Tuesday 24 July 2012

Some News...

Greetings all. It's been ages...two months, actually, since I last posted.  Life intervenes, as they say.  Any news? you ask.  Yes, in fact, there is.  Good news.  New Island will publish the follow up to Peeler, titled Irregulars, in February 2013.  I'm delighted, to say the least, and am confident New Island will do as fantastic a job publishing Irregulars as Mercier did with Peeler.

Irregulars is set during the Civil War in 1922 and deals with the search for the missing son of one of Monto's most powerful brothel owners while Free State and Republican death squads stalk the streets and back lanes of Dublin.  Sean O'Keefe, recently demobbed from the RIC is hired to find the boy amid the tumult and terror of a country at war with itself.   Much like Peeler, I used an actual crime--war crime?--I discovered in my research as the basis for Irregulars.  More on this anon...

Free State soldiers during Civil War raid house in Dublin
Anyone wanting to read up on the Civil War in Ireland should head over to The Irish Story website and take a gander at John Dorney's The Irish Civil War--A Brief Overview.  A short, brilliant, objective account of the conflict.  While there, have a read of some of the more comprehensive pieces on the Civil War as well.  Cheers!