39 pages 1 hour read

Roddy Doyle

A Star Called Henry

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999

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Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4

Chapter 11 Summary

Henry wakes up after being captured and tortured by the British guards. He tells them that he was visiting his grandmother and refuses to reveal his real name. One Welsh soldier, Ned Kellet, identifies him as Henry Smart. When they tie Henry to the steel bar that runs across the top of a lorry, he realizes that he has been in Dublin Castle. They are taking him to Kilmainham Gaol and mention Stonebreaker’s Yard, where the Easter Rising rebels were executed.

At Kilmainham, he gets a message from Miss O’Shea, eats the griddle cake she has made him, and accepts a tram fare. Henry then escapes through an unlocked door. Miss O’Shea gets on the tram after a few stops. Her hair has been shorn by men from an overzealous faction of the IRA, run by Ivan, the cousin that Henry trained up. Ivan decided that Miss O’Shea’s adventures with her rifle were “getting in his way” (308). She informs Henry that it has been four months since he was captured. They get off the tram to go home.