McCoubrey

Drab, bleak Portadown, 1971, where Catholics are kept in their place, seen through the eyes of innocent, bright, mischievous and droll Barry-Joe McCoubrey, on the cusp of his teens reflecting on his own life, his family, his troubled neighbourhood—and girls.

Popular with his schoolmates, Barry-Joe also has broody insular tendencies and spends a lot of time analysing both others and the growing conflict spreading from Belfast and Derry to his home town of Portadown, including the Garvaghy Road and the Tunnel areas.

Barry-Joe shares a surname with Larry McCoubrey, a well-loved BBC newsreader, famous for his end-of-programme cheesy quips and jokes. Larry’s jokes lead to banter and slagging from Barry-Joe’s classmates. However, Larry also must report increasingly bad news and we see how Barry-Joe empathises with his namesake in this task.

This is a hilarious and immensely moving coming-of-age novel from Mark B. McCaffery.