A MEMOIR OF GROWING UP IN DERRY

Kevin Magee
Sep 3, 2018 · 1 min read

Tony Doherty’s follow up to “This Man’s Wee Boy” takes up immediately after his father’s murder on Bloody Sunday and the adaptation to life without him and to a more turbulent time in Ireland. The contrast between the normal facts of life growing up anywhere and Lord Widgery’s tribunal and the escalation of violence on the streets of Derry in the 1970s is treated with a great nostalgic humour you could only really get in Ireland.

Family holidays to Butlin’s and Buncrana, catching youth workers having sex, being caught up in an explosion, the moving from one area to another, first kisses, The Shanty Hop and a riot, The Carnhill Disco and the Undertones….the staples of a working class Irish childhood give way to the reality of a war.

From joining the Fianna, to the first arrest under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, to joining the I.R.A. to the eventual ten year prison sentence. Doherty’s book ebbs and flows easily from innocence to anger with the innocence and humour of youth that places the reader by his side too.

Again there is a “Derry Dictionary” at the back and a great soundtrack including Bowie, The Bay City Rollers, E.L.O., Mud and Shawaddywaddy. A must read and a reminder never to forget where you come from.

Kevin Magee

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Contributor to Derry News, Culture Hub and Dutch Kills. Will not kill again…