Hi all, just to let you know last Friday saw the homecoming launch of “Moany McMoan… The Accidental Hero” in Banagher, Co. Offaly. A large crowd turned up for the launch. This was the first time I would have set foot in my old National School since 1982. It felt very surreal to be standing up in front of the various classes having the children hang on every word. It took me right back to sitting in some of those very same classes all those years ago, gazing up, on the occasion of a visit. It was lovely to interact with the children and fascinating to listen to some of the questions they were throwing at me. I tried to imagine if I would have asked the same questions back in the day. Hopefully this is only the first of many such visits to the schools. The children loved hearing about Moany McMoan and how his creation came into being. I loved hearing about some of their ideas for my next book. I found it most interesting hearing the names of some of the children and this lead to the start of a line of questioning of “Did you know my Dad?” or “Did you play hurling with my Dad?” Some of the children were amazed by the fact I could tell them their parents names just by looking at the children themselves.. in a lot of cases it was just as if i was sitting talking to the parent myself back in the day.
