March 2020
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Imagine- A working class hero
Subscribe free -Why wouldn’t you? Leave your email below. I remember as a kid, one particular afternoon playing two records over and over again. A working class hero by John Lennon and Ben by Michael Jackson. With Ben the attraction was the purity of the soaring vocals and of course the idea of loyalty despite Continue reading
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Give Ireland Back to The Irish-Fear and Loathing in Liverpool.
Paul McCartney’s first single with Wings in 1972 ‘Give Ireland Back to The Irish’ shortly after the Bloody Sunday shootings of innocent demonstrators in Derry in Northern Ireland, was an act of protest, and built on the musical legacy of Liverpool. https://jackbyrne.home.blog/2020/03/19/do-you-know-liverpool-lou/ Liverpool Lou written and performed by Dominic Behan is an expression of this Continue reading
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Do you know Liverpool Lou or Maggie May?
Written and performed by Dominic Behan Liverpool Lou is part of the connection between Ireland and Liverpool. That connection, cultural and physical is the sea. Our ancestors came in from the sea and went back out on it. My grandfather came in through Garston docks from Wicklow, and went down with his ship as a Continue reading
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Come Together – Covid19 Social Distancing and Social Solidarity?
John Lennon began the song for Timothy Leary a US liberal radical in an election against Ronald Reagan. The Reagan/Thatcher axis and neo-liberalism sought to minimise the state as a tool used to change society to help people, like building the NHS and education system etc to an instrument to maximise the conditions for profit. Continue reading
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The Irish ballad of John and Sean
‘Liverpool the capital of Ireland’ famous for its large Irish population and historic connections to the ‘Old Country’ is a popular and widely held image. In a lot of respects, this gives a false impression. Most people of Irish descent in Liverpool were defined by Catholicism, not Irish culture, history or politics. Irish identity was Continue reading
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A novel approach-Liverpool and Brexit
Looking for readers for a new book pre-publication – blurb below- click the link and leave a comment and your email on the blog- 20 will be accepted The morning after the Brexit vote 2016 and history professor Vinny’s world is turned upside down. What starts as a minor traffic accident grows in importance as Continue reading
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Day Tripper- Do you know the name of the shore?
Jam butties and lemonade, my mam, auntie Lilly, and a gang of kids down by the river. An experience many of us shared growing up like Paul in Speke. But what was the name of the Shore? Locals will know it – but a real teaser for those not from the area. If you don’t Continue reading
About Me
Thanks for visiting my page. The aim of this page is to let you know what I am working on and allow you to tell me what you think.
I was born and raised in Speke Liverpool, although my parents first lived ‘Under The Bridge’ in Garston, and all my family goes back to Wicklow in Ireland.
The Liverpool Mystery series will be four novels, three books; Under The Bridge, The Morning After, and Fire Next Time are finished. Under The Bridge will be published in Feb 2021 and I hope at least one more will follow later in the year. I am writing The Wicklow Boys now, and I hope to finish it next year.
My writing like my blog is about the lives of working people and how they relate to society as a whole.
My collection of short stories The One Road is available below click to see details.
Jack Byrne 