I’ve been a secret scribbler for most of my life. I lived in and around Belfast for thirty-five years before moving away. My wife and I were Romeo and Juliet over there, just another Irish couple where we live now, our Scottish born children unaware of the resonance of their surname. Back then we paid the rent playing rough drinking clubs full of beautiful souls, frustrated talents, discarded maniacs and salty dogs, changing our names to mask our perceived religious affiliations depending on where we were. My wife wore a rather expensive wig as a disguise and even with that, and the changed names, there were still some close calls. I documented what I saw, what I experienced and have known for a long time that I’m more storyteller than journalist. I have journalist friends and they bear a different kind of witness. I hide my truths in tall tales full of little people.
Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy was the original inspiration to attempt a long work of my own. I have three novels set mostly in Ireland.
