Huge turnout in Athy for John MacKenna book launch

AS someone who regularly puts pen to paper and tends to devour books of all varieties, I often come across work that makes me rather jealous – why can’t I write like that or get my point across in terms of such simple elegance? John MacKenna, who grew up in Castledermot, is one author in particular who inspires those feelings. 

As I read through his latest book, a beautifully-written memoir titled Father, Son and Brother Ghost, I often stop and re-read sentences or sections to fully appreciate the deftness of his pen and how he can conjure magic from the seemingly mundane.

A huge crowd descended on Athy Library on Thursday 11 July for the launch of said book and most – if not all – departed later that night clutching their own copy. A familiar local face in Dr John MacDougald was on-hand to officially launch the memoir. “I've never launched a boat or a book before, but I did remember that John's last book launch here was by the film star Gabriel Byrne, so of course I had to accept. After 24 books, any of us could be asked!” he told those gathered. “It is very much a crafted work, carefully pondered over and probably written and rewritten many, many times."

John, who read aloud from several passages, described it as an attempt to finish two conversations with late family members – one with his brother Jarlath and one that he “probably never even began” with his dad Jack. “What the book is, is an attempt to finish one conversation and to begin and end another conversation,” he said. “Really above all it's an act of love for those two men who shaped my life probably much more than I realised it at the time.” Father, Son & Brother Ghost is in bookshops in Naas, Kilcullen, Kildare and Newbridge alongside Behan’s in Castledermot and Winkle’s in Athy.