‘The small room was thick with dark blue uniforms. Bull’s wool the men called the material. Silver buttons. Black boots. Caps. Batons holstered in shiny black leather cylinders. Handcuffs hanging from coat hooks, the keys dangling on thick green ribbon. Dusty files on shelves. Shiny whistles on silver chains. Ink. Nibbed pens. Blotting paper. The big map of the district on the wall and beside it a rainfall chart. The men having broken their “at ease” positions, gathered into the middle of the room. His father seemed lost. Like a man with a herd of cattle he could no longer control.’ An insignificant Irish border village at the tail-end of the 1950s. The Sergeant is nervous. His men are lined up for inspection in the day room of the Garda station. Chief Superintendent ‘The Bully’ Barry is on the warpath and any slip-ups will reflect badly on the Sergeant. But what can he do with the men under his command – all of them forcibly transferred from other more important stations in more important towns? Each garda has his own story, his own problems. How can a man be expected to keep the peace with such a bunch of misfits and ne’er-do-wells? Observing them with fascination, all but invisible in his own quiet corner, sits the Sergeant’s son. On the cusp of manhood, he is drawn in by these rough and ready men, stuck in this place and time, when all he wants is a chance to leave and start his life anew. Life at home in the station’s married quarters is both comfort and knife-edged, ruled over by his by-the-book father and his gentle, emotional mother. Taking up where his acclaimed A Border Station left off, Married Quarters is a funny, beautifully observed and deeply personal novel. and marks the return of Shane Connaughton, one of Ireland’s most cherished writers.
For the son of the local sergeant in an isolated Garda station on the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, life is balanced between the brooding, taciturn presence of his father, whom he loves and fears in equal measure, and the reassurance of his warm and witty mother. His world is narrowed to lakes, woods, hayfields, country lanes and the amazing characters he encounters - tinkers, drinkers, publicans, policemen, farmers and the tantalising older sister of his Protestant friend. Amidst the drumlins and bogs, the boy's imagination roams free and unfettered. And at night, lulled by the rhythm of his mother's fleecy breathing, he finds solace. But change is coming. It's time to grow up...
A London house. A warren of rooms. The tenants refuse to budge. A comic novel about a tragic, and grotesque world presided over by an elderly showman with delusional plans about the future. A Captain Ahab in an attic flat caring for a younger woman, he tries to enlist the help of another tenant. This anarchic young man records his every move and the lives of those around him. Like England, the house is built on shifting foundations and shaky dreams.
By the author of My Left Foot, this is a picture of the Cavan/Monaghan/Fermanagh borderland during the filming of The Run of the Country, starring Albert Finney, before and after the IRA ceasefire of 31st August 1994. More than a conventional film diary, the book is a record of the politics, characters and language of a paradise or wilderness, lost or about to be regained. It is a sometimes comic and always loving look at the people and places of the author's birthplace, caught in the glare of a Hollywood shoot.
‘The small room was thick with dark blue uniforms. Bull’s wool the men called the material. Silver buttons. Black boots. Caps. Batons holstered in shiny black leather cylinders. Handcuffs hanging from coat hooks, the keys dangling on thick green ribbon. Dusty files on shelves. Shiny whistles on silver chains. Ink. Nibbed pens. Blotting paper. The big map of the district on the wall and beside it a rainfall chart. The men having broken their “at ease” positions, gathered into the middle of the room. His father seemed lost. Like a man with a herd of cattle he could no longer control.’ An insignificant Irish border village at the tail-end of the 1950s. The Sergeant is nervous. His men are lined up for inspection in the day room of the Garda station. Chief Superintendent ‘The Bully’ Barry is on the warpath and any slip-ups will reflect badly on the Sergeant. But what can he do with the men under his command – all of them forcibly transferred from other more important stations in more important towns? Each garda has his own story, his own problems. How can a man be expected to keep the peace with such a bunch of misfits and ne’er-do-wells? Observing them with fascination, all but invisible in his own quiet corner, sits the Sergeant’s son. On the cusp of manhood, he is drawn in by these rough and ready men, stuck in this place and time, when all he wants is a chance to leave and start his life anew. Life at home in the station’s married quarters is both comfort and knife-edged, ruled over by his by-the-book father and his gentle, emotional mother. Taking up where his acclaimed A Border Station left off, Married Quarters is a funny, beautifully observed and deeply personal novel. and marks the return of Shane Connaughton, one of Ireland’s most cherished writers.
Cake: the utterly distinctive memoirs of Shane Curran. In an age when sportsmen have perfected the art of saying nothing and suppressing any trace of personality, Shane 'Cake' Curran is a beacon of light: passionate, outspoken, utterly himself. As a rare two-code goalkeeper - for Roscommon in Gaelic football and for Athlone Town in soccer - he made his own rules, soloing mesmerisingly out of goal, inventing a new style of kicking tee, and famously poaching a penalty kick a teammate had lined up in the 1989 Connacht minor final. Brave, honest and hilarious, Cake tells the story of an Irish sportsman who has lived the dream in his own utterly distinctive way. 'He was gangbusters' Chris O'Dowd 'A terrific book' Paul Kimmage 'Richly entertaining' Irish Times 'A natural storyteller' Sunday Times
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