by Simon Bourke
My editor, Elaine Kennedy, for opening my eyes and curtailing my excesses. Eddy Flynn, for his web-design skills and technological know-how. John Clancy, for telling it straight and providing invaluable feedback. Bill O’Meara, for his unexpected, but no less welcome, bouts of positivity. Derek Butler, for his inspirational words and encouragement. Cian Reinhardt, for taking time out of his busy schedule to take pictures of a reluctant, stroppy subject. And Robert Power, for his sage advice and rampant enthusiasm.
I would also like to thank each and every person who took even the slightest bit of interest during the lengthy, protracted process of writing this book.
About the author
Having spent the majority of his teens and twenties wondering just what would become of him, Simon chanced upon a hitherto unrealised ability to write. This ability, limited as it was, compelled him to enrol as a mature student of Journalism at the University of Limerick. His dreams of super-stardom were almost immediately curtailed by a punishing, unexplained illness which took away three years of his life but perversely, enabled him to write the book you’ve just read. Those were dark, depressing years but in spite of the toll they took on him, Simon understands were it not for that illness he would never have found the wherewithal to pen this, his first, novel. He has since returned to his studies and couples them with a weekly column for local paper, the Limerick Post. If you were to ask to tell you which career he’d prefer; journalist or novelist, he would smirk to himself and say that it’s impossible to make it as a novelist these days. He would then smirk some more and say that journalism is a dying industry. For all his smirks and eternal pessimism, he is happiest when writing and is currently working on his second book.
Website: www.simonbourke.net
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Bionic_Simba
©2017, Simon Bourke, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Contents
And the birds kept on singing
Manchester, 1984
1
2
3
1986
Seán
1
2
3
4
5
6
JONATHAN
1
2
3
1991
Seán
1.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Jonathan
1
2
3
4
5
6
1999
Seán
1.
2.
3
4.
5.
6
7.
8
9
10.
11.
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Jonathan
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
2003
Seán
1.
2.
3.
4.
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Jonathan
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Acknowledgements
About the author