The Interloper

Ireland in the aftermath of the controversial treaty with England that spawned the fearsome civil war of the 1920s is the background of a compelling novel by an acclaimed interpreter of Irish history ( Across the Bitter Sea ). The central characters are three individuals engaged in separate romantic visions of a liberated and united Ireland. Paul Dunne, a Dublin ``jackeen,'' is the obsessive commandant of a raggle-taggle rebel group; his lieutenant is Michael D'Arcy of the Irish ``big house'' class, and the woman who loves them is Pamela, upper-class Anglo-Irish, ``practising to be poor.'' Their unlikely alliance works despite class differences, a growing awareness of the futility of violence and the fact that one of them is father to Pamela's child. Told in flashback from 40 years on, the events record great and foolish losses, lives destroyed or warped by failure of love in its personal and national dimensions. Accurately portraying the Irish political ambiance of the period, the novel is imbued with understand ing of the conflicted Irish psyche. (Dec.)