Dublin, 1830.When his da gets injured, Hugh 'Scholar' O'Dare has to leave school to work as a chimney sweeper. The job is scary and dangerous, but it brings him into the home of the most famous man in Ireland, Daniel O'Connell, who takes an interest in the young boy's life.Then Scholar comes across another young sweeper whose circumstances are much worse than his own, and a shocking secret comes to light. Can he help this new friend escape a life of darkness?

In the spring of 1945 a mother dies, leaving four children to fend for themselves in a Dublin tenement.Nancy, the oldest, lives in dread of the family being split up. The power to send them all to industrial schools such as Artane and Goldenbridge lies with the 'Cruelty Men'. Their spy, the Pig Farmer, lives next door and holds a long term grudge against the family.Thankfully Nancy has loyal friends in Summerhill and the Diamond, among them Lilly, her brother Charlie Weaver...

It's spring 1919. Ireland's War of Independence has just begun. In a cottage in County Westmeath, thirteen-year-old Colm Conneely longs to join the local Volunteers, the 'Rainbow Chasers' who dream of an independent Ireland. Caught up in republican fever, he smuggles guns, stands up to the RIC during a house raid and raises the tricolour on a lake island.But Colm is also chasing another rainbow — he dreams of a life in America working as a fiddle player and involved in the republic...