A Long Weekend in Belfast

Book Cover: A Long Weekend in Belfast

A novella sized piece covering the Ulster troubles, called the Storemont Riots, the street battles and intrigues of Ulster Protestants and IRA.

“John Bryson has the skills of literary journalism, and abundant luck” a Penguin Books copywriter wrote for a back cover, and this was the case in 1986 in Belfast, where I was to launch a book, and stayed on to cover the sectarian war of that year, the worst for many years.

A man was crucified in a Belfast park last night. Passersby prised him free. He had been nailed to the turf. They said seven men ran off when they got there. In hospital the man asked that his name remain secret. His address gave only a street, but this was enough to identify him, well enough to both communities, as a Catholic. The park was common territory. The RUC report noted: No apparent motive.