Category: The Twist
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The Twist #14
Don Blaney figured that he should share the sensational revelation that Freddie Black was a Special Branch agent with his friend George Hegarty (as the two men had been in regular contact since George’s arrest)but without betraying the man who had put himself at some professional risk to warn him. On neutral ground, Don met…
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The Twist #13: A Moral Dilemma
Let’s start with a dictionary’s definition of a moral dilemma: noun. A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two courses of action, either of which entails transgressing a moral principle. Don Blaney has many characteristics but naivety is not one of them. In his role as a youth worker in…
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The Twist #12
The trial was to stay in Cork and as with all criminal cases it began with an opening statement from the prosecution. When it was announced that Don would be facing a single charge of possession of ammunition the packed rows of media immediately began to thin: this was not the trial they had been…
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The Twist #11
When Don Blaney had recounted what was occurring to Joan Deitch, who had carried out the final edit of my debut novel, she was outraged. Joan is a demure and quietly-spoken Englishwoman who has also edited countless best-selling novels by the likes of Jackie Collins, Josephine Cox and the crime writer Martina Cole – to…
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The Twist #8
During the next three years Don heard little about the ammunition except for the one occasion when the sergeant who had arrested him turned up at his house one evening, a couple of days after his release from custody, to offer him a deal: tell him all that he knew about George Hegarty and the…
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The Twist #6
William O’Connor was a man in his seventies who had been disabled for thirty years by rheumatoid arthritis and had intermittently suffered bouts of poor mental health due to a terrible trauma he had experienced while only 17. I had met William some years before and he had told me that Don was more like…
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The Twist #5
On arrival at the Garda station, Don was told by the custody sergeant that he couldnotify a solicitor of his arrest, or one could be appointed if he wished. When Don gavethe name of the solicitor he wanted to be contacted the detectives standing at Don’sside started to growl menacingly that he was a man…
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Twist Article #4
It was around midday before Don Blaney returned home from his uncle’s house and itquickly became obvious that he had missed a lot of excitement while he had been away.Don’s next-door neighbour called to him and said that he had found two partially burnedNorthern Bank pound notes in his garden and rang the police. On…
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The Twist- Article 3
The Arrest In a work of fiction, particularly crime fiction, the story may include an event, a small, seemingly inconsequential event that leads to unforeseen consequences. And so it is with Don’s story but unfortunately this is no work of fiction and the consequences of this small action would prove to be catastrophic for him.…
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The Troubles Legacy Legislation
The Troubles Legacy legislation passed by the British Conservative government has been condemned by politicians of all shades in Ireland and yet goes mostly unremarked upon in Britain.
Ralph Robb 