I’ll start with the headlines in The Irish News on 30th September, ten days after the launch.  If you wish, you can read it online by free subscription to the Irish News. 

(The article states it is available through Troubador Publishing, available in bookshops and from Amazon. However if you buy a hard copy from Amazon I will end up paying Amazon £1.24. But if you buy an ebook, I will get £3.56. See my blog of 29/7: A book in the hand)

Back to Sunday, 15th September, a few days before I head to Belfast. I get a voice message from my good friend and short story writer, P Kearney Byrne. She is due to travel from Co.Clare to Belfast to interview me as the main part of the launch. She thinks she’s coming down with something and wants to alert me in case I want to line up somebody else as Plan B. I don’t even have to think about it. I simply can’t imagine setting up a similar arrangement with anyone else and certainly not at a few days’ notice. Plan B is a solo gig. I text back ‘I’ll pray for a miraculous recovery but will start preparing for Plan B.’ In the event, she goes from bad to worse.

On Wednesday night I am in bed in Belfast, trying to decide on the final reading. I’d easily chosen the first two. As a big theme in the book is the Home Rule Crisis of 1912, I had wanted to find a suitable excerpt on this as the third. Phil had disagreed. She had signposted me instead to other passages. So, in the early hours of the morning, having tried out and rejected my possibilities for a final reading, I realise that Phil is right. There is too much detail to expect any audience to absorb in a six minute reading. I choose one of the scenarios she’d mentioned, switch off the light and hope for some sleep.

Conway Mill

On Thursday, I go to meet Pauline Kersten at Conway Mill. She runs the Community Education Centre on the second floor. I know that the building is cavernous simply from my acquaintance with the ground floor where the cafe is located. Directions are not my strong point. However, on second attempt, I find the bright and busy Community Education Centre where I locate Pauline and between us we quickly decide how to organise the available space for the morning’s launch. All I need is to ask for a sign or two to be put either side of the lift door in the morning.

On Friday morning, Mal is dropping me (and the 24 books I’ve sent over in advance) back to the Mill bright and early. As we head to the front door, I recognise the woman looking somewhat lost outside as a friend who also has arrived in plenty of time. We haven’t seen each other in years. A mutual hug helps us both feel we are in the right place. She is waiting for another friend. I realise I may not have as much time as I think before my audience is here.
On my way to the room two members of CEC staff ask if they could buy a copy of Belfast Song. One woman tells me that she wants the book for her mother who worked in this very mill.

Up in the room, I meet the sound technician who tells me he will stay throughout the launch. I breathe a sigh of relief. I do not have to worry about anything going wrong with the sound! He and I have barely finished sound checks when another two women appear. They turn out to be friends of my sister Nano. I direct them to the ground floor cafe. I begin to feel nervous. I decide to set up a table in the lounge area where tea, coffee and biscuits will be served after the formalities of the launch. This is where I will sign books. In the meantime, I have the books, my belongings, notes and a copy of Belfast Song behind me on the long cupboard in the room.

The space quickly begins to fill… I am swept along in greeting family, friends and strangers. I discover how those I don’t know have heard about the launch – through a mailing sent out by Anne Reid, from St. Dominic’s PPU, from a message in the diocesan mailing organised by my sister-in-law Siobhan, and from a mailing from CEC earlier in the week. I greet friends I haven’t seen in years, and family members I haven’t seen since at least a year back.

And then it’s time to start…

What can I say? I am in the flow and enjoying myself. The warmth and enthusiasm of the audience exceeds expectations. Questions and comments flow.

A queue forms immediately the applause ends. I never manage to get to the table in the cafe area. I only now appreciate how long it takes to sign and chat to people. Someone brings me a cup of tea. The 24 books are gone. People pay cash as they order books that I will send to them. I don’t even have a box for money. I’m stuffing notes in a compartment of my bag… And then Pauline appears at the door. It’s gone three o’clock already. Where did the time go? She smiles and disappears again. Eventually the remnants of the audience and I wend our way out of the building. I am stunned and totally exhausted. But what a launch!