Neglect in the North of Ireland
A book by me, coming to you on June 22nd
A chairde,
It’s been a while since I have posted here on An Camán Soluis. I haven’t abandoned the Substack, rather I’ve been working on what you might call a big kind of Substack, one that you can hold in your hand and read off a page rather than a screen: a book.
Neglect in the North of Ireland, my first book, will be released via Ebb on June 22nd, 2023 and it is available for pre-order right now from Ebb’s site. The book is my analysis of the current situation in the north, starting with the economic and moving on down to the political and the cultural, concluding with the lack of revolutionary intent present anywhere in northern politics today. Its contents will be familiar to anyone who has the Substack, but I have fully fleshed out a totalising theory of what is wrong, where it is wrong, and have begun to broach the idea of how we should go about fixing that, something I cannot say I had ever really engaged with properly before this book.
The writing is of course influenced by my usual influences: Marx, Connolly, Mellows, Ó Cadhain, the Frankfurt School, Fisher, Mac Síomóin, but during the writing I was also delighted to get to grips with the works of people like Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh, Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin, and Bill Rolston and Robbie McVeigh. Bobby Sands, of course, and his mantra of an Ireland fully independent physically, economically, and culturally, remains the the north star.
Once the book is published, I plan to return to An Camán Soluis and already have ideas for doing so. These ideas mostly require reading, something which has had to take a back seat to my own writing for a while and something that I look forward to indulging in again. It has been heartening to receive the odd email during this period of inactivity telling me that someone has subscribed, so to everyone receiving this, I want to say thank you. Hopefully you buy my book because consider this: the more royalties I receive, the closer I get to quitting my job and devoting myself full time to this reading and writing carry-on. Now, who could say no to that?
Beir bua,
Odrán de Bhaldraithe