Born in Ireland in the 1840s, John Connelly spent his boyhood in Australia before coming to the United States. He distinguished himself heroically on behalf of the Union during the Civil War, and later became an intelligence agent for Department Four, an information gathering unit of the State Department. When he was ready to retire in 1915, his country asked him to perform one more service...to go to Ireland to determine just what the Germans - then at war with Britain - were doing on the Emerald Isle. Obviously Germany was supporting the Irish Republican Brotherhood in their efforts to free their country from the United Kingdom, with the idea of pulling UK forces away from their war on The Continent . Connelly, of course, agreed, and quickly found himself in a rebellious mire of shootings, explosions, and romance.