ONE MORTAL NIGHT by Patrick Kelleher is a wonderfully written account of a sensational killing which took place in Pallasgreen,

a remote village in County Limerick, shortly after the Second World War. The beauty and tranquillity of the Mulcair Valley however is in sharp contrast to the violence which overhangs the story.

The book traces the short career of a young unworldly Guard who thought that he had settled in a Garden of Eden. He wrote poetry, sang songs in the local pubs in a remarkable tenor voice, and was regarded as a considerable catch by the few local available young women.

When an old land row resurfaces his life quickly changes. He and an irascible middle-aged colleague are the only two men in the barracks qualified to carry arms.

They are sent to guard the property which is cause of the dispute. The result is tragic in the extreme.

THE AUTHOR:

Patrick Kelleher was born in Abbeyleix in the 1930s. Shortly afterwards his father, a Garda sergeant, was controversially transferred to Pallasgreen, County Limerick. Patrick attended Nicker Primary School and St Fintan’s Secondary School in Doon County Limerick. He joined Cadbury’s Ltd, in Dublin and became a financial manager. He later took a B.A. at University College Dublin, a Higher Diploma in Education at Maynooth and embarked on a second career as an English teacher.

"A classic of Irish crime literature"
IRISH INDEPENDENT