Trinity is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author Leon Uris

Leon Uris

Leon Marcus Uris was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.-Life:...

, published in 1976 by Doubleday.

Introduction

The book tells the story of the intertwining lives of the following families: the Larkins and O'Neills, Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 hill farmers from the fictional town of Ballyutogue in County Donegal

County Donegal

County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...

; the Macleods, Protestant shipyard workers from Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

; and the Hubbles, representatives of three centuries of Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...

 aristocracy.

It also tells the story of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 from the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s to the Easter Rising

Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

 of 1916 with specific emphasis on the Province of Ulster. The book describes a number of historical events, including the Gaelic revival

Gaelic Revival

The Gaelic revival was the late-nineteenth-century national revival of interest in the Irish language and Irish Gaelic culture...

 in the early 20th century, and the Curragh Mutiny

Curragh Incident

The Curragh Incident of 20 March 1914, also known as the Curragh Mutiny, occurred in the Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. The Curragh Camp was then the main base for the British Army in Ireland, which at the time formed part of the United Kingdom....

 in which a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 division's officer corps resigned en masse rather than obey an order to disarm gun-smuggling members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. In addition, this foreshadows the Partition of Ireland

Partition of Ireland

The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...

 and the Irish Civil War

Irish Civil War

The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....

 in 1922-23.

The book further portrays the British and Protestant elite's manipulation of religious and ethnic divides to further their own ends as well as deepen the animosity between Catholics and Protestants.

Plot

The story opens with the funeral of Kilty Larkin, father of Tomas and grandfather of Conor

Conor Larkin

Conor Larkin is a fictional character and the chief protagonist in Leon Uris' novel, Trinity.-Early life:Conor was born in the fictional town of enter place here in County Donegal in 1873. He grew up there, working his family's farm land with his father Tomas.Much to the disappointment of his...

. Amidst the ancient Irish Catholic mourning process, Conor has a vision of the town storyteller who tells Conor of the history of the Fenian

Fenian

The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...

s, a rebel group from the early 19th century.

Sequel

The sequel, Redemption

Redemption (novel)

Redemption is a novel by author Leon Uris. It is a sequel to his epic 1976 book, Trinity.Set mainly in the first half of the twentieth century in the years leading to the Irish Easter Rising, it tells the stories of the Irish revolutionary Conor Larkin's family, his brothers Liam and Dary, and...

, completes many loose ends in the saga.