Ahoy for Joy, by Keith Reilly

Ahoy For Joy

Author: Keith Reilly

ISBN-13: 978-1-78462-208-4

Publisher: Troubador Publishing

Guideline Price: £7.99

Set in Belfast in 1978, 15-year-old Michael is sent to a week-long church camp in England as an escape from the Troubles. There he meets Dutch girl Anna, and the pair become pen-pals. As friendship turns to love, Anna declares her feelings – only for Michael to stop writing. Unknown to her, Michael has been fatally wounded in a sectarian shooting that has killed his parents. His poem, Ahoy for Joy, leaves an unexpected legacy. This is Belfast-born artist Keith Reilly's first novel and it is reminiscent of the Protestant-girl-meets-Catholic-boy genre of young adult literature so popular in schools in the North in the 1990s. A sincere attempt at addressing a dark period in Ireland's history, its perspective is best summed up by the judge who jails Michael's killers: "Who in this courtroom has not contributed to this mess?"