William Connor

Coleraine: A Time Remembered William Connor

"My earliest memories of Ireland fade with each passing year. Yet sometimes, quite unexpectedly, the wonder and beauty of the Ireland I knew returns, stirring within me memories of an enchanted land. And with each encounter I experience a yearning to return, to find a secluded corner in the Anderson Park where I might quietly reflect on what it was like growing up in a town without violence, a town where people lived in relative peace and harmony with one another. While in the park I will remember my father and our leisurely Sunday afternoon walks together. Perhaps too, I will recall a different walk beyond the town and that warm summer evening in the grass, flushed with the excitement of first love. And like every other visit, I will experience the bittersweet memory of family and friends who have passed on and who were, for a time, such an important part of my life."Set in Northern Ireland in the late sixties and early seventies, the novel recalls a chapter in Ireland's troubled past. In the aftermath of a bombing in the quiet town of Ballycastle, Willie Thompson's family struggle to make sense out of what has happened, unaware that this tragic event foreshadows something even more terrible. A work of historical fiction, Coleraine - A Time Remembered, spans a generation, from a time when life was simple, straightforward and innocent, to a time of bloody conflict. It is the story of ordinary people, who find within themselves the strength to deal with the sudden and unexpected hand life has dealt them. It is in the end a people's journey, a story of love and devotion, of courage and tragedy, a story of faith and renewal in a beautiful and troubled land. The characters portrayed in this evocative, moving, and sometimes humourous story, afford the reader a rare glimpse into a way of life in Ireland that has all but disappeared.