Books: 20 years later... a sequel to my JFK novel set in Cork northside

Sins Of The Father, my long-awaited sequel to Two Weeks In June, begins a year after the heart-stopping events of the first novel.

Jack Horgan and his family have settled back into a normal life in the spring of 1964 on the northside of Cork, glad to be done with the life-changing events of the previous summer.

Sequels are hard. Just ask Harper Lee. She took 55 years to publish her sequel to the classic 1960 novel To Kill A Mocking Bird.

Thomas Harris took seven-year gaps between each of his Hannibal Lector novels.

My first novel, Two Weeks In June, was published in 2005. It received great reviews, so good in fact that the film rights were snapped up very quickly by Fastnet Films in Dublin, but unfortunately they were unable to secure funding for the project, so the rights reverted back to me.

Selling more than 2,000 copies in Ireland was no mean feat back in 2005. It’s a very different industry nowadays.

I managed to get nationwide distribution through Easons and Waterstones back then without any internet to promote my novel. In 2005, you had to physically get your book into wholesalers’ or bookshop managers’ hands and hope they would stock it.

I’ll never know how many people ended up reading my first novel, but I have always been regaled with stories of copies being handed around.

I would ask someone where they bought it, and they’d tell me they were handed a used copy from so and so.

One particular story I found very humorous was about a friend of mine living on Mount Nebo Avenue in Gurranabraher, just around the corner from where I grew up on Templeacre Avenue.

He told me he loved the book so much that he had loaned his single copy to everyone on the road that he knew.

Of course, I was delighted people were reading it, and although I wasn’t making sales that matched readers, it’s the thrill of people enjoying your novel that’s the greatest reward.

After the success of Two Weeks In June, I had a solid idea for a sequel to continue the exploits of the northside Horgan family. These characters had taken up residence in my head and I wanted to see what other adventures they would have as their lives continued.

I started a draft, but it stalled after a couple of months as I started working on screenwriting assignments with the BBC, as well as optioning some feature scripts abroad, and ultimately doing a stint of writing on the RTÉ show Fair City.

The sequel novel was always hammering around inside my head, and when the 20th anniversary of the first novel was fast approaching, I decided to dig out the initial pages and start over.

I finally completed Sins Of The Father earlier this year.

As a prelude to the publication of the sequel, I re-issued a hardcover version of Two Weeks In June to mark the 20th anniversary, with an excerpt from the upcoming sequel novel included.

I dedicated the novel to my late mother, who passed away some months before I managed to finish it. She did manage to read half of the novel and loved it, which was very bittersweet for me.

Two Weeks In June is set in 1963 on the northside of Cork city during the two weeks preceding JFK’s historic visit to the city, five months before his tragic assassination in Dallas.

I would describe the book as a ‘what if’ novel inspired by a famous photograph of JFK’s motorcade parading down Patrick Street.

I combined JFK’s visit with the Horgan family living on the northside, who become embroiled in a plot to kill the president during his visit to Cork.

Sins Of The Father begins in 1964. As Joe Leahy, an old IRA comrade of Jack Horgan’s, is released from Portlaoise Prison, Jack’s world is once again turned upside down, as Leahy blames Jack for his 12 long years behind bars.

As his secret past life comes back to haunt his present, Jack realises that evil men cannot be ignored or simply tolerated.

They do not stop. They make plans, plans that could tear Jack’s world down around him, and ultimately destroy his family.

Will Jack save his family, or will they all perish under the sins of their father?

A novel about vengeance, family bonds, and the lengths someone will go to to protect their family, Sins Of The Father picks up not long after Two Weeks In June, keeping the same breakneck pacing as the original novel, while still maintaining that dry Cork wit, and returning to the much-loved characters of the first novel.

Sins Of The Father can be read as a stand-alone novel but also works very well as a sequel, as there are numerous ties to the events of the first novel interwoven into this story.

The sequel portrays life in the mid-1960s on the northside of Cork, as past events in Jack Horgan’s life come back to haunt him.

Is there a possibility of a trilogy? I do have an idea to complete one. I promise I’ll try my best to release it before 2045.

Sins Of The Father was launched in Counihan’s Bar in Cork city last week. Copies can be purchased on eBook and hardcover on Amazon, or directly from the author at martinmcsweeney2002@yahoo.co.uk