Plot twist! Cork author meets book club who love his novel

Life is full of chance meetings and coincidences.

When I walked into the Tung Sing restaurant in Blarney at Christmas to collect a takeaway, I had one of those chance encounters.

One of the managers working there saw my name on the order and asked me if I was the Martin McSweeney who wrote books, or was it my brother. I told her I have no brothers so it must be me.

She laughed and then ran off to alert her colleague, Grace Smith. Grace appeared and told me that my first novel, Two Weeks In June, was one of her favourite books.

It was published 20 years ago, and I wrote an article about it for this Echo books page last summer, where I wrote about releasing a 20th anniversary edition of it, ahead of a sequel to Two Weeks In June called Sins Of The Father.

Flash-forward three weeks after that meeting with Grace, and I was in Christy’s Hotel in Blarney, meeting with a book club called Scéal Eile, which has been around for 20 years now - Grace is a member.

It is a great name for a book club, as it means ‘Another Story’ in English.

I walked into the meeting carrying hardback copies of the 20th anniversary edition of Two Weeks In June and hardback copies of the just-released sequel, Sins Of The Father.

I was greeted by Grace and the rest of the ladies, and the banter began.

I published my first novel, Two Weeks In June, in 2005, to great reviews and sales way above my expectations.

As the book was distributed nationwide by Easons and Waterstones, among other bookstores, I started working on a sequel, but I didn’t get very far.

After writing some chapters, I got stuck and put the manuscript away.

I had just finished a screenwriting course with the University of Wisconsin in the U.S so I adapted Two Weeks In June and ended up winning the Tony Doyle Bursary from the BBC, which led to an agent and writing assignments with the BBC and RTÉ.

While I was dabbling in the world of script writing, little did I know that eight young ladies, who all had children attending Clogheen Kerry Pike National School, were forming a book club, which would create bonds that would last over 20 years.

Their kids would move on, grow up and leave school, but Scéal Eile would go on, even through covid and Zoom calls.

One member, who moved to Greystones in Co. Wicklow, still returns each month.

After 20 years, Scéal Eile is more than a book club. It’s a support structure. The group go on trips together, the most notable being a visit to Bath, the home city of Jane Austen.

Book clubs have been around for centuries, the earliest being credited to Ann Hutchinsen back in 1634 in Boston, albeit they were getting together to discuss sermons and religious topics.

Later, in the 18th century, reading circles expanded, serving as spaces for women to engage in self-education and discuss literature.

With the turn of the 20th century, the modernised version of book clubs commenced, with examples like the Book Of The Month Club (1926), leading us to the celebrity-driven book clubs like Oprah Winfrey’s and more recently actress Reese Witherspoon’s.

Scéal Eile read my novel, Two Weeks In June, in October, 2006, and it soon became their favourite.

I was flabbergasted when they told me that after 20 years of reading a novel a month, it was still their favourite novel.

As I sat in Christy’s Hotel on a January afternoon in 2026, I did the math in my head and realised that these amazing ladies had read about 200 novels in the 20 years, including mine, and Two Weeks In June was at the top of their list.

Having said all that, I think I had a slight advantage. These ladies were from Cork.

Two Weeks In June is set in 1963 on the northside of Cork city during the two weeks preceding U.S President John F Kennedy’s historic visit, just five months before his tragic assassination in Dallas.

For my plot, I combined JFK’s visit with the fictional story of the Horgan family living on the northside, who become embroiled in a plot to kill the President during his visit to Cork.

Nevertheless, that afternoon spent chatting with Grace, Ann, Karen, Saura, Chris, Bernie and the two Michelles was magical for me.

I spoke with them about my journey as a writer, my time working on Fair City, optioning scripts and publishing novels, etc.

I’m far from a successful novelist. I’ve published three novels that have been received well, but I still work a full-time job.

But then again, it all comes down to how you measure success.

We all want the seven-figure deal. Any writer who tells you they don’t is just creating fiction in front of you.

The day I met with Scéal Eile was a very successful one in my writing career, and one I’ll never forget.

I met a group of people who for 20 years have hailed my first novel as one of their favourites of all the books they’ve read in their amazing club.

We ended the day with me signing copies of the sequel novel.

Sins Of The Father picks up not long after Two Weeks In June, returning to the much-loved characters of the first novel.

It’s now Scéal Eile’s book of the month, and they will be meeting in February to review the novel. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.