style="font-size:15px;"> Sandra LeonardBeryl Lewis
Samantha Lloyd
Kevin Lynch
June MacMahon
Jane MacSorley
Arthur Magee
Chenab Mangat
Alison Martin
Frances Mc Aleese
Deirdre McConvey
Graeme McCoy
Judith McCoy
Sophie McCoy
Matthew McGrath
Catherine McGuinness
Clem McGuinness
Nicola McLean
Paul McMahon
Kirsty McQuire
Anna Millar
Aneysha Minocha
Varun, Bipasha and Vansh Minocha
Veena & Arvind Minocha
Anne Montague
Lee and Debra Mowers
Agatha Murphy
Dorothy Murphy
John Murphy
PB Nagle
Wendy Ng
Adam Nicholls
Roger Noble
Sarah Norris
Martin O’Brien
Sean O’Flanagan
Jake O’Kelly
Julia O’Kelly
Mark Page
Richard Pearce
Melanie Perry
Patrick Plunkett
Anna Richmond
Christopher Richmond
Mark Richmond
Peter Richmond
Ruth Richmond
Fiona Robb
Paul Rocks
Swazi Rodgers
Adam Rosser
Richard Rowntree
Amy Russell
Fergal Ryan
Santhi
Richard Selwyn
Peter Silvester
Robin Silvester
Rosemary Silvester
Tamsin Silvester
Parmjit Singh
Gary Sired
Liam Mark Smith
Bonnie Sneed
Anne Springer
Deepali Srivastava
Janice Staines
Trevor Tall
Alice Tamagni
David Tamagni
Emily Tamagni
Woon Tan
Beverly D Thurley
Barry Turley
Mark Vent
Julie Walker
Catherine Walls
William Ward
Aidan Waters
Andy Waters
Anita Waters
Charles Edward Waters
Clare Waters
Ewan Waters
Joanna Waters
John Waters
Lisa Waters
Orla Waters
Rebecca Waters
Sheila Waters
Stephen Waters
Tanya Waters
Chris West
Heather Willars
Michael Workman
Julian Worricker
Yanfang Wu
4
This story is set just north of the Irish border in the 1950s. It is based on events that have been recorded by history and some true stories that have not. But it’s just a story. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.
5
What is history but a fable agreed upon?
– Napoleon
CHAPTER 1
Sergeant Jolly Macken didn’t want to be a policeman any more. The butt of his hand pressed on the polished handle of his baton, not yet drawn. He felt hot despite the cool air of the Mourne foothills. He hated his job. He hated the crowd pushing at his back. He hated the string of men blocking the road ahead. All of them impatient for his signal – the ones behind muttering his nickname. He hated the verbal albatross that had been hung round his neck too. Jolly. Christ!
The stony slopes of fern and heather and gorse would usually lift his heart; the open land a refuge from complication and regulation. He’d feel the tension ebb from his shoulders. The small smile that would quietly creep over his face, unwitnessed. If Macken believed in anything, it was that there was no better place nor way for a man to be at peace than by quiet water, with a rod and line. Alone, but never lonely.
Today was different. Today he was only a hard-faced big man trapped
