Somerville Press is a book publisher based near Bantry , West Cork , Ireland. Our publishing programme incorporates both fiction and non-fiction, mainly of Irish interest. We also distribute various titles for other publishers.
In 1960 the Irish people were devastated by news that nine of the soldiers that they had sent to the Congo as part of a U.N. peace mission had been killed by warriors. As the funeral cortège passed through Dublin, it was watched by thousands of people in one of the biggest shows of emotion ever seen in the capital. They knew that the soldiers had been killed in an ambush, but precious little else. Soon afterwards journalist Tom McCaughren began a two-year search to find out what had happened.
The story that emerged was of a small group of soldiers deployed in hostile bush country, their fear that warriors called ‘the Cats’ were closing in, ‘magic water’ rituals, an ambush, a daring raid on a tribal stronghold to snatch some of the perpetrators, a dramatic trial and a secret mission to find a gallant soldier missing in action.
THE AUTHOR:
A native of Ballymena, Co. Antrim, Tom McCaughren wrote The Peacemakers of Niemba when Defence Correspondent of The Irish Times. He later joined RTE for which he covered the troubles in Northern Ireland and related violence in the republic. As Security Correspondent of RTE, he also covered the peacekeeping operations of Irish troops
in the Middle East and the Balkans. Married and with four grown-up children, his books for young people have won a number of awards for literature and have been translated into many languages.
‘Graphic, detailed and authentic account. Fascinating’
Maj.-Gen. Dave Ashe (retd), Deputy Chief of Staff (Support), Defence Forces Ireland
‘Excellent’
An Cosantóir, Defence Forces Magazine
‘Detailed and necessary account of a legendary fight’,
The Irish Times
'Tom McCaughren brings the brief history of the Niemba garrison within reach of every home’,
Irish Independent
We are based in Dromore, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. We can be contacted by telephone on 00353 (0) 28 32873 or 00353 (0) 87 233 1970, and by email at somervillepress@gmail.com
Our books are distributed in the UK by Central Books, 50 Freshwater Rd, London RM8 1RX, and in the US by Casemate, 1950 Lawrence Road, Haverton PA 19083.
Somerville Press also incorporates RUSSELL BOOK REPRESENTATION, a publishers' sales agency covering the whole of Ireland. The publishers we represent include Hurst Publishers (www.hurstpublishers.com), W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. (www.wwnorton co.uk) and Reaktion Books Ltd. (www.reaktionbooks.co.uk).