About Irishtown by Douglas Mulkerns:
From the scenic hills of Dalkey to the burned-out crumbling inner city streets of 90s Dublin, the story follows the paths of four people struggling with different stages of heroin addiction. Set against the backdrop of Ireland’s struggle to rise above poverty and dark nationalism, the futures of each character depend very much on where they came from. As addiction leads each further down the road to crime and prison, Bren and Peter born into hardship navigate the world of beatings and prison with ease, murder less so. For Kevin and Niamh, the same world becomes increasingly unfamiliar and terrifying. As vendetta beatings escalate, the four characters become locked in a downward spiral of violence. Following one murder too many Kevin realizes he has put himself in a position of no escape, unless by a miracle there are still some good people left in the world.
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Author Bio:
Douglas Mulkerns was born in Dublin in 1964. He received his education from the Christian Brothers in Stillorgan, and following graduation in 1980 he moved to Paris, then to London in 1981, before returning home in 1982.
As an enthusiastic, lifelong drug addict, Mulkerns has graduated from some of the finest treatment centers, detoxes, jails, and prisons in the world. In 1987, following introductory detox courses at the now-demolished Jervis Street Hospital, he received the prestigious Rutland award presented in South County Dublin. He attended the historic Mountjoy Prison in 94, but sadly never qualified for graduation. Not letting this discourage him, he moved to New York to further his career and over the years 94 and 95 Mulkerns attended the internationally famous Bellevue Methadone Maintenance Program, the Beth Israel Methadone Maintenance Program, the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, Bellevue Men’s Shelter, and the Lower East Side Service Center, to mention but a fraction of these fine institutions, before finally being accepted into the two-year MTAR Program in Su Casa on the Lower East Side of New York.
Sadly, after graduation from Su Casa his career nose-dived as he went on to a productive, hard-working life as a New Yorker and later a US Citizen. Despite one or two failed ventures into the great American opioid crisis that blossomed around him, he continued to spiral downwards into a crime- and drug-free family existence. Following the COVID-19 and general 2020 apocalypse he moved to Sweden where his family could breath and live again.