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'The Two Lads', the 1976 visit of Neil Jordan and Des Hogan to Kennys
- Details
- 12 February 2016
“On a bright summer’s morning in 1976, two gallant young gentlemen presented themselves before the counter of our bookshop in High Street, Galway. As Mother spoke to them it emerged that each of them had just had his first book published, one a novel and the other a collection of short stories, by a new press called Co-op Books which they themselves along with some friends had set up in Dublin. They were on a selling mission to Galway and wanted to know if we would be interested in stocking copies.
Mother asked to look at the books and after a summary perusal enquired if they had any more copies with them. It transpired that they had about twenty copies of each book which they hoped to sell before day’s end.
‘Well,’ said Mother, ‘ your day’s work is now finished, I’ll take them all, but I would be grateful if you two gentlemen would sign them.’
Sign them! There followed wild and wonderful jubilation. Pens were produced, cameras went click, click and for the best part of an hour there were scenes of celebration in the shop.
Strangely, the record of that event is one of the few black-and-white photos that hang in the Kenny Pantheon. It certainly is one of the happiest, and while the two gentlemen in question have gained considerable international recognition since then, for Mother, film director and novelist Neil Jordan and short-story writer Desmond Hogan would always be ‘the two lads’.”
Excerpt from ‘Kenny’s Choice’ (Currach Press, Dublin 2008) p.41 courtesy of Des Kenny. (Interested to read more of Des' musings, find 'Kenny's Choice' on Kennys.ie now >>>)
Neil Jordan was born in 1950 in Sligo. His first book of stories, Night in Tunisia, won the Guardian Fiction Prize, and his subsequent critically acclaimed novels include The Past, Sunrise with Sea Monster, Shade and Mistaken. The films he has written and directed have won multiple awards, including an Academy Award (The Crying Game), a Golden Bear at Venice (Michael Collins), a Silver Bear at Berlin (The Butcher Boy) and several BAFTAS (Mona Lisa and The End of the Affair). He lives in Dublin.
Search for books by Neil Jordan on Kennys.ie now >>>
Desmond Hogan was born in Ballinasloe, Co.Galway in 1950. Awarded the 1977 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and 1980 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, his oeuvre comprises novels, plays, short stories and travel writing.
Search for books by Des Hogan on Kennys.ie now >>>
