Casually Red
tomorrow belongs to me
Haven't seen any mention of this here so I thought I'd post it up if there's a few interested . There's a biography of the late Gerry Conlon ( Birmingham 6 ) just come out last week . " In the name of the Son " . It's been partly serialised in one of the papers over here and it seems to be a worthy piece of work . Concentrates much more on the man himself rather than the jail and trial saga most people are familiar with . What his life was like after he got out , how he coped..or not..that sort of thing . It's a fitting tribute to the man but also pretty warts and all..as he'd have liked it .
One of the subjects covered was his chronic crack cocaine addiction while in London . He once blew something like £ 120,000 on crack in just 6 weeks . And another time in an attempt to kick the habit he stroked every dealer in london he knew for around the same amount in order to burn his bridges and leg it out of town . There's some pretty wild stories in it . Also an 8 page foreword by his close mate Johnny Depp who struck up an unlikely but warm friendship with him after he got out ( one episode has GC and Depp on a Conlon family holiday through Ireland , driven about by a relative of GCs that had no arms due to Thalidomide . They got drunk and handcuffed the poor guy by his false arms to a bridge in Kilkenny one night..pretty harsh humour )
It's written by Richard ORawe, a close school and adult friend of GCs , who was also the IRA publicity officer in the H Blocks during the 1981 hunger strikes . Himself a figure of controversy these days after contradicting some narratives . Whatever..it's got rave reviews over here , GCs family and friends gave ORawe some pretty deep insights as to what was going on so for anyone interested in that story it's well worth a read . A lot of the story takes place in London .
The original book launch was in Belfast the other week but because GC has such a large circle of friends in London from all sorts of backgrounds there were numerous requests from Londoners to have a launch over there too . From what I've read it'll be more than simply a book launch but a night of remembrance and commemoration for a guy who was still taking a stand against others injustices ( notably the Craigavon 2 ) right up until his premature death .
The launch is in Camden Irish centre 20th October...no idea of the time . Paddy Hill of the Birmingham 6 will be officiating and from what he's said in one of the papers it sounds like it'll be quite a night .
Bound to be a few on here interested so I thought I'd post it up .
One of the subjects covered was his chronic crack cocaine addiction while in London . He once blew something like £ 120,000 on crack in just 6 weeks . And another time in an attempt to kick the habit he stroked every dealer in london he knew for around the same amount in order to burn his bridges and leg it out of town . There's some pretty wild stories in it . Also an 8 page foreword by his close mate Johnny Depp who struck up an unlikely but warm friendship with him after he got out ( one episode has GC and Depp on a Conlon family holiday through Ireland , driven about by a relative of GCs that had no arms due to Thalidomide . They got drunk and handcuffed the poor guy by his false arms to a bridge in Kilkenny one night..pretty harsh humour )
It's written by Richard ORawe, a close school and adult friend of GCs , who was also the IRA publicity officer in the H Blocks during the 1981 hunger strikes . Himself a figure of controversy these days after contradicting some narratives . Whatever..it's got rave reviews over here , GCs family and friends gave ORawe some pretty deep insights as to what was going on so for anyone interested in that story it's well worth a read . A lot of the story takes place in London .
The original book launch was in Belfast the other week but because GC has such a large circle of friends in London from all sorts of backgrounds there were numerous requests from Londoners to have a launch over there too . From what I've read it'll be more than simply a book launch but a night of remembrance and commemoration for a guy who was still taking a stand against others injustices ( notably the Craigavon 2 ) right up until his premature death .
The launch is in Camden Irish centre 20th October...no idea of the time . Paddy Hill of the Birmingham 6 will be officiating and from what he's said in one of the papers it sounds like it'll be quite a night .
Bound to be a few on here interested so I thought I'd post it up .
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