OUR TROUBLES

"In the interests of transparency and objectivity I should tell the reader that I know Tony Canavan and have been an acquaintance of his for many years. On the other hand I don't know Tony well enough, nor indeed do I like him sufficiently, that I could be induced to lie on his behalf. Furthermore, I regret to say, that whilst he asked me to write this introductory piece, absolutely no money has been proffered or changed hands. Therefore I can, with a completely clear conscience, confirm that this foreword is entirely impartial and unprejudiced. Tony is a highly experienced and distinguished historian, researcher and editor. He has appeared on the excellent BBC Radio Ulster history series The Long and the Short of it - a highlight of his career. But can he write? Yes, thankfully. Our Troubles is a collection of charming, deceptively disarming, and moving stories set during the Northern Ireland Troubles which ran from the late 1960s and ended, formally, with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Our protagonist is called Finn, a Catholic from a nationalist background who lives in North Belfast. Our Troubles follows him from his first day at grammar school to his going to university. If you were to look at contemporary photographs of Tony and me you would undoubtedly come to the obvious conclusion that he is considerably older than me. Alas, this is not the case. He is my senior but only by a few years. We are near contemporaries. This means that the stories, the events, the people, and the places that appear in Our Troubles are completely familiar to me. I am from North Belfast, an area which experienced the worst of the conflict and suffered a disproportionate number of casualties. Each of Tony's stories felt entirely authentic to me. I know the streets he is talking about, I wore the uniform of St Malachy's College for seven years myself, and I remember the soldiers and the paramilitaries and the riots. (But just to reiterate - I am younger than him.) There have been countless books written about the Troubles by historians and fiction writers. What is often missed and what Tony's book perfectly brings to life, is the ordinary lives of people living through extraordinary times. The stories of people with no paramilitary or political connections are often overlooked. Tony tells those stories - the tales of the daily struggles, the absurdities, and the attempts by people to survive and live life as best they can. Through his wonderfully evocative stories, Tony has successfully brought to life that strange, awful, confusing, and fractious time in the history of Northern Ireland. Through the eyes of Finn, he captures the normal abnormalities of growing up in North Belfast. From the quirks of school uniforms, being stopped by the army, how streets became segregated, to the ever-present sectarianism and ever-looming violence, Our Troubles will entertain whilst simultaneously telling you why Northern Ireland has come to be the place it is in 2024. Tony's stories will make you smile, make you reminisce and, if you are younger in years, make you think 'what the feck were those people on back then?!!' Our Troubles is poignant, funny, and sad. It brought me back to my childhood, a time I look back on with fondness but to which I never want to return." - Tim McGarry, 2024; [Tim McGarry, comedian, actor, and writer, is a member of the comedy group The Hole in the Wall Gang, and writer of (and actor in) the satirical BBC television comedy series "Give My Head Peace".]