John Brady's Books

The Minogue stories are continually being optioned and deveoped for TV series. The final step of actually making a 'pilot' and episodes remains unfulfilled. The most frequent explanation for this is that the stories are too Irish (i.e. for UK prime time episodes)

As well as visits and stays in Ireland, there are several sources on the World Wide Web that can be helpful for details and fact checking. I also have two Gardai that I consult with also, and a phone conversation is often enough to render a matter clear and accurate. That said, I choose to place fictional events, plots and characters into the stories.

Research includes much walking, and much watching and listening, all over Ireland and beyond. The voices and the sights from early childhood seem to have stayed with me - somewhere. Several have even intensified. Hiberno-English has its own modes and means. Dialogue in the stories takes some getting used to for readers who did not grow up in Ireland.

There is a lot to be said for the adage that what one needs for stories is already by the time one has reached 10 years of age.

Irish/Gaelic names are still popular and often favoured in Ireland today. Names in the Minogue stories are often chosen for what they suggest and evoke from both Irish life and personal exp0erience of the author. For example:

Matt Minogue: Matt is the Christian name of a friend's father. His manner of speaking, his stories and his temperament inspired many of Minogue's. Many of Minogue's expressions also came to me through my mother, who was born and reared in Clare. Indeed, Minogue is a name that immediately says 'County Clare.' If you drive into Tulla, a village that is also a shrine for followers of the Clare hurling teams, you will see from quite a distance the name Minogue on a pub.

The name Minogue was chosen because it is derived from monk (manach). Other variants are Mannix, and Manning.

Kathleen: taken from the sentimental ballad 'I'll take you home again Kathleen.' and also in ironic tribute to Kathleen Mavourneen, a staple of the tear-stained warbling of Irish Americans in bygone times. Minogue had issues with 'home' and emigrating. Kathleen is from Dublin. She is plain-spoken, and doesn't hesitate to let culchies - people from outside the grand metropolis of Dublin - know that Dublin rules.

Iseult: Seldom used today, but is gaining some popularity as Irish people renew their interest in gaelic and Irish culture. Iseult comes from legends such as Tristan and Isolde.

Daithi: David - the young king of the Israelites.

Éamonn: The Minogue's first child died a crib death. Éamonn is pronounced Eh-munn, which is close enough to Amen. Minogue turned away from God after this crisis, so it was less an Amen than an unconscious determination not to let others die - thereby trying to 'rescue' others by catching their killers.

James Kilmartin: Cardinal Jaime Sin, several decades deceased now, was a protector and champion of the poor in his native Phillippines. In a homily on the feast day of St Martin's Day, he famously referred to the incomparably corrupt Ferdinand Marcos , when he spoke about the tradition of sacrificing a pig to celebrate the day. It was a veiled message of support for the overthrow of the dictator. Much of Kilmartin is made of bluster, and his determined leadership of the fabled Murder Squad sometimes cast him as a dictator to outsiders. The same Kilmartin has been humbled in recent stories, but any transformations of himself are not to be relied on.

Placenames in Ireland are very important parts of Irish life. The countryside was mapped in the early nineteenth century or 'translated' - as the name chosen by Brian Friel for his landmark play 'Translations - by anglicising older Gaelic names. Many of those same names were rendered back to Irish/Gaelic names after Ireland became independent. Those restored Irish names are not always original. In the Minogue stories, the placenames in the countryside are chosen for their evocative quality as much as for how they sound , for their assonance and prosody.

Just as books are meant to be read aloud, and there is great comfort and power in reciting the names of places in the countryside. Several are invented e.g. Gortaboher (translated. as 'The Field by the Road')

There are always more Minogue stories awaiting. The next concerns something that happens in the wreckage of the crises afflicting Ireland currently: a missing mobile phone, a man who has had enough of doing the right thing, and group of friends who have kept up their connections since their years together in university many years ago.

My wife's family is Austrian, and visits there continue to spur ideas. Austria is sometimes overlooked in Europe, but its history holds enormous interest and still wields huge influence today. There are several intriguing Irish / Austrian connections, and I will be making use of Salzburg's patron saint St Virgilius in an historical novel 'The Burning Tower.' Virgilius was Fergal, an Irish monk who died early in the 9th century CE.