This looks a like a good read. The biography of a fascinating historical character, Erskine Childers:

Born in England but raised in Ireland, he fought for Britain in the First World War, before joining Sinn Fein and then the IRA. He was executed by the Irish Free State, but his son eventually became president of the Irish Republic. Chiefly known in Ireland for smuggling German guns into the country on the eve of the Great War, he is most famous in England as the author of the novel that, some say, anticipated - and may even have helped precipitate - that conflict.

For a more swashbuckling account of escape, The Guardian's book of the week review is of The Voyage of the Catalpa: A Perilous Journey and Six Irish Rebels' Escape to Freedom.