Creative writing success story!

Warmest congratulations to Kathleen Clifford, a member of Kevin Street Library creative writing group whose book 'Back of the Hack: Growing up in the Liberties' was recently published by A. & A. Farmar. On 24 July 2017, Kathleen was interviewed by George Hook on Newstalk's High Noon programme to discuss her book and becoming a first time published author in her sixties.  George enjoyed Back of the Hack so much, he read it cover to cover in one sitting! In the interview Kathleen tells George about the interesting people and places she encountered around Dublin 8 during her childhood and what life was like growing up in a tenement room in Bridge Street, Dublin 8 with only one cold tap and one toilet for up to 100 people!

You can borrow/reserve Back of the Hack from our catalogue and it is available to purchase at all good bookshops.

About Back of the Hack

Kathleen Clifford was reared in the Liberties of the 1950s and 60s and went on to raise a family. Always an avid reader with an interest in Dublin history, it occurred to her that she could write her own personal history of growing up in the heart of Dublin.

Life was often hard but it never lacked drama - from the men in the Iveagh Hostel who ranged from the sad, to the philosophical, to the downright mad; from Annie, a sometime prostitute who slept on concrete steps outside the family's flat; from Uncle Mick who loved cowboy films but when drunk thought he was Crazy Horse; from the author's fiery mother and quiet father, and their blazing rows over money spent in the pub.

Funny, sad, touching - this memorable picture of a time and a place in Dublin is angry too, at the cruelty of authority to those at the bottom of the heap - 'back of the Hack'