Ordinary decent criminal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 13, 2012 -- ‘The prison authorities constructed a specially fortified cell to contain this 17-stone flesh-biting inmate... all the furniture in his cell had to be bolted to the floor. Prison officers would only approach in teams of four, kitted out in riot helmets and wearing protective clothing, including steel mesh gloves. In case he bites.’

Show Me the Prisoner is written from the perspective of a prison teacher and covers a 15-year period of involvement in two of Northern Ireland’s prisons during the troubles, when terrorists hogged the limelight.

They met in prison where she taught classes. Now estranged from his family, the young man had spent most of his life either in care or in one or other of Northern Ireland’s prisons.

She set out to help him. He achieved a university place. Time done, he could move on. But was it all too good to be true? Headlines branded him 'Ulster’s most feared prisoner ', predicting that one day Charlie Conlon would kill somebody. ‘Hannibal’, they dubbed him. Convinced he was the victim of institutional racism and sectarianism, Charlie believed he was guilty only of the rage of the powerless and the downtrodden. Witnessing how the system treated him, did he have a point?

A meeting with his mother and brother and an internet search for relatives in the USA threw interesting new light on his father’s tour in Vietnam. It was then that his mother became evasive. On her deathbed mother and son were reconciled, and for the first time Charlie learned his true identity. But was it all too late?

“I wrote this book to give expression not only to a voiceless and enraged young man, failed by an indifferent system, the victim of poverty, racism, sectarianism and institutionalisation, but to his family, his fellow inmates, and those who thought they were helping,” says Patricia behind her motivation for Show Me the Prisoner.

About the Author:

Patricia is a cancer survivor, mother to 4 adult children and wife of Seán Farren, former minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly. She has served on a number of public bodies, including the Board of Visitors of Maghaberry prison.

LAUNCH DATE 1st February 2012
ISBN: 9781780880518 Price: £12.99 / €15

Charlie Conlon     Maghaberry prison     matador     northern ireland     Patricia Farren     prison     Show me the Prisoner     troubador