Books: Housing crisis fuels dark debut novel set in a future Cork city

A Cork author’s new thriller is released this week, set in a dark and dystopian future Cork city.

Alex Secam’s debut novel, called Destruction Unit, is based around the themes of eviction and corporate greed, in a world where the haves are running the show, and the have-nots are exploited.

“The impetus for the book came from being stuck in rent-jail for decades,” explained Alex, who is based in Mallow, “while watching the housing crisis grow head-to-head with dereliction across Cork city.”

Described as a “heart-pounding Irish dystopian thriller,” his new book takes speculative fiction to the next level.

When a corporate giant infiltrates Cork City Hall, entire communities become expendable. The poor are expelled, corrupt vulture capitalists move in, and Cork’s heart is carved up for profit.

However, the victims are about to fight back...

Jacker and Paul never planned to be resistance fighters. But when an Eviction Unit tears them from their apartments - literally sucking them through their front windows and dumping them beyond the city walls - they discover an underground network of fellow exiles fighting to reclaim their homes.

In a world where neighbourhoods are commodities and people are obstacles to profit, can two ordinary rebels bring down a corrupt empire before their city - and everyone in it - is lost forever? This is a story of ordinary people fighting back against impossible odds.

With their backs against the wall and their former lives in ruins, the unlikely heroes Jacker and Paul must take on the seemingly impossible: destroy the ruthless Eviction Unit and stop the corporate takeover that’s devouring everything they once called home.

A kind of 1984 meets the Irish housing crisis, it’s a “gripping speculative thriller that exposes how corporate power could reshape our cities - and our lives”.

Secam’s work isn’t set around the Ireland of tourism brochures. His stories explore a near-future Emerald Isle where economic brutality has replaced ancient curses, where eviction units vacuum people from their homes, and where survival means complicity in systemic violence. He crafts stories that feel uncomfortably possible - because they’re rooted in the very real struggles of contemporary Irish life.

Destruction Unit is available on paperback from today, August 15, on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Secam’s short story, Bog Trippin, a surreal piece of speculative fiction, set in the dark future of the Bog Of Allen, in the Irish Midlands, featured in a recently-published anthology from Indie Authors Ireland called Rewind: A Collection.

The anthology, centred around the theme of memories, is a varied collection of stories, poems and antidotes from some of Ireland’s best writers.

On Monday, August 4, the 10am Mass in Rosscarbery Parish Church was offered for the repose of the soul of its late parish priest Fr Pat Walsh, who passed away in December, 2023, writes Tadhg O’Dushlaine.

It was followed by the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the church grounds, then, at the Celtic Ross Hotel, the launch of his book on his memories and reflections.

The event would have reassured Fr Pat that his commitment to our heritage of faith and culture had taken root in fertile ground.

The exhortation from St John’s gospel to “gather up the remaining fragments lest they perish”, in a time of environmental and political anxiety, is appropriate to this collection of the writings of Fr Pat (1932-2023), aptly entitled His Memoirs And Reflections.

It contains drafts and notes towards the definitive memoir he had in mind. Given his punctilious attention to detail and his knowledge and appreciation of English literature, he would have continued to refine, comb and polish this compilation of reminiscences in conformity with the established genre, in both matter and form, content and style.

But for all that, this amalgam of jottings, in its raw state, as it were, provides a unique insight into the life and mind of a learned, humble, committed Christian who practiced the virtues of faith, hope, and love to the best of his ability in accord with his vocation.

What we have here, then, is a frank down-to-earth account, a profession of Fr Pat Walsh’s commitment to the transmission of his heritage of faith and culture. Agree or disagree with his conclusions at times, but there is no faulting his honesty.

The foreword thanks the small steering committee which brought this work to fruition, no small task, given that the subject embarked on the venture in his 83rd year and scribbled off jottings between then and his 87th year.

From the very opening sentence, a humorous note of self-deprecation is sounded in quoting his former Professor of English in Maynooth: “There are too many fools rushing into print at the moment.”

The first preface deals with matters of literary expression, genre and style, and Fr Pat finishes with a literary flourish: “I am a happy person, not prone to taking either life or myself too seriously. I present my experiences on a plain platter, and a quirky sauce, which, I hope, will hold your attention, leaving no pretentious after taste.”

He opts for the same adjective later on to describe his memoir: “‘Quirky’ has been the operative word guiding all I have been writing.”

Not the description one might have expected from the cultured author of these jottings, master of English literature and accomplished pianist.

On reflection, however, ‘unusual in an attractive and interesting way’, the dictionary definition of ‘quirky’, isn’t too far off the mark.

Preface two is in stark contrast: no grandiose style here but profound substance: ‘Every morning I thank God for my parents… I owe them all that I am.”

The opening sentence of the intro states: “The purpose of this booklet is to recapture and preserve the inspiration of the men and women who emerged in the pre-1916 period. They were ours: we are theirs.”

Joy, awe and wonder are the keynotes throughout; Fr Pat’s excitement at the wonder of creation, his gratitude for life and his robust defence of life itself.

When he elaborates on his defence of ‘Natural Law and Life’, and the contentious issues of ‘Sex Education in Our Schools’, ‘Abortion’, and ‘The Magdalene Laundries’, he doesn’t mince his words, referring to Ireland’s official treatment of Pope Francis’ visit here in 2018 as “a disgrace.’

At the age of 87, Fr Pat began his day with Mass in “gratitude to our God for the gift of life… expressing thanks to my late parents”. His mother was “deeply religious but discerning enough to recognise that the clergy were human and had their foibles quite distinct from the ministry they had elected to undertake”.

Concerning his father he says: “What his Stradivarius was to Yehudi Menuhin, his trowel was to my builder father”.

Born in 1932, Fr Pat is at pains to point out that some would have us believe Ireland “was shackled by the Catholic Church and its Gulag restrictions”. He points out: “Those men had Faith: you, sophisticates don’t... you sophisticates, where is your history?”

From start to finish, he exhibits a healthy disrespect for the diktats of Church and State, while celebrating our heritage of faith and culture.

At a time when the doctrine of embracing imperfection is promoted by self-help books, this draft of a memoir of a man for all ages might serve as both a pleasant and useful exercise for a parish book club.