Brendan Gerad O’Brien.
A TRALEE native, living in Wales, is hoping to get his book published in paperback after selling 700 copies in e-book form on Amazon.
Brendan Gerad O’Brien, formerly of St Brendan’s Park, now living in Newport, is married to Jennifer and has two children Shelly and Sarah.
The 68 year old had been writing ‘Dark September’ on and off for about 20 years and Tirgearr Publishing company has published it as an e-book.
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The fictional thriller, set during World War II, has sold 700 units to date and will be turned into a paperback if it reaches the 1,000 sales mark.
It tells the story of Danny O’Shea, a Newport dock worker, who gets caught up in the action when German forces invade the South Wales coast to capture the Welsh steelworks and coal mines. Danny is from Tralee and dreams about going back there in the story.
Brendan’s father Maurice was from Tralee and his mother from Duagh. They moved to Tralee just after the war and he was born in Godfrey Place.
“We moved to Brendan’s Park when it was new, then to Railway Terrace,” Brendan told us via Facebook. “There were eight children and four still live in Tralee – Maurice O’Brien (Old Gallowsfield), John O’Brien (Gallowsfield), Liz O’Connell (Oakview) and Francis Scannell (Marian Park). Eamon lives in Dublin, Jo is in Weston-Super-Mare and Marie is in LIverpool.”
“I left Tralee in ’66 to join the Royal Navy but came home at every opportunity. Then I met Jennifer and in ’75 we moved to her home city, Newport. However, we made the yearly pilgrimage home. Jennifer loves Tralee, and when I retired we went back about five times every year.”
Sadly, Brendan’s father died ten years ago and his mother passed away last February.
As a child, Brendan spent his summer holidays in Listowel, where his uncle Moss Scanlon had a Harness Maker’s shop, now long gone and it was there that his love of words was kindled by the stories of John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon, who often wandered into the shop.
After serving nine years in the Royal Navy, Brendan progressed to retail management, working as a Department manager with the UK’s second largest supermarket.
Now retired, his hobby is writing short stories, 20 of which have already been published individually over the years, and also as a collection called ‘Dreamin Dreams’.
Now Brendan is hoping people can get the book physically into their hands by getting it published in paperback. If you’ve an interest in a good thriller then ‘Dark September’ is available for £3.99 and can be bought by clicking here on Amazon.
