Married quarters

the long version

A small, insignificant Irish border town in the early 1960s. The Sergeant is nervous. He has his men lined up for inspection in the day room of the Garda station. Chief Superintendent 'The Bully' Barry is on the warpath and any slip-ups will reflect badly on the Sergeant. But what can he do with the men under his command - all of them the leftovers from other more important stations in more important towns? O'Shea, Keegan, O'Keeffe, Fleming, Dempsey, Quigley and Sullivan - each garda has his own story, his own problems. How can a man be expected to keep the peace with such a bunch of misfits and ne'er-do-wells? Observing them with fascination, all but invisible in his own quiet corner, sits the Sergeant's son. On the cusp of manhood, he is drawn in by these rough and ready men, stuck in this place and time, when all he wants is a chance to leave and start his life anew. Life at home in the station's married quarters is both comfort and tedium, ruled over by his by-the-book father and his gentle, stolid mother. Taking up where his acclaimed A Border Station left off, Married Quarters is brilliant, funny and beautifully observed, and marks the return of Shane Connaughton, one of Ireland's most cherished writers.