of a revolutionary movement of women who decide to overthrow the system under which they have suffered so much.

Although the novel had some mild success, its mixed to negative general reception most likely accounts for the author’s inability to have her sequels to the story published. Readers and critics push back against plot inconsistencies; point out that because Connolly had never actually been to Ireland, the book is rife with geographic mistakes and generally lacks a sense of place; and decry the overly blunt imposition of moral lessons on the reader. The Rising of the Moon was long-listed for the James Tiptree Jr. Award, “given to a work of science fiction or fantasy in one year which best explores and expands gender roles.” To this, famed science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin responded, “Women lead this Irish revolution, but I found them unconvincing both as women and as revolutionaries. Merely changing the hero’s gender does not undo the heroic fallacy; a long history of women’s collision with their oppressors can’t be credibly reversed by a few fits of righteous indignation.”

The novel’s title comes from a famous nineteenth-century Irish ballad that narrates the outbreak of the 1798 Irish Rebellion by United Irish rebels against the British Army. Generally used as a song of an uprising, it was written to inspire those about to participate in another rebellion (the Fenian Rebellion of 1867).



The novel is set in twentieth-first-century Ireland, where the Catholic Church has unified the country under its Taliban-style rule. The primary targets of the Church’s oppressive policies are women, who are now completely subjugated. While the Church was rising in power, history teacher Nuala Dennehy, left the country in self-imposed exile. However, fifteen years later, she returns to find that the situation is even worse than she feared.

Reentering Ireland, the system dominates, issuing Nuala a compulsory ID chip by which the totalitarian government can track her every movement, and assigning her to a neighborhood church where her attendance is mandatory. As she settles into her new life, she learns that abortion and contraception have been outlawed, that women are completely under the legal control of their fathers or husbands, that women are mostly denied access to education, and that religion is used to brainwash the population into accepting these new circumstances. In church, Nuala is horrified to hear the priest instruct women that they should strive to live up to the words a master tells his servants in Jesus’s Parable of the Talents, "well done thou good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:16-23). A woman’s place is to marry, make babies, and clean in obedience to her husband.

Horrified, Nuala contacts a group of women forming underground resistance movement for women who want to foment a revolution. Drawing inspiration from her knowledge of Irish history and mythology, which are rife with depictions of revolt, Nuala uses the legendary figure of Cathleen Ni Houlihan to inspire the women around her. Originally, this figure personified the need for young men to enlist to fight and die to free Ireland from British colonial rule. Now, Nuala shifts the genders within the story, recreating Cathleen Ni Houlihan as an old woman whose rejuvenation requires the “blood sacrifice of nationalist martyrs.”



Appearing on a guerrilla television show, Nuala exhorts others to join the cause, becoming one of the revolution’s new leaders and drawing the focused attention of the government. On the run from government forces, she hides out in a variety of safe houses and secret locations, always finding sympathetic would-be activists whom she can persuade to join the fight, and never encountering anyone who prefers the theocratic status quo. After a few narrow escapes, her luck runs out, and she is imprisoned and tortured. Nevertheless, Nuala’s spirit is never broken – instead, she finds a way to escape from her cell.

The book ends with news about Nuala’s struggle touching off similar movements worldwide, as global protests demanding justice and freedom start to shake the foundations of other countries as well.