In 1976 I lived in Anchorage, Alaska and, as far as I knew, our family was pretty much like any other. My older brother defied authority, smoked pot, screwed girls, and generally drove my parents nuts. I thought he was the coolest person in the world.
But when he got caught breaking and entering to steal a case of beer - that was the last straw, and we both ended up being sent away to boarding school in Ireland.
Over the next seven years I lost everything that made me feel “normal”. A year in the Irish republic, four years of violence and hate in war-torn Northern Ireland, and a final two years in southern England all against a backdrop of living in Saudi Arabia and traveling the world during holidays left me ill-prepared for what I wanted most - to pick up where I left off after returning to the States, and I resented the whole time away for what it had done to me.
Decades later, though, I came to realize that there was far more to the story than I ever knew.
The Troubles is my journey through those years away and how I have finally come to terms with what happened and why.
Click on the book cover left for an excerpt.