jackbyrnewriter
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White Riot
Order White Riot The flags are flying, people are out on the streets, celebrating, fighting, protesting. The LFC supporter and Red Detective Charlie Connolly and his partner Amina move into an old house, a house with as much history as the city they live in. A weird statue is found in the cellar, and their… Continue reading
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Shanghai’d
The first time I heard of the expulsion of hundreds of Chinese Seamen from Liverpool following WW2, I knew I wanted to write about it. My novel Shanghai’d will be published by Northodox Press this week, it is a story that spans generations and continents as we follow families who to this day search for… Continue reading
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The Emigrant’s Story
Sculpture by Bruno Catalano Jack Byrne told David Hennessy about his Liverpool Mysteries series of books that look at Irish immigration to Liverpool including anti- Irish sentiment and sectarianism. We shouldn’t have a romantic idea of this city that could not have St Patrick’s parades between 70s and 1990s. Author Jack Byrne explores Liverpool’s unique… Continue reading
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‘Ballykissangel’ and ‘The Meetings’ deep in the Garden of Ireland
Drawn by William Henry Bartlett and engraved by J.C. Bentley. My dad who was from Wicklow, once told me in Liverpool that one of his favourite places in Ireland was ‘The Meeting of the Waters.’ Since my dad rarely spoke of Ireland, this was memorable, and certainly the phrase ‘meeting of the waters’ has its… Continue reading
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Part 2 To know or not to know, all you want for your birthday.
Ebrington Barracks, Derry City, Ireland. I first contacted Mountjoy Jail in Dublin in 2021. My dad who served time in Mountjoy Jail before he left Ireland, died in 2011, so ten years had passed between his death and my attempted resurrection of the facts of his life. The emails with Bernadette from irishprisons.ie ran… Continue reading
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English, Irish, and Scouse. Part 1
I have written three novels that deal directly with issues of class, nationality and identity, check the link at the bottom for more information. Look out for an update on the publication of my new novel ‘Shanghai’d’ the second in the Red Detective Trilogy. ‘Shanghai’d’ is a story that spans generations and continents as we… Continue reading
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Lost and found Irish faces from the past.
My mum and dad both lost their fathers when they were young, in the same year, 1944, not a good year for my grandfathers, sixteen years before my birth. I never got to meet either, and because photographs of working-class people were scarce at the time, I had never seen an image of either. Both… Continue reading
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‘The Irish was educated out of us’
Derry News By Garrett Hargan Published 9th Mar 2021, 19:06 BST Updated 9th Mar 2021, 21:49 BST The former accommodation block at Ebrington where Peter would have lived. Liverpudlian author Jack Byrne speaks candidly about identity and the death of his brother at Ebrington Barracks in Derry A Liverpudlian writer’s new novel explores issues of class,… Continue reading
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The Boys of Dungeon Lane Part 2
From ‘Across The Water’ published by Northodox Pressbook 2 of The Liverpool Mysteries 1974 and Paddy a character from Across The Water is panicking. He kept the door open with his foot to combat the smell of piss and held the coin above the slot. Once it dropped, there’d be no going back. Beep… beep…… 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.
