Derry author Tony Doherty launches second book
by Marianne Flood
Irish playwright Frank McGuinness visited the city on Friday to launch a Derry author’s second autobiography.
Tony Doherty’s critically acclaimed debut ‘This Man's Wee Boy’ told the story of his childhood from 1967 to 1972, which was dominated by the death of his father Paddy who was shot and killed on Bloody Sunday.
The second book ‘The Dead Beside Us’, which takes its title from McGuinness’s play Carthaginians, describes Mr Doherty’s life from 1972 to 1981, taking him from a nine-year-old boy to an 18-year-old man.
At the end of the book Mr Doherty becomes a member of the IRA after two years in its youth wing, and is sentenced to four years imprisonment shortly afterwards.
“It was just nine years after my father died and there was straight line between Bloody Sunday and me going to prison,” he explained.
Mr Doherty says the book describes as the usual coming of age moments, but with the omnipresent back drop of The Troubles.
“There’s playing, drinking and going to dances but it is all written in the context of this parallel world going on.
“I loved the idea of writing about Shantallow. We moved to Gallaigh in 1974 but I would have hung about in Shantallow because that is where everything was happening.
“I’m probably the first writer to write anything about the estate and I hope all the Shantallow rockers, of which I was one, enjoy it.”
The book is dedicated to Mr Doherty’s childhood friend Edie O’Donnell who died in an accident in August 1979.
As Regional Co-ordinator of Healthy Living Centre Alliance Mr Doherty has a demanding day job and had to get up at 5.30am to pen his second book.
“I have peace in the house at that time and I find my brain kicks in quickly,” he explained.
“I would be writing four or five mornings a week and it amazing how consistent you become. You just get into a flow and you are able to return to your thoughts again the next morning.”
Mr Doherty has also been interested in writing, but never received any formal training.
“I always would have been capable in writing, or composition as it used to be called.
“I was a bit of a natural and I always would have been interested in literature and at different times in my life I would have done a lot of reading.
“I also did a lot of reading before I stated writing. People’ s lives and styles keep you grounded.
“When I began seriously talking about writing [an autobiography] people would say you’re talking about books, not one book.
“A trilogy was in my head from the beginning but it seemed very far ahead when I started writing.”
‘The Dead Beside Us’ is published by Mercier Press and is available in Eason’s and all good book shops and is also available to buy on Amazon.