When young Con disappears, the others must find him - and quickly. His father Hugh O'Neill, the great Ulster chieftain, is about to depart, forever. The Irish have lost at the Battle of Kinsale, and now there is nothing left for them in their own land. Hugh's son is in great danger - and he doesn't even know it! What would the English do to him if they caught him? Especially now as his father may be gathering another foreign army to threaten their own conquest of Ireland?

Can his cousin and friends, Fion, Sinead and James, find him? Will their hunt across wild landscapes, through dense woodlands and over high mountains, chased by English soldiers and adventurers, and occasionally guided by the mysterious `Haystacks', take them to the boy? Will they manage to get him to Lough Swilly in time for the escape boat to France? The Great Hugh O'Neill is waiting anxiously ...

Based on true facts from the 1600s.

This book has been graded for interest at 10+ years.

There are 256 pages in this book. This book was published 2013 by O'Brien Press Ltd .

Aubrey Flegg was born in Dublin. His early childhood was spent in County Sligo, Ireland. He went to school in Dublin and later in England. After a spell with a mountain rescue team in Scotland, he returned to Ireland to study geology at Trinity College. He then did geological research in Kenya, before joining the Geological Survey of Ireland in 1968. Aubrey recently took early retirement in order to concentrate on writing. His first book, Katie's War, is about the civil war period in Ireland; it was published in 1997. Katie's War has recently won the Peter Pan Award 2000 -- an award created by IBBY Sweden for a children's book, translated into Swedish, which gives information on another culture. Wings Over Delft, the first book in the Louise trilogy, won the Bisto Book of the Year overall award in 2004.