Watching the Door: Cheating Death in 1970s Belfast

(, Main)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Watching the Door is the memoir of an extraordinary young man who drifted into a war zone, made it home and, somehow, emerged unscathed. After Kevin Myers graduated from university in 1969, a chance job application landed him a position as a journalist in Belfast, reporting on the Troubles. There, he was absorbed quickly into the local community and became privy to the secrets of Protestant and Catholic paramilitaries alike. In his darkly funny account of life on the streets, Myers evokes with searing clarity a society on the brink of civil war. His memoir is a remarkable portrait of those divisions, from the dedicated violence of loyalist gangas and provos to the behaviour of paratroopers, squaddies, the local police and the wider population. Raw, candid and courageous, Watching the Door recalls the bloodiest time in Northern Ireland's recent past. It is a coming-of-age story like no other.

Author Bio

Kevin Myers, writer, broadcaster and novelist (Banks of Green Willow, 2001), is author of the best-selling Kevin Myers (2001), a gathering of his celebrated Irishman's Diary in The Irish Times, which he wrote for over twenty-five years. He is now an Irish Independent columnist.